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UNIVERSITY, OF Ee 
ILLINOIS CABRARY | Senuien 
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN | 
BOOKSTACKS 
ae Ln" a 


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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
In 2023 with funding from 
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 


https://archive.org/details/biographicalhist01unse_1 


A 


BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY 


OF 


EMINENT AND SELF-MADE MEN 


OF THE 


SPATE OF UN DEAN A. 


WITH 


NWANY PORTRAIT -IELUSTPRATIONS ON STEEL 


ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK. 


VOLUME I. 


CINCINNATI, OHIO: 
WESTERN BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
1880. 


(ee OUP Ra Seal 


ENTERED, ACCORDING TO THE ACT OF CONGRESS, 
IN THE 


OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, 1880. 


¢ a a ae “oO Aiea 7 eae S 


PRINTED BY 
WALDEN AND STOWE, 


CINCINNATI, O. 


topes Pe Ey 


-HE history of Indiana is not an ancient one. It is the record of the steady growth 
of a community planted in the wilderness within the present century, and reaching 
its magnitude of to-day without other aids than those rendered by industry. There are 
those yet living who remember the battle of Tippecanoe as a contemporary event; the 
children of many of those who fought in that struggle are still with us and with our 
sister states. It is only a short time since we parted with venerable citizens whose 
memories extended back to 1787, when the great ordinance was passed that opened the north- 
~. west to settlement and civilization. The boys and girls now attending school will be at the head 
of families before we can celebrate our centenary. It is true that before the Revolutionary War 
there were a few scattered settlements beyond the Alleghanies; but these are in no sense the 
. progenitors of Indiana, Illinois, or Michigan. They had no communication with each other, and 
_. scarcely with France, their common mother; and those who dwelt in them were as truly exiles 
» as if they were on the island of Juan Fernandez. They heard no echo of the outside world, 
excepting once a year, when a vessel from home arrived in the Mississippi and dispatched its 
stores to the villagers. The French towns made no advance on the forest; no further immigration 
\ followed their planting, and the sole permanent memorials we have of them are the names of 
some rivers and towns, and the preservation of French surnames by their descendants. The 
true life of the community began when immigrants arrived from Virginia, North Carolina, and 
Pennsylvania, soon to be followed from New York and New England. The land was an almost 
perfect plain, except near the Ohio, and this vast expanse was wooded from Lake Erie to the 
southern boundary, save in the prairies of the north-west. Before the peace with Great Britain, 
in 1815, settlements were not safe. The scattered pioneers were in danger from Indians, often 
covertly abetted by the English; ferocious beasts were numerous, there were long distances 
“between one town and another, and the paths were completely uninhabited. As a consequence, 
the settlers were obliged to manufacture every thing for themselves. Their clothes were homespun, 
“and their furniture was shaped by the ax. The houses in which they dwelt were log cabins, 
“Seach standing in a little clearing, and the rod and the gun were obliged to supplement the 
“Snecessarily scanty yield of the ground, for no soil can produce much farm produce when 
~. ~encumbered by trees, and felling them was the first task to which the pioneer addressed himself. 
ree, however, by the treaty of Ghent, we were secured in the possession of our rightful 
My * boundaries, troubles ceased with the red men, and roads were laid out, immigrants came pouring 
| Sin, and from that time to this the state has not stood still. Schools were begun, the newspaper 
aeprTess was established, and steamboats carried the products of the soil to distant lands and 
<yeturned other commodities in exchange. When the Erie Canal was completed in New York, 
Sthe example of that state was imitated in Indiana. She began an extensive series of internal 
simprovements, which, although they plunged her in debt, were of the greatest value for her future 
SQprosperity. Not long afterwards railroads were first put into operation, and by them settlers had 
< 


Fj 
vr 


101424 | 


4 PREFACE. 


- a facility in reaching the fertile lands of the state which they had not previously had, and the 
enterprise previously shown was redoubled. Every thing produced in the United States can 
now be obtained within thirty-six hours of the time when ordered. This material progress has 
‘not been gained at the expense of more important things. Indiana has not neglected higher 
education nor the claims of humanity; colleges and high schools, asylums and _ hospitals, exist 
in numbers, and, with the exception of a few abstruse branches rarely taught in universities, no 
student has occasion to go elsewhere to pursue his studies. The soil yields abundantly; food is 
cheap, and labor is in demand. Had we not become accustomed to the spectacle, such growth 
would seem as marvelous to us as Aladdin’s palace did to the potentate who surveyed its stately 
proportions the morning after its construction. Two millions of people, four hundred thousand 
dwellings, two hundred thousand farms, five thousand churches, are now where a few years since 
all was void and desolate. 

It is this history we celebrate in our pages. The advancement of the state has been that 
of its people. The first generation subdued the soil, with eyes continually fixed upon a 
savage enemy; the second opened up the state to the world, built its canals, and began its 
railroads; and the third has completed the task set by its predecessors, and aided in suppressing 
the great rebellion. In this nearly every man in the state was engaged, and Indiana loses 
nothing by comparison with its sisters. Its fame thus acquired is great and honorable, and we 
have devoted much of our space to those who have won an enviable record in the struggle. 
But while narrating their deeds, we have not omitted to mention those who were engaged in 
peaceful pursuits. Our book is chiefly a record of living men. It has been a subject of regret 
to us that we have so few memorials of the fathers of our republic. Their task was arduous, 
and a grateful community should preserve them in remembrance. When Indiana shall become 
old and staid, when fortunes are hereditary, when libraries and historical societies are to be found 
every-where, memorials of the heroic age of the state will be eagerly sought, but probably 
unavailingly, so little care has been taken for this purpose. As far as possible we have endeavored 
to supply deficiencies which we have known to exist, but indifference, idleness, and a desire 
often to suppress the truth have stood in our way, and we have not been able to gain full 
particulars of many but those now living. These we represent from all classes, professional, 
business, and agricultural, and we believe our pages contain a fuller account of the people of a 
state than has ever before been given, Comparatively few have had the benefits of an excellent 
education; nearly all have wrought out their destinies for themselves. It is a source of gratifica- 
tion to us that we have been able to gather so many details, and the future historian will find in 
our pages an inexhaustible storehouse of material. The state is growing; every-where manufac- 
tures have begun, and what is new and crude will speedily change for the better. But we do 
not believe that those who shall attempt our task in the future will find more sincere and worthy 
men, or more self-sacrificing patriots, than those whose histories we here relate, 


- 


Dist, Page 
ApvrRIAN, James A...... core) 
Ames, George. ......cssc-seses I 
Armstrong, A. F..... 2 
Armstrong, Uel W 3 
Arthur, Christopher S....11 4 
BARR, OF Pires ssccuns 6 3 
Bayard, Samuel.... I 6 
Bender, John S.... 13 7 
Birdsell, John C... 13 8 
Blair, Alonzo....... 7 10E 
Blakes [ameSrecsccssecseevsses 7 102 
IBIOSS; PON Vi iscccsees one cuon 7 
Boyce) James 6 12 
Braden, Daniel C.. waO; 9EL 
Bradley, UNielSOn:-cecessie+ses 7 9 
Brady, John........ E00 <6) 
Brady, Thomas J. salt 053 
Brinkeman senses -spasen-ss I 9 
Brown, Austin H............ 7a i2 
Brownlee, William R...... 9 2 
Buckles, Joseph S........... 6 2x6 
Bumdy, Ms 1ign.ps sso <-ss sO" 1i7 
Burton, George W.......... 2 5 
Buskirk, George A 5 5 
CAMPBELL, James.... 7 
Carpenter, Willard.......... 12 
Carre Nathan Diescc.cnss.-0s 6 
Cany Oliver FL. Po vcs 8 
Casebeer, Jacob B......... 13 
Cauthorn, Henry S......... 2 6 
IWAVET) [ON Dscsrosccecenas oh Jie EO 
Chase, Hiram W 9 5 
Clancy, Albert W... sap Oy Oe 
Clarks George CG... .cccssses: 6 20 
Clark, Haymond W......... 9 5 
Claypool, Benjamin F......6 22 
GOBDs OM PR oooscessccecsccseeey 83 
Coffroth, John R.... 8 
Colbern; A: R..-...:: 15 
CGlER Ca BD Bisrsscesccss- o. 7 
Cole; James Witsiscesc.sssces 7 
Colerick;, DH. vicsd-<:-0.030 19 
Golerick, Johniis....0s:....0. 18 
Compton, Isaac M.......... 8 8 
Converse, Joel N.... OOS 
Cook, Frederick W. ph EO 
Coquillard, Alexis...........13 17 
Corbin; Horace....... pal 3 ero 
Corby, William.... etS tee 
Cowgill, Calvin....... He ears 
Cumback) Williant:.:.......4 13 
Cummins, Stephen M...... rey Tee} 
Dakin, George M..... 19 
Davidson, Robert P. 9 
Davison, Andrew............ 17 
Day; Samuel) Diisacccssces ne ar 
DePauw, Washington C.. 3 10 


Douglass, Robert............ 7 


INDEX OF PORTRAITS. 


Dist. Page 
Downey, Alexander C..... 4 19 
Downey, William D........ Len7 
Downs, Thomas J........... Te etsy 
Drakes James: Pircceccscstr-s SS 
Dudley, William W......... 6 24 
BARU, AGamSnacncentaccesssae II 
Early, Jacob D Il 
Edgerton, Alfred P "44 


Edgerton, Joseph K.......12 24 


Edwards, William H....... 2 TE 
Ekin, Janes An acacuvecsss or he) 
English, William H......... 7 209 
Evans; J esseuitieccsv.scorese 9 36 
BPR RIER Wer Siscssscanesosste 37 a6 
Fletcher, Miles J ane nee 
Foley, James B... 4 23 
Fowler, Inman H so ee 
Fowler, MoseSirtsccc:---2us2:- 9 — 13 
Franklin, William M........5 14 
Friedley, George W.. .... 2 rs 
GAAR, A Dram. 6 .cscrcesrene G28 
Gaff, James) W .t2c.ccxceces-. 4 *14 
Garrigus, Milton.... m 17 
Gilbert, Curtis... Oe FS 
Glessner, Oliver J.. jue 4S 
Gooding, David S........... 7 227 
Gookins, Samuel B......... 8 119 
Gordon, Jonathan W...... 7 48 
Greene [ODN me ssn cseenmsa ten 9 15 
Green, Martin R... 29 
Groves jobini Bi scccosecssres 15 
HDACKEEMAN, Eit.sssesnscceres 19 
Harding, Myron H.......... 81 
*Harding, Stephen'S...-.... Wy 
Haynes, Jacob M............ 20 
Heilman, William............ Dee 59 
Hendricks, Thomas A.... 7 91 
Hervey, Robert G......... Sass 
Holmes, Samuel W......... ay eh 
Holmes, W. C.. Seedisn, 7 100 
Horton, Theodore wc. Ti “24 
Long Jobiise:--.esealeensers 1210-38 
Hough, William R. -7 98 
Howk, George V... aee23 
Hudnut, Theodore......... 8 56 
Hunter, WD. H..5....... 4° 36 
Huston, William............ 6 108 
Hyatt, Hlishatic ceccossecspene 2 18 
Irwin, Joseph I.........-..+. 19 
Jennincs, Levi A......... 
Johnson, Richard........... 
Johnson, Thomas E.. 3 


Jump, Samuel V.. 


Kanno, Charles,.......7-ss10) 20 
RCCItH J OMNEAvsecaseeeestrenol 5h 20 


Dist. Page 


Keith, Squire 1..,.......<-- Baz 
Kilgore, Alfred.... at 2) 
Kilgore, David..... =O +40 
Kinsey, Isaac....... pods) I 
CTI MOS Wies BD: saccece e-eeeaccere 6 48 
Lamp, James.........+ ead eA T 
Landers, Franklin xa Gf LEY 
Lee, John SG atioCLE DENIED OME 2O) 
ink, ohincbyes.essa- Aanek wack 
Loftin, Sample... FeCBEOnCRECOry pl ELE 
Lomax, William......cscese I 26 
Long, Thomas B sh By 
Ove ee) Oller aecavccteccsceeseet 7 128 
Lowry Roberxts....<..0.++s..22 I 
Macau.ey, Daniel.......... 7 133 
Macy, David.. Aan ye PLA 
Malott, Volney. Rte 7 229 
Manson, Mahlon D......... 7 135 
March, Walter. wc... POMS TE 
Marsh, Blias: J s.scc--6 cue 38) 
Marsh, Ephraim..... ee TAS 
Marsh, jets Rieeceseevscdercars Caen 
Marshall, Joseph G......... 4 47 
Martindale, Elijah B....... 7 281 


McClellan, Charles A. O.12 47 
McCulloch, Hugh:....-:....12 49 


McDonald, Isaiah B aes 
McDonald, Joseph E...... 7 147 
McDowell, James F........ Il 32 
McKeen, William R....... Sass 
McRae, Hamilton 6b......... 6 55 
Mitchell, Jolini..s.:.2<sssse- 12) 53 
Mitchell, Samuel M........ 5 29 
Moore, Samuel...........50s<. re eke) 
Morrical, Frank H.. 10 30 
Morris, Morris..... ne Fe St 
Morris, Thomas A.......... 7. 259 
Morton, Oliver P........... 7 “153 
NEBEKER, George.......... Sa 938 
Neely, Thomas S ae 59 
Newman, John S.... _ 

Niles; JiOhmeD ..cscsstenecee. 46 
OLIVER aM eSern.c-.cecvecses 13 647 
Parvin, Theophilus........ 7 262 
Pearson, James C.......5.... 22s 
Reed, Henry. Av...-:..:.-200.5 Mele = Gh 
Peirce, Martin L....... Aion. SEY 
Peirce, Robert B. F......... 8 40 
Perkins, Samuel E...........7 169 
Rettityes) Ohms Wis-resscsecc.n: 11) 936 
Meav ipsses De Cergyeters coves seek I 
Polk, Robert L. Guam o4 
Porter, Albert G.. 7 256 
Powell, Charles G........... 13, «52 
Powell, Nathan...........00. Fy Lio) 
Powell} simon) os. .ss-n.sn. 6 65 


Dist. Page 
RatTLiFF, Joseph C......... 6 68 
Ribble, Williatiis.;ccs..cc-+-e0 6 70 
Rice, Martin H.sescsssece. 7 178 
Ridpath, olin: Crise. cnecee3e i530 
Roache, Addison L........ 7 252 
Robertson, Robertis:.-s--< 12 62 
Robinson, James H........12 64 
Robinson, Milton S......... 9 25 
Romaine, "Samuel B......... 13 “22 
Root, Deloss ee 7 181 
Roper, James A 55 
Rose, Chauncey.......-....+. 41 
TR Win aiige J suNGseneecsssteseses 56 
SCHENGKy UicePccccssscssaecs 
Schmuck, Gabriel.. 


Scott, John ase 
Shanks, John prc: 


Sherwood, MarcuSins:cs<0 i 49 
Shipley, Carlton E.......... 6 75 
Shoemaker, Jolin C......... 7 100 
Simonson, Alfred............ 31 
Sleeth, James M..... “nde 197 
Sorin, Edward........ ae 58 
Spann, John S....... ve 207 
Spencer, Jacob W.. 48 
Staley, Erastus H 27 


Stephenson, agrees) We 6 778 


Stewart, David M.. 76") 99 
Stone, Asahelten gee nce. 80 
Studabaker, John... “ee 52 
Studebaker Brosiiccs.csceseus 60 
Sullivan, Jeremiah.......... dan 02 
Sutton, George.........0..++: 4 64 
SWeeney,, Loeb isccsscosstsasce 5 43 
Sweetser, James............+ Ir 54 
TAYLOR, Samuel M......... 9 29 
‘Templer, James N.....:..... Gene 
Mhayer,, Henny Grnesesssss T3163 
Thompson, David...........6 83 
Drtsler, Nelsonsn...)s. saccs6 7 230 
Wa.pron, Edward H..... 9 30 
Wallace, W. DeWitt........ on (ax 
Webb; WillistS i tescscu0 Je 237 
Wielbokn, Jc ES ..- Tey; 
Wilcoxon, Lloyd. fax, (0 OT 
Williams, Hugh 1........... 4.075 
Williams, James D.......... 2 40 
Williams, Jesse L............ Iz 75 
Williams, Samuel P......... Toa e7 7, 
Winstandley, John B...... 3. At 
Winterbotham, John H...13 73 
IWiintonaik yscscerececarssoanesre 6 go 
Wolfe, Adam...........s20s0s- 6 89 
Woollen, William W....... 7 243 
Woolley, Amos... each 875 
Wiright) CA i icsccrscenesserns 7 276 
Wy Sor Jacob) His..s--t2s.2- Gr Vox 


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AMAR, John Gio ccc sene 
Adams, Joshua.G.. aks 
Adams, Thomas Be 
Addison, John... 
Adrian, James A.... 
Albert, John C....... 
Allen, Horace R...... 
Allen, Johnson W.......... 
Allison, SpammeSyG,-g2.t-0--a<08 
Ames, Edward R. 
Ames, George...... 


Anderson, Thomas a 

Andrew, George L.........13 
Andrew, William............ 13 
Anthony, Samuel T......... 6 


Armstrong, Addison F,...11 
Armstrong, Edward A....11 
Armstrong, Joseph D...... 1 
Armstrong, Uel W.......... I 
Armstrong, William B. C. 2 
Armstrong, William P... 


Armington, William........ BS 
Arnold, George.............5 rE.5 
Arnold, ‘CUA a Saseeeeee Pecos 6 


Arthur, Christopher S....11 


BaBcock, ilishialS. 575. :2-0.0 5 


Backman, John J...........2 4 
er OE eee cenacs carrey soenave 6 
Bain, William C. A......... 3 
Baker, Conrad: ......< ae 7 
Baker, David V. C. ........11 
Baker, John Hoe... sssseeneee 13 
Baker, William...........00+ I 
Baldwin, ae Pip dcaea doa 10 
Baldwin, Silas.. ta 
Ball, William C.. eee 
Bannister, Samuel N....... 7 


Banta, William H..... 
Barbour, Oliver P. “ 
Barker, gone Eiveweess ern 
Barker, William L........... 

Barmore, David S.......... 3 
Barnaby, Howard...........13 
Barnard, Obed.............. 
Barnes, Henry Fas. a3 

Barnett, Martin A.......... 

Barnum, A bel,......2..2....00 

Bartholomew, Artillus V..10 
Bartholomew, Pliny W.... 
Bartlett, Thomas............ 
Barwick, R. P. C..... fe 
Bassett, Thomas J.... 
Bayard, Samuel........ 
Bayliss, Jeremiah H. 
Baxter, James R...... 
Beach, John S........ 
Beagle, T. Warn...... 
Beardsley, Havila. 
Bearss, Daniel R.. : 
Bearup, Henry I.....%;..... 
Beck, William H..... 
Beckner, James F 
Beem, David E.. 


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Beharrel, Thomas ‘OE heck 
Belding, Stephen............ 
BEM Harve y..cccvcnces ceoseuas 
Bell, William A..... oa 


Bellamy, de Bes 
Bement, Charles Hees 
Bender, MON MOsbcmsetenneess 
Benjamin, Horatio N...... 


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Dist. Page Dist. Page 
Bennett, Thomas W....... 6 7 | Buckles, Abraham.......... GNets 
Benoit, Julian slacebecesnuetvese 2 | Buckles, Joseph G........... Gmet6 
Benz, John dareotivee 2 | Bulla, Joseph Mi; Sexteoodess 6,18 
Berry, Henry... 5 Bundy, Augustus E......... tom 13 
Berry, Nineveh. yY |) Bundy, Martin ILs.cs... 17 
Best, Jameés-[ka.coscese.sesses 2 | Bunyan, William........-..-, 10 
Betts, ELoward) Mine.2.<5 12 3) eBurnell, Samuel... ccsccesea II 
Biddley Horace Hvrcoms.-s 10 4 | Burchenal, Charles H 15 
Bigger, Finley... : Saieeunk ea dviichaellEmssspee se. 4 
Bigger, Samuel... 3 | Burger, John.......... an IL 
Birdsell, John C.. 8 | Burnet, Stephen S 5 
Black, Milton......... 7 Burrell, Bartholomew H.. 3 6 
BlairycclOnZO..c.ceereewereere A Burson, John W...ccssc.s: Giz7 
Blakes JAMES s.. sievesesintcss 7 Burson, Ge0rgesn reese LOM Ey 
Blanchard, Caleb H.........12 Burton, George Woven 2 5 
Blanche Willis; .csseec<e= ane II 5 | Buskirk, Clarence A...... 7a tS 
Bland, M. Cora...... ee 3 Buskirk, George: Anieses 5 5 
Bland;; Thomas, Aja: ..2.. 2 3 Buskirk, TONNE W csaeweees 5 6 
Blessing, John........ ay, 8 Buskirk, Santuel H...casec. 7 249 
Bliss, Malcolm G 10 12] Butler, Bice ese Oars 
Blish, John H... Ae 2a -Birtler, Jolin Ec... cece. 3 6 
Bloch, Gotthilf.... *10 8 tO) Butlers John: Muc..jccccoesss Tiers 
Bloss, Joliny MM. scewscersnctet 7 | Butler, William W.. aa 9 
Blount, Henry F....... x 9 Butterworth, Ww. W.. a2 ¢22 
Blount; Warren. ...:.2.0640. 6) 411 |) Byers, Alexander R....... ae oe 
Bobo, James R........:. sea 6 | Bynum, William D.......... 2 6 

Bond, Charles D.... ecI2 5 
Bond, Richard C... inh 7 | CADWALLADER, Nathan... 6 98 
Bonner, Samuel A........... 4 8 | Calkins, William H Ley adi 
Boone, Ratliffe.... I 8 | Campbell, James........ nee 7 
Boor, William F... 6 10 | Campbell, John C. L....... 2 7 
Borden, James W...........6 12 9 | Campbell, Samuel N....... 9 3 
Boswell, Thomas H......... 5 3 | Cannon, Greenberry C... 3 7 
Boswell, William H......... 9 Sule Caress, jameseM v2.2.5. ssence 5 7 
BOY Ce; JAMES... sstenvane inesee G12 Carleton, Wellington J... 7 103 
Boyd> Jamies cl vrscacsaccececse Tame ET, Carpenter, Willard 12 
Bracken, William H........ 4 8) Carr Nathan 1... 6 
Braden, Daniel! C w..c<-.:<3. OnmerIs| Carp William vosq.aecer accuse 12 
Bradford, Samuel P.........12 7 | Carrington, a Botesees 8 2 
Bradley, Augustus. oa a) 3 | Carson, William W.. - 17 
Bradley, Nelson... Hay, 9 Carter, Chauncey... 14 
Brady - JON. <ssasscsstennee 6 *16 | Carter, Scott.. Io 
Brady, Thomas J............ 6 92 Carter, William W.. 6 
; Brakeman, Nelson L....... 10 Wel. Garver) Lewis BH ijccs-sseccs- 12 
Branham, Alexander K... 7 13 | Cary, Oliver H. P.......... Il 8 
Brashear, Joseph T......... 4 8 | Casebeer, Jacob B 13 
Brazelton; Johis..c.cn--2--5°3 3 | Cason, Thomas J... 4 
Breen; Jolin IN.2.csseree cts: 2 4 Castle, aye Mids 15 
Brenton, John T.. a | 9 Cauthorn, Henry < = 9 
Briggs, Abraham............ 4s Caven, John Feeacdeeeore ote ; 16 
Bringhurst, Thomas H....10 Chamberlain, Orville T...13 12 
Brinkman, Henry............ I Chandler, Jolin J............ TaeeS 
Brodrick, Nehemiah F....13 Chandler, Morgan.......... rhe) 
Brotherton, William........ 6 Chapin, Augustus A....... 12 144 
Brower, Norman V.......... 13 Chapman, Charles W...... T30 ae 
Browne, Thomas M......... 6 Charles, Emily T.......<.... Fas 20 
Brown, Joseph.......052..00- 9 Chase, Charles H..... Se ee tey ae 
Brown, Allen W............. 3 Chase, Dudley H..... TOs i L5 
Brown, Austin H. oF, Chase, Henry..... Io) 616 
Brown, Wien 12 Chase, Hiram W... 9 5 
Brown, George P... Chatard, Francis S.......... 2 7 
Brown; Henry -B.........2... Cheney, "John Elis tessen sect 6020) 
Brown, James M............. Chipman, Samuel H........ ee 14 
Brow; .Jasoni B.....64. otse-r Chittenden, George F.... 9 6 
Brownfield, John............ Christy, Samutel...esseseeseee 10 
Brownlee, John:.........5.<>. Church, Osman W.. . I4 
Brownlee, William R Clancy, Albert W... : 19 
Bryan, Anthony.............. Clapp, William M..... ses 15 
Buchanan, Jacob S. ClatkaG eorge Coen scccesas 6 20 
Buchanan, James... Clark, Haymond W.. 9 5 
Buchanan, Samuel........ Clark, Othniel L...... i, 7 
Bucklen, Isaacs. pesrsccscssc. Claypool, Abraham J...... 6 23 


Dist. Page 

Claypool, Benjamin F...... 6 22 
Claypool, Solomon........... 7 ay 
Clayton, John Rivac....s.+. Vive ee 
Clugston) DMaviduinee. ete 18 
Cobb, OF Ps Hoaecn Ot Gk 
Cobb, Thomas R.. 2) 1d 

oburn, John... 2 

Coffey, Silas Di sae 8 o 
Goffroths Johny Ra 1. 9 8 
Cozley, Thomas, jis... 4. Lr 
Gotborn Ay Rivissenece sce neh gy 
Cole) “Albentiytcer<5 se -acacts Oyu Sh) 
Cole, Gig Bie wemnicecs cence 3 7 
Coles panies We rcr-cotscren 5 7 
r Cole, Leonidas A.,..... cone eras 
Colerick, Poh ne.s:c:.22. Aon aah he} 
Colfax, Schuyler, 13) x6 
Collett, John... AIG ole) 
Collett, Josephus ee sseenes tee 8 55 
Collins, Hrederick 1. «..... Foe ky 
Collins, JAMES IO ercocscesces I2 20 
Commons, Wilham.:......... 6) | 97 
Compton, Isaac M.. 8 
Converse, NoelpNice.. a OMe OS 
Conway, John W...... sie 4. TE 
Cook, Frederick W......... 1 16 
Cooper, George W. 5 9 
Coguillard, Alexis tS) 17 
Corbin, Horace......... palo. sto 
Corbye Williamsccses:-ceee, 13 f2e 
Cotteral, William W........6 23 
Cowarn,-Johin- M...cs. .icccoss 9 
Cowgill, Calvin............... It 
Crane, Charles E...... ae eu 
Cravens, James H 7 263 
Cravens, John O......... tee due> 12 
Cravens, Samuel C......... 2 | 9 
Crowe, Samuel S. cts) abe) 
Crozier, Amos W...... ee aes 
Culbertson, Jobe We, coseac 7m +20 
Culbertson, Robert H..... 8 9 
Culver Primus ePpccsec-rs 9 8 
Cumback, William........... At 
Cummins, Stephen M...... 13,4 16 
Curme; Arthur A....002.:... 6 99 
Curtiss, (George Ib:.....c<. 7 eee ae 
DalLey, Joseph S 13 
Dakin, George M............ 19 
Darnall, James M............ 12 
Davenport, Benjamin L..13 20 
Davidson, Robert P......... 9 
Davis, Charles lot iscscess 16 


Davis, Clarkson....... 
Davis, Fielding L.... 


9 

° 

6 

on 
Davis, Jefferson C.., ne hy 
Davis, John Steele... see Pete) 
Davis, Joseph W..... 13 23 
Davis, I. Henry.. -6 95 
Davis, William P....... Se Lake) 
Davison, Alexander A....°3 8 
Davison, ANGLEW -.iececeren0 45. 87 
Dawson, John W.. ~E2 20 
Day, Samuel D....... 7 27 
Defrees, Joseph H..........13 21 
De La Matyr, Gilbert...... 7 29 
De Long, Alexander W..11 13 
Denby; Charles......s0scasees Teel 7; 


Denny, James M.... 12 22 
DePauw, Washington C.. Sito 
Dillon, Patrick. weccssessssene 13 24 
Dobbs, CYRUS finesse seesences CE eee 


Dist. Page 
Doherty, Fisher..... 7/8" “ro 
Dorman, Francis Re mereectes 4 19 
Douglass, ene ne es Jans t2) eS 
Douglass, Benjamin P..... 3 11 
Douglass, Robert............ Gh EY 
Downey, Alexander C..... 4 19 
Downey, William D........ I 18 
Downs, Thomas J iy 33 
Doxey, Charles T 9 10 
Drake, James P... 7 233 
Dudley, William W.. On 24 
Dufour, Perret....... ae 2E 
Du Hadway, Caleb S...... 6 26 
Dunbar, Hamilton J 34 
Dunning, Pais) Creces 10 
Durham, James F... 22 
Duzan, George N............. 9 
Dwenger, Joseph............ 24 
HD AGL Heal vsecesesespers seas TOL 
Earl, Adams IL 
Early, Jacob D Il 
Early, Samuel S., of 
Brownstown. ....seceecceees Beats 
Early, Samuel S., of 
herrea te arscaseesacuane 13 
Paton, gE wOmMas eisccceccpeess 30 
Edgerton, Alfred P 4d 
Edgerton, Joseph K....... (2 24 
Edson, :HantordtA o.c.s.6 7 | 37, 
Edson, Joseph P.. Reno He a) 
Edson, William yo oe de) 
Edwards, William H....... 2. =I 
Effinger, Robert P.......... LE tA 
Ekin, James A...... spade gts 
Elder, James....... 10/4) 20 
PU Ote peli vey enjecesatee ON. (27, 
Elliott, John.......... Myae Gao 
Ellis, Erastus W. Sep: 
Ellis, MODIIWicwscdectenntuesset Gun med: 
Ellis, Jonathan a es 14 
Elston, Tsaac. Ci ssspec ce 8 14 
E mbree, Bilishayess Prt ie et) 
Emerson, Frank..........00+ 3. 16 
Emswiler, George P........ 65929 
English, William H......... 209 
Ensley, George......... 25 
Ensminger, Joseph... 5 15 
Erwin, Franklin B......... 26 
Enwan): John) Coro .ccr 26 
Essick, Michael L......... 16 
Bwans,- | esseulr.sscs.-qcetas 36 
Evans, Owen......+- 28 
Evans, Robert M.... 20 
Evans, William L. 20 
Everts, Orpheusise.cses-s ao 
Ewing, Charles W... aro?) es 
Ewing, George W..........12 26 
FaiLinG, Walter.............. ETE 
Farrington, Almond S.....12 27 
Ferguson, James Cre dens ih = oki) 
Ferguson, Samuel W....... 9 35 
Fernandes, Daniel H.....55 27 
Ferrall, Joseph Weakest lecess 12 28 
Ferrier, Wilham S..22042. 3° 26 
Fetta, Christian..... is ON £20, 
Field, Elisha C... LON Dy 
Field, Nathaniel.. iB 27; 
Finch,; WabruS: Misses. 7 4it 
Finch, Hiram G....... ao are 
Firestone, John B...........12 29 
Fisher, Daniel W... ~ 4 22 
Fisher, Stearns...... II 16 
Fisk, Ezra W......... iW g Sa 4 
Fitch, Charles H... 33 eer. 
Fitch, Graham N.. IO. £7 
Fitch, Leroy Io 6-18 
Fletcher, Caliac. 27 a7t 
Fletcher, Miles wa .7 42 
Foley, James B...... ad eee 
Hord, james: ...csscess 8 ee a 
Foust, Franklin H... 12 29 
Fowler, Inman H..... 5. rs 
Fowler, Moses....:..... 9" Ars 
Fidancis? Harry “H..oce2... 13°- 127 
Franklin, William M....... 5 veix4 
Frazer, James Siuecctetwaeess 13° 27 
Freeman, Amzi W. eAgmIe He 
Freeman, Azariah.... Io 618 
Friedley, George Wes oa orks 
Fromm, John: F’.:...:.... ....10:" 20 


INDEX. 
Dist. Page vit Page 

Fullenlove, Thomas J...... 3 18 | Haughey, Theodore P... 83 
Fuller, Benoni S...........0+. 1 2t | Haughton, Richard E.. 81 
Fulton, Joseph..-............. g 14 | Hawkins, Nathan B........ a 22 

: Hay, Andrew Wicssaseeneceetias 3°) 023 
Gaar, Abram.........- Recees 6 30] Hay, Lawrence G........... 7 & 
Gaff, James W.. ... 4 “14 | Haymond, William S...... 7 85 
Gaff, Johny Eaccses eA ss aeliasmes, Jacob Misidevecntess 20 
Gaff, Thomas... ... 4 25 | Haynes, Robert P 16 
Gale, Jesse M.......... «12 29 | Hazelrigg, Harvey G..... 9 16 
Galvin, George W.......... 7 43 | Hazen, Zachary 7T......... 33 
Gardner, Elbridge Ge 13 Hazlett, James... nae 17 
Garrigus, Milton............. OI, gs eT Headington, John W 24 
Garver, William. 9 15 | Headington, Nimrod 22 
Gavin, James... edge P20) |p Pledgesy ODM iS rccsacdee- eas 36 
Gent, ehomasrcateecssrsss 5 15 | Heffren, Horace.. 2i 
Gerrish, James W. F...... 3. I9 | Hege, Samuel............ 17 
Gibson, John....... saesacivens .2 13] Heilman, William 59 
Gilbert, Curtis.... J. 8) 25 | Heiner, Frederick...........7 88 
Gilbert, John......... ~ < 22) Heller; James 1. .2.c-00.-..< 7. O2 
Gilbert, Samuel E.. « = 23 | Helm,.-Jefferson... cae 01m 540 
Gillespie, William.. «4 27 | Helm, John C... 2 Om 738 
Gillett, S;T.: -7 43 | Helm, John H..... eamee ear] 
Givens, Noah S... 24 027-4) Etelm, oD homas: D.erctccets lo. 22 
Gleason, Newell.............13 28 | Henderson, Ebenezer...... 7 89 
Glessner, Oliver J......... 7. 45 | Hendricks, Thomas A.... 7 of 
Gooding, David S......... 7 227 | Hendricks, William........ 4 32 
Goodman, Reuben S 2 +44 | Hendry, Alanson W........ 12 35 
Goodwin, John R............ 4 28 | Henry, W. oe poe 47 33 
Goodwin, Thomas A........ 7. 47 | Herbert, Ralph P.......... 3 
Gookins, Samuel B......... 827 Hervey, Robert G... 
Gordon, Jonathan W...... 7 TABU: Fess, Balserjeesresssea: 
Gordon, Oliver C ........... One at Hess, William B..... 
Gorsuch, Charles W. 7 63 Hiatt, Allen Rees. 


Gould, Samuel W 29 
Graham, John A 18 
Gramelspacher, Alois..... 13 


2 
Graves, Kerseyisecctoateetes 6 
Gray, lsaac Pose. neh 

Gray, John W. 

Gray, Samuel F..... se 
Gregory, Ralph Gk Iie 
Green, Edward H......... 
Green, Wohitereeresess ode 
Green, Martin R............ 
Green, William F...... en 
Greene, James W........... 
Griffins, Why) cep caseacemaacds 


Griffis, Theodore L 

Grisard, Frederick I....... ATA IO 
Grose, William.......... Gr ror 
Grove, John B... Mt ing Be 
Gripes) ohmic .cserotsess<pee TsO 
Haas, Isaiah ..... scdootontece < ¥> 24 
Hacker, William.... ae 64 
Hackleman;, Bu etecss.<.se- 19 
Hackleman, Pleasant A... 6 34 
Hackley, Frederick S.....11 9 21 
Hagen, Andrew.. ........... 7 16s 
Hager, Jonathan B......... 8 21 
Haegart, Mary Hy.t2sieic.. fe 00 
Haines, Abraham B......... 4 15 
Hains, James M........ Seo he $35) 
Halford, Elijah W............7 69 
Halls Jacobo A... a. stors sects fe 2108 
Hall, Samuel A... tO) eee 
Hall, Wesley C... tents 
Hall, William.... iA 30 
Ham, Levi J....... sarge 30 
Hamilton, Allen..... Ae Seeman: (0) 
Hamilton, Samuel........... 7 68 
Hammond, Abram A....... Chi 
Hammond, Edwin P.......10 21 
Hanna, Bayless W..*....... 8 (22 
Hannay Eughi ess ra) ene 2 
Hanna, ol Reser send 7) 6G 
Hanna, Robert.. ee 79 
Hanna, Samuel.. Nie, 32 
Hanna, Thomas.. be Cre) 
Harding, George aca Tiere 
Harding, Myron H......... 4 81 
Harding, Stephen Sashs 4°4°97 
Harlan, ‘Levi Popate Ry Aa es 
Harrington, Henry W.... 7 76 
Harris; Jacob) Rattivwosses A Sven 
Harrispliee-Ox. 2. -cee. Soe 7 yO 
Harrison, Benjamin......... 7 79 
Harrison, William H....... Byes 
Hart, Andrew. T.........s00 80 
Harter, Davida... 23 
Hartman, Ezra D 34 


| Hoskins, James M... 


Hibberd, James: B.sshiate 
Hicks, R. S 
Hill, James IW stron 
Hill, Ralph...... 
Hinton, James S.. 
Hodgson, Isaac.. 
Hodson, John M.. 
Hoff, Michael........ 
Hogeland, Israel 
Holley, Sylvester J........ 
Holloway, David P 
Holloway, William R 
Hollowell, Amos K.. 
Holman, Jesse Li scepeceeses 4 
Holman, William S 
Holmes, Samuel W 
Holmes, William C.......... 
Holstein, Charles I.. 
Hord, Francis T.... 
Horne, John.-.7...... 


Horton, Theodore.... 
Hosford, Charles E.. 


co 


Hostetter, Henry 
Hough, John...... 
Hough, William R. 
Howard, Danieliicnscse. 3 
Howard, Jonas G.. aes 

Howard, Noble Pena 
Howard, Tilghman hen. Hae 
Howell, "Mason A eae I 
Howk, ‘George \Vigsietentzaxt 3 
Hubbard, Charles S....... 
Hudnut, Theodore.......... 
Hudson, William D......... 
Hudspeth, Thomas J....... 
Huff, Thompson D......... 2 
Hughes, Thomas E......... 
Humphreys, Louis... 
Hunt, Franklin W.... 
Hunt, Hubbard..... 


Hunter, Morton C............5 
Enters Wi) uldieerescerse 4 
Hussey, ‘Prestonyaccc-s-..s 8 
Huston, James Nu.2se.85 6 
Hurston; Walliamipeseanes -6 
Hyatt, Elisha.. Ressecestel 2 
IppINGs, Hirani. Moe gemaswecis 12 
Iglehart, Ferdinand C.... 5 
Ingle, John, i Oadeweaeecgeeemes ct 
Irwin, Elisha...... Aen 
Irwin, John W.. 13 


Irwin, yoceee TS, 


Irwin, Joseph W...... aa 
JAMESON, eo Heise 6 
Jameson, Patrick H........ 


Dist. Page 
ennings, Jonathan......... cyeer 
ennings, Levi Al....cssc 103 
ewett, Charles L... 25 

Johnson, GEOVS Ee Di sccesss3 37 
eerie EREWTY,.cscetotnccar 41 
ohnson, Isaac C.. 25 
Johnson, Israel... : 24 
Johnson, Jarvis J... 5 ao) 
Johnson, Richard ......... 4 40 
Johnson, ‘Thomas F......... 7 106 
Johnson, William H........10 25 
Jones, Aquila.. Sy teas += 7 108 
Jones, Charles W.. oe 2 AEG 
tee John.. Bi amen} 
ones, William H... rou tomer 
Judah, Samuel...... BAA Cai 48, 
Julian; George Wi... 7 ee 
Julian, Jacob B..... ..........7 109 
Julian; Jokut Eves. We Leu 
Jump, Samuel! Vey. Gn ad 
Justice, James M... : 25 
Kanto, Charles..............10 26 
Keith, Benjamin Ei2. 2e2mmego 
Keith, John Ax..s...6 = 5-220, 
Keith, Squire I........ (A sivas 
Kemper, William H......... 6 44 
Kennedy, Peter S.........: 8 2% 
Kenower,. Johns... sees. ry 236. 
Kercheval, Robert T...... 1/28 
Kercheval, Samuel E...... 2 eta 
Kerry Michael’ CuyAre sree 
Kibbey; John F......3.000: 6 45 
Kilgore, Alfred. iwin-sn.. 6 46 
Kilgore, David.... tO O46 
Kimmel, Louis.... ako yee > ¢:| 
King, E. Douglass........... 5 22 
Kinsey, Isaac...... cuties 5°69) 247. 
Kirby,© Dbomassh byes sees 6 49 
Kirkpatrick, Thomas M.1r 25 
Kirkwood, Daniel.. Sheth oe 
Kline, William B... Pcie? «| 
Knefler, Fred. esses. 2 polewaa 
Koerner, Charles C.. . 7 nag 
Koontz, Jacob H............ 6 49 
La Forterre, D. W..0:.039 188 
Laird Dy sli setaesae tinea I 29 
Lamar, John H...... so 4h eas 
Lamb, George C.. 1348) #28 
Lamb, JAMES scctsnen ey ee eS 
Lamme, Edwin H.. 7 123 
Land, William M..... = TAMBo 
Landers, Praniolin,..s2-s.0°7 eed 
Lane, Henry ‘Siac 8 30 
Langtree, Samuel D........4 44 
Lanning, Joseph R......... 12) -¢4a 
Lathrop, Ezxay.. tiessteenrsrae 4 43 
Lathrop, Levi P. tg nag 
Lee, Clement...: ye ey 
Lee, JON: sweeney wear, SED #2O 
Lee, Maurice J.tndaestees 8 30 
Leonard, Wellington Y...12 42 
Link, John Tivaaststote voseees « Sgt 
Livings, Theodore........... 4 45 
Lockhart, Horatio J........ 6° 96 
Lockhart, Robert M....... 12 43 
Lockridge, Andrew M.... 5 23 
Lockridge, John E...........7 128 
Loftin, Sample............. 7 126 
Lomax, William... =n 3726 
Long, H.-W ssweoesates -++eD3 | 922 
Long, Thomas B............. 8 57 
Lordeman, Francis Lies 
Love, Benjamin F. ey soy | 
Love, John... >> eee 
Love, John W ceo hie ds 
Lovett, Daniel W 4 47 
Lovett, John W... 2 Gees 
Lovett, David..... wots Ae AG 
Lovett, John A... LG 32708 
Lyons, Ira E.... cieo¥ To gees 
Lyons, William B ..... veseee ID) 28 
7 | 133 
es eat 
Macy, Taha Wises vestsaeates 6 50 
Maddock, William B 
Main, Reuben Puen... 
Major, Alfred. 2.0.2.1: 
Makepeace, Allen..... 


3 Dist, Page 
Malott, Volney T 


MEAG POM a saccetsottamcro. 3 

Mla UT CtCL Scacencccroceraeee: 4 227 
Manson, Mahlon D......... 7 135 
Mansur, Isaiah...... .........7 141 
MMareh Walters is..c..06 ‘SE 
Marine, Abijah.............. 6) 62 
Marlett, John J.. BF Sie 
Marmon, Daniel W......... 7 Ar 
Marsh, Albert O.. =. 6 52 
Marsh, Elias: J ...:.3.. “EE 220, 
Marsh, Ephraim..... 9) Taz 
Marsh, John..:........ - 6 53 
Marshall, Joseph G....:.... 447 
Marshal, Wartivarn Ker sceccs 3 eas 
Martin, Alexander.:........ 5 | 26 
Martin, Augustus N........ 7 143 
Martindale, Elijah B....... 7 281 
Masoi, Charles Hii..0..c06 2). 32 
Mason, James L..:.......... 7 149 
Mass  TSaags.-cstcnrtstereecee 2 22 
Matchette, Alique C....... ee 20 


Matthewson, Reuben C. 1 34 
Mattison, Hamilton A... r 33 
Mavity, William K..........11 29 


Maxwell, David H.......... Sa 33 
Maxwell, Samuel C........10 28 
Maxwell, Samuel F......... Seeegs 
Maynard, Jacob B.......... 7 260 
MeBride, Ri; WieS.......003-3 Le rs 
McClellan, Charles A. O.12. 47 
McClellan, James............ T2. 46 
McClelland, Marquis L...10 =. 28 
McClure, Samuel... 


McClure, William! << 
McConnell, Stewart T....10 27 


McCord, Robert G......... 3 28 
McCormack, Patrick Hi... 5 927 
McCoy, Matthew............ 12 48 
McCulloch, Hugh........... 12 49 | 


McDonald, Isaiah B........12 5 | 


McDonald, Joseph E...... 7 147 
McDowell, James F........11 32 
McGregor, Alexander.... 8 59 


McGuire, Ezekiel W....... 6 104 
McIntire, Elihu'S....c..0.2° 24 
McIntire, Oliver B......... 10°. 29 
McKeen, William R....... Sass 
McKew, Arthur.............. Omens 
McLallen, Elisha L.........12 2 
McLallen, PROMI Ye chevs.<s rig ee 
McMeans, John.. er 2 0 bg 
McRae, Hamilton S. Salo ym ey 
McSheehy, Thomas........ 7 270 
Meacham, Alfred B......... fem ee 
Meek, James Sig erecs> Sacoe See 27 
Mellett, Joshua H.. eG. 57 
Mendenhall, Nathan....... On x9 
Merrifield, Thomas 4 ae 70, 20 
Metcalf, Charles N......... 7 143 
Metcalf, Stephen.... =Q a 20 
aichenss, TOUS «Es es ceccess 7 150 
Miers, R. W.. eanataaee hes Be 29) 
Miller, Alfred Boccrncvadass: 13, > 38 
Miller, James.. Paaeaaenst pa 25x 
Miller, John Byes. be x) 
Miller, EEWISe J tices ceesesece ba, eds 
Miller, William.. wars Steen AS 
Milligan, Joseph... aed; SP38 
Milligan, Lambdin P....... pL 3 
Mills, Caleb? ss a ele: 
Miner, Byrum D.. ete) wiss 
Minich, James A............ 7 152 
Minshall, Deloss W......... 8 37 
Mitchell, John... ae ae) 
Mitchell, Joseph SAnSh cs “13 39 
Mitchell, Samuel M........ 5 29 
Mitchell, James L 

Mitchell, Walliams s<s¢.00.- 

Mock, Vevickcus 

Moffat, David W... 

Moffatt, John F..... 

Moffett, John........ 

Monks, Leander J........... 58 
Montgomery, Robert...... ra. 43 
Moore, Granville C......... 5h 30) 
Moore, Tsate Soeestctcaarsece ian 3S 
Moore, Jacksons Lis .ven.00 zeae 
Moore, emMese W csceaseene- Gms 
Moore, ROSEpl csr .deenteere= 7 X53 


Moore, Marshall A......... 5 30 


INDEX. 


Dist, Page 
Moore, Samuel.......0...00T 32 
Morehous, Philo as 44 
Morrical, Frank H........:. Io “40 
Motris; Morris...s:.....-ses50 7" 258 
Morris, Thomas A.......... 7 258 
Morrison, Ezekiel............ $3. -ecaG 
Morrison, John I.,.....:¢.;.. 6° 95 
Mortony. OW Paver pccessonteecs 7 153 
Motinys: David cares. aancceren rae yg teat 
Myers, Charles A, O....... 12 56 
Myers smite Cero sncestcetcasacer 3. 29 
Miyerspisaintels. Gessccsesa+se 9 20 
Myers, William R........... Onyat 
NAVE, Christian, C.......... eh 
Nebeker, George $38 
Neely, Thomas 5... Josie “28) 
Neff, Henry H.... Roe ys: 
Nef) Poni cersccnced OnaebO: 
Niet }oliimilli acc. ssneresciersee 7 158 
Nelson, Thomas H.......... 8 59 
Nester, Joln....... peeks | 30 
New, Jeptha D <0 SES 
New, Sohny. Gace ae: = 7 269 
New, William.,........ tne Mae aste) 
Newcomb, Dwight. ccc Rey 37. 
Newcomb, Horatio C...... 7 “180 
Newland, Benjamin.......... 2 25 
Newland, James H.........10 30 
Newman, John 6...... ate ay, 
Niblack, William E......... 7 160 
Nichol, Joseph W...........7 255 
Nicholson, Jems Ce : 31 
Nicholson, Timothy 60 
Niles, ue DUR wacevscvedesves>ss 46 
30 
162 
snesteesvenseae 161 
49 
25 

poe James, of Ko- 

MBOTIO NS Coste sc onacoenrtone ence hte ee 
O’Brien, James, of Plain- 

SVEL CS saicanrcnesoeaee sn daeene Sy a2 
Ot Dowagh te; Dizccccccsepee 7 163 
Offutt, Charles G...... «- J 163 
Ogdon, James W...... sabe! 26 
Olcott; John M ..cccscscscesss 7 164 
Oliver, James...... week 1 AT, 
O’Neal, John H... 2 26 
Orr, Joseph...... 13-47 
Orr, Samuel..:...0.0.. OMmaOr 
Osborn, Andrew L......... 13 48 
Overman, Emsley A........ 9) 22 
Overman, Nathan R....... 9.) 22 
Overton, John G.s...... 8) 39 
Owen, David Dale.......... 1 39 
Owen,-Richard......... cae Ey 
Owen, Robert.. a IG) 
Owen, Robert Dale... 40 
Oyler Samitel P<ceccnsemese By 33 
PACKARD, Jasper..........5 48 
Palmer, Truman H.;......; 23 
Parks, James O......... Rae 
Parrish, Charles S.5...0 34 
Parry, William. :........ ss 62 
Parvin, Theophilus......... 7 262 
Pattison, Alexander B.... 4 49 
Beate CieOrge W asssoatevecs 39 
Paxson, Jesse E.. z 63 
Payne, Philander W. 33 
Pearse, Milton W............ 41 
Pearson, CharlesiD).3...s7eeleg 
pearson By. 1)... secacse asd 2h 271 
Pearson, ames Coc -omeastet Zero 
Peaslee, William J.......... 7 167 
Peed, Henry Av eses se «E30, SE 
Peelle, Stanton J............ 7 168 
Peelle, William A... ~ 617 63 
Peirce, Martin L...... + Qiu aut 
Peirce, Robert B. F......... 8 40 
Perigo, Bzekteliccs.necsssess PAE 
Perkins, Samirell Wacece.s..s 169 
Pettit, John Winsor as 36 
Pfaff, William Au... wee Ju TT | 
Phelps, Abraham M 42 
Pickerill, Francis M 172 
Pickerill, George W....... 7 193 
BiG ECO ativan ssceaseeresvewasen Za 


Dist. Page ] 


Piercé, Simeéon...cac.svecee 10 
Pinchin, Abner F..........0 12 
Pitchlynn, Hiram R....... 5 
Pitzer, Andrew B...... bat) 
Pixley, Chelius 5. See) 
Polk, Robert, L....... =O 
Pollawd; ‘Glark Nuvi. set 
Pope, A lexandeiic. cesconseas 13 
Porter, Albert G., of In- 
AVA TIAPOlISS. eases anseteneres 7 
Porter, Albert G., of Leb- 
AN Ollivicerns srconcctowissaWrcetees 9 


Posey, Francis B. 
Posey, Thomas.. 
Post,  Nfartin Miaxccas a 
Powell, Charles Give ves 
Powell, Nath aiiccassnevtecer 
Powell, Simon T..... 
Powers, Edwin D.... 
Prather, Hiram... a 
Prather, Walter-S. . sscsc.-- 
Pratt, Alonzo J.. 
Pratt, Daniel D. é 
Prentiss, Nelson. ..........« 12 
Pressier, Henry GC, .........12 
Prickett, Fielding......-....12 


Prunk, Daniel Ai i.c.caus.e, 7 
Prunks Hatter Ar tac.c.;. 7 
Pugh, William-A\. csstess.0. 6 
Prurvcell ie ovals peaeeoers 2 
QUICK, Joh itiirersecsess cn ecters 


Rass, David G 


Ragan, Reuben of 
Ralston, Samuel W......... 12 
Ralston, William G......... 1 
| Ramsey, Samuel.............. 3 
Randall, Franklin P........ 
Ransdell, Daniela Mcweecscee a 
| Rapp, George... a 
Ratliff, Cornelius, “Sen... 6 
Ratliff, Joseph C..... “e 
Rawles, Williamson. as 
Rens Mar tii Wes cc eset acces 
Read, John F....... 
Reavis, William...... 
Reagan, Amos W 5 
Redding, Thomas B........ 6 
Reed, George I 
Reed, Nathan......... 
Reeve, Charles H........... 13 
Reinhard, George L........ 1 


Reising, Paul..... 


FREFICIY JOT Eire cccecansceee 12 
Reynolds, Alfred W........ 10 
Ribble, William............... 6 
RicesiMar tine Eh r. s-nsces-e 7 
Richmond, Corydon........ II 
Richmond, Nathaniel P...1z 
Ridpath, Abraham.......... 
Ridpathy Johin-Crc-....--... 
Rippey, Matthew. - 


Roache, Addison L. 


Roberts, Daniél.c...ccs.-+:-: 
Roberts, Gains...... 
Roberts, Omar F... 
Roberts, Robert.............. 
Roberts, Thomas W......... 6 
Robertson, Robert S....... 12 
Robins;, Milton. ..........0+00 7 
Robinson, Henry H........12 
Robinson, James H........ 12 
Robinson, John C........... 5 
Robinson, Milton S......... 9 
Rockwood, William O..... 7 
Rogers, Edmund J.......... z 
Romaine, Samuel B......... 13 
Romine, James..........000+ I 
Root, Deloss.......... 7 
IRGotss brancis M.-..c.nt..:. 6 
Roots, Philander H......... 6 
Roper, James Al vecscs~re- 13 
Rose, Chauncey. ss.scs casc- 8 
Rose; BRN Bets. sccscscectss 2 
Rosey JAMES Drscyecesesaxoas 12 
OSC, JOM Bis csccccsscceceers II 
Rose, Solomon. ....coccseeeees pe) 
PEROSS 1) ONT Elis ccescaveveccarsas IL 
Ross Nathan: ©, -.20....s0ce. It 
Runyan, John Nop ae 13 
Russ, George W.........+000. 7 


31 
56 
33 
23 
53 
64 
39 
52 


Dist. Page 
SaLsBury, Henry.. 187 
Salter, James Worasas peat OMe 


Sample, Thomas J. 74 
Sampson, James.... + 49 
Sanford, George.............5 35 
Day, Thomias..c.0 a aeiak Tr 50 
payler,sitenry: Buceseeeters Ir 46 
Schefold, Frank....... Beet oe 
Schell, Frederick Au... 5 38 
SISTING) 90 En arto sere 4 | 56 
Schmitz, Charles A 12 68 
Schmuck, Gabriel........... 188 
Schofield, Sylvester H.... 39 
Schreeder, Charles C...... 29 


Schwartzkopf, John G.... 
Schweitzer, Bernhard..... 
CODER: VLONMN Geeseacwcsversee 
SE Ott OMNI cectcsonevers 6 
Scott,:John T,.......... 
Scribner, Bs i % 
Sexton, ‘Marshall... 


Shackelford, James M. 50 
Shanklin, John Citar 5 267 
DShankespe john Py Gece cess. I BS 
Shaw, Benjamin«C: ......... 

Sherman, Mason G......... I 57 


Sherrod, James H.... 
Sherwood, Marcus... 


Shidelene DB. ccncs. 


Shiel, John J... 3 36 
Shields, ees eae aA 36 
Shields, Meedey W.. 36 
Shipley, Carlton E : 75 
Shirk, Elbert H........ Beek 46 


Shoemaker, John C......... 
Shoemaker, John W....... 


SN HON HAW OWN HNW COHYQ HOW CWAUUNUN 
he 
i} 


Shuuk, David. scss.rcscscccsve I 52 
Simonson, Alfred............ 31 
Sinker, Alfred: T2022. sas. 196 
Skinner, De Forest......... 10 636 
Slater, Frederick, iterate 4 14 
Slaughter, Ww. W..... ee a SE 
Sleeth, George B.. iO a 77) 
Sleeth, James: May... Ate... Tae tay 
Smart, James H..... ny ee Ov, 
Smith, Andrew J a5 ez 
Smith, Benjamin W.,,....... 7 204 
smith, Hid ward).Os.tsssecess 1 53 
Smith, Edwin......... scenes se 58 
Smith, Hamilton............ I 53 
Smith, Henry W.........-.<0. 4 59 
Smith, Hubbard ies toe ee 
Smith, John L... -9 26 
Smith, John W., “Sar 
Smith, Marquis Ee ph ey ate. 
Smith, Olivier El seems ese > 7 199 
Smith, pamuell Mecss..-2 23 
Smith, William Z 232 
Snyder, Harper W.......... 10 237, 
SAL Sys LEVI. onccssieveeraces mie wey? 
Spilker, George W 6 78 
Spink, James C...... pace (ey 
Spooner, Benjamin 4 59 
DOM, LH OWwald <cewecsteterwess ey 5) 
Spann, John S........ aa) 207 
Spencer, Elijah Mi vececn...E 54 
Spencer, Jacobo Ww. .....,0.kL 48 
Stati, Prederick’S) iss Su 42 
Staley, Erastus H...........9 27 
Stansifer, Simeon..... Ee bh Wee 
Stedman, Nathan R....... 4 61 
Steele, Asbury-........ aL tae 47; 
Steele, George K... ay 
Steele, George W...........11 50 
Steele, Theodore 7 206 


Stephenson, George W... 6 78 


Stevens, Warder W 37 
Stevens, William F......... 6x 
Stewart, David M........... 6 79 
St. John, Robert T.......... Ir 45 
Stockslager, Strother M.. 3 38 
Stockton, Lawrence B..... 9 27 
Stone, Asahel............ 6 80 
Stough, Solomon....... ..12 68 
Stow Peter Ror agectasss 3 38 


Strader, Samuel McH..... 4 $14 
Stropes, William P.......... 2 36 
Stuart, Wilfam Z)........... 100.37 


Stucker, David F 35 
Stucker, James F... 35 
Stucky, John M..... 44 


INDEX. 


Dist, Page s _ Dist. P ge Dist. Page Dist, Page 
Studabaker, John............t1 52 | Tingley, Benjamin F...... 6 84 | Warder, Luther F...........3 41 | Williams, William J........ 10 ee. 
Studabaker, Peteri......0.12 | 40%)" Lipton, Jol i..c...-c---1-.5h-6 10 40 Waring, William P.......... 6 26 | Williamson, Delano E..... 5 47 
Studebaker, Clement... 13/5) 60\| ,Lodd, Jacob J... eke opal ALL MIN, NOD excess ses: «+ 7 237 | Willson, Samuel C... Shuey 
Studebaker, Jacob, Bea 13,‘ 6F Tong, Lucius GC. ae s--13. 65 Washburn, Israel B 10, “44 | Willseny Voluey....cc.<...00. epee ts 
Studebaker, John M....... 13. 61 | Trentman, August GC Ee i Washburne, Henry D..... 8 52 Wilson, Elbridge G......... 2 42 
Studebaker, Peter E........ 13. 6c | Trentman, Bernard......... 12 gt | Wasson, William G......... 7 240'| Wilson, Francis.........0.2. 2 42 
Stutt, George W............11 48 | Trentman, Henry J........12 32 | Waterman, Miles... +12 72 Wilson; Isaac H.. ws J 248 
Sullivan, Jeremiah.......... 4 62 | Tripp, Hagerman............ 3 39 | Watson, Enos L... 5 OWS Wilson, Robert OQ piel ee Ir 79 
Sutton, George........ 4 65 | ‘Trisler, J. Randolph....... 4 72 | Watson, Lewis L............ 2 37 | Wilson, Thomas H......... 10 45 
Sutton, Willis E... -- 4 70 | Trissal, Francis M.......... 9 35 | Watts, Howard.. 4 «tg WalsonemWialteweesseneere cs. 10 646 
Surface, Dantellic. ses sO * ox | “Lruby, Michael-.....- wg. 67 Webb, Willis’ (Sachs “7 237 Wilson, Wilham @itee-no. Ga 
Swafford, Benjamin # Wee) PEA aS lenis selbntnnnn set: +13 67 Webster, Alexander........ anear Winfield, Maurice, sso 10 47 
Swayzee, Aaron. Gstamctb 53 Trusler, Nelson... 6 7 330 Wedding, Charles du.52..0 5 56 Winkler, William M. aes: 
Sweeney, Z. T....: Ree 43 ‘Tucker, Silas....... .-10 4c | Weicht, William C..........12 73 Winstandley, John Bes 3) 45 
Sweetser, James..... .-1I 54 | Turner, David:.... eras 142) We Wieiketulijaly Wer.ss.c. ape GV Winterbotham, Jobn H...13 73 
Sweetser, William... RET eS S| schurmen eaauSe een -- 6 85 | Welborn, Joseph F........)1 57 | Winton, Horace..........:... ee EC 
Swint; Willianyi...-..2....9 ot S4s | luctle;posepha be. 3 Se HS), Welborn, Oscar Mi......; 1), 68 Winton, Robertssssct1-27-1 00) 100 
Vynier, James..;...css «as 7 232 | Wells, Hiram By... 72, 938 Wishard, William H....... 7 242 
TABER, CyruS....0:¢-.-00::.30 39 | Lyner,; James N.............11 47 | Wells, Je08P Pes we 4) zg Nv aithers; "Warren Ho... 12 80 
Taber, Freeman...... 2-502) 569 Wells, Merritt: ss.cs.-.<seness 7 24¢ | Wolfe, Adam........... =e Ons 
Talcott, William C. .........10 39 | Ux, Joseph 42 | West, Vincent T............. 1 57 | Wolfe, Harvey S.........-..« 3.2 
Tarkington, Joseph..........4 ga | Urmston, Stephen E 73 Whitcomb, JAMES. wcseesen S62 | Wolfe, Simeon Ko. tn eass 3 43 
Taylor, Edward H..... .f2) &79 White, Emerson E.. ED) 935) Wood, s Martin = s.-cae: +30 47 
Taylor, James E..... uO. Seri) “VANCE Robert \Jecsaccscver 8 50 White, ibe Hi. .. 7 242 | Wood, Thomas J... “10 49 
Taylor, James M.. sag 39 | Van Devanter, Isaac....... 1 «678 White, ichacl" Dace 8 53 | Woodfill, Gabriel... tea (4 
‘Taylor, olin! Iara wateeess 55 | Van Natta, William S...... 10 643 | Whitesell, Joseph M....... 6. (87 | Woods, THOMAS... scersceuer 133 75 
Taylor, Lathrop M 3 62] Van Valzah, Robert........ 8 49 | Wilcox, Samuel P...........13 73 | Woodworth, Benjamin S.12 81 
Taylor, Samuel Eityeeneca oe 30 | Vealew james Ca .. 2 37 | Wilcoxon, Lloyd.. . 6 87 | Woollen, Levin Vicesseeemeees 7 246 
‘Taylor, Samuel M... -9 28 | Vinton, Almus E. ... 7 232 | Wildman, John F. .. 9 32 | Woollen, Thomas W........ 7 245 
Taylor, Waller....... BEY Fy, Violett, John-H......./.::-.19 9071) XV ikes,<Williamy View. sie 7: Woollen, William W........ 7 243 
Valor «-C. iluaees ese: A 2 Voorhees, Daniel W..... 8 sr | Willard, Ashbel P..........2 39 Woolley, eA OScscnesrnccesses RE WGae 
Teegarden, Abraham...... 13 62 | Voyles, Riek vor haks 3 41 | Willard, Charles F......... 6 89 | Worden, James L...........12 82 
Templer, James N... Swe EE Willard, James B............ 2 38 | Work, William F.... oa-B a aa 
‘Terhune, Thomas ies . 9g 29 | Watpron, Edward H..... 9 30 | Williams, Frederick S..... 9 3 Works, John D...... = 4, 70 
Terry, Oliver Cx. k ie Tossa WalkerjuGeowssscerasceres ee Bale Walltanas,. Elie bh Wee ecsscen A oho Wright, Charles E. + 7 «6276 
Thayer, Henry G... 13 63 | Walker, Jenn Wo kocsontee Ione se Williams, James D. .2 40| Wright, Henry C.. 723. age) 
‘Thompson, Calvin D..... 9 29 | Walker, Lyman. w..cc00Ir 79 Williams, jest | OF 7 247 | Wright, Joseph Ae Sen eer ty 
Thompson, IOP satecoteen 6 83 | Wallace, David.. eae ea Williams, ESSE Al svnnereresnXO. FO.) WYSOMy, J2COD Elvncessaccssces 6 “or 
‘Thompson, John E.......... 13. 65 | Wallace, James... OS Lul) Walliamsye)esse due. .r.ea snes 
Thompson, Richard W... 8 47 Wallace, W. DeWitt........ 9g 31 | Williams, John S..... See eZS OL ARING PJ OMM Acsenecsvetacy 48 
Thompson, Silas L,. hag 7 Walts, John t GAR ek Stee pale TOweEss Williams, Samuel Pex eee 12 77 | Zeller, Jacob A.... 59 
PBCmEsOR, William M.. .6 85 | Ward, Thomas R.. pean ERs. Williams, William Cree. 12 78 Zent, Samuel M..... A 82 
Tilford, Joseph M... 7 229 Ward, William D.. « 4 73) Williams, William F........ 5 48 Zollinger, Charles.,...... hts 82 
Tilford, Salem A..... 5 45 \ 


~ REPRESENTATIVE 


MEN OF INDIANA. 


THE 


FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 


\, RMSTRONG, JOSEPH DAVIS, of Rockport, was 
«born in Meade County, Kentucky, February 27, 

f 1837, and lived on a farm until the twelfth year 
so of his age, when his father removed to Bran- 
denburg. George Armstrong, grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, was a native of New York, his 
parents having emigrated to the colonies at a very early 
day. He was a volunteer soldier during the greater 
part of the Revolutionary War, being a member of one 
of the first New York regiments. His only brother, 
Archibald, was killed at the battle of ‘New Orleans. 
Soon after the treaty of peace, he married Sarah Fair, 
also a native of New York, and about the year 1800 
moved to Kentucky, near Lexington, where he re- 
mained until the year 1810, when, in company with two 
other families, he came to Indiana Territory, and located 
near the present site of Corydon, Harrison County. 
That portion of the territory was then an almost un- 
broken wilderness, there being but few families within 
the present limits of Harrison County. These pioneers 
were compelled to cut their way through the wilderness 
with axes—sometimes having not even an Indian path 
to mark their way—until they arrived where two fami- 
lies who preceded them one year had located. The 
mode of living of this little colony was a novel one, 
their ‘*Conestoga’’ wagons serving as dormitories. 
The Indians had not all disappeared, and the settlers 
lived in constant dread many months. But soon log 
houses were erected, and each family felt that it was in 
a fort sufficient to withstand any attack. Game, con- 
sisting of deer, panthers, turkeys, wolves, and an occa- 
sional bear, was in abundance, and the good housewives 
knew how to broil a steak to advantage. There were 
no mills in that portion of the territory, but every man 


had his *‘ mortar,’ 
INS 


? in which he pounded Indian corn, 


—<eo. 


transported on pack-horses and in wagons from Ken- 
tucky, until it could be utilized for bread. George Arm- 
strong and his wife were devoted members of the 
Presbyterian Church, and lived to a ripe old age. 
They died within two hours of each other, and were 
buried in the same grave, leaving five children, the 
youngest, James Fair, father of the subject of this sketch. 
James F. Armstrong was born in Lexington, Kentucky, 
August 1, 1809, and was about one year old when his 
parents moved to the territory of Indiana. After their 
death, he lived with a sister until near his majority, 
when he learned the trade of a stone-mason, and 
worked on many public works in Kentucky and In- 
diana, among which was the canal around the falls at 
Louisville. In 1833 he was united to Miss Frances 
Brown, a native of Bullitt County, Kentucky, and soon 
after his marriage joined the Baptist Church, of which 
his wife was a member. In 1859 he was licensed by 
his Church to preach; subsequently, he was ordained 
as a minister, and is now living in Harrison County, 
Indiana, farming, and preaching occasionally. Joseph 
Brown, father of Frances Armstrong, was a_ native 
of Virginia, and was among the first to volunteer in 
the War of the Revolution, and served till its end, 
a great portion of the time under the immediate 
command of General Washington. Soon after the 
close of the contest he married Abigail Wells, also 
a native of removed to Kentucky, 
where he opened a large farm in Bullitt County. Ten 
children were born to this couple, and they both lived 
until these were all grown and settled in life. Abigail 
Brown was about seventy years of age when she died; 
her husband survived her, and died in the ninety-ninth 


Virginia, and 


year of his age, having lived to see an unbroken wil- 
derness handsomely improved and densely populated. 


Zz REPRESENTATIVE 


Frances Armstrong was born in Bullitt County, Ken- 
tucky, June 30, 1799; she united with the Baptist 
Church when quite young, and remained a devoted 
member until her death, in March, 1873. She was the 
mother of three children—Sarah Abigail, Joseph Davis, 
and Hannah Permelia, the latter dying at the age of 
two years. This brings us to the history of Joseph D. 
Armstrong. In the spring of 1848 his parents left their 
farm and moved to Brandenburg, in order to educate 
their children. Their own instruction having been of 
the most limited nature, his parents felt that no sacri- 
fice would be too great to bestow its advantages upon 
their children. On account of sickness and other mis- 
fortunes, his father was left in 1852 almost destitute of 
property—his farm gone and his children not educated. 
Under these circumstances the only alternative for young 
Armstrong was to launch out into the world on his own 
responsibility. He first began, with his father, to learn 
the stone-mason’s trade; but after working through the 
summer he decided that it was not a good one, as it 
did not furnish constant employment. He then deter- 
mined to devote his energies to active business; and, 
through the recommendation of his friends, obtained a 
clerkship in the Pickett Tobacco Warehouse, in Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, where he remained from March, 1853, 
until April, 1854, when, becoming tired of city life, he 
returned to Meade County, labored on a farm, working 
for wages, until October, 1855, when he decided to go 
West and ‘*grow up with the country.” Not being 
favorably impressed with Western life and the hard- 
ships incident thereto, he returned to Kentucky, and 
in March, 1856, obtained a position as salesman and 
bookkeeper in a wholesale grocery house in Louisville. 
Here he remained one year, but, again becoming tired 
of city life, he decided upon looking for a situation 
in a country town. His position afforded an excellent 
opportunity for selecting a location, through 
the recommendation of Hon. William Jones, afterward 
colonel of the 53d Regiment Indiana Volunteers, he 
decided to make Indiana his future home; and, in 
April, 1857, he was employed by William Thompson, 
a merchant of Gentryville, Spencer County, where he 
remained until the breaking out of the Rebellion. On 
the 17th of October, 1858, he married Miss Amanda 
Hevron, of Spencer County, Indiana. In August, 1861, 
he enlisted as a private soldier in Company H, 42d In- 
diana Volunteers, and, on the organization of the com- 
pany, was appointed orderly-sergeant. In October, 1862, 
he was honorably discharged, on account of sickness 
contracted in the service. On returning home he found 
business so prostrated that it was impossible to get a 
situation, and the following year he worked on a farm. 
During the winter of 1863-64 he taught the public school 
in Gentryville. In April, 1864, he was elected Justice 
of the Peace for Jackson Township; but resigned his 


and, 


MEN OF INDIANA. [rst Dist. 
commission in June following, having obtained a posi- 
tlon as bookkeeper and salesman in the house of Parker 
& Verhoeff, in Grandview, where he remained until De- 
cember, 1867, at which time he was appointed deputy 
auditor of Spencer County. While living in Grandview 
he met with serious trouble. Wis wife died May 15, 
1865, leaving him three small children, the youngest 
being but six months old. His parents then came to 
live with him, and remained until November, 1867. 
On the 3d of November, 1867, he married Miss Maggie R. 
Allen, a native of New Jersey. Mr. Armstrong served 
as deputy auditor four years, from December, 1867, and 
on retiring engaged in the insurance and general agency 
business, in which he continued about eighteen months. 
In 1871 he was appointed school trustee of the town 
of Rockport, which office he held for two years. In 
1872 he was appointed county school examiner by the 
board of commissioners. In 1873 he was chosen super- 
intendent of the public schools of Spencer County by a 
unanimous vote of the township trustees. During his 
connection with the public schools many changes in 
the law were made by the Legislature, and it was at a 
very important period in the history of Indiana schools 
that he held the responsible positions mentioned. It 
is said by his friends that Mr. Arm$trong was an efh- 
cient officer, and universally popular with teachers and 
patrons. He accomplished much good in organizing 
and systematizing the schools and their workings, In 
1873 Mr. Armstrong was elected councilman of the Fifth 
Ward, in Rockport, and, on the organization of the 
board, was chosen president. Ile was appointed to a 
clerkship in the Indiana Legislature of 1874-75, and 
made a popular clerk, being courteous to the members, 
aiding them in the preparation of their bills and resolu- 
tions. In August, 1875, he was employed as editor of 
the Owensboro (Kentucky) Zxaméner, which position 
he held until December following, when he again re- 
ceived the appointment of deputy auditor. Ie received 
the nomination at the hands of the Democratic party, 
in 1878, for county auditor, and, after a hotly contested 
canvass, was elected by five hundred and seventy-four 
majority, leading the state and district tickets by over 
three hundred votes. When J. D. Armstrong began life 
on his own responsibility his education was very limited, 
he having received less than twu years’ instruction in 
the school-room; but as he advanced in years he felt 
the necessity of an education, and from time to time 
purchased text-books, which he studied after business 
hours and on Sundays, while working on a farm, This 
custom was kept up until he acquired a fair knowledge 
of the rudiments of the lower branches; afterwards 
other books were added to his stock, until he had accu- 
In 1871 he purchased a law library, 
with a view of practicing at the close of his term of 
office. At the January term, 1872, of the Spencer Cir- 


mulated a number. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE | 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINay 


2S 
SSeS 

esse 

Se 


Ses 


1st Dest.} 


cuit Court, he was admitted to the bar as an attorney; 
but, not being able to support his family while working 
up a remunerative practice, he was compelled to engage 
in other business, and finally abandoned the idea of law. 
Politically, J. D. Armstrong is a Democrat, and has been 
since the breaking out of the Rebellion. His father 
was a Whig, and only abandoned the party after it had 
been swallowed up by other organizations. In the cam- 
paign of 1858 Mr. Armstrong was an Anti-Lecompton, 
or Douglas, Democrat, casting his first vote with that 
party. In 1860 he thought it better to elect Abraham 
Lincoln than John C. Breckinridge, and, feeling that 
his interests were with the North, he supported Lincoln. 
But during the debate in Congress over the Crittenden 
Amendment he became discouraged with the course of 
the party and renounced it, and since then has been an 
unswerving Democrat, taking an active part in state 
and national politics. 


—-3906-o— 
a, RMSTRONG, UEL W., president of the ..rm- 
sy strong Furniture Company, Evansville, was born 
in Hamilton County, Ohio, February 23, 1832. 
His father, Cyrus Armstrong, was of Irish de- 
scent, and was born in the state of Ohio. In 1860 
he removed to Evansville, Indiana, where he has been 
Although now past the allotted 


a resident ever since. 
age of man he is well preserved and is vigorous of mind 
as well as body. His popularity has never waned, and 
he is recognized throughout Evansville as a gentleman 
of sterling integrity, one whose private life is upright 
and exemplary, distinguished by many quiet and 
unostentatious acts of charity. His mother, whose 
maiden name was Catharine Ackers, was a native of 
New York, of Welsh descent, and still lives, at the ripe 
old age of seventy. She has been a devoted wife and 
mother, and in all the relations of life she manifests 
a pure Christian spirit and an unwavering adherence 
to the cause and principles which she believes to be 
right. The subject of our sketch attended the com- 
mon schools and. Hibbin Institute at Lawrenceburg, 
Indiana—to which place the family removed in the 
year 1842—receiving a fair education, and graduating 
from the latter institution when he had reached his 
eighteenth year. His first step in life for himself was 
to become a district school-teacher. He walked from 
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, to Burlington, Boone County, 
Kentucky, where he passed an examination and was 
duly installed as instructor of the district school situated 
near that place. Subsequently, he gave up this position 
to accept a more lucrative one at Manchéster, Indiana, 
where he remained one winter. At the age of twenty, 
feeling the need of a commercial training, he took a 
course at Bartlett’s Commercial College, Cincinnati. 
The two subsequent years of his life were spent in the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 3 


office and warerooms of his father, who was carrying 
on a furniture factory at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and 
who was one of the first men to introduce steam power 
At the close of this 
time he felt a longing desire to engage in business for 
himself. Having heard considerable of Evansville, In- 
diana, as being a good point for manufacturing interests, 
he concluded to remove there. He procured a stock of 
furniture from a Cincinnati house to sell on commission, 
and with a few hundred dollars which he borrowed 
of his father he purchased a flat-boat, and in March, 
1854, arrived in Evansville. He rented the old Wash- 
ington House, which stood on the grounds now occu- 
pied by the extensive warerooms of the Armstrong Fur- 
niture Company. This undertaking proved successful 
for four years, and at the expiration of this time he was 
prevailed upon to extend his operations and build a fac- 
tory. This extra outlay and the hard times of 1857 to 
1859 so‘crippled him in business that his property was 
sold at sheriff’s sale to pay off his liabilities. But even 
in this, which seemed his darkest day, he did not lose 
courage or hope, but immediately wrote to his father, 
soon prevailing upon him to come to Evansville and 
open a factory there. The old building, which has been 
remodeled and is now occupied by the Southern Chair 
Works, was rented, and soon a flourishing business was 
built up. In 1872 Mr. Uel W. Armstrong became 
a partner in the firm of C. Armstrong & Company. 
In 1874 the Armstrong Furniture Company was or- 
ganized with Mr. U. W. Armstrong as president; and 
the same year the large factory which they now oc- 
cupy was built, consisting of six stories of brick, sixty 
feet ‘in width and two hundred and fifty feet in 
length. With Mr. Armstrong at the head the busi- 
ness has gradually extended until their factories, ware- 
houses, stables, etc., cover an area of over five acres. 
Their wareroom, situated on Main Street—and other 
warehouses—consists of over one hundred and fifty 
thousand square feet of flooring. It is one of the 
sights of the city. From the small commission busi- 
ness established by the subject of our sketch in Evans- 
ville over a quarter of a century ago, when a young 
man of twenty-two years, has grown this immense 
corporation, doing a business of over three hundred 
thousand dollars per annum. They are also connected 
with the Southern Chair Works, which make a spe- 
cialty of manufacturing chairs. He is also the 
ventor of several furniture specialties which have a 
very extensive sale throughout the United States. As 
may be readily inferred from this brief record, Mr, 
Armstrong is a man whose enterprise no difficulties 
can discourage. With a tenacity of purpose as rare 
as it is admirable, he seems to possess the pecul- 
iar faculty of molding circumstances to suit his 
ends, rather than being molded by them. Truly self- 


to propel furniture machinery. 


in- 


4 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


made, in every sense of the term, he depréciates his 
own abilities, and is unassuming in his demeanor, as 
well as persevering in a course which he decides to be 
right. Personally superintending every detail of this 
extensive manufactory, he has never found time to take 
an active part in politics. In presidential campaigns he 
supports the Republican party, while in municipal affairs 
he is independent, casting his vote for the man he con- 
siders best fitted for the office. This brief but imper- 
fect outline of the leading traits of Mr. Armstrong’s 
character and.business career is given because the world 
claims a certain property in the lives of all its people, 
and biography is the lamp of experience to guide and 
encourage others in the paths of success. Mr. Arm- 
strong was married, in March, 1856, to Miss Sarah Du 
Bois, daughter of Peter Du Bois, Esq., who for many 
years was prominently connected with the New York 
City Gas Works, having entered the office of that cor- 
poration when a boy. Five children were born to them, 


four of whom survive. 


—<-40%-o— 


cessful business men of Evansville, 


€((;) ABCOCK, ELISHA S., one of the early and suc- 
la was born 
Eze August 10, 1814, in Utica, New York. He was 

the son of Oliver and Ann Babcock, the latter’s 
maiden name being Heartt. His father was a native of 
Rhode Island, and was descended from three brothers 
who came from England at a very early day and settled 
in that state. From these three brothers have sprung 
all who bear the name of Babcock in America. His 
father was a wagon manufacturer up to the year 1822, 
at which time he moved to Troy, New York, and em- 
barked in the hotel business and carrying on a stage 
line, which engaged his attention up to the time of his 
death, which occurred in 1828. When his son had 
reached his fourteenth year Mrs. Babcock continued to 
carry on the hotel, and the stage line being offered for 
sale, at her solicitation he concluded to buy it at its 
appraisement value. 


This was undertaking a great re- 
sponsibility for a lad of fourteen, but at this time he 
manifested the energy and pluck that have characterized 
him through life, and was found equal to the position. 
He continued to manage the stage line for eight years, 
when he was offered a position as bookkeeper and sales- 
man in a wholesale grocery establishment kept by his 
brother-in-law in New York City. He put the pro- 
ceeds of his sale out on interest and took up his abode 
in that place. Two years after he concluded to try his 
fortune in the West. He gave notice of his intention 
to his employer, who furnished him with a number of 
accounts for collection in Northern Ohio and Indiana, 
thus affording him an opportunity of seeing the country 
and choosing a desirable place for locating. Among 


[ 2st Dist. 


the places he visited was Evansville, and, being pleased 
with its situation and advantages, he decided to make it 
He returned to New York, bought a 
stock of goods, and shipped them by way of New Or- 
leans to his new home. 
thirty days, he arrived there on the 15th of November, 
1838. He carried on the grocery business alone for a 
number of years, but subsequently took his two brothers 
into partnership, extending his premises and embracing 
the hardware and queensware trade. After the lapse of 
anumber of years this connection was dissolved, each 
brother taking a branch. Elisha S. Babcock continued 
the grocery business up to the year 1858, when he re- 
tired from active commercial pursuits. Shortly after the 
breaking out of the Rebellion he entered the quarter- 
master’s department, and was thus employed until the 
close of the war. He then directed his attention to fur- 
nishing building materials to contractors and builders, 
etc., and in 1872 embarked in the grain, produce, and 
commission trade, taking his son Oliver into partnership. 
This firm, known as E. S. Babcock & Son, is one’ of 
the largest concerns of its kind in Evansville, and has 
a wide-spread reputation for its promptness, its straight- 
forward manner of doing business, its practical experi- 
ence, and its remarkable success. In his public rela- 
tions Mr. Babcock is recognized as possessing a strong 
sense of truth and justice, and as endeavoring to shape 
his life in accordance with these principles. He is a 
member of Grace Presbyterian Church, of Evansville, 
and in it has held the office of deacon for a num- 
ber of years. In all his relations he discharges his du- 
ties with energy and fidelity, and 1s a man of acknowl- 
edged acquirements and irreproachable character. In 
politics he was first an old-line Whig, and cast his 
maiden vote for Henry Clay. When the Republican 
party came into power he joined their ranks, and has 
ever since been an active and influential member of that 
body. He is sixty-six years old, enjoying perfect health, 
and is still fit for a long period of usefulness. He was 
married, May 28, 1844, to Miss Agnes Sutherland Da- 
vidson, a lady of Scotch parentage. Eight children 
were born to them, four sons surviving. 


his future home. 


After a tedious journey of 


NG oe 


G ARKER, WILLIAM L., a practitioner of medi- 
; cine in Boonville, and a man widely known 


i 


‘f, throughout this portion of the state, was born in 


G Charleston, South Carolina, in 1818. His father 
moved to Vanderburg County in 1832, and became a 
farmer, but was more generally known on account of his 
services as a public man. 
sioner of Vanderburg County for several years, and was 
a good Methodist, being strong in the faith until the day 


He was county commis- 


ist Dist.| 


of his death, which occurred in the year 1837, when he 
was about sixty-one years old. Both grand-parents were 
Revolutionary soldiers, while his own father was in the 
War of 1812, and he himself was surgeon of the 120th 
Indiana Volunteers, being mustered into the service in 
Indianapolis. At Atlanta, Georgia, his horse fell, caus- 
ing a rupture, on account of which he was compelled 
to resign, returning home and being confined to his bed 
for about four months. In 1847 Doctor Barker was 
married to Miss Mary Williams, of Pennsylvania, and 
from this union had four children. Two now are dead. 
The only son is connected with the bank in Boonville, 
and an only daughter, Katie, was married to John Tay- 
lor, a lawyer in Boonville—at the time of her union a 
member of the state Legislature. Doctor Barker has 
been a strong man in the ranks of the Republican party. 
This section of the country has always been largely 
Democratic, and, in consequence, the Doctor has been 
two or three times defeated; but he has stumped the 
whole of Southern Indiana, and his efforts have, in late 
years, been instrumental in changing the political com- 
plexion of his district. He always ran ahead of his 
party two or three hundred votes. The Republicans are 
largely indebted to the Doctor for the growth of their 
doctrines, probably as much as to any one man. His 
party has stood by him and pressed him into service at 
two different times for the state Legislature and once 
for state Senator, in the hope that so good a candidate 
might overcome the odds against their organization. 
Doctor Barker aspires but little after political favors, 
and for the last thirty-three years has devoted his ener- 
gies to his profession, in which he has been very success- 
ful, building up for himself a large practice. He is a 
man of more than ordinary ability, and has, in conse- 
quence, made an indelible mark in the history of his 
state. He is now sixty years of age, but possesses vigor 
in body and mind. He is not only regarded very highly 
as a citizen, but stands high as a Mason, being Master 
of the Masonic lodge in Boonville. He is also a mem- 
ber in excellent repute in the Odd-fellows and in the 
Knights of Pythias. Prominent men in Boonville are 
warm in their praises of the Doctor’s noble-hearted and 
patriotic spirit shown during the late Civil War. They 
say no soldier’s wife, nor family, nor poor man, suffered 
for want of food, or clothing, or medicine when in his 
power to relieve them. 
the war. 


In this way he did much for 
He was a friend to the destitute, and sym- 
He 
always carried a warm feeling for every one, and was 
found foremost among those who were trying to do good. 
His political opponents, who beat him on two occasions, 
admire him as a Christian man, as a truthful, honest, 
and upright citizen, and as a speaker of no indifferent 
ability. When he first came to this congressional dis- 
trict there were but few others of his party, but he took 


pathizes with them in their adverse circumstances, 


i 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. _ .- 5 


a stand which was admired by his opponents even, and 
not only won for himself laurels, but for his party hun- 
dreds of votes. 

ee 


in Hamilton, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Feb- 
Co f, ruary 11,1813. His father, Conrad Baker, an enter- 
GX prising and public-spirited farmer, died when he 
was about five years old. His early education was ob- 
tained while attending a log school-house for a few 
years only. In his thirteenth year he went to Chambers- 
burg, Pennsylvania, where he became clerk in the store 
of George Eyster, and served with him three years. 
Feeling the necessity of a better education, he attended 
a Latin school at Chambersburg for six months. He 
subsequently went to the village of Bridgeport, in his 
native county, where he was employed as clerk in the 
store of Martin Hoover. He remained there about 
three years, during which time he formed the acquaint- 
ance of Miss Nancy Beam, whom he married in 1833, 
a few months before he was twenty-one years of age. 
While a clerk at Bridgeport he improved his leisure time 
by studying surveying and civil engineering, with Major 
James McDowell as his instructor, and succeeded in be- 
coming a good, practical surveyor. In 1834 he removed 
to the old homestead and cultivated the farm, teaching 
the neighboring school during the following winter. In 
the fall of 1835 he sold his land and opened a general 
store at St. Thomas, in the same county. In 1837 he 
moved to the village of Loudon, in the same county, and, 


in company with Daniel Mowrer, his brother-in-law, con- 
ducted a woolen mill and store for about four years. 
He then formed a partnership with John Beaver, in the 
manufacturing of iron, and managed a furnace and forge 
for nearly two years. During this time he established 
the Loudon Fund Association, and was its treasurer un- 
In 1839, while actively 
engaged in business, Mr. Baker devoted his spare time 
to the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1842, 
and soon acquired a large and lucrative practice. In 
1847 he was elected to represent his native county in the 
Lower House of the Pennsylvania Legislature, of which 
he was a member for three successive years, becoming 
one of the leading and most influential Representatives. 
He practiced Jaw at Loudon until 1853, when he re- 
moved to Evansville, Indiana, where his brother Conrad 
Soon after his arrival 


til his removal to Evansville. 


had taken his residence in 1841. 
he was chiefly instrumental in organizing the Crescent 
City Bank, of which he was elected cashier. 
portion of the stock was taken by his old neighbors in 


A large 


Pennsylvania, with the assurance that he was to be its 
cashier. Owing to the defective free-banking system, 
the business of the bank was closed in 1858 or 1859, but 
the affairs were settled without loss to the stockholders. 


6 


In April, 1859, William Baker was elected mayor of 
Evansville for a term of three years, and held the office 
for three consecutive terms. In 1868 he was defeated for 
the same office by the late Hon. William H. Walker, 
who, however, died in office, and Mr. Baker was elected 
the following November to fill the vacancy. In 1871 he 
was again chosen by a large majority to a full term of 
three years, showing that his fidelity to the city’s inter- 
ests and his own business capacity were appreciated by 
his fellow-citizens. His official career was terminated 
by his death, which occurred May 23, 1872. 


+ g02-— 


National Bank, Evansville, was born in Vincennes, 
Knox County, Indiana. He was the son of John 
F. Bayard, a native of France, who came to Indiana 
at a very early day and settled in Vincennes, where he 
afterwards married Mary Ann Boneau, a lady of French 
descent. The subject of this sketch attended the schools 
of his native place, and, being an apt scholar and a good 
penman, he was qualified to accept the position of deputy 
clerk of the Circuit and Probate Courts of Knox County, 
which was tendered to him. This place he filled with 
distinction for the space of three years, when he relin- 
quished it to accept a clerkship in the State Bank of 
Indiana, located at Evansville. It was not long before 
his genius for banking began to manifest itself, and the 
traits of business courtesy, punctuality, and strict integ- 
rity, so well recognized in the mature man, were out- 
lined from his first entrance upon his chosen life. In 
November, 1851, just two months after his previous ap- 
pointment, he was promoted to the position of teller. 
He performed the duties of this responsible position un- 
til the final close of the bank, in 1858. In 1857, upon 
the organization of the branch at Evansville of the Bank 
of the State of Indiana, he was appointed its cashier, a 
position he occupied until the close of the bank, in 1865. 
This corporation was immediately succeeded by the 
Evansville National Bank, and Mr. Bayard’s services 
were found indispensable to the success of the new en- 
terprise, and at its organization he was appointed its 
cashier. Two years later he was elected vice-president, 
but virtually filled the position of president until he was 
elected to that position, in 1876. This is one of the 


largest banking institutions in the state, having a capital | 
and surplus of over one million dollars, which is largely | 
In the | 


due to the financial acumen of Mr. Bayard. 
early part of the year 1873 he aided in organizing the 


German National Bank of Evansville, of which he is at | 


present a director and one of the largest stockholders. 


In June, 1870, Mr. Bayard was elected a director of the-| 


Evansville, Carmi and Paducah Railroad Company, which 
corporation was subsequently consolidated with the St. 


Gi AYARD, SAMUEL, president of the Evansville | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zs¢ Dest. 


Louis and South-eastern Railway, and is now known as 
the St. Louis and Nashville division of the St. Louis, 
Evansville and Nashville Railway consolidated. He 
was, during the existence of the St. Louis and South- 
eastern Railway Company, appointed by the board of 
directors a member of the executive committee, to whom 
was confided the management of the general business of 
the company. He is also a director of the Evansville 
and Terre Haute Railroad, and is one of six who hold a 
controlling interest. Mr. Bayard has always taken a 
lively interest in the prosperity and growth of the 
city of Evansville. He was one of the most influential 
citizens in establishing the Evansville Library Associa- 
tion, having subscribed liberally towards its fund. He 
was elected its first treasurer, did a great deal of work 
in its behalf, and subsequently became its president. 
In all corporations with which Mr. Bayard is connected 
he is an influential member, and his judgment is of 
great weight with his colleagues in all monetary affairs. 
Exceedingly careful and even conservative in arriving 
at conclusions, he is modest but manly in maintaining 
them, and is more of a practical than a showy man—a 
man of deeds rather than words. He has never stepped 
aside from his chosen field of labor to mingle much in 
political circles, although adhering to the fundamental 
principles of the Republican party. In his religious af- 
filiation he attends the Presbyterian Church, of which 
denomination his wife isa member. In personal appear- 
ance Mr. Bayard is above the average height, of strong 
physique, sharply cut features, with a decidedly intel- 
lectual cast of countenance. His life forcibly illustrates 
what can be accomplished by concentration of purpose, 
together with indomitable perseverance and pluck. No 
one can read this short biographical sketch without 
gaining additional respect for the man, and being stimu- 
lated to greater action. He still lives, in the prime of 
life, with the prospect of many years of usefulness and 
the consciousness of a well-spent life. His character is 
marked by integrity, geniality, and true benevolence. 
He is a fine representative of the self-made men of the 
day. He married, March 6, 1867, Miss Mattie J. Orr, 
daughter of Samuel Orr, Esq., a prominent and influen- 
tial citizen of Evansville. (See sketch elsewhere in this 


volume.) 
| 


—< ote — 


))EMENT, CHARLES R., president of the Mer- 
chants’ National Bank, of Evansville, Indiana, was 
C*f,, born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, March 
ees 4, 1829. He received his education in a private 
academy at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and at the age 
of eighteen years started for the West, arriving at 
Evansville in the year 1847. There he began his mer- 
cantile career as a clerk in the store of Bement & Viele, 
the senior partner being his older brother. The firm 


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LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINQI< 


rst Dist.] REPRESENTATIVE 
having a branch store at Bowling Green, Mr. Bement 
was sent there to take charge. After remaining two 

years, he returned to Evansville, and was admitted as a 

partner in the above-mentioned firm, with which he 

continued until its dissolution, in 1867. In 1865 Mr. 

Bement organized the Merchants’ National Bank, of 
Evansville, of which he was chosen the president, and 

with the exception of two years has ever since occu- 

pied that office. In consequence of impaired health, 

he was obliged to leave Evansville, and resided for four 

years at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Mr. Bement was one 

of the originators of the Evansville Street Railway, and 

has ever since been one of its directors; is a member of 
the board of directors of the Evansville and Terre Haute 

Railroad Company, and is one of the directors of the 

Evansville Cotton Manufacturing Company. While re- | 
siding in Connecticut he was president of the Wood 

Distilling Company, of Bridgeport. Mr. Bement has 

been one of Evansville’s most prosperous business men ; 

he has devoted himself entirely to his business, and in 

every enterprise in which he has been engaged he has 

been successful. He is regarded as one of the many 

public-spirited and enterprising citizens of Evansville, 

and is foremost in every project for advancing the mate- 

rial interests of that city. While he takes but little 

part in political matters, his sympathies are with the 

Republican party. 

$00 


“Aice) LACK, MILTON, of Mount Vernon, Indiana, was 
f} born about a mile from the present city, January 
Ch 2, 1809, when Indiana was still one of the western 
‘54 territories, and contained scarcely as many white 
inhabitants as does now any one of its most sparsely set- 
tled counties. Hisfather, James Black, a native of North 
Carolina, removed to Indiana about the year 1806, and 
lived for several years where he first settled—about a 
mile from Mount Vernon—where he carried on a small 
grist-mill by horse power. Some eight or ten years 
later he removed several miles north and built a mill on 
Big Creek, about midway between Mount Vernon and 
New Harmony, which he ran by water power. As his 
was the pioneer mill in that section, people came from a 
distance of many miles, through an almost unbroken wil- 
derness, with their wheat and corn to be ground into 
flour and meal. James Black continued in the mill busi- 
ness until his death, which occurred in 1838. The° 
father of James Black and his family accompanied him 
from North Carolina to Indiana, as did also his wife’s 
family. Three of James Black’s brothers and two of 
his wife’s brothers participated in the battle of Tippe- 
canoe, and one of his brothers, John Black, uncle of 
Milton: Black, was killed. Milton, having been reared 
on the frontier, when the territory was too thinly settled 


to give much support to the country schoolmaster, re- 


MEN OF INDIANA. 7 


ceived but limited school advantages, but, by the study 
and reading of such books as he could get possession of, 
acquired as he grew to manhood a fair education. He 
conducted the milling business and also farming for a 
number of years, and in 1849, when the California gold 
fever was at its height, he started on an overland trip 
for that section. The party with whom he traveled 
numbered about one hundred and thirty, and occupied 
about four months on the trip. Upon arriving in Cali- 
fornia he went into the gold diggings, worked there for 
little more than a year with good success, then returned 
home, by steamer, by the way of Panama. After his 
return he was engaged principally in cultivating his 
farm; of late years, however, he has leased it, and now 
lives in retirement. He was county commissioner for 
several years, and has been a trustee for a number of 
years in the township of Black, which received its name 
from his family. 
in the First National Bank of Mount Vernon, Indiana. 
In politics he has been a Whig and Republican. He 
was married, in 1842, to Miss Mary J. Jones, who died 
in 1859; three daughters, now living, were born of this 
union. 


He is now a stockholder and director 


—~-40t-— 


Sara JOHN M., superintendent of the Evans- 
ville public schools, was born in Washington 
County, Indiana, on the 21st of January, 1839. 
His father was a tanner, and John’s time was 
mostly spent when a boy in assisting in the work. A 
few months in each year he was permitted to attend 
school, but his early educational advantages seem to 
have been limited. With indomitable energy, however, 
he made his way, and at the age-of sixteen we find 
him teaching, which was the beginning of the grand 
work of his life. In the year 1854 he entered upon a 
college course, and six years of his time were spent at 
Hanover, teaching his way when necessary to defray 
expenses. During the last two years he was tutor 
in mathematics. He graduated in 1860 in a class of 
twelve, taking the degree of A. B., and at once entered 
upon the regular work of his life, as principal of the 
public schools in Livonia, Indiana. This position he 
held until the country made a call for soldiers in 1861, 
when he resigned, raised a company of volunteers, and 
started for the seat of disturbances. At Indianapolis, 
much to his chagrin, Captain Bloss was sent home, the 


Governor stating that sixty-five companies had reported 
for duty over and above the number needed. Captain 
Bloss again took charge of the public schools in Livo- 
nia. In the following summer he again went into serv- 
ice, but this time only as a private in the 27th Regiment 
Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company F. He was sworn 
in on the 9th of August, 1861, and went directly to the 


Potomac, and was placed in McClellan’s army. He took 


8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


part in the battles of Ball’s, Bluffs, Winchester, Bull 
Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and others. 
After the battle of Antietam he was made first lieuten- 
ant of his company, and six months later was placed in 
command of the First Division, Twelfth Army Pioneer 
Corps. After this he became for a time inspector on 
General Ruger’s staff. In 1864 he took charge of the 
company and went west under Ilooker, taking part in 
While in 
the service he was wounded four times—once at each 


the engagements at Resaca and at Atlanta. 


of the engagements at Antietam, Winchester, Chan- 
cellorsville, and Resaca—the last time so seriously 
that he was compelled to resign and return home. 
One of the noted events in Captain Bloss’s career during 
the war was the finding of the ‘‘lost order,” which, as 
McClellan states in his ‘*Report of the Organization 
and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,” fully dis- 
closed General Lee’s plans in his Maryland raid. This 
dispatch was found under a locust tree in front of Fred- 
erick City, Maryland, in an envelope, which. also con- 
tained two cigars. It was written on the 12th and 
found on the 13th, and gave the relative position of all 
Lee’s forces, and his plan of the Maryland campaign, 
and directed his corps to meet him at Boonsborough on 
the 18th. General Lee had designed not only to hold 
‘‘heroic Maryland,” but to plant the war in the ‘wheat 
fields” of Pennsylvania. The entire plan was drawn out 
in detail, and a copy given to each of his corps com- 
manders. One of the latter, D. H. Hill, a man of 
coarse and brutal eccentricities, had, in a fit of displeas- 
ure at the place assigned him, thrown the paper to the 
ground. Pollard, a Southern writer, in a summing up of 
this event, states that the wives of D. H. Hill and 
Stonewall Jackson are sisters, and it was generally be- 
lieved that Mrs. Hill had long urged her husband to do 
something whereby some portion of Jackson’s lustrous 
fame might be acquired and accrue to him. Be this as 
it may, Captain Bloss came into possession of this dis- 
patch, and at once forwarded it to General McClellan, 
who by these means became aware that D. H. Hill 
alone was in his front, and that Jackson was at Harper’s 
Ferry. He accordingly pushed on to South Mountain, 
whipped Hill, and drove him across Antietam, and 
then, unfortunately, instead of pushing forward, he 
waited two days for Lee to collect his forces, as the 
order showed that he would do. This order was used 
as one of the evidences against General McClellan dur- 
ing his investigation by Congress, and was probably the 
cause of his being removed from the command of the 
Potomac, while D. H. Hill was severely denounced 
throughout the South. After the war Captain Bloss 
took one course of lectures in the Ohio Medical Col- 
lege, at Cincinnati, and then practiced his profession for 
a while in New Philadelphia, Indiana. In 1865 he mar- 
ried Miss McPheeters, daughter of Colonel McPheeters, 


[7st Dest. 


of Livonia, Indiana, since which time he has been en- 
gaged in teaching, filling, during the interval, some 
yery important positions, and has been prominently be- 
fore the public in educational work. At Orleans, Indi- 
ana, he had charge of the academy for four years, and, 
in connection with this work, was county superintendent 
for three years. He was at New Albany, Indiana, as 
principal of the female high school, from 1870 to 1875, 
and graduated eighty-five of his pupils. He resigned 
his position to answer a call to Evansville, where he has 
been for the last four years. In 1874 he was put in 
nomination by the Republicans as their candidate for 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, but was de- 
feated, in common with all Republican candidates of 
that year. Mr. Bloss has been an active member in 
county institutes, has been president of the State Teach- 
ers’ Association, and is at this time secretary of the 
State Board of Education. _As an educator, Mr. Bloss’s 
record is a good one. His Board of Education regard 
him very highly, and compliment him on the thorough- 
ness of his work in the public schools of Evansville. 


Casco: RATLIFFE, of Boonville, ex-Governor 
‘W:)) of the state of Indiana, and for sixteen years 
Ch Congressman for the First Congressional District 
Cy of Indiana, was born in Georgia about the year 
1780, and was a cousin to the great pioneer, Daniel 
Boone, of Kentucky. When very young, his parents 
moved to Warren County, Kentucky, and at Danville, 
in that state, he learned the gunsmith’s trade. In 1814 
he came to Indiana, and settled about two miles from 
the town which was named in honor of him. He mar- 
ried a Miss Deliah Anderson, of Kentucky, whose fa- 
ther came to Indiana at an early day. Colonel Boone, 
as he was then called, was twice elected Lieutenant- 
governor, and during the last term in this office filled 
an unexpired term as the chief executive of the state. 
He was elected to Congress eight different times, and 
served, in all, sixteen consecutive years. In 1839 he 
removed to Pike County, Missouri, and was beaten by 
Thomas H. Benton in caucus as a candidate for the 
United States Senate. In 1846, a few hours after he 
heard Polk was elected, he died. He desired to live to 
see this election, and had his wish gratified, and that, 
too, in a way which greatly pleased him. He had in 
all, by his wife, ten children, five boys and five girls. 
His sons died young; only one lived to be over twenty- 
three. All of his children are now dead except Mi- 
nerva, who lives in Pike County, Missouri. 
customary for Colonel Boone always to return home in 
the spring, and lay out the corn-rows for his sons, and 
then go back to Congress. He was a member for a 
while of the Presbyterian Church. 


It was 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILEINGI 


0 


a5te 


rst Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 


rf ) LOUNT, HENRY F., of Evansville, plow manu- 
), facturer, was born in Richmond, Ontario County, 
Cz New York, May 1, 1829, and is the son of Walter 
racy Blount, a woolen manufacturer, and a native of 
Connecticut. His ancestors, some three generations 
back, emigated to this country from Lancashire, Eng. 
land. Mr. Blount’s early education was such as could 
be gained at the ordinary common schools. At the age 
of twenty years, having served an apprenticeship in a 
mercantile house, he came West, and obtained a clerk- 
ship in the store of G. W. Langworthy, at Worthing- 
ton, Indiana. Some three years afterwards he became 
“a partner in the business, and remained in that connec- 
tion over eight years, the business proving quite suc- 
cessful. In 1860 he removed to Evansville. and assumed 
the financial management of the Eagle Foundry, pur- 
chasing a one-third interest in the business. This he 
managed with success for some eight years, when he 
sold out his and purchased the entire plow- 
works, which were then connected with the foundry. 
He has since continued the manufacture of Blount’s 
steel-point plows, which has assumed large proportions, 
the plows being sold in all parts of the South and 
South-west. Mr. Blount is a director in the Evansville 
National Bank, and is president of the board of trustees 
of the Willard Library Association. 


interest, 


—-00-— 


)RINKMAN, HENRY, manufacturer, of Mt. Ver- 
non, was born in the duchy of Lippe-Detmold, 
now a part of Prussia, June 16, 1825. Up to the 
age of fourteen years he attended school, obtain, 

ing a fair education, and then worked for six years in a 

He then acquired the 


brick-yard, learning the business. 
trade of wagon-making, at which he was employed for 
about five years. In 1850 he emigrated to America, 
and upon landing went directly to Evansville, Indiana, 
where he remained for two months, when he went to 
Mt. Vernon, being obliged to walk the whole distance, 
as he had no money to pay his fare. He obtained steady 
employment at wagon-making, and at the end of a year 
went into partnership with his employer, Gottlieb 
Koerner, in their manufacture. This connection lasted 
only about two years, when he again worked as a jour- 
neyman, for some seven or eight years. In 1861 he 
opened a small shop for himself and began the manu- 
facture of the Brinkman Wagon, having but a single 
apprentice as workman, “besides himself. He found a 
ready sale for his products, and as they gave excellent 
satisfaction, his trade increased so that he was soon 
obliged to enlarge his facilities. Gradually his business 
improved, and he now employs from twelve to fifteen 
hands during the entire year in the making of wagons 
and buggies, which have acquired a high reputation for 


MEN OF INDIANA. 9 
their excellence and durability. He has recently begun 
the manufacture of a new style of plow, invented by him- 
self, called the Posey Clipper, and is also engaged in 
the making of drain-tile, which gives employment to 
In 1869 he established a brick-yard, and was 
largely engaged as a brick manufacturer up to the year 
1875, In 1877 he formed a partnership with William 
Burtis, and opened a depot for the sale of agricultural 
implements of all kinds at Mt. In this line 
the firm transact a business of from fifteen to twenty 


six men. 


Vernon. 


thousand dollars per year. 
was president of the Manufacturers’ Aid Society, of Mt. 
a director. In 1869 he was 
elected a member of the city council, holding this office 
for two years, and was elected to the same office for the 
same length of time in 1879. He has been a Republi- 
can since the first election of Abraham Lincoln. He 
was married in 1852, at Mt. Vernon, to Miss Margaret 
Hahn. They have ten 
daughters, all now living. Mr. Brinkman is emphat- 
ically a self-made man. Having begun life with no 
capital but his hands and brains, he has built up by 


For five years Mr. Brinkman 


Vernon, of which he is still 


children, five sons and five 


industry and energy a large and thriving manufacturing 
establishment, and has by his upright and honorable 
dealings won the respect and esteem of the community 
in which he resides. 


+3026 
ek 
. RYAN, DOCTOR ANTHONY H., M. D., of 
,)) Evansville, was born in Monticello, Wayne 
Ge County, Kentucky, on the 22d of August, 1832. 


Ilis father, Edmund Bryan, was born February 
19, 1796, and died August 4, 1863. He practiced medi- 
cine forty years of his life. After he had been thus en- 
gaged for some time, he entered the Ohio Medical Col- 
Ohio, from which he graduated in 
Jie: 
Pierce, his wife’s only brother, studied medicine under 
him, and graduated in the same class with him. Doc- 
tor Edmund Bryan, besides being a general practitioner, 
was skilled in the art of surgery, and often rode on 
horseback seventy-five and eighty miles to attend a pa- 
During the latter part of his career, while con- 


lege, Cincinnati, 
1836, just four yea.s after Anthony was born. 


tient. 
tinuing his practice, he engaged in commercial pursuits, 
but, leaving his business wholly in the hands of other 
parties, his trust was betrayed, and he suffered great 
loss. After his death his widow, Mrs. Lettice Bryan, a 
woman of remarkable strength and ability and superior 
educational advantages, taught school for a time. She 
was born February 23, 1805, within one mile of Dan- 
ville, Kentucky, and was closely related to the most 
aristocratic and leading. men of the state of Kentucky. 
Her mind was fertile, and richly and variously stored. 
She is the authoress of several works, one, ‘* The Ken- 


tucky Housewife,” published by Shepherd & Co., Cin- 


ie) 


cinnati, Ohio, about forty years ago, has become exten- 
sively known. Another, a. work on ‘ Baptism,” a 
translation from the Greek and Hebrew, consisting of 
some four hundred pages, together with a book entitled 
«Silence in Heaven,” is yet in manuscript form. Ef- 
forts will probably be made to issue these publications 
some time in the future. Such were the flattering sur- 
roundings of Doctor Anthony Bryan’s home in his 
younger days. He attended the common schools until 
fourteen years of age. Ile then received tuition at the 
Floydsburg Academy, under Doctor James Knapp, now 
of Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from the Medi- 
cal Department of the University of Louisville in the 
winter of 1856 and 1857. He had now studied medi- 
cine in all eight years. In 1857 he went into partner- 
ship with Doctor B. S. Shelburn, of Shelby County, 
Kentucky, and continued with him one year. He then 
spent one year in Westport, Kentucky, but in 1859 he 
moved to McLean County, Kentucky, seventeen miles 
back of Owensboro, where he practiced his profession 
until May, 1876, a period of seventeen years. During 
all the time of the late war he did a large and labori- 
ous work. He was a Union man and was anxious to 
enter the service, but his time and skill could not easily 
be spared from his practice at home. In 1876 he was 
induced, for the sake of his family, then growing up, to 
seek a locality where his labors would not be so irk- 
some, and at the same time secure educational facilities 
and other advantages for his thildren. He accordingly 
moved to Evansville, where he has been practicing his 
profession ever since. He has held the office of county 
physician, with marked ability, since March, 1878. He 
accepted a professorship of general pathology in the 
Evansville Medical College for the session of 1876 and 
1877, and he had charge of the charity department of 
St. Mary’s Hospital for one quarter. Doctor Bryan’s 
father, five of his paternal uncles, his only maternal 
uncle, and two of his brothers, were doctors. One 
brother was a surgeon in the army, the other, the eldest, 
graduated in Europe, and while he was gone Doctor 
Bryan was married, April 21, 1857, to his wife’s sister, 
Miss Irene Josephine Thomas, daughter of Middleton 
Thomas, of Kentucky, a large planter in that state. 
They have had seven children, six of whom are still 
living. The eldest son, Stanton L., is now studying 
medicine. Doctor Bryan has been a frequent contribu- 
tor to the various medical journals in the country, and 
his articles are noted: for singular clearness. One of these 
papers (Richmond, Louisville A/ledical Journal, Vol. 
VIII, No. 9, page 544), treating of the ‘‘ Ovarian Ori- 
gin of Sexuality,” is considered an able article. The 
Doctor was one of the founders of the Green River 
Medical Association, Owensboro, Kentucky. This was 
finally blended with one and named McDowell Medical 
Society, after the name of the man who first extracted an 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zst Dest. 


ovarian tumor, and thereby founded ovariotomy. Doc- 
tor Bryan has been for the past thirty years a member, 
in good standing, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He takes a lively interest in all matters of public im- 
portance, and is one who strictly and conscientiously 
attends to the duties of his profession. 


—<-400@-o— 


Pitan COLONEL JACOB &., of Evans- 
: ville, Indiana, attorney and counselor at law, was 
‘born in Jefferson County, Indiana, in February, 
6g 1822. His paternal grandfather was a native of- 
the north of Ireland and of Scotch descent; his mater- 
nal grandfather was a German. His father, a native 
of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, was reared in 
Lexington, Kentucky, and about the year 1800 settled 
on the Ohio River about twenty miles above Madison, 
Indiana. Some two or three years afterward, with three 
of his brothers, he went into Jefferson County, Indiana, 
where they built a block-house and stockade as a defense 
against Indian attacks, and became pioneer farmers. 
Jacob S. Buchanan was reared on a farm near Vevay, 
Switzerland County, Indiana, to which his father had 
removed with his family when he was a child. His 
early education was received at the common country 
school during the winter months, and was supplemented 
by a year’s study with a private tutor after he was 
twenty-one years old. He had begun to read law at 
the age of eighteen years, more because he was fond 
of doing so than with a view of taking it up as a pro- 
fession, and he continued this until he was admitted to 
practice, in 1849. In the following year he opened a 
law office at Versailles, Indiana, and succeeded in ob- 
taining a good practice in the two years of his stay 
there. He then removed to Charlestown, Clarke County, 
Indiana, where he soon acquired a good practice, which 
he retained until the breaking out of the Civil War. 
He then abandoned his profession and went to his old 
home at Vevay, where he raised a company of cavalry, 
and entered the United States Cavalry. With six com- 
panies of this regiment he went to Washington, where, 
with four other companies, they became the 3d Indiana 
Cavalry, a regiment second to none ever raised. Every 
man in the six companies first raised furnished his own 
horse. Captain Buchanan was promoted to the lieu- 
tenant-colonelcy of this force, and had command of it 
during most of his military service. The regiment re- 
mained in Washington until» November, 1861, when 
it went down to the mouth of the Patuxent River, 
It then 
went into Virginia, and guarded the railroads and 
patrolled the country from Manassas to Thorough- 
fare Gap. In July and part of August the regiment 
was on scouting duty at and about Fredericksburg. 


Maryland, and remained there until May. 


rst Dist.] 


It left there when General Burnside evacuated that place, 
and went with him to Washington. Stopping here only 
one day, they started through Maryland, and had their 
first engagement with the enemy at Poolesville, in that 
state. The regiment lost seventeen, killed and wounded, 
and captured thirty rebel prisoners. From this time 
the regiment, attached tc General Farnsworth’s brigade, 
fought the enemy every day until the battle of South 
Mountain, in which it also participated. From there it 
crossed over the mountain, followed the retreating enemy, 
came up with them at Antietam, where they did scout- 
ing duty for two days, then crossed the middle bridge 
in advance of the infantry, under a very heavy artillery 
fire, and were actively engaged the rest of the day in 
supporting batteries. Some two weeks after this the 
regiment, as a part of General Pleasanton’s cavalry 
brigade, which went in pursuit of the rebel General 
Stuart—who had flanked and actually gone around the 
army of General McClellan—traveled a distance of 
eighty-six miles in twenty-three hours. Colonel Buchanan 
was then taken sick for the third time since he had 
been in the service, and by the advice of his physician 
resigned his office, and returned home to his family at 
Vevay. After his partial recovery he removed to Greens- 
burg, Decatur County, Indiana, but was unable, on ac- 
count of continued ill-health, to remain there, and in 
about a year, by the advice of his physician, removed 
to Arkansas. Here for two years and a half he man- 
aged a plantation, recuperated his health, and in 1866 
removed to Evansville, Indiana, where he again com- 
menced the practice of law. Within a year he suc- 
ceeded in getting a good start and has gradually acquired 
a large practice. He is now the senior member of the 
law firm of Buchanan, Gooding & Buchanan, of Evans- 
ville, and is regarded as one of the most successful law- 
yers in that city. He has a strong love for the practice 
of law, but detests technicalities. In the trial of a case 
he is absolutely fair to all parties concerned; is very 
frank and candid in all his dealings with every one, and 
to this may be attributed to a great extent his success. 
As an advocate he is earnest and effective, a fluent 
speaker, and powerful in argument before both court and 
jury. In his early years he was a Whig, and upon the 
formation of the Republican party allied himself there- 
with, but has never been in any sense of the word a par- 
tisan. He has invariably refused to accept any elective 
office, having on various occasions refused to accept nomi- 
nations. He was married, in January, 1848, to Miss Julia 
A. Sauvain, a descendant of one of the French families 
that settled at Gallipolis toward the beginning of the 
present century. Three children, now living, are the 
fruits of this marriage: Cicero, the oldest, who is the 
junior partner in the firm of Buchanan, Gooding & 
Buchanan, and a very promising young lawyer; Mrs. 
Mary Flower, the wife of Rev. George E. Flower, pas- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


If 


tor of the Central Christian Church of Cincinnati, Ohio; 
and Scott Buchanan, the youngest, now residing with 
his father at his home in Evansville. 


>) USKIRK, CLARENCE A., attorney-general of In- 
diana from 1874 till 1878, a practicing attorney-at- 
law of Princeton, Indiana, is a native of Friend- 
ship, Allegany County, New York, and was born 
November 8, 1842. His father’s family are of Holland 
descent, and his mother was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. 
He was educated at the Friendship Academy, in his na- 


tive village, supplemented by a course of study at the 
University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. He then read 
law in the office of Messrs. Balch & Smiley, at Kalama- 
zoo, Michigan; subsequently attended lectures of the 
Law Department of the Michigan University, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1865. 
to Princeton, Indiana, where he took up his permanent 
residence and entered upon the practice of his profes- 
sion. He met with a fair measure of success from the 
first, and has acquired a remunerative practice and a 
high reputation as a lawyer. In 1872 he was elected a 
member of the Indiana Legislature, and served upon the 
judiciary and other important committees, to the credit 
of himself and the satisfaction of all concerned. In 
1874 he was elected by the Democratic party to the 
office of attorney-general of the state of Indiana, and 
was re-elected in 1876, serving four years, and retiring 
from office November 6, 1878. Since that time he has 
been engaged in practice at Princeton. He has always 
been a Democrat in politics, and is an able and earnest 
advocate of the principles of that party. 


The next year he removed 


= S00 <— 


oy 

a, : 
See ALEXANDER R., M. D., physician and 
surgeon, Petersburg, Pike County, was born in 
Washington County, Pennsylvania, June 29, 1829, 
being the son of Thomas and Margaret (Hamil- 
ton) Byers, of Scotch descent. 


His father was a farmer, 
and on his place the boy’s early days were spent. Until 
the age of nineteen he attended the West Alexander 
Academy, in Pennsylvania, having taken the full course, 
and being ready for the junior year in Washington Col- 
lege. 
where, for one year, he taught school, also beginning 
the study of medicine with Doctor Lord, of Bellefontaine; 
and then he migrated to New Washington, Indiana, 


On leaving the academy he removed to Ohio, 


where he continued to pursue his studies in the office of 
Doctor Solomon Davis. Being entirely dependent on 
his own resources, he took charge of a school in the 
adjacent town of Bethlehem, where he gave instruction 


two years, at the same time assiduously following his 


12 


course of reading in the healing art. In 1853 he re- 
moved to Petersburg, where he taught school for seven 
months, then going to Evansville, where he attended 
lectures at the medical college, and remained in the 
office of Professor Wilcox one year. Thence he re- 
turned to Petersburg, where he established himself in 
the practice of his profession in September, 1854. He 
is now in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative prac- 
tice, and is considered one of the leading physicians of 


the county. He is skillful in his art, and is honored, 


respected, and esteemed by the community, whose con- | 


fidence he most fully enjoys. In October, 1861, he en- 
tered the military service as a lieutenant in the 42d 
Indiana Infantry, and was almost immediately detailed 
to hospital service. In May, 1862, he resigned, 
turning to Indiana, but in July he was commissioned 
assistant surgeon of the 65th Indiana Regiment. Octo- 
ber, 1863, he was made its surgeon, serving as such 
until March, 1865. After the occupation of Wilmington 
he resigned and returned home, after a little over three 


ré- 


years’ service, during which he gained considerable ex- 
perience, having been most actively and constantly em- 
ployed both in hospital and field. For over one year 
he was chief surgeon of the Second Brigade, Third Di- 
vision, Twenty-third Army Corps. On returning home 
he resumed his professional duties. He has been presi- 
dent of the board of trustees of the Petersburg graded 
school for the past six years, education being a matter 
in which he takes great and active interest. He was 
one of the leading spirits in building the handsome 
court-house and school-house, two edifices of which the 
town is most justly proud. He has been a member of 
the Order of Odd-fellows since 1857, has taken all the 
degrees, and has been representative in the state Grand 
Lodge. He is a member of the County Medical Soci- 
ety, the Tri-state Medical Society, and the Indiana State 
Medical Society. A Presbyterian by birth and educa- 
tion, he became a member of that Church in 1851, and 
has for a number of years been an elder; he has been 
also superintendent of the Sabbath-school. In politics he 
is a Republican, though not a politician. He exerts a be- 
neficent influence in favor of that organization, being a 
man whose opinion carries great weight. May 29, 1856, 
he was married to Mary A. Morgan, the daughter of 
Simon Morgan, of Jasper, Indiana, who lived but a 
little over two years after her marriage. She died July 
5, 1858, leaving an infant daughter, who is still living. 
November 7, 1866, the Doctor again married. His sec- 
ond wife was Mary F. Hammond, the estimable daugh- 
ter of P. C. Hammond, a merchant of Petersburg. 
They have six children—four boys and two girls. Doc- 
tor Byers is a man of pleasing presence, quiet demeanor, 
and unassuming manners. He is an educated and court- 
eous gentleman, of the highest integrity and of moral 
and intellectual worth. He is surrounded by a happy 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OL INDIANA. 


[2st Dost. 


family, to whom he is devoted, and who in turn are, 


devoted to him. His past is one which reflects the 
greatest credit upon him. 


—-4006-<— 
as 
iN <ARPENTER, WILLARD, of Evansville, was born 
J) in Strafford, Orange County, Vermont, on the 15th 
k:G) of March, 1803. His father, Willard Carpenter, 
“So senior, was born April 3, 1767, and died at Straf- 
ford, November 14, 1854. He was married, at Wood- 
stock, Connecticut, February 23, 1791, to Polly Bacon, 
who was born March 15, 1769, and died March 4, 1860, 
also at Strafford. All the children, twelve in number, 
were born and reared on the same farm. Mrs. Carpen- 
ter lived to see twelve children, fifty-two grandchildren, 
fifty-three great-grandchildren, and one great-great- 
grandchild, making one hundred ,and eighteen lineal 
descendants. The life of Willard, the subject of this 
sketch, is a remarkable one. His name has long been 
in Southern Indiana a synonym for skill and sagacity. 
He was known under the sobriquet of ‘*Old Willard,” 
even when a young man. His zeal for public interests 
has been the leading feature of his career, and it is 
readily conceded that the present prosperity of the dis- 
trict in which he lives is due to no man more largely 
than to Willard Carpenter. As a typical Yankee, he 
possesses sturdy independence and tenacity of purpose 
to an unusual degree. Always thrifty and energetic, 
having great powers of physical endurance, pluck, and 
perseverance, a strong and comprehensive mind, and great 
business ability, it is not strange that he has risen from 
the hardest poverty to great wealth. When a boy, he 
spent his days on a farm, and, as his father was one of 
the first settlers of Orange County, Willard did much 
work incident to pioneer life, which, as every one knows, 
consists in clearing the land, burning brush, turning the 
soil with ox teams, using the ax and the hoe, taking 
the corn to mill—usually many miles away—and other 
of a similar character. School privileges were 
To read, write, and cipher was regarded as the 
ultima thule of a school education; and three months a 
year for four or five winters, in his log-cabin college, 
was considered sufficient for him. 


i 


labor 
meager. 


He remained at home 
with his father until he was eighteen years old, receiving 
his board and clothes and ‘‘education” for his labor. 
Now and then, by doing odd chores, he turned a penny. 
His first twenty-five cents was made by digging snake- 
root and selling it to his uncle. This money was imme- 
diately put out at six per cent interest, and in process 
of time he found himself in possession of seven dollars. 
He then determined to go West. With a pack on his 
back, he made his way to the Mohawk, and passed 
through Troy about the time of the great fire, in 1822. 
Upon reaching Albany, he turned his capital of seven dol- 


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rst Dist.) 


lars into a stock of Yankee notions, and from there stur- 
dily tramped up the valley of the Mohawk on his way to 
Buffalo. He then went down the lake shore and pene- 
trated Ohio as far as Salem, often turning aside on his 
way to dispose of his wares. At Salem he rested while 
visiting his uncle, who had moved to this place some 
years previous; but, not content with being idle, he 
went to work in the woods with two other men. In the 
summer and autumn of the same year—1822—they 
cleared eighty acres of forest land, for which they re- 
ceived five dollars an acre. Owing to the scarcity of 
money, grain was used instead, and even notes of hand 
were given to be paid in grain. Mr. Carpenter received 
his pay—four hundred dollars—in notes of this descrip- 
tion, and, after settling with his assistants, and disposing 
of the remaining notes, went to teaching a district 
school. 
dred and forty dollars, which was paid in grain notes, 
as before. After this he concluded to learn tanning and 
shoemaking, but became dissatisfied after a six months’ 
trial, and gave it up. Mr. Brown, his employer, being 
pleased with his services, urged him to remain, but 
learning that he had been in the business ten years, and 
cleared only about seven thousand dollars, he decided 
that it was too slow. 


His salary in the spring amounted to one hun- 


He was now about twenty years old, 
and ready to begin life in earnest. Disposing of all his 
effects, he bought a horse and a watch, and had sixteen 
dollars left, after which he turned his face eastward to find 
a wider field in New York state. On his way to Buffalo 
he was taken in by some sharpers on the ‘little joker,” 
who won his watch and all his money but one dollar. 
They returned him four dollars, and with this in his 
pocket he was glad to mount and get away, feeling that 
he had made a poor beginning for one who had refused 
a situation because the proprietor had made only seven 
thousand dollars in ten years. The lesson was a good 
one, however, and he never repeated the ‘‘little joker.” 
Before reaching Buffalo he was attacked with a severe 
illness, but continued his journey, passing through Buf- 
falo to Manlius, a town lying some miles east. Here he 
found an old schoolmate, with whom, on account of his 
illness and the depleted condition of his pocket-book, he 
was glad to remain for a week or so. In a short time, 
however, feeling able to work, he left his horse in care 
of his host, Mr. Preston, and engaged himself to a man 
named Hutchins, to assist in floating a raft down the 
Mohawk to Schenectady, about two hundred miles dis- 
tant. He was to receive sixteen dollars a month for 
his services, but having reached Schenectady, after two 
months, the cargo was attached for debt, and he re- 
ceived nothing. He walked back to Manlius for his 
horse, when, to his dismay, he found that the animal 
had died in his absence. He next engaged to work 
with pick and shovel on the Erie Canal, with a com- 
pany of about one thousand Irishmen, and Ben Wade, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


13 


of Ohio. The wages were thirteen dollars a month. 
He considered the work and pay to be fair, but the 
lodgings were almost unendurable, a hundred or so gen- 
erally occupying the same straw bed in a slab-board 
shanty. Mr. Carpenter accordingly hunted out a barn, 
and, with the consent of the owner, slept alone. In 
two months he was promoted by Mr. Anderson, his em- 
ployer, to ‘‘jigger carrier,” to serve the men with their 
grog, and his pay was advanced to twenty dollars a 
month. As winter advanced, his lodgings being cold, 
he decided to leave, much to the regret of Mr. Ander- 
son. At Glenville Corners he stopped at a tavern for 
dinner, and while there attracted the attention of one 
of the trustees of the school, who, being pleased with 
his appearance, decided to offer him the position of 
teacher. The school had been very troublesome, the 
last teacher having been unceremoniously ejected by the 
larger boys. These things having been fully explained, 
Mr. Carpenter took the school, with the understanding 
that he should receive three dollars per quarter for each 
scholar and furnish his own board and lodging. Aftera 
few days the bullies of the school formed a conspiracy 
against him; but, being determined to rule, he managed 
to subdue the ringleader, older and larger than himself, 
by the union of stratagem and force, and had no further 
trouble. In 1824 his father, desiring him to return 
home, presented him a farm as an inducement, which, 
however, he declined. His father then offered him six 
hundred dollars, but this also he refused, determining 
to make his way through life unaided. Two years after, 
he visited his father, and returned with his brother 
John to Troy, where they engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits. The trade being small, the first year’s business 
amounted to only twenty-five hundred dollars. They 
then bought of an old Quaker goods to the amount of 
sixteen hundred dollars, on a credit of eighteen months. 
They afterwards found that they had paid exorbitantly 
for the goods, but, by a vigorous use of the horse and 
wagon, succeeded in working them off on the road. 
Then by the advice of the old Quaker, Mr. Burtis, who 
had sold them the goods, Mr. Carpenter accompanied 
him down to New York, and was introduced to some 
of his old Quaker friends, who sold the firm twenty-five 
thousand dollars’ worth of goods upon their own notes, 
without indorsement, payable in bank, and running 
four, six, and eight months. When Mr. Carpenter’s 
brother learned what had been done, being timid, he 
was dismayed, and a dissolution followed. 
another brother, similar in character to Willard, suc- 
ceeded John, and they continued in Troy for ten years. 
In 1837 Willard came to Evansville, at the solicitation 
of A. B. Carpenter, and joined him in the wholesale 
dry-goods and notion business. They began under fa- 
vorable auspices, but suffered in the crash of 1837. Wil- 
lard then sold out his interest in the Troy branch to 


Ephraim, 


14 


Liberty Gilbert, a brother-in-law. He was at this time 
thirty-four years of age. Upon his arrival in Evansville 
he found the business of the firm in a deplorable state. 
Owing to the crash of the preceding year, their country 
correspondents were in a precarious condition, so that 
it would require sharp work to realize any thing out of 
Mr. Carpenter, however, was equal to 
He reached Evansville on Sunday, and 
Learning that a company 


their accounts. 
the emergency. 
at once took in the situation. 
of merchants was to leave for the upper country by the 
way of Vincennes and Terre Haute, he saw that his 
only chance was to outstrip them. He at once made 
an arrangement for a relay of horses in the stage line, 
and at nine o’clock that night started. After employing 
Judge Law to take charge of his business in Vincennes, 
he pushed on to Terre Haute, where he employed Judge 
Farrington. Tuesday morning, by day-break, he was 
closeted, in Danville, Illinois, with Vandervere, an at- 
torney at that place. He then started on his return 
trip, with fresh horses every ten or fifteen miles, and, 
by keeping in his saddle day and night, was enabled, 
by Wednesday noon, to meet the other merchants on 
their outward journey, between Vincennes and Terre 
Haute. The result was that the Carpenters received 
their claims in full, while the others hardly received ten 
cents on the dollar. This feat practically introduced 
Mr. Carpenter to Evansville. In February following 
he was married to Miss Lucina Burcalow, of Saratoga 
County, New York. From 1835 to 1837 the state of 
Indiana incurred a debt of fifteen million dollars in the 
construction of the Erie, Wabash, and White River 
Canal. In 1842 Mr. Carpenter called a meeting of the 
Evansville citizens to devise means to enable the state 
to pay its interest upon the bonds, and threatened to 
remove from the state unless she would pay her debts. 
It was resolved that a petition be sent to Congress, 
asking for one-half of the unsold public lands in the Vin- 
cennes District, this half amounting to over two million 
five hundred thousand acres, for the purpose of finishing 
the canal. Mr. Carpenter circulated the petition in 
seventeen different states, and through five different 
Legislatures, instructing their members to aid in the 
passage of a bill granting the lands; but it failed 
to receive the sanction of the President, Mr. Tyler. 
This was in 1843 and 1844, and Mr. Carpenter was 
a delegate at that time. At the next session of Con- 
gress—1844 and 1845—the bill passed both houses, 
to be ratified, however, by the Legislature of Indi- 
ana. Mr, Carpenter now made himself useful in the 
state Legislature. The Butler bill, and its journals 
cx 1836, will explain the great opposition to the grant 
by the Legislature. This bill provided that the bond- 
holders should accept the land grant for one-half of the 
indebtedness, and that the state should pay the interest 
on the other half, and eventually the principal. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zst Dist, 


Carpenter was a delegate there through the session, but it 
must be remembered that he paid out of his own pocket 
all the necessary expenses previously incurred in visiting 
Congress and the seventeen different states. In 1849 
Mr. Carpenter was one of the principal movers in the 
Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad enterprise, sub- 
scribing largely, and taking more stock than any two 
men in the county. It was intended that this road 
should run up the White River Valley to Indianapolis; 
but in 1853 Mr. Carpenter resigned as a director, and, 
with O. H. Smith, ex-Senator, entered into an agree- 
ment to build a railroad from Evansville to Indianapo- 
lis, which was to connect with the Louisville and Nash- 
ville Road, Kentucky then being at work on that end 
of the line. They had procured over nine hundred 
thousand dollars on the line—Mr. Carpenter himself 
having subscribed sixty-five thousand—and had steadily 
progressed with the work, having graded the road and 
made it ready for the fron as far as the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi Railroad line, a distance of fifty-five miles, at a 
cost of about four hundred and seventy-five thousand 
dollars, when Mr. Carpenter left for Europe to purchase 
the rails. At this juncture opposition sprang up, to such 
an extent that a pamphlet of about one hundred pages, 
containing all the misrepresentations that could be pos- 
sibly gathered, was published and sent after him. This 
pamphlet was circulated freely among the banks and 
rail-makers in London, Paris, and Wales; and after Mr. 
Carpenter had been in London ten days, and had ac- 
complished the contract for the iron, excepting the de- 
tails, which were to be settled the next day, he was 
surprised by being shown, in Peabody’s bank, the pam- 
phlet referred to, which completely stopped negotiations, 
and thwarted him in the great undertaking. He then 
called upon Vorse, Perkins & Co., who had-a house in 
London, and also one in New York, doing a commission 
business for railroad companies in America, and, after 
much negotiation, made a contract with that firm, 
agreeing to pay them twelve thousand dollars of mort- 
gage bonds per mile upon the road-bed, one hundred 
thousand dollars’ worth of real-estate bonds, and one 
hundred thousand dollars of Evansville city bonds, 
which the city had subscribed, but not then delivered. 
All, excepting the Evansville bonds, he had with 
him; and these latter were to be handed over, in 
July of the same year, to the commission house of 
Vorse, Pérkins & Co., in the city of New York. 
Mr. Carpenter now wrote in full to the vice-president, 
Mr. H. D. Allis, urging him to call the city council to- 
gether immediately, and ask them to deliver over the 
one hundred thousand dollar bonds to Vorse, Perkins & 
Co., in New York. The enemies of the road were now 
at work in his own city, and the council refused. Mr. 
Carpenter then offered, if they would consent, to secure 


Mr. | them by mortgaging all the real estate he held in the 


rst Dist.] 


city and country, which was extensive, indemnifying 
the city, so that the road should be built and cars should 
be running over the first fifty-five miles—to the Ohio and 
Mississippi crossing—by the next December, 1859. This 
the council very unwisely refused to do, owing to the 
selfishness of the opposition party. This caused the fail- 
ure of the Straight-line Railroad, and the downfall of 
Evansyille—a great mortification to Mr. Carpenter, who 
had spent five years of his time, had been once to Eu- 
rope and fourteen times to New York, all at his own ex- 
pense. This was twenty years ago. Since that time 
the business citizens of Evansville have had time to 
reflect on the mistake they have made. ‘The city had 
a natural location for an extensive trade, being at a 
safe distance from Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis, 
and other prominent points; and the road, as they 
now see it, would have made Evansville a large place. 
The government would have spanned the river, and 
commerce from the North and South would largely 
have come to it. In 1865 Mr. Carpenter donated to 
the trustees of Vanderburg the Christian Home, con- 
sisting of grounds and a large new house of twelve 
rooms, This act of charity was for the reform of 
homeless girls who had gone astray. 
gave two acres and a half of land in the city, and 
subscribed a thousand’ dollars for the same purpose, 
the donations in all amounting to about ten thousand 
dollars. To the various Churches of Evansville he 
has given over fourteen thousand dollars. In 1840 
he erected a building upon his own land, and estab- 


He afterwards 


lished the poor-house system, where paupers were kept 
three years, at an annual cost to the county of fifteen 
hundred dollars. Previous to this time the county had 
been at an expense of three thousand dollars a year for 
their maintenance. This was accomplished during his 
five years as county commissioner. 
liberally of his own means for repairing and corduroy- 
ing roads, and, as an evidence of the appreciation of 
his worth in this particular, he was elected the second 
term to this office, over his own protest. In 1851 Mr. 
Carpenter was elected a member of the state Legislature, 
and served during the long term of the session of 1851 
and 1852. While here he was active in getting through 
several important bills, one of which was the equaliza- 
tion of taxation, and another, no less important, the low- 
ering of salaries of county officers and the raising of 
salaries of those in state offices. The Willard Library is 
an example of munificence seldom witnessed. The prop- 
erty given for this purpose, including money and real 
estate, does not fall short of four hundred thousand 
dollars. The grounds, which are situated in the center 
of the city, comprise ten acres, and are estimated to be 
worth one hundred thousand dollars. Steps have been 
taken, according to Mr. Carpenter’s direction, to main- 
tain on part of them a beautiful park. 


He also advanced 


This royal gift 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


~ 


15 


is now being used with heart-felt gratitude for the donor. 
Such is but a poor attempt to outline the remarkable 
career of this pre-eminent man. His deeds alone serve 


as a noble monument to his greatness. 
—->- Gate-<- — 


x HANDLER, JOHN J., of Evansville, was born in 
New York City, November 17, 1815, and died at 
Evansville, Indiana, April 15, 1872. He was the 
son of Asaph Chandler, who was a native of Ver- 
mont, but removed to New York at an early day in or- 
der to enter into the Atlantic trade. He commanded 
and owned a ship in the New York and Liverpool and 
New York and Havre lines, and was at one time a mer- 
chant in New York City. The subject of our sketch 
was characterized by a devouring thirst for knowledge, 
and diligently applied himself to his studies, and read 
with unflagging interest every book that came in his 
way. In this manner he prepared himself for Nashville 
University, Nashville, Tennessee, to which place the 
family removed in 1824. This institution was then un- 
der the presidency of the late Doctor Philip Lindsey. 
Here he distinguished himself as an essayist on political 


economy and mental philosophy. He took dn active 
part in all the debates, and it was not long before he 
was recognized as one of their ablest debaters, and won 
a formidable reputation. He graduated in 1836 at the 
head of his class, and, as the Seminole War was then 
raging in Florida, he immediately raised a company and 
started for the scene of battle. He participated in sey- 
eral of the most important engagements, and distin- 
guished himself for bravery, and for his skill in maneu- 
vering his men in fighting a peculiarly wily foe. He 
was thus engaged until the close of this campaign, 
when he commenced the study of law at Nashville, 
where he remained until 1838, removing to Evansville, 
Indiana, in the fall of that year. He entered the office 
of Amos Clark, a prominent attorney of that city, and 
continued his law studies. In the spring of the year 
following he was admitted to practice in all the courts 
of the state, and at once was received as a partner by 
his former preceptor. He was untiring in the study of 
his cases, and explored every field that was likely to add 
information or furnish illustration. In this manner, 
with his power as an advocate and his shrewdness as a 
counselor, he at once took a stand among the ablest 
lawyers of his adopted place, and as an advocate with 
few superiors in the West. Although often abrupt in 
asserting his opinions and sometimes personal in the 
course of an argument, his most bitter opponents would 
forget their defeat when they saw the audacity and skill 
he exhibited in the management of a cause on trial. 
He was in every respect a gentleman. A scholar by 
nature, his conversation indicated the depth of his learn- 


16 REPRESENTATIVE 
ing and the scope of his reading. These qualifications, 
aided by quick perception, thorough knowledge of man- 
kind, good judgment, genial ways, fluency of speech, 
and his generous, open-handed way, made him a host of 
friends, who deeply mourned his death, feeling that a mas- 
ter-spirit had gone from the place he loved so well, and 
that Evansville had lost a man who was foremost in 
every good work, and one who took a lively interest in 
her growth and prosperity. Mr. Chandler was married, 
in 1851, to Mrs. Ann Hann, a sister of the late Doctor 
Isaac Casselberry. This estimable lady, with three chil- 
dren, survives him. 
Sane 


4OOK, FREDERICK WASHINGTON, of Evans- 
ville, was born at Washington, District of Colum- 
bia, February 1, 1831, and when yet quite young 
removed with his parents to Port Deposit, Cecil 
County, Maryland. After a residence of about three 
years at this place, they removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, 
and in 1836 to Evansville. In the same year Mr. Cook’s 
step-father, Jacob Rice, in copartnership with Fred 
Kroener, the uncle of Mr. Cook, commenced a bakery 
business on the site now occupied by White, Dunkerson 
& Co.’s tobacco warehouse, corner of Locust and Water 
Streets. In 1837 Messrs. Rice & Kroener bought prop- 
erty in Lamasco, near the terminus of the Erie and 
Wabash Canal, then in course of construction, and, in 
the same year, built what is known as the Old Brew- 
ery, the first structure of that kind erected in Evansyille. 
In 1853 Mr. Cook, the subject of our sketch, in con- 
junction with Louis Rice, built the city brewery, on 
the spot then occupied by a corn-field. When they be- 
gan business their cash capital was three hundred and 
fifty dollars, half of which Mr. Rice had saved, Mr. 
Cook having borrowed an equal amount from his father. 
Mr. Rice attended to the brewing department, and Mr. 
Cook to the finances. In 1857 Louis Rice sold his 
interest to Jacob Rice for three thousand five hundred 
dollars, and in 1858 the new firm built a lager-beer cel- 
lar and an extensive malt-house, making the first 
lager-beer in the state of Indiana. In 1856 Mr. Cook 
was elected a councilman in the fifth ward, and in the 
eighth ward in 1863, being re-elected in 1864. The 
people, finding him a useful man, and one whom they 
could safely trust in matters of great importance, elected 
him as Representative from Vanderburg County to the 
Legislature of Indiana. In this capacity he served dur- 
ing the called session of 1864, and also during the reg- 
ular session of 1864-5. Afier his return home, and in 
1867, the people again showed their appreciation by 
tendering him a membership in the city council. His 
public services have been satisfactory to his constituents, 
and have been performed with great credit to himself. 
He isa stanch Republican, and is known on account of 


MEN OF INDIANA. [1st Dist. 
‘his military record as Captain Cook. During the war 
he was a warm supporter of the government of the 
United States, and aided in the work. In 1866 Mr. 
Cook was married to Miss Louisa Hild, of Louisville, 
who died in February, 1877. He was again married, 
to Miss Jennie Himmeline, of Kelley’s Island, Ohio, 
in the month of November, 1878. He has had eight 
children, four of whom are now living. Mr. Rice, 
his step-father, died in 1873, and his mother in 1878, 
leaving him the sole heir and proprietor of the city 
brewery. He still continues the business under the old 
firm name, which is known far and wide, and is iden- 
tified with the history and growth of Evansville, the 
original owners having been among the early settlers 
of that place. His buildings comprise more than half 
a block, and are worth at least one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. The sales during the past year 
amounted to one hundred and seventy thousind dol- 
lars, and this year every thing bids fair to bring them 
to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which will 
require a sale of over thirty thousand barrels. Mr. Cook 
has not built any public library nor endowed any college, 
but it is known of him that he has a large heart, and his 
acts of charity and benevolence have been bestowed 
upon thousands. Equally liberal has he shown himself 
in all enterprises tending to benefit the general public. 
His wisdom and judgment are highly esteemed in local 
matters, which accounts for his being a public man. 


—>Fate->—@$ 


His father died when he was 
2@e but four years old, and his mother eight years 
after, leaving young Fielding, at the age of twelve 
years, an orphan, without education and without a dol- 
Jar, to fight the battles of life alone. Fortunately, 
however, he possessed those high aspirations which have 
characterized so many American boys who from hum- 
ble stations and small beginnings have worked their 
way to honor and distinction. He felt that God had 
given him a heart to feel and a brain to think; and, 
far from desiring to bury those talents, he was deter- 
mined to make the best possible use of them. To the 
end that he might prepare himself for future usefulness, 
he first bent his thoughts towards the best means of ob- 
taining an education. His uncle, a farmer of some 
little means, feeling an interest in him, kindly sent him 
to school for a time, he performing manual labor to pay 
for the trouble and expense. He stayed with this uncle 
for two years, working on the farm in the summer and 
going to school in the winter. 
earnest the battle of life. 

employment was obtained. 


He then commenced in 
New fields were sought and 
Sometimes he worked as a 


LIBRARY 
. OF THE 
UNIVERSITY QF ILLINOIS 


ist Dist.) 


farm hand, at others taught school, and thus persever- 
ing, by the most rigid economy, he obtained a fair 
academical education. He then turned his attention to 
the study of medicine, and, after a full course of read- 
ing, contrived to accumulate enough means to enable 
him to attend the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital 
Medical College. There he graduated with honor, and 
received his diploma. He immediately began the prac- 
tice of medicine in his native county, where he attained 
such proficiency and was so successful that he was in- 
vited by many friends to settle in Evansville, Indiana, 
where he now lives, and is engaged’ in a very lucrative 
practice. Since his removal to Evansville he has be- 
come a member of the American Institute of Homceop- 
athy. He is a good writer, and an able exponent of 
the principles and practice of the school of medicine to 
which he belongs. Dr. Davis was married to Miss Jane 
Taylor, of Warrick County, Indiana, on the seventeenth 
day of April, 1855. Standing in the front rank among 
his brethren of the medical profession, in the prime 
of life and manhood, surrounded by many friends, and 
moving in the best circles of society, there is probably 
no physician in Evansville who occupies a more enviable 
position than does Dr. F. L. Davis. 


ENBY, CHARLES, of Evansville, an eminent law- 
yer, was born at Mt. Joy, the residence of his grand- 
©@}$ father, Matthew Harvey, in Botetourt County, Vir- 
2s ginia, on the 16th of June, 1830. Matthew Harvey 
was a Revolutionary patriot, and with all his brothers 
served under arms in the war for independence. WNa- 
thaniel Denby and Sarah J. Denby, the parents of 
Charles Denby, resided at Richmond, Virginia, where 
Mr. Denby was engaged in the wholesale grocery business. 
Charles went to a school under the government of Mr. 
Thomas Fox, at Taylorsville, Hanover County, Virginia, 
thence to Georgetown College, in the District of Colum- 
bia, and subsequently graduated at the Virginia Military 
Institute in 1850, After receiving his degree he taught 
school at Selma, Alabama, for a period of nearly three 
years, being a professor in the Masonic University. In 
June, 1853, he took up his residence at Evansville, In- 
diana, and became assistant editor of the daily Zx- 

querer, owned by John B. Hall, a Democratic paper, 
' just started. At an early age he determined that his fu- 
ture profession should be that of the law, and, in pursu- 
ance of that idea, he had, at all times, when not teach- 
ing, read the ancient authors. After a short residence 
at Evansville he made arrangements by which he could 
read law during the day in the office of Messrs. Baker 
& Garvin, who were then the leading lawyers at Evans- 
ville, but still retaining his editorial connection and 
writing for the paper at night. He was admitted to the 

A—3 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


-* 


17 


bar in 1855, upon the report of an examining commit- 
tee, consisting of Conrad Baker, James Lockhart, and 
John Law. A partnership was immediately formed 
with the Hon. James Lockhart, which lasted for three 
years, until Judge Lockhart’s death. In 1856 he was 
elected to the Legislature, on the Democratic ticket ; 
Lockhart, at the same time, was chosen a member of 
Congress. After Judge Lockhart’s death he formed a 
partnership with Jacob Lunkenheimer, which lasted for 
two years, the death of Mr. Lunkenheimer. 
When the late Civil War broke out he was practicing 
his. profession at Evansville, and in September, 1861, 
together with James G. Jones and James M. Shanklin, 
he formed a regiment, with the understanding that 
Jones was to be colonel, Shanklin the major, and Denby 
the lieutenant-colonel. So strenuous were their efforts 
that within two weeks after the call was made there 
were sixteen companies quartered at the fair grounds, a 
few miles from the city. The regiment was called the 
42d Indiana, with the field officers above named, and 
shortly after moved to Kentucky, in Buell’s command, 
marching to Huntsville with General Mitchell. They 
were engaged in some skirmishes and in the battle of 
Perryville, where the young lieutenant-colonel had his 
horse killed and was himself slightly 
wounded. Immediately after the battle he was pro- 
moted to the rank of colonel of the 80th Indiana Volun- 
teers, which he commanded until March, 1863, when he 
resigned on a surgeon’s certificate of disability. He 
had received an injury to his left leg, which riding 
greatly aggravated. Returning to Evansville, he re- 
sumed the practice of his profession and formed a part- 
nership with Conrad Baker, then Lieutenant-governor 
of the state. But this alliance, however, was of short 
duration, as Governor Morton, being in ill-health, went 
abroad, and Baker was called to the capital to take his 
place. For the last nine years he has been in partner- 
ship with Mr. D. B. Kumler, under the name of Denby 
& Kumler. Colonel Denby has refused all political 
preferment and nominations for office since 1856, when 
he served a term in the Legislature, being appointed on 
the Judiciary Committee, and chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Elections. He was designated as surveyor of the 
port by President Buchanan, and served until Mr. Lin- 
coln’s administration commenced. Although not an 
avowed politician, Colonel Denby has always been a 
stanch Democrat, and a useful member of the party and 
community. He has voluntarily, and without compensa- 
tion, served the city of Evansville in various capacities. 
He started the plan of holding the United States Courts 
at Evansville, going to Washington in that interest, and 
was instrumental in securing the erection of the gov- 
ernment building at Evansville, the passage of the law 
authorizing United States Courts to be held there, the 
making of the city a port of entry, the appointment of 


until 


under him 


18 


government inspectors, and various other matters of 
local interest. In 1858 he was married to Martha 
Fitch, daughter of Hon. G. N. Fitch, of Logansport, In- 
Eight children have been born to them, of 
He attends 


diana. 
whom five boys and one girl are living. 
the Episcopal Church with his family, and is a member 
of the vestry, and president of the Missionary Society 
of the parish, 
EN ee 

OWNEY, WILLIAM D., merchant, of Princeton, 
{ i] born March 18, 1834, ten miles south-west of 
91% Princeton. His father, Rev. A. R. Downey, a min- 
as ister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, was a 
native of Kentucky, and his mother of North Carolina. 
They went from Kentucky to Gibson County, Indiana, 
about 1830, in 1836 removing to Dubois County. William 
D. Downey, having spent his boyhood on a farm, attended 
common school during the winter, until at thirteen he was 
sent to a school in Newburg. Remaining there three 
years, he returned to the farm, and at seventeen entered 
mercantile life, engaging as clerk in a store at Petersburg, 
Pike County, Indiana. After serving there some four 
or five years, he went to the city of Evansville, where he 
In 1861 he went to 
Princeton, Indiana, and engaged in mercantile business 
for himself, and has continued therein ever since. He 
now owns one of the largest general stores in Princeton. 
Giving his whole time and attention to his business, he 
has become a very successful merchant. He has never 
held or sought office, but is a public-spirited and enter- 
prising citizen, anxious to promote the growth and pros- 
perity of the city of Princeton. He was married, in 
1868, to Miss Octavia Hall, daughter of Judge S. Hall, 
and two children are the fruits of this marriage. 


| was 


also clerked for several years. 


—>-8906-.— 


f{}OWNS, THOMAS J., of Boonville, was born April 
| 13, 1834, in Ohio County, Kentucky, where his 
ont grandfather, Thomas Downs, was an early settler. 
“@e He was a minister in the Missionary Baptist 
Church, and in his rounds had traveled over large por- 
tions of Indiana and Kentucky. He was generally 
considered a man of more than mere ordinary abil- 
ity. He was one of two brothers of English de- 
scent, from which stock sprung all those bearing that 
name in this country. He died in 1850, in the seventy- 
sixth year of his age. His son William, the father of 
Thomas J., died two years previous. He was a farmer 
in comfortable circumstances, an honest, upright citizen, 
plain and simple in his manner, a man of few words, 
but tenacious of opinions where he believed himself in 
the right. By the death of his father, which occurred 
when Thomas J. Downs, the immediate subject of this 


& 
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zs¢ Dest. 


sketch, was but fourteen years of age, he was withdrawn 


| from school, and cheerfully assumed, until he attained 


his majority, almost the sole responsibility of providing 
for the family. In 1855 he removed to Warrick County, 
and worked at his trade as a carpenter. In 1861, at the 
breaking out of the war, he joined the 42d Indiana 
Volunteer Infantry as a musician, but by general or- 
ders was mustered out of service six months afterwards. 
In the fall of 1863 he enlisted a number of men for the 
120th Indiana Regiment, and was unanimously elected 
captain. This body participated in the Atlanta cam- 
paign and in the hard-fought battles at Nashville and 
Franklin. They were then transferred to North Caro- 
lina, where, at the battle of Wise Fork, he was wounded 
in the back of the head, and was mustered out of the 
service at Newbern in May, 1865. Soon after his return 
to Boonville he was elected county auditor, and served 
five years. The next five years he spent in selling goods 
and farming. In 1874 he purchased a half interest in 
the Boonville flouring-mill, in which business he is still 
engaged. He was married, January 1, 1857, to Miss 
Lydia M. Williams. His mother, who was a King, is 
still living, and now in her old age retains all her men- 
tal powers to a wonderful degree. She possesses a mas- 
ter mind, and has lived a consistent Christian life, leav- 
She is a 
member, of many years’ standing, in the Missionary 
Baptist Church. From this brief outline of a busy life, 
furnished with commendable modesty by Mr. Downs, a 
useful lesson may be drawn. Commencing the battle 
of life friendless and poor, at an age when most chil- 
dren are still in the nursery, he has lived to see him- 
self a power for good in the community where he 
dwells. Believing at the outset that a good name is 
better than riches, with no ambition for public office, 
he has been governed since youth by those fixed princi- 
ples of honor and rectitude which stamp him to-day as 
an honest man, an exemplary citizen, and a kind 
husband. 


ing to others a worthy example for emulation. 


—> GOCE —_ 

Ee 

of DSON, WILLIAM PALEY, of Mount Vernon, 
Ey attorney and counselor at law, was born at Mount 
(ar Vernon, Indiana, May 14, 1834. His father, 
Qt Eben D. Edson, a native of Otsego County, New 
York, whose ancestors were among the early settlers of 
New England, was a lawyer, and one of the pioneers of 
Mount Vernon, where he practiced his profession until 
his death, in the year 1846. His mother, Sarah L. 
Edson, whose maiden name was Phelps, was a native of 
Connecticut. William P. Edson received his education 
at Mount Vernon, first attending the common schools, 
and afterwards spending four years at a private academy 
under the tuition of a teacher of superior qualifications. 
Upon leaving this institution, he began the study of 


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rst Dist.] 


law, was admitted to the bar in 1855, and immediately 
thereafter entered upon the practice of his profession at 
Mount Vernon. In the fall of 1856 he was elected a 
member of the Indiana Legislature, being then but 
twenty-two years of age, and one of the youngest mem- 
bers of that body. In 1858 he was elected prosecuting 
attorney for the Common Pleas Court of the circuit 
embracing the counties of Posey, Vanderburg, Warrick, 
and Gibson, and held this office for two years. 
year 1871 he was appointed, by Governor Baker, Judge 
of the Common Pleas Court, but resigned the office at 
the end of the year, because of the meager compen- 
sation. In 1876 he was placed in nomination by the 
Republican state convention for the office of Judge 
of the Supreme Court of Indiana, but, with the rest 
of the Republican ticket of that year, was defeated. 
Judge Edson has been an earnest student in his pro- 
fession. He is regarded as one of the most emi- 
nent lawyers in the state, and now enjoys a large 
practice at Mount Vernon. Judge Edson was mar- 
ried, January I, 1862, to Ruphenie Lockwood, daugh- 
ter of John M. Lockwood, of Mount Vernon. Five 
children, two sons and three daughters, are the result 
of this union—Eben D., Sarah P., John M., Charlotte 
Edson, and Caroline. 


—+-4026 + — 


DSON, JOSEPH PHELPS, brother of Judge Wm. 
P. Edson, was born at Mount Vernon, Indiana, 


1854. He became very successful, acquiring a large and 
lucrative practice, and taking a very prominent position 
among the younger members of the bar in his section 
of the state. He was elected a Representative in the 
Indiana state Legislature from Posey and Vanderburg 
Counties in the fall of 1860, and died while a member 
of that body in 1862. 


—> 00-0 — 


Ci MBREE, ELISHA, attorney-at-law, of Princeton, 
J" Indiana, and ex-member of Congress, was born on 
(GJ), the 28th of September, 1801, in Lincoln County, 
© Kentucky, and was the son of Joshua and Eliza- 
‘beth Embree. When he was a small child his parents 
moved to the southern part of Kentucky, and in the 
year 1811 went to Indiana, encamping for the first night 
in Indiana about three miles from Princeton. Here 
they settled, and began the work of preparing to culti- 
vate a farm. A year afterwards his father died, leaving 
a widow and six children, and Elisha was obliged to 
work hard, summer and winter, toward the support of 
himself and the family. Not having had an opportu- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


In the: 


Me 


nity of attending school while a boy, his school educa- 
tion was not begun until he was eighteen years old, at 
which time he could only spell a few words in Web- 
ster’s Speller. He then began attending school in the 
winter months, laboring upon the farm in the summer. 
His progress at school was rapid, and at an exhibition 
given by the school he displayed such an aptitude for 
declamation and oratory that the teacher advised him 
to become a lawyer, believing that his taste and talents 
for oratory would best be cultivated in that field. Ac- 
cepting this advice as soon as he was able to do so, he 
began the study of law with Hon. Samuel Hall, at 
Princeton, Indiana, and in 1825 was admitted to the 
bar. He then entered upon the practice of his profes- 
sion at Princeton, in which he was eminently successful, 
and was soon in the possession of a large and lucrative 
practice. He became an able and eloquent advocate 
and a sound and practical counselor, and took rank with 
the ablest members of the bar. In 1833 he was elected 
a member of the Indiana state Senate, and while a 
member of that body he almost alone opposed the in- 
ternal improvement legislation of that period, which 
subsequently bore such evil fruits. In 1835 he was 
elected Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court of 
Indiana, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation 
of Hon. Samuel Hall, and in 1838 was re-elected for a 
full term of six years, serving ten years in that judicial 
position. In 1847 he was elected a Representative to 
Congress from the First Congressional District, defeat- 
ing the Hon. Robert Dale Owen, and being the first 
and only Whig ever elected in that district. He served 
two years in Congress, and was the originator of the 
proposition to abolish mileage to members of Congress. . 
In 1849 he was a candidate for re-election, but was de- 
feated by Hon. Nathaniel Albertson. After this he de- 
voted much of his time to looking after his estate, having 
a number of farms which needed his personal supervi- 
sion. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was an 
earnest advocate of the prosecution of the war for the 
preservation of the Union. He aided and encouraged 
the enlistment of troops, and his three sons entered the 
army—they were all he had. His oldest, James T., was 
a lieutenant-colonel in the 58th Regiment Indiana 
Volunteers. Much of his time after his sons went into 
the army was spent at the front, where he devoted his 
services to the sick and wounded soldiers. His labors 
and exposures during this period are believed to have 
been the cause of his death, which occurred at his 
home, in Princeton, Indiana, on the twenty-eighth day of 
February, 1863. He united with the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church in the year 1835, lived thenceforth a con- 
sistent Christian life, and died in the hope of a blessed 
immortality. He was eminent both as a lawyer and as 
a jurist. He was married, in 1827, to Miss Eleanor 
Robb, daughter of Major David Robb, one of the pio-’ 


20 REPRESENTATIVE 
neer farmers of Indiana, who settled in Knox County 
in 1800, and who was a participant in the battle of 
Tippecanoe. Six children—three sons and three daugh- 
ters—were the fruit of this union. Two of the latter 
died in infancy. His third daughter died in the spring 
of this year, at Equality, Illinois, where she had resided 
for fifteen years. Her name was Maria Louisa Ross. 

Milton P. Embree died in April of this year, 1880, 

Lieutenant-colonel James T. Embree, the oldest son, 

died in 1867, and David F., the second son, died in 
1877. Both of these were educated to the law, and the 
latter, David F. Embree, attained a distinguished posi- 
tion as one of the most brilliant members of the bar of 

Gibson County. 

—> F2Ce-<>—_ 


BOI 


Sfivy VANS, GENERAL ROBERT M., was born in 

1783, in Frederick County, Virginia. While a 
(G]}) small boy his parents removed to Botetourt County, 
ved where he remained until 1790, and when he was 
seventeen years old they went to Tazewell County. In 
this latter place he was deputy clerk while yet but a 
lad. In 1803 he moved to Paris, Kentucky, and there 
married Jane Trimble, sister of Judge Robert Trimble, 
of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1805, 
with his family, he removed to Indiana Territory, and 
settled in the woods on a tract of land where Princeton 
now stands. At the first sale of government lands, in 
1807, he purchased the tract he had settled upon, and 
there continued to reside until 1809. He then removed 
to Vincennes, where he remained two years, and in a 
frame house kept a hotel. In the War of 1812 the sur- 
render of Hull left the north-western frontier exposed 
to the incursions of the British and Indians. This oc- 
casioned considerable alarm, and nearly ten thousand 
volunteers immediately offered themselves to the govern- 
ment, and, being placed under the command of General 
W. H. Harrison, marched toward the territory of Mich- 
igan. General Evans joined Harrison at once, and was 
appointed one of his aides. 


In this official capacity he 
proved so efficient that he was appointed by General 
Harrison brigadier-general, and placed in command of 
a large body of militia, both from Indiana and other 
territories. General Evans participated in the battle of 
the Thames, Tippecanoe, and other engagements, and 
had the reputation of being one of the best officers in 
the army, not only on account of his bravery, but also 
for his sagacity and ability as a leader. He had the 
misfortune at this time to lose his brother Jonathan, 
who was killed by the Indians in one of the skirmishes 
which preceded Tippecanoe. On his return to Gibson 
County from the war, he was elected county clerk, but 
in the following October, 1819, he resigned. He was in- 
strumental in forming Vanderburg County, named after 
General Vanderburg, a celebrated Indian fighter. He 


| 
New Harmony for one year. 


MEN OF INDIANA. [zs¢ Dist. 
also, in conjunction with J. W. Jones, purchased the 
land upon which all Evansville north of the state road 
(Main Street) is situated, and founded the city which 
He was also the means of its becom- 
In 1824 General Evans removed 


bears his name. 
ing the seat of justice. 
to Evansville and remained one year, watching carefully 
over the city bearing his name. In the following year 
he removed to Princeton. After this he kept a hotel in 
In 1828 he returned to 
Evansville, and there lived until his death, which took 
place in 1844. Mr. Evans was a noble man, and gener- 
ous to a fault. His granddaughter has erected to his 
memory a fine hall in Evansville, which is set apart 
strictly for the use of temperance societies. 


—_+>-G0%<-—_ 


Eg 
Gf vans, WILLIAM L., president of the People’s 
4 National Bank, of Princeton, was born December 
(GC), 21, 1828, at Princeton, Indiana. 

James Evans, one of the earliest settlers of Gibson 
County, who was a brother of General Robert M. Evans, 
the founder of Evansville. James Evans was one of the 
most prominent men of the county in his day, cultivating 
a large farm on the edge of Princeton, and owning the 
only wool-carding machine in that section of the coun- 
try. He also held the important office of magistrate for 
a number of years. His death occurred at Princeton, in 
1834. William L. Evans, the subject of this sketch, re- 
ceived a common school education in his native town, 
and in 1846 began to learn the saddlery trade with John 
McCoy, of Princeton, Indiana. In September, 1848, he 
left that business to take a position as clerk in the store 
of Samuel M. Archer, and remained with him for five 
years. Mr. Evans then went into partnership in the re- 
tail dry-goods business with his brother, Jonathan H. 
Evans, and Dr. Andrew Lewis. This partnership con- 
tinued until 1863, when the firm dissolved. In 1864 he 
formed another partnership, with W. D. Downey and 
Dr. A. Lewis, and the firm conducted a large establish- 
ment in the same line, known as the New York Store. 
After three years Dr. Lewis sold out his interest to 
Messrs. Evans & Downey, who conducted it for five 
years. Mr. Evans, on account of his health, at the end 
of that time retired from business, in March, 1873. At 
that time the People’s National Bank, of Princeton, was 
established, and in May, 1873, Mr. Evans was chosen 
its president, and holds that office up to the present 
writing. The only public office held by him has been 
that of treasurer of the corporation of Princeton, which 
he has filled for about twelve years in all. In politics 
he has been a Republican since that party has existed. 
Mr. Evans has had an honorable career as a merchant, 
in which he has been successful, and is highly esteemed 
by the community in which he has always resided for 


He is a son of 


rst Dist.] 


strict integrity in all business transactions. In the set- 
tlement of his father’s estate, Mr. Evans received as his 
share something less than three hundred dollars in cash, 
and this is all the capital he had, except what he had 
earned, upon which to begin business. The real estate 
left to him has never been touched, and remains to-day 


intact, it never having been a source of income. 


—>-490-<— 
CAV AILING, DOCTOR WALTER, was born in Mont- 
tt gomery County, New York, June 7, 1820. He 
Se is of German descent, and his paternal grand- 
‘2s® mother was the niece of General Herkimer, of 
Revolutionary fame. He attended the common schools 
of the period until he was thirteen years of age. He 
then gave the next twenty years of his life to the study 
of medicine and the business of an apothecary, spend- 
ing a good part of the time in New York City, where 
he attended lectures in the Medical Department of the 
University of the City of New York. 
of the medical society of that state. He first began 
the practice of medicine, near Watertown. He was mar- 
ried to Miss Caroline Holmes, of Ontario County, in 
1852, and soon after—some time in 1856—removed to 
Madison, Wisconsin. After the breaking out of the 
Rebellion, he returned to New York, entered the serv- 
ice of the United States, and was mustered into the 
service as surgeon of the 80th Regiment United States 
colored troops, which was commanded by the late 
lamented Colonél Cyrus Hamlin, son of the Vice-pres- 
ident of the United States. He was detailed for duty 
on the ‘*Red River Expedition,” under General Banks, 
and afterwards had charge of a hospital boat, where his 
responsibilities were great and his duties required much 
skill and executive ability, there being nearly a thou- 
sand men on board. This was after the retreat of Gen- 
eral Banks to Grand Ecore, Louisiana. Great as were 
the cares and responsibilities of Doctor Failing in this 
unfortunate expedition, with so vast a number of sick 
and wounded to look after, he acquitted himself so well 
that he was twice breveted for meritorious services. In 
1865 he returned to Watertown, New York, on fur- 
lough, to visit his family, expecting to be discharged 
from the service. 


duty as medical purveyor at the depot at Shreveport, 
. ‘, . . 
Louisiana. After turning over the medical stores and 


property to the proper authorities at New Orleans, he | 


was sent to take charge of the post at Alexandria, Lou- 
isiana, and was honorably discharged from the service 
in 1867, after which he removed to Rockport, Indiana. 
His wife died near Geneva, New York, while on a visit 
_to her parents, on the ninth day of February, 1866, since 
which time he has lived in Evansville, Indiana, where 
he is now engaged in discharging the duties of his pro- 


He is a member’ 


But he was recalled, and assigned to | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| 


| 


|ing the destiny of young Benoni. 


21 


fession. Doctor Failing is modest and retiring in his 
disposition. He has fine literary tastes, and is very fond 
of general literature, devoting nearly all his spare time 
to books. He is also a very fine elocutionist, an excel- 
lent conversationalist, and has social qualities of a very 
high order.- He is a good writer, and has made the 
study of the meaning and origin of words a specialty. 
He has written a series of articles for the public press 
on these topics, in which he has ably shown the solid- 
ity and piquancy of our language. He sometimes gives 
dramatic readings to a private circle of literary friends, 
and displays much talent, both in comedy and tragedy. 
Doctor Failing is very affectionate, and strongly attached 
to his children, all of whom are now grown men and 
women, and live in New York. He is about medium 
size, has a fine physique, indicating longevity; an intel- 
lectual head and face, and genial manners. He is, in 
short, a gentleman of culture, whose society is sought 
by the learned and good of every community in which 
he has lived. 
—+-40t6-<— 


Ge 
P| ULLER, BENONI STINSON, of Boonville, was 
1825. Isham Fuller, his father, was a mechanic 
and well-to-do farmer, who was born in North 


4 born in Warrick County, Indiana, November Bn 
Carolina, and came to Indiana in 1816, then a howling 


wilderness. He was a representative man in many par- 
ticulars, and his career finally became more public than 
private. He was a close student, a critical historian, 
and a very careful investigator of the Scriptures. He 
was passionately fond of studying the Bible and history, 
and, being a good convyersationalist as well as a public 
speaker, he was often sought out by his many friends 
and acquaintances for his opinions on these and kindred 
subjects. He was a strong, well-built, athletic man 
physically, but a very peaceable and quiet citizen. He 
seemed destined to filla niche in the history of his adopted 
He 
was a member of the Legislature six consecutive years. 
This was during the critical period when repudiation 
of the state debt was freely talked of, between the years 
1842-48. He was born in 1798, and died February 14, 
1856. His wife came also from North Carolina soon 
after her husband did. She likewise did much in shap- 
His worth has been 
largely due to the training of that loving hand. She 
was very devout, and the impressions she then made 
were on a mind that did not forget her sympathy and 
tenderness. Mr. Fuller, as a son of pioneer parents, 
had few advantages for securing an education; but he 
had energy and industry, and soon mastered the rudi- 
ments. A few short months in the log-cabin college 
each winter were the sum total of his early advantages ; 
but he did much reading outside. Before he was 


state, and did her good service at various times. 


22 


twenty-one we find him in the school-room as teacher, 


which of itself speaks for the way in which he spent | 
When a boy he did any thing for a living— | 


his time. 
cut wood, mauled rails, burned brush, cleared land, and 
did all other farm work incident to pioneer life. His 
father gave him his time before he became of age, and 
he used it apparently to good advantage. He worked 
at home or abroad, by the day or month, and was care- 
ful to husband his means and prepare himself for the 
future. His public life began when he was about thirty 
years old. At this time he was elected sheriff of the 
county, and served two terms, from 1857 to 1861. In 
1862, during the beginning of troubles with the South, 
he was deemed a fit man to be trusted, and was sent to 
the state Senate. After this he was elected twice to 
the Lower House, once in 1866 and again in 1868. The 
last time he served he was unanimously nominated 
president by the Democratic caucus of its members. In 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


1872 he was elected again state Senator; in 1874 was | 


chosen Congressman, over Heilman, and again elected to 
the same position in 1876. 
nation. It is but fair to say he never sought office— 
and when thrust upon him by his party he resorted to 
no tricks in demagogy for votes. Mr. Fuller is yet 
comparatively a young man, although he has filled so 
many important positions. He has left the political 
field and found a retreat from public life on his farm 
near Boonville, quietly enjoying seclusion and rest. 
He is a man of considerable culture, possesses a fine 
physique, and has nerve and energy as a speaker. He 
is greatly admired for his many fine qualities of head 
and heart, and as a man and citizen is much respected 
and loved by his neighbors. 


$00 — 
| 


i(s 


La 
\ 


ILBERT, JOHN, vice-president of the Merchants’ 
National Bank, of Evansville, was born in Chester 
County, Pennsylvania, in 1818. His ancestors were 
among the first settlers of New England, having 

arrived there with the Puritan fathers in the early part 

of the seventeenth century. His great-grandfather was 
one of the first to enlist in the Revolutionary army, and 
was killed at Breed’s Hill, the first battle of the war. 

John Gilbert, while a child, removed with his father’s 

family to a farm about forty miles west of Colum- 

bus, Ohio, where he lived until he was about eight- 
een years old. 


<— 


(P 


His school advantages were very meager, 
having been confined to such as could be obtained in 
three winters’ attendance of a common school in a newly 
developed country. It remained, therefore, with him- 
self to obtain such instruction as he could by reading 
and studying during leisure hours, and by the time he 
had grown to manhood he had acquired what is con- 


sidered an ordinary common school education. In-1836 | 


In 1878 he declined renomi- | 


| New Orleans Packet Company while it existed. 


[zs¢ Dest. 


he left his father’s farm, and traveled through the West- 
ern States in the employ of the American Fur Company 
for two years; after which he settled at Golconda, 
Illinois, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he 
continued successfully for twenty years. He then em- 
barked in the steamboat business on the Ohio River, 
and has since been prominently identified with steam- 
boat interests on various rivers of the West. After the 
close of the Civil War he organized the Evansville and 
Tennessee River Packet Company, and started the first 
boat on the line from Evansville to Florence, Alabama. 
This line has ever since made weekly trips between the 
two points. Mr. Gilbert has been connected with the 
Evansville and Cairo line of steamboats since its organ- 
ization, and was largely interested in the Evansville and 
His 
vessel interests being centered principally at Evansville, 
he removed there in 1872, and has since been identified 
with the various interests of that city. He was one of 
the originators of the Citizens’ Insurance Company, 
of which he is now-vice-president. He is a stockholder 
of the Evansville Land Association, vice-president and 
treasurer of the Evansville Street Railway Company, 
and vice-president of the Merchants’ National Bank. 
Previous- to his removal from Golconda, Illinois, he 
held the office of mayor of that city. Since his con- 
nection with steamboat matters he has had built, either 
for himself or for the companies he represented, a num- 
ber of steamboats for the river trade, prominent among 
which are the ‘*W. A. Johnson” and ‘Silver Cloud,” 
constructed by Marine Ways of Cincinnati, and the 
‘‘Tdlewild” and ‘*Red Cloud,” built by the Howards, 
of Louisville. The ‘‘Idlewild” is regarded as the 
fastest and most perfect steamboat of her size on West- 
ern waters. During his residence in Evansville Mr. 
Gilbert has been one of her most enterprising business 
men and public-spirited citizens. He has, by his energy 
and attention to affairs, acquired a competence, and 
obtained the esteem and confidence of all with whom 
he has had either business or social relations. Mr. Gil- 
bert has been a stanch Republican ever since that party 
has had an existence. He was married, in January, 
1842, to Miss Cornelia A. Bucklin, a native of Rhode 
Island. They have five children, the youngest of whom, 
a son, is sixteen years of age. 


——>-3006->— 


NILBERT, SAMUEL EPAPHRODITUS, son of 
SV Hon. Peyton Randolph and Anna (Porter) Gilbert, 
ep) and grandson of Colonel Samuel Gilbert, who so 
ile nobly earned his title of colonel during the Revo- 
lutionary War, was born in Hebron, Tolland County, 
Connecticut, on December 9, 1821, being the youngest * 
son of a family of three daughters and five sons. His 


fy 
I/ 


ist Dist. 


eldest brother, Rey. Edwin Kandolph Gilbert, was a 
graduate of Yale College, and soon after finishing its 
theological course was chosen pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Church of Wallingford, Connecticut, remaining in 
charge of it for more than forty-two years, and until 
his death. From his infancy his parents had desired 
that their youngest son should also go through Yale 
College and be a minister, but told him that he could, 
of course, make his own choice of a vocation. He pre- 
ferred being a farmer, as his father and two brothers 
had been before him. His education was obtained at 
the district schools at home, and from a course at Bacon 
Academy, at Colchester, Connecticut; directly after 
finishing which he, before he was sixteen years old, 
began teaching a district school in the adjoining town 
of Bolton, having several boy scholars as old as himself, 
a fact which was not especially gratifying to him, as he 
ascertained that they had ‘‘ turned out ” their teacher the 
previous winter; and it was a great satisfaction to him 
to know, when his term closed, that he had not experi- 
enced the same fate. He taught also the two succeed- 
ing winters, working on his father’s farm the remainder 
of the time. In the autumn of 1840 his brother, Charles 
A. Gilbert, four years his senior, then in the hay and 
grain business in Mobile, Alabama, wrote to him, 
urging Samuel to come immediately to that city. He 
did so, and acted as clerk for his brother three years, 
and was then in partnership with him for seven years. 
During this time they continued the hay and grain busi- 
ness, but had added to it a line of steamers running be- 
tween Mobile and New Orleans, building, in 1843-44, 
the ‘Montezuma,” and in subsequent years the 
“Mobile” and the “St. Charles.” These ‘‘two boys,” 
for such they were comparatively, had started with fif- 
teen hundred dollars, given to each when of age by 
their father, and this was all the capital either then had, 
except what little they had been able to make; and, as 
they had then for several years paid all their own ex- 
penses, the sum saved was small. It can readily be 
seen, therefore, that to carry on the above two lines of 
business by themselves (as they never had any partner) 
required clear heads and very careful financiering ; but 
they had the satisfaction during all this time of paying 


every obligation at maturity, and each succeeding year | 


making their business more profitable than the preceding. 
In the summer of 1850 they sold their entire steamboat 
interests, at a round profit, to the Mobile and New Or- 
leans Mail Line Company. His health having become 
somewhat impaired by the climate or overwork, or both, 
the younger brother decided to remove North, and after 
examination fixed on Evansville, Indiana, as his future 
location, judging that, though then a very small city, 
its future prospects were good; and he with his wife and 
their little son, Frank Manson, moved to Evansville in 
November, 1850. And here he experienced his first 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


24 


great loss, when, after nearly four years of happy wedded 
life, his beloved wife, Cordelia Frances, daughter of 
Lewis C. Manson, Esq., of New Orleans, Louisiana, sud- 
denly died, on. November 7, 1850. She was a skillful per- 
former on the harp and piano, and a beautiful, lovely, 
and estimable woman. Having resolved when they sold 
their line in Mobile never to own in steamboats again, 
and thinking Evansville then too small a place for the 
hay and grain trade, he had to seek a new business; and, 
though he had no experience whatever in the grocery 
line, still, believing, as he did, that a man can learn 
any thing if he will apply himself, he decided to do a 
wholesale grocery business, and opened such a store in 
December, 1850, carrying it on for seven years without 
any partner, after which he had two in succession, to 
whom he gave an interest, though always furnishing all 
the capital himself. His business increased almost every 
year from the beginning. He always did all the buying 
for the house, and most of the profits were derived from 
purchasing largely of such articles as he thought likely 
to advance. In some cases he bought what he estimated 
to be from one year to three years’ stock of some goods 
which he thought sure to increase in price. Finding 
in 1865 that their business required a larger store, he 
bought seventy-five by one hundred and fifty feet of 
ground on First Street, below Sycamore—though it did 
not then appear to have entered the mind of any one 
except himself that the wholesale business could ever 
go below Sycamore Street—and the next year covered 
his ground with three four-story buildings, the largest 
then in the city. It was evidently thought favorably 
of, however, as one after another purchased land near 
him, and in less than five years that whole square was 
covered with four-story buildings, and also about two- 
thirds of the square next farthest away from the former 
In 1873, after thirty-three years of 
active mercantile life, he had made what he regarded as 
an ample competence, and quitted the mercantile busi- 


wholesale business. 


ness, resolving to have that ‘‘easier time’? to which he 
had so long looked forward, and which he is now (1880) 
enjoying. He has never had any love or desire for polit- 
ical life, nor any hankering after office, preferring always 
to attend to his own business and let every body else do 
On December 7, 1852, he married Miss Mary 
Jane Mackey, a native of Evansville, by whom he had 
two children, David Mackey and Ida Anna, both of 
whom are still living. The daughter has fine powers as 
a singer. She was married to Mr. S, R. Ward, of New- 
ark, New Jersey, on February 3, 1880. Both her parents 
have always been very fond of music. Her mother was 
a member of the Walnut Street Church choir, of Evans- 
ville, from her early girlhood until a few years ago, and 
her father, the subject of this sketch, joined that choir 
in 1851, and has all the time since been one of its active 
members. He takes much pleasure in stating that dur- 


the same. 


24 REPRESENTATIVE 


ing these twenty-nine years there has never been a single 


dispute a 
fact, as it is known that these musical bodies are quite 
too noted for their quarrels. Mr. Gilbert stands high 
as a business man in Evansville, and his sterling worth, 
straightforward manner of doing business, social and 
genial ways, have won for him a host of friends, and 
give him a position among the most prominent men of 
his adopted city. 
—-90@~<—_ 


AAS, DOCTOR ISAIAH, dentist, of Evansville, 
was born at Newark, Ohio, February 22, 1829. 
He is the eldest son of Adam Haas, a native of 
Virginia, born December 25, 1798, who, in early 
manhood, removed to Newark, Ohio, thence to Dela- 
ware County, Ohio, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. 
In 1845 he removed to Wabash, Indiana, and was a 
merchant there until 1860. Isaiah Haas received a fair 
common school education, and then entered his father’s 
store as clerk and bookkeeper. In 1845, when the 
Morse electric telegraph was being extended westward, 
an office was opened above his father’s store, and he 
was induced to learn telegraphy. He entered into the 
work with enthusiasm, and with ten days’ 
became qualified to attend to all the duties of the office, 
including receiving and sending dispatches, managing 
the batteries, and many of the principles of electric tele- 
graphy. After conducting this office for a short time, he 
acquired the art of reading communications over the 
wires by the faintest murmurings of the instrument. 
His great skill coming to the knowledge of Ezra Cor- 


instruction 


nell, Esq., of Ithaca, New York, afterwards the founder | 


of Cornell University, he, then only twenty-two years of 
age, was appointed superintendent of the long telegraph 
line running in and through the states of Ohio. Indiana, 
and Ilinois, which had been leased by Mr. Cornell. 
This position he held for the next two or three years, 
and so successfully managed the affairs connected with 
it as to receive many flattering letters of commendation 
from Mr. Cornell. While engaged in telegraphing, his 
attention was attracted to the profession of dentistry, 
and, having a decided taste in that direction, he re- 
solved to fit himself for that profession. He studied 
under the tuition of Professor A. M. Moore, of Lafay- 
ette, Indiana, and Professor Samuel Wardle, of Cincin- 
Ohio, both eminent dentists, and settled down to 
practice at Lafayette, Indiana. 
meeting with excellent success, until 


nati, 
He continued there, 
1859. In the 
early part of that year, while on his way to make a visit 
to the South, with his wife and child he was detained 
two. days at Evansville, on account of low water in the 
river, and was induced by some of his old friends resid- 
ing there to make Evansville his future bome. 
few weeks he removed thither, 


In a 
opened an office, and, 


MEN OF INDIANA. [zst Dist. 
as his reputation was even then wide-spread, he at once 
received a large and lucrative patronage. Enthusiastic 
in his profession, and ambitious to place himself fore- 
most in its front ranks, he gaye to it his earnest study, . 
exercised his ingenuity in the invention of various instru- 
ments and appliances for the aid of dental surgery, suc- 
cessfully undertook the treatment of cases which had 
defied the skill of others eminent in the profession, and 
accomplished some of the most difficult and delicate 
operations that have ever been undertaken. The inva- 
riable success that attended his labors gave him in due 
time a reputation second to no dentist in the country, 
and the fact that people come to him at Evansville from 
almost every Western and South-western State, and from 
as far east as New York City and Washington, District 
of Columbia, while people who have removed from 
Evansville have returned great distances for this pur- 
pose, is evidence of the eminence he has attained. Be- 
lieving that the science of medicine would prove of 
great benefit to him in dentistry, he has given to it much. 


study, and has some reputation as a surgeon. For seven 


; years he assisted Professor M. J. Bray, the most emi- 


nent surgeon in Evansville, in all his surgical operations ; 
and Professor Bray states that Doctor Haas has no su- 
perior as an assistant surgeon in the state of Indiana. 
Recognizing his eminent ability both in his own profes- 
sion and in that of medicine, the faculty of Evansville 
Medical College invited him to deliver a series of lec- 
tures before the college during the sessions of 1879 and 
1880. 
and advancement of dentistry, he never secured patents 
upon them, believing that the profession should have 
the free use of any appliances or discoveries made by 
any of its members. Doctor Haas takes some pride in 
the fact that, during his twenty-five years of practice, 
fifteen students have graduated from his office, under 
his instruction, and are now established in various parts 
of the West and South, successfully engaged in the 
For many years Doctor Haas has 
been one of the most prominent members of the Ma- 
sonic Fraternity in the state of Indiana. He has been 
successively elected master of Evansville Lodge, No. 64, 
has been an officer of the Grand Lodge of the state, dis- 
trict deputy master, and district deputy lecturer for each 
for several years, and is distinguished among Masons 
throughout the state for his knowledge of Masonic law 
and landmarks. Doctor Haas was first married, in 
1852, to Miss Adaline McHenry, of Vincennes, Indiana, 
who early fell a victim to consumption. Two children 
born to them died in childhood. In 1857 he was mar- 
ried to Miss Sarah K. McHenry, a sister of his first wife, 
by whom he has seven children, five sons and two 
daughters, 


While he has made various inventions in the aid 


practice of dentistry. 


Doctor Haas, while eminent in his profes- 
sion, is a man of varied acquirements, of fine zsthetic 
taste and culture, has done much reading in general 


ist Dist.] REPRESENTATIVE 
literature, is of a genial and social nature, and pos- 
sesses the esteem and confidence of all with whom he 
has either business, professional, or social relations. 


—+-40t-o— 
OH fowett, MASON J., was born in Woodford 
T County, Kentucky, August 1, 1795. When he 
was five years of age his father eed south of Green 
oY River, to what is now Hopkins County, where he 
died. Shortly after his death his mother married Col- 
onel Hugh McGeary, who kept a hotel at Red Banks, 
now Henderson. In 1812 Mason volunteered, upon the 
call of the Governor of that state for troops to march 
to the relief of the North-west Territory against the 
British and Indians, and served through the war. In 
1816 he came to Spencer County, Indiana, and was mar- 
ried, in the same year, to Miss Nellie Rodgers, of 
Owensboro, Kentucky. Mason Howell served a number 
of years as colonel of the militia, many years as Justice 
of the Peace, and also a number of years as register of 
the land office at Jeffersonville, Indiana. For a long 
» time he served in succession the people in the Upper 
and Lower Houses of the Legislature. In 1854 Governor 
Wright appointed Colonel Howell commissioner of 
swamp lands in Spencer County, and at one time he was 
elected county judge by a union of all parties. Colonel 
Howell was a good man; high-principled and honorable, 
and his death was deeply regretted. tt occurred Octo- 
ber 17, 1875, at the residence of his granddaughter, 
Mrs. George Graff, in Spencer County. 


—+- Gate — 


ICKS, R. S., founder of the Democrat, of Rock- 
port, was born at Patriot, Switzerland County, In- 
diana, April 12, 1825. At the age of nine years 
he was given to an uncle, who took him to the 
Wea Plains, in Tippecanoe County, where he remained 
on a farm until the autumn of 1839, when his uncle re- 
turned to Patriot. From that time to the fall of 1842 
he was a drayman in that place. In 1842 his father 
took him to Franklin, Johnson County, and put him in 
the office under Captain David Allen, then clerk of that 
county, where he remained until the death of Captain 
Allen, in Mexico, in 1846, with the exception of nine 
months in which he taught district schools. It was in 
the clerk’s office that Mr. Hicks secured, through the 
aid of the county library, all the education he ever re- 
ceived, After the death of Captain Allen he became 
the deputy clerk under Isaac Jones, who shortly after 
his appointment also died. Upon this happening Mr. 
Hicks was made clerk of the county, under appoint- 

ment, and then deputy under the elected clerk, Jacob 

Sibert, Esq. In 1851 he was elected’ Justice of the 


MEN OF INDIANA, 25 
Peace, at Franklin, and served eighteen months. In 
1852 he was elected Representative from that county 
to the Legislature, and in the spring of 1853, upon the 
unanimous recommendation of his fellow members of 
the Legislature, received an appointment as clerk in the 
pension office at Washington, under President Pierce, 
but, owing to sickness in his family, returned to Indi- 
ana the following autumn, and was appointed deputy 
auditor of state, under Major John P. Dunn, where he 
remained until the establishment of the Democrat. He 
served for four sessions of the Legislature as assistant 
clerk in the Senate and House of Representatives, 
in the years 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1855. In 1856 he 
was elected clerk of Spencer County, and re-elected in 
1860, serving in that capacity continuously eight years. 
After his second term of office expired, March 1, 1865, 
he engaged in the practice of law, and still pursues 
that noble profession. In April, 1877, in connection 
with his son, Charles A. Hicks, he established the Rock- 
port weekly Gazette, and has by prudence, diligence, and 
good conduct, made it a successful and honorable Dem- 
ocratic newspaper, the exponent of a cultivated constit- 
uency throughout Spencer County. 


—+-4206--— 


UDSPETH, THOMAS JACKSON, of Boonville, 
was born April 16, 1819, in Warren County, Ken- 
Thomas, his father, was born in Virginia 

ae) about 1793. He first moved to Kentucky, and 
from there removed to Indiana while it was a territory; 


but, having some difficulty with the Indians, he went 
back to Kentucky, and in the year 1825 removed to 
Indiana, where he lived at his home in Warrick County 
until his death, about-the year 1857. Thomas Hud- 
speth was for several years a sheriff of the county, and 
was also elected county treasurer two or three different 
times, and was also a Justice of the Peace several times. 
He was a man who strongly favored a strict observance 
of abstinence, although in those days it was customary 
to-have whisky as well as water at all public gatherings. 
He had the moral courage to refuse it even at log-roll- 
ings, although he knew that by so doing he would 
bring down the jeers and scoffs of his neighbors. He 
thus lived and died, and left for his children an ex- 
ample of the beauty of a well-controlled life. His 
mother was a Boone, cousin of Ratliffe Boone, who was 
for a number of years Congressman of this district. 
She, like her husband, was very careful, in the rearing 
of her children, to teach them temperance and morality 
in all things. She died at the age of seventy, about 
five years after her husband’s death. Thomas Jackson, 
the subject of this sketch, spent most of his days in this 
county, coming here when a child, and having remained 
during his life. His history is synonymous with the 


26 


growth and development of Boonville. His carly life 
was spent in the rugged wear and tear of pioneer civil- 
ization. He had practically no advantages of schooling, 
for to be three months each year on a slab bench, with 
slate in hand, was hardly proof against the forgetfulness 
of the other nine—clearing lands, burning brush, and 
-doing hard manual labor. The cadre exercised in pro- 
viding a family with the sustenance of life, in those 
days of general scarcity, was considerable; so that old 
settlers who weathered through and built up for them- 
selves comfortable, pleasant homes, as Mr. Hudspeth 
has done, deserve appreciative notice for having been a 
blessing to their neighbors and the country as well as them- 
selves. Mr. Hudspeth began life for himself as a dry- 
goods merchant about the year 1843, and has continued in 
that business ever since. He has been successful in his 
enterprises and has done much towards the general wel- 
fare of his town. He built the second brick store- 
house ever put up in Boonville, and afterwards built the 
large tobacco warehouse, three other store-houses, and 
two large flouring-mills, one of which was burned down 
in 1859. He has also built other houses, but of less 
magnitude. Mr. Hudspeth has been married twice, the 
first time to Mrs. Edwards, of Tennessee. She was a 
woman highly spoken of by those who knew her, and 
was regarded as one of the most exemplary women of the 


whole country. She was a member of the Methodist 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Episcopal Church, and was always doing good both in | 


and out of season. During the late Civil War she and 
Mr. Hudspeth both contributed largely and freely to the 
soldiers’ wives, with food, clothing, and so on. Their 
house was a refuge for them, and there they often went. 
Mr. Hudspeth himself furnished them clothing and other 
things from his own store for a long time upon credit, 
not knowing how the war would terminate, and this, 
too, under circumstances very embarrassing to himself 
financially. At that time he was again starting in busi- 
ness, and while he had credit himself he had but little 
means of his own; however, notwithstanding this fact, 
the soldiers’ wives, not being able to get goods on trust 
at any other store in the town, flocked in swarms to 
him, and were never dismissed without getting what 
they wanted. Fortunately, in the course of time they 
received money, and most of them paid up, and Mr. 
Hudspeth was saved in his business. During the war 


he loudly advocated Union principles, and for so doing | 


many times received abuse. 
on the wayside. Several attempts were made to take 
his life, and even pistols clicked in his face, but while 
he was always a fearless and daring man, he always 
came out unscathed. His brothers, three in number, 
have been in different ways and times connected with 
him in business. They were a loving quartet, never 
having had an unkind word. They kept no account 


among themselves, but shared their gains and losses 


[zst Dost. 


equally. To this day they have had no settlement, and 
probably never will have, although they have handled 
money by the tens of thousands. These brothers are 
known East and West. Mr. Hudspeth has, however, 
suffered financially to a great extent by others, through 
misplaced confidence when trying to help them. 


—-4at@-o-— 

Ais 

INGLE, JOHN, junior, of Evansville, late president 
| of the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad Com- 
aN pany, was born in Somersham, Huntingdonshire, 
x3 England, January 29,1812. His father, John Ingle, 
senior, was born at the same place, in 1788, and came 
to America in 1818, arriving at Evansville in August of 
that year. He bought a farm in Scott Township, at a 
place now known as Inglefield, and was appointed post- 
master of the township by President Monroe, retaining 
that office for over forty-five years. He died in 1874, 
at the advanced age of eighty-six years. John Ingle, 
junior, was his eldest son. At the age of twelve he 
attended the common schools of Princeton, Indiana, 
remaining a year and a half. He served an apprentice- 
ship at the trade of cabinet-maker, partly at Princeton 
and partly at Stringtown, and in 1833 started South. 
He worked at his trade at Vicksburg, Mississippi, New 
Orleans, and Philadelphia. He toiled ten hours a day; 
and, having determined to become a lawyer, he devoted 
all his leisure time to the study of law in the office of 


| Thomas Armstrong, afterwards eminent for his legal 


attainments. Ile had as fellow-students George R. 
Graham, afterwards editor of Graham’s Magazine, and 
Charles J. Peterson, since publisher of Peterson’s Ladies’ 
Magazine. He was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia 
in March, 1838, and soon after removed to Evansville, 
Indiana, where he opened an office with Hon. James 
Lockhart. This partnership continued for a year, 
when Mr. Ingle became associated with Charles I. Bat- 
tel, and secured and retained a large practice. He 
became popular as an attorney, and acquired a high 
reputation as a leading lawyer. In 1846 he formed a 
partnership with E. Q. Wheeler; and, three years later, 
Asa Iglehart was admitted as junior member of the firm. 
In 1850 Mr. Ingle retired from practice to take the man- 


agement of the construction of the Evansville and 


He himself was watched | 


Crawfordsville Railroad, of which he was one of the 
originators. Evansville was then a small place. and, the 
Wabash and Erie Canal project having failed, the fu- 
ture of the city depended upon the construction of a 
railroad line which should afford direct and quick com- 
munication with northern points; and it was evident to 
the leading citizens that this must be done immediately. 
Mr. Ingle determined to take hold of the enterprise and 
to carry it forward to completion. The city issued 
bonds to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, 


rst Dist.J 


and the county raised an equal amount, and with these 
as collateral sufficient money was obtained to complete 
the road to Princeton, and it was soon in active opera- 
tion. Mr. Ingle first acted as superintendent of the 
railroad, and proved himself a skillful manager, an able 
financier, and a man of unusual executive abilities. He 
was soon after chosen by the directors as president. 
This office he held until 1873, when, on account of ill- 
health, he resigned. He died October 7, 1875. The 
construction of this road was very largely due to the in- 
domitable perseverance of Mr. Ingle, who, with many 
perplexing trials and discouragements, labored to bring 
it to a successful completion. The labor was so severe 
as to injure his health, and for two years before his 
death he was unable to do much active business. He 
will long be remembered in Evansville as one of her 
most enterprising citizens, who accomplished as much 
for her future prosperity as any other one man. He 
was married, at Madison, Indiana, in 1842, to Miss Isa- 
bella C. Davidson, daughter of William Davidson, of 
Scotland. Seven children are the fruits of this union, 
all of whom are living. 


+400 — 


: LRWIN, JOSEPH W., a prominent physician and 
Al’ surgeon of Evansville, Vanderburg County, Indi- 
J\ ana, was born February 3, 1850, in the parish of 
1 Killymard, county of Donegal, Treland. 
the youngest son of Francis and Isabella Irwin, whose 
maiden name was Wark, who were of Scotch and En- 
glish ancestry. The rudiments of his education were ob- 
tained in the national schools of his native place, after 
which he was sent to a private school, and finally en- 
tered upon a course of higher studies in the University 
of Dublin. His advantages for knowledge were now 
greatly increased. He became a diligent student, and 
so earnestly did he apply himself to his books that in 
consequence his health became somewhat impaired, and 
he began to show signs of debility. Having become 
thoroughly acquainted with the history of the United 
States, he felt a longing desire to see a land of which 
he had read so much, and with the consent of his par- 
ents he determined to try his fortune in America, 
though but a lad of seventeen. He took passage for 
New York April 19, 1867, and the 3d of May following 
he arrived in that city, after a pleasant voyage of four- 
teen days. He then proceeded to Pennsylvania, and 
thence to Indiana, where he had relatives. He was fa- 
vorably impressed with the climate and country, and 
especially with its commercial advantages, and was not 
long in deciding that Indiana should be his future home. 
He took a course of business training at a commer- 
cial college in Evansville, with the intention of engag- 
ing in commercial pursuits, but having in the mean 


He was 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


27 


time become acquainted with a Doctor Runcie, a 
prominent and successful physician in the city of 
Evansville, he was prevailed upon by him to commence 
the study of medicine. This was a new idea for our 
young student, as his early tastes and inclinations had 
been toward the legal profession; but, being urged by 
Doctor Runcie to take the step, he changed his idea of 
a commercial life, and entered the doctor’s office in 
August, 1868. Here he devoted himself earnestly to 
the study of medicine, in which he soon became deeply 
interested, and in three years’ time he was conversant 
with the practice as well as with the theory of medicine. 
In August, 1871, he entered Jefferson Medical College, 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here he soon became 
known as the ablest student of his class, and was ap- 
pointed its chairman. Two years later he was ap- 
pointed chairman of the graduating class, consisting of 
one hundred and fifty-one members, among which were 
students from thirty-eight different states and countries. 
This class was graduated March 12, 1873. After receiv- 
ing his diploma he returned to his adopted place, the 
city of Evansville, and entered into a copartnership with 
his preceptor. After eighteen months of successful 
practice, this connection was dissolved by the ill-health 
of Doctor Runcie, which resulted in his death a few 
months later. Our young physician had already estab- 
lished the reputation of being a successful and skillful 
practitioner, and was rewarded with a large and lucra- 
tive business from the beginning. This has steadily in- 
creased up to the present time, until it is generally con- 
ceded that his practice is as large as any physician’s in 
the city. This has been brought about by close appli- 
cation to business, constant study, and the faculty to 
readily diagnose a case. His services are sought after 
in the surrounding portions of Illinois, Kentucky, and 
several adjoining states. Not only does he enjoy the 
reputation of being a skilled physician among his pa- 
tients, but the fraternity recognize in him an able 
counselor, and a gentleman of high culture and attain- 
ments, He was the first physician to remove a cata- 
ract by extraction, and the first to perform the op- 
eration of lithotrity in the city of Evansville. He is 
a member of the Alumni Association of Jefferson Medi- 
cal College and Vanderburg County (Indiana) Medical 
Society, and is also a Mason. His religious views con- 
cur with the doctrines and teachings of the Episcopal 
Church. In politics he has ever taken an active part, 
but not more than a good citizen ought to show. He 
hag always voted the Republican ticket since becoming 
a naturalized citizen of the United States. He takes a 
lively interest in the growth and prosperity of Evans- 
ville, and contributes to all public improvements. . As a 
citizen Doctor Irwin has been successful in gaining the 
confidence and esteem of all who know him, by an ear- 


nest, upright, and manly life. He is a gentleman of 


28 


fine appearance, quiet and unostentatious in his de- 
meanor, yet affable and pleasing in his conversation. 
He is yet a young man, being in his thirty-first year, 
and we predict for him a long life, full of usefulness 
and much prosperity. He was married, May 28, 1879, 
to Miss Stella Idalette, daughter of Rev. D. D. Mather, 
of Fostoria, Ohio; but the happy union was early 
brought to a close by the sudden death of Mrs. Irwin, 
on the 11th of July following, by the accidental dis- 
charge of a pistol in her own hands. 


— Ste: 


CY. 
oy Rena ROBERT TRUE, of Rockport, 


Ne born in Campbell (now Kenton) County, 
ie 


Kentucky, April 3, 1824. His grandfather Ker- 

cheval was a tenant on one of General Washing- 
ton’s farms. His son, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, was a native of Culpepper County, Virginia. 
He removed to Mason County, Kentucky, and when 
quite young was married to Miss Longly. Of the four 
children who were the issue of this marriage, but one, 
Mrs. Julia Threlkeld, the eldest of the family, survives. 
She is now living in Kansas City, Missouri. The second 
marriage was to Miss Ann Dicken, of Culpepper County, 
Virginia. Fourteen children, five sons and nine daugh- 
ters, were born to them, making eighteen children in 
all. Robert True, the youngest son by the last mar- 
riage, never saw his step-sister, Mrs. Threlkeld, until he 
was thirty-five years old, when by accident he was intro- 
duced by her own daughter. One brother of Mr. Ker- 
cheval lives in Cincinnati, and is a prominent merchant 
Mr. Kercheval’s maternal grandfather, 
Dicken, came to Kentucky at an early day, and his 
family was one of the five original ones which settled 
in Campbell County. He was a Revolutionary soldier, 
and served from the beginning till the close of hostili- 
ties. His own father was in the War of 1812. He was 
born in 1784, married to Miss Ann Dicken in 1811, 
and died in 1839, at the age of fifty-five years. He had 
been an anti-slavery man during his life, and those 
principles were inherited by his children. It is useless 
to remark that they were all Union men. Mr. Dicken 
conveyed by deed a negress to his daughter when she 
was married; but Mr. Kercheval released her from the 
bonds of servitude immediately, although she remained 
ever afterward as one of the family, and until the par- 
ents were both dead and the children grown up and 
scattered. She is still living, and at this time is very 
aged. At the time Mr. Kercheval came to Campbell 
County, Cincinnati only contained three thousand inhab- 
itants. The subject of our sketch, Robert True Ker- 
cheval, had no particular advantages in beginning life. 
His father was poor, the country was thinly settled, and 
there were no educational facilities save a log school-house, 


of that city. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OL INDIANA. 


.tuffians. 


[zst Dost. 


three miles off, in a deep ravine, into which only the 
midday sun could penetrate. Here for a few winters, 
for three months only each year before attaining the 
age of twelve, he was permitted to attend school, and 
learn to read and cipher. He remained at home until 
he was seventeen years old, when he apprenticed him- 
self to a blacksmith, to learn that trade, remaining in 
that business for twelve years. In 1847 he was married 
to Miss Ann Silverthorn, of Accomack County, Virginia, 
and continued working at his trade until 1853, when he 
moved to Spencer County, Indiana, and there taught 
school for four years succeeding, having during his 
previous leisure hours in years preceding so utilized his 
spare moments as to thoroughly ground himself in the 
principles underlying an education. After this he was 
elected Justice of the Peace, and served in that capacity 
for four years. During this time, while teaching, he 
studied law, and practiced with General Veatch five 
years. In 1861 he was given a position as route agent 
between Louisville and Cairo, and was assigned to duty 
between Evansville, Indiana, and Cairo, Illinois, The 
appointment was made through solicitation of his friends, 
and was unexpected to him. This was in April, 1861. 
In the latter part of that same year he was made 
an agent of the Treasury Department, and held both 
commissions until 1864—an official fact, probably, not 
to be found elsewhere in the archives of the govern- 
ment. 
ice of the government, for such he was in truth, he had 


For three years, as an officer in the secret sery- 


many experiences, and met with many thrilling adven- 
tures. We can give here but faint ideas of such a 
stirring period in his life. In these three years an age 
was condensed, it being continually replete with astound- 
ing events. His services to the government were of in- 
calculable benefit, situated as he was on the border line 
of rebeldom. Probably more information was given to 
the authorities at Washington of the enemy, its forces, 
movements, etc., through agencies known only and 
subservient to him, different in character and pur- 
pose, than from any other one source. His boat, 
known as the ‘Floating Battery,” had many escapes. 
It had become notorious for three counties deep—all 
along the Kentucky border—and Mr. Kercheval him- 
self had been eagerly watched and waited for by rebel 
At Uniontown over four hundred of these 
border guerrillas had assembled, and when the boat 
landed made an attempt to mob the crew, but through 
the coolness of Captain Dexter they were saved. The 
leader of this band, as soon as the boat drew along side 
the wharf, boarded her and demanded that the flag, 
that had always floated night and day, should be taken 
down, saying that it was an insult to Kentucky, and 
at the same time threatened summary vengeance unless 
his wish was then and there immediately complied with. 
To this Captain Dexter, squaring upon hisantagonist with 


ist Dist.] 


an eagle look, replied: ‘* Repeat the shortest prayer 
you know, for if you move I’ll kill you.” This frus- 
trated the leader, and the boat was permitted to be 
drawn out into the middle of the river before a word 
was spoken or a yell given. At Paducah also the trai- 
tors at one time planned a murderous attack. Their 
cannon were planted and their men armed. The boat 
was also well manned, not only with cannon on the 
fore deck, but with sixty loaded guns. Bayonets were 
fixed, and a hose had a nozzle attached for throwing 
hot water from the boilers. Here as elsewhere Kerche- 
val was the object aimed at. The boat was to land for 
giving and receiving the mail only. It drew up, not 
along side, but touching only at the bow, while the mob 
were standing on the wharf. Every man on the boat 
was at his post. The cannon were. pointed and the 
guns loaded, while scalding water was ready for the 
mob of a thousand men, if they attempted to carry out 
the threat they had uttered. It was with some misgiv- 
ings Mr. Kercheval stepped ashore. He was gone for 
a moment, but during that space of time an attempt 
was made. It proved a failure. An old rebel captain 
drew his revolver, and with an oath to clinch his de- 
termination remarked that ‘‘they ’d shoot him any way.”’ 
A thousand lives were probably saved here by the timely 
interference of a Mr. Given, a citizen of Paducah, a 
rebel at heart, but wise enough to restrain the captain, 
who remarked that he surely did not want their town 
burned down. In consequence of these outrages the 
rebels were deprived of their mails for some three weeks. 
They soon experienced the inconveniences resulting 
therefrom, and sued for peace. After this all went well. 
In 1864, by request of Judge De Bruler, a leave of ab- 
sence was given Mr. Kercheval for six months, and he 


returned home and assisted in the canvass of Spencer | 


County, for the re-election of Mr. Lincoln. 
himself a candidate for county treasurer, and was elected. 
The whole Republican ticket was chosen, for the first 
time in the history of the county. In 1866 he was re- 
elected to the same office, and in 1868 to the Lower 
House of the state Legislature from Spencer County, and 
served during the regular and the called sessions of that 
memorable period when the fifteenth amendment was 
ratified, the Democrats resigning in both sessions to pre- 
vent it. By reference to the brevier reports of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Indiana, for the special session of 1869, 
we find a prominent incident in Mr. Kercheval’s history. 
A bill was prepared by Governor Baker, and introduced 
at his request into the Lower House, petitioning for a 
reformatory institution for the relief of friendless women. 
The bill had excited some considerable opposition, and 
at one time was lost by an overwhelming majority. Mr. 
Kercheval had, with his friends, worked until all efforts 
seemed fruitless; but, being on the alert, saw an oppor- 
tune time and submitted a motion, which was adopted, 


He was | 


REPRESENTATIVE 


MEN OF INDIANA. 29 
that the speaker invite Mrs. Sarah Smith, manager of 
the Association for the Relief of Friendless Women, now 
present in the hall, to address the House on. this matter, 
and for this purpose she be invited to a place at the 
speaker’s table. This heroic woman, availing herself 
of this opportunity to do good, made a well-timed speech 
bearing directly on the point, after which, and before 
all eyes were dried, a vote was taken, which resulted in 
the passage of the bill—yeas sixty-two, nays fourteen. 
And thus, through the influence of a woman speaking 
on a pending bill, a thing unknown before in the history 
of any Legislature, a home for outcast women was obtained 
for Indiana. Mr. Kercheval also became distinguished in 
his debates on the finance question; not only in the 
Legislature (see speeches in special sessions of 1869, 
Volume XI, pages 131-133), but also in many speeches 
made throughout the First Congressional District in dif- 
ferent canvasses. He has always been a stanch Repub- 
lican, fully indorsing Sherman’s financial policy, and has 
ably seconded it throughout his district in his telling 
speeches. He was born a patriot, and has honestly and 
sincerely fought for the great principles of right. In 
1869 he, in company with others, established the Rock- 
port Banking Company, and he himself has been its 
He 
was a delegate to the Cincinnati convention that nom- 
inated Hayes for the presidency, and has been frequently 
urged by his many friends to run for offices of trust, 
but has steadily refused. His life has been character- 
ized by many public-spirited acts, and his friends feel 
proud of him as a citizen and as a useful member of so- 
ciety. 


cashier and principal business manager ever since. 


He has worked himself up from nothing to ease 
and affluence, and has made for himself an enviable rep- 
utation throughout Southern Indiana. 


4006-0 — 


oy 2 AIRD, D. T., of Rockport was born on the 2oth 
of February, 1816, in the territory of Indiana, 
which was admitted as a state on the 11th of 
December following. Jesse Laird, his father, was 
born in Jreland, emigrated to this country while a 
small boy, in the year 1799, and settled in the state of 
Pennsylvania. In the year 1807, Jesse Laird was married 
to Miss Mary Tharp, a lady of Greene County, Pennsyl- 
vania, of German parentage. In 1813 the young couple 
removed to the county of Dearborn, in the territory of 
Indiana, and settled there; building a cabin where that 
part of the town of Lawrenceburg called Newton now 
stands. The land at that time frequently overflowed, 
and was very unhealthy, and a few years afterward Mr. 
Jesse Laird moved about three miles further west, to 
Wilson’s Creek, where he had entered land, and where 
he continued to live up to the time of his death, in 
1867. His mother died in 1837. It was in the cabin 


30 


above referred to that Mr. Laird was born. “His oppor- 
tunities, when young, for obtaining an education were 
limited. His father, like most early settlers, was poor, 
and had a large family, and no means of support except 
his own labor. In 1830, at the age of sixteen, David 
left home and commenced work in the printing-office 
of the Western Statesman, published at Lawrenceburg by 
Milton Gregg; without book knowledge, except that he 
could read and spell. The education that he afterwards 
acquired was obtained by his own efforts, without the 
assistance of schools of any kind, by pursuing his’ studies 
on Sundays, and in the evenings and mornings before 
he was required to go to work. When about twenty 
years of age, having devoured all the standard histories, 
ancient and modern, within his reach, and studied En- 
glish grammar as well as could be done without a mas- 
ter, he began reading law; the Hon. George H. Dunn 
having kindly given him the use of his library, and ad- 
vice as to the books he should read at the outset. In 
1833 he was employed as assistant engineer in survey- 
ing the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis Railroad. It 
was almost the first railroad surveyed in the state under 
what was then known as the general internal im- 
provement system. Among his associates were many 
young men who have since acquired distinction and 
eminence, among whom were General Don Carlos Buell, 
Hosea H. Durbin, Henry Ward Beecher, James H. 
Lane, and many others. The distinguished men who yet 
live in his earliest recollection are Hon. John Test, 
James Dill, Hon. Pinckney James, Hon. Abel C. 
Pepper, Governor Noah Noble, General W. H. 
Harrison, Rev. Allen Wiley, Rev. John P. Durbin, and 
Rev. John N. Moffett. On the 8th of August, 1838, 
Mr. Laird was married to Clarissa P. Hayden, of Boone 
County, Kentucky, who is still living. They have six 
children, two boys and four girls, all of whom are 
married. In 1847 Mr. Laird moved from Lawrence- 
burg to Perry County and settled at Troy. At the Sep- 
tember term (1848) of the Perry Circuit Court, held 
then at Rome, the Hon. James Lockhart presiding, he 
made application to be admitted to practicé as attorney- 
at-law, and on the motion of Hon. John A. Breckin- 
ridge, the court appointed tlfat gentlemen, with Hon. 
Samuel Frisbe and Judge H. G. Barkwell, a com- 
mittee who, after examination, filed in the court their 
certificate of qualification, and he was licensed and 
admitted as an attorney-at-law. He began practice 
at the age of thirty-three years. In 1853 he was 
admitted as an attorney in the Supreme Court of the 
state and the Circuit Court of the United States for 
the District of Indiana. In 1857 he removed: from 
Troy to Rockport, in Spencer County, where he» has 
ever since resided. In politics, to which he has de- 
_yoted much study and thought, he was a Whig 
until that party ceased to exist, and since 1856 he has 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| Spencer County. 


[zst Dist. 


voted and acted with the Democrats. In 1852 he was 
elected to the office of Representative in the Legisla- 
ture from the county of Perry, and served as such dur- 
ing the session of 1853. In 1856 he was the Fillmore 
elector in the Second Congressional District, and in 
1860 a candidate for the office of Representative of 
General J. C. Veatch was his oppo- 
nent and defeated him by thirteen votes. Shortly after- 
ward General Veatch was appointed colonel of the 25th 
Regiment Indiana Volunteers, creating a vacancy. Mr. 
Laird was again a candidate, and was elected to fill 
out his term. In 1862 Mr. Laird was elected Judge 
of the Court of Common Pleas in the Third Common 
Pleas District, composed of the counties of Spencer, 
Perry, Orange, Crawford, and Dubois, and was re- 
elected in 1864 and 1868. In 1870 he resigned the 
office of Judge of Common Pleas, and the same year 
was chosen Judge of the Circuit Court in the Fifteenth 
Judicial Circuit. By an act of the Legislature in 1873, 
abolishing the Court of Common Pleas, redistricting the 
state for judicial purposes, and increasing the number 
of circuits, the Second Judicial Circuit, comprising the 
counties of Warrick, Spencer, Perry, and Crawford, 
was assigned to him, and held until the expiration 
of his term in 1876, since which he has enjoyed a lucra- 
tive practice in the law. Judge Laird is well known 
in Southern Indiana for his high legal attainments, 
his judicial integrity, and the respect which he enjoys 
from the members of the legal fraternity. 


—-9906-— 


>AND, WILLIAM M., attorney and counselor at 
law, of Princeton, Indiana, was born in Gibson 
County, Indiana, August 28, 1827. His father, 
Abraham Land, was a native of South Carolina, 
and his mother of North Carolina. 
in Tennessee, and removed at once to Indiana, where 
they located on a farm. William M. Land received 
but a limited school education, such as was afforded 
by a country school in a newly settled region. When 
he was seventeen years old his father died, and the 
care and cultivation of the farm devolved upon him. 
He also devoted much of his leisure time to study and 
reading. At the age of twenty years, at the breaking 
out of the Mexican War, he volunteered as a private, 
and served during the campaign, a little more than a 
year. He then returned to the farm, which he culti- 
vated during the summer, and taught school for several 
winters. He was subsequently elected a county com- 
missioner for Gibson County, and while holding this 
office devoted his leisure time to the study of law, and 
was admitted to the bar at Princeton, in 1857. He at 
once entered upon the practice of law at that place, in 
which he has ever since been engaged, except when he 


They were married 


rst Dist.) 


was upon the bench. In due course of time he ac- 
quired a large and lucrative practice, and has obtained 
an excellent reputation as a lawyer, taking rank among 
the leading members of the bar in Southern Indiana. 
In 1872 he was appointed, by Governor Baker, Judge 
of the Common Pleas Court of the First Common Pleas 
District of Indiana, and held that office, to the eminent 
satisfaction of the bar and the community, until the 
court was abolished, in the following year. He then 
resumed the practice of law at Princeton, in which he is 
still engaged. In politics Mr. Land was, in his early 
years, a Democrat of the old Jackson school, but has 
been an ardent Republican since the organization of 
that party. Judge Land is the oldest practicing lawyer 
in Gibson County, and is called the ‘‘ father” of the bar. 
Five of the practicing lawyers of Princeton are graduates 
from his office, and studied the profession under his direc- 
tion. Judge Land has long been an earnest and active 
worker and advocate in the temperance cause, and has 
been prominently identified with every organization and 
movement behalf of temperance that has come 
within his reach. He is also an active worker in the 
Sabbath-school, and is superintendent of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church school at Princeton. He was married, 
November 14, 1850, to Miss Sarah E. Harmon, of 
Posey County, Indiana, and has six children born of this 


in 


marriage. 
+8206 — 


ILLER, LEWIS J., of Boonville, president of 
the Boonville National Bank, was born in Hart 
CH Township, Warrick County, August 18, 1834. 
LOY His father, David Miller, was born in 1810, in 
Virginia. When quite young his parents removed to 
Kentucky. There he remained until early manhood, 
and then located in Warrick County, Indiana, and mar- 
ried Miss Nancy Bloyd. He was one of the early set- 
tlers of the county. Being very poor, and in an unde- 
veloped country, they had many struggles with poverty 
to keep themselves fed and clothed. His wife’s father 
had lived near Boonville from the first, there not being 
at that time a house nearer than fifteen miles north, 
with Indian paths taking the place of roadways. Flour 
was scarce, and corn-meal was made a substitute. For 
a while it was prepared by beating the shelled corn in 
a mortar, but later this primitive mode was abandoned, 
when Mr. Bloyd became the owner of a horse mill. He 
afterwards attached a cotton-gin, which became of gen- 
eral service ‘to the people, who had to manufacture their 
own clothing. Neither were there any school buildings 
or places for religious worship. Mr. Bloyd also dug the 
first public well in Boonville. David Miller, when 
married, located on public lands, and had of this world’s 
goods, fifty cents in money, one horse, one yoke of 
oxen, an ax, and a plow. 


At the age of fourteen 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


31 


Lewis Miller, the immediate subject of this memoir, 
was permitted to attend school for the first time a few 
months in the winter. When twenty years of age he 
hired out as a farm hand for six months, and received 
thirteen dollars for a month’s wages. 
was employed as a salesman in a dry-goods store at 
Lynnville, Indiana, receiving a salary of one hundred 
and fifty dollars, in addition to his board. Ile was mar- 
ried, in 1858, to Martha C. Ilart, daughter of Colonel 
Hart, of Hart Township. In 1859 he bought a piece 
of land, and farmed until 1863, when he again removed 


For two years he 


to Lynnville, acting as executor of his uncle’s estate, 
and in charge of the store. In 1867 he was elected county 
treasurer, and served five years. In 1872, in company 
with some others, he established the Boonville Banking 
Company, and was made cashier of the bank. This 
was an experiment, as it was the first bank established 
in the county, but it proved successful, and the company 
continued in business until 1874, when it was changed 
to a national bank, and Mr. Miller was made its presi- 
dent. Since that time his efforts have been confined to 
banking. Mr. Miller is of medium height, well propor- 
tioned, has a pleasing address, and is a very clever, 
affable gentleman. 
which he resides, and is spoken of as one of the lead-. 
ing representative citizens. He has been a member of 
the school board for three years, and treasurer of the 
board during that time, and has labored zealously for 
the cause of education. Such, in brief, is the history 
of a man who has been the architect of his own for- 
tunes, who has elevated himself from obscurity, and 


He stands well in the community in 


ranks now as one of the leading men of the county. 
a0 


ARLETT, JOHN J., treasurer of the city of Ev- 
ansville, was born in that city June 14, 1841. 
He was the fifth child in a family of nine chil- 
dren. His father, John Jesse Marlett, was a 
native of New Jersey, subsequently removing to Brooke 
County, Virginia, and thence to Athens, Ohio, where he 
was married to Martha Jane Starr. In the year 1837 he 
came to Evansville, Indiana, and was one of its early 
settlers. He engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he 
followed up to within a few weeks of his death. 
Through his own exertions and indomitable perseverance 


he accumulated a fair competence, and died respected 


and beloved by all who knew him. The Starr family are 
numerous in this country, and are descended from Doc- 
tor Comfort Starr, of Ashford, county of Kent, England. 
This is a county noted in English history for its many 
important battles and stirring events. Dr. Starr was evi- 
dently a gentleman of considerable wealth and distinc- 


tion. In a work entitled ‘*A History of the Starr Fam- 


ily,” compiled by B. P. Starr, we find that there are 


32 


six thousand seven hundred and sixty-six descendants of 
Doctor Comfort Starr, and the record and history of sev- 
enteen hundred and ninety-four families. From the 


same work we copy the following article of interest: 


«‘Comfort Starr, of Ashford, chirurgeon, three chil- 
dren, and three servants, embarked themselves in the 


good ship called the ‘Hercules,’ of Sandwich, of the | 


burthen of two hundred tons, John Witherly master; 
and therein transported from Sandwich to the plantation 
called New England, in America, with the certificates 
from the ministers where they last dwelt of the conver- 
sation and conformity to the orders and discipline of the 
Church, and that they had taken the oath of allegiance 
and supremacy. Certificates signed. 
‘©Epm. Hayes, Vicar of Ashford. 

‘¢JoHN HONEYWOOD, \ Justices 

‘THOMAS GODFREY, 
“Dated March 21, 1634-5.” 

Doctor Comfort Starr died at Boston, Massachusetts, 
January 2, 1659-60. His wife, Elizabeth, died June 25, 
1658. Captain George Starr, the maternal great-grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, was prominent in 
the affairs of Church and state. He occupied the posi- 
tion of warden and vestryman in the Episcopal Church 
for thirteen years, and was selectman and auditor of the 
town, and during the Revolution held the position of 
state quartermaster. For his services the state of Con- 
necticut made him a large grant of land in Athens 
County, Ohio, dated January 28, 1820. John J. Marlett 
was educated in the public schools. of his birthplace, 
and chose for his occupation a calling followed by his 
father for many years, and with great distinction—the 
dry-goods business. This engaged his attention for twelve 
years, and then he embarked as a real estate dealer and 
agent. This he faithfully followed until 1877, when he 
was appointed real estate appraiser. Two years later he 
was elected to the position of city treasurer. This office 
he filled with so much credit and distinction that the 
year following he was again a nominee, and was elected 
by an increased majority. He was one of the two can- 
didates that were elected on the Republican ticket. 
The bond that is required of Mr. Marlett, as city treas- 
urer, is six hundred thousand dollars, being the largest 
in the state excepting that of state Treasurer. As an 
officer his ambition has been, by earnest thought and 
untiring industry, to accomplish all within his power. 
Mr. Marlett is five feet ten inches in height, and 
weighs about one hundred and seventy pounds. He 
has a fair complexion, brown hair, and a keen eye. 
His head is large and well developed, and his chest 
broad. In politics he is a strong Republican, and was 
in 1880 elected a delegate to the state convention, 
which convened at Indianapolis the 17th of June, 1880. 
He was married, January 8, 1873, to Miss Anna M., 
daughter of J. G. Bartlett, a native of New Hampshire, 
and one of the early and successful business men of 
South Bend, Indiana, to which place he removed at a 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ zs¢ Dest. 


very early day. Three children blessed the union of 
this estimable couple, but one only, a daughter, sur- 
vives. In disposition Mr. Marlett is gentlemanly and 
amiable, thus winning friends, and by his sincerity of 
behavior continuing to hold them. He has sound busi- 
ness qualifications and decision of character, and while 
yet in his prime takes position among the first business 
men of Evansville. : 
—<-4006-2— 


‘Y ASON, JUDGE CHARLES H., attorney-at-law, 

| Cannelton, Perry County, was born at Walpole, 
© &.\ Cheshire County, New Hampshire, August 9, 
vOS” 1827. He is the son of Joseph (and Harriet) Ma- 
son, a farmer, and is descended from an old, honored, 
and numerous family, who settled there in the early 
history of the country. Many of its members were in 
the Revolutionary War. After receiving a common 
school education he attended the literary and scientific 
institution at Hancock, New Hampshire, on leaving 
which, at the age of twenty, he for a while was private 
tutor in a family near Louisville, Kentucky. He after- 
ward read law with Hamilton Smith, of Louisville, and 
was there admitted to the bar in 1849. Almost imme- 
diately he removed to Cannelton, on the founding and 
settling of that town, where he established a newspaper, 
the Cannelton Lconomzst, the first one published in the 
county; it was begun in 1849, and at the same time he 
commenced the practice of law. In two and a half 
years his professional business had increased so much as 
to require his whole time and attention, which necessi- 
tated his relinquishing the publication of the paper; at 
the same time he was agent of the Cannel Coal Com- 
pany. 


| 

| 
4 
A 


He is a man who has always been an active 
worker in the interests of his town and county, and 
has served several years in the capacities of township 
trustee, treasurer, president of the town council, school 
examiner, etc. In 1861 he was commissioned by Goy- 
ernor Morton as colonel of the 5th Regiment of the Border ~ 
Legion, of which he organized some fourteen companies, 
Later in 
the year, however, he was appointed by the Governor 
Judge of the Common Pleas of the Third District of the 
state of Indiana, and a resignation of the military com- 
mand was necessitated. In 1870 he again, under Goy- 
ernor Baker, received the appointment as Judge. He 
was also commissioned by Governor Baker as one of the 
five members of the ‘*Ohio River Improvement Com- 
mission.” He has taken an active part in all projects 
looking to railroad connection and facilities, but so far 
without any effect. 


and rendered most efficient and able service. 


He has received several nominations 
for prominent public offices, but although running 
ahead of his ticket has not been elected, owing to the 
fact of his being a Republican in an extremely Demo- 
cratic district. In 1872 he again entered the editorial 


tst Dist.] 


field, taking charge of the Cannelton eforter, his 
brother’s paper, at his death, and changing its politics. 
A most able writer, he is a regular contributor to some 
of the best journals of the day. Among his political 
contributions there was one in the Indianapolis Sevdzve/, 
of November 20, 1879, on the subject and danger of 
centralization, which called forth the strongest applause, 
and an urgent request from seventeen of the leading 
public men of Indiana for a republication, which was 
granted, it being probably one of the ablest, if not the 
ablest, article ever written on the subject, and one which 
has subsequently been frequently quoted in debates in 
the House. It is strong, able, clear, and to the point. 
The Judge is a man who stands high in the estimation 
not only of his own party and fellow townsmen but of 
the state at large and both political parties. 
views he is liberal. In politics he isa Republican, though 
independent. He was married, in 1852, to Mrs. Ra- 
chael L. Wright, a most estimable widow lady, daugh- 
ter of J. B. Huckeby, one of the first settlers of Perry 
County, now postmaster at Cannelton. He possesses a 
fine physique, is commanding in presence, and is an 
amiable, learned, and courteous gentleman. 


In religious 


sine MAJOR HAMILTON ALLEN, of 
J}, Evansville, attorney and counselor at law and 
a register in bankruptcy, was born in South Berlin, 
v New York, September 23, 1832, and is the son 
of Allen J. and Lucy Mattison. His grandfather, Allen 
Mattison, was a Rhode Island Quaker, who joined the 
Revolutionary army in 1775, under General Nathan- 
iel Greene, and fought at the battle of Bunker Hill. 
In consequence of his taking up arms, and thus vio- 
lating one of the strong principles of their faith, he was 
dismissed from the society of Friends. Some time 
after the close of the Revolutionary War, he removed 
with his family to South Berlin, Rensselaer County, New 
York, where he resided until his death, at the age of 
eighty-four years. Hamilton A. Mattison was reared 
upon a farm, and his early instruction was received in a 
common country school about three months in a year. 
His ambition as a boy was to obtain a good education, 
and, at the age of nineteen years, he left his father’s 
home and entered the New York Conference Seminary, 
at Charlotteville, New York, at which there were from 
seven to eight hundred students. There he carried on his 
studies, while at the same time he earned by his own 
labor as assistant teacher the means necessary to sup- 
port himself and pay for his tuition. After a thorough 
preparatory course, he entered the sophomore class of 
Union College, from which, under the presidency of the 
distinguished educator Doctor Eliphalet Nott, he grad- 


uated in 1860. From the fall of that year until the 
A—4 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


30 


summer of 1862 he was principal of the Bacon Semi- 
nary at Woodstown, New Jersey, which was under the 
charge of the society of Friends. In July, 1862, dur- 
ing the progress of the Civil War, after President Lincoln 
had issued his proclamation calling for three hundred 
thousand more troops to put down the rebellion, Mr. 
Mattison, convinced that it was his duty to respond to 
the call, enlisted, and raised a company of recruits, 
which became part of the 12th New Jersey Regiment. 
Before leaving the state he was commissioned second 
lieutenant, and received successive promotions as first 
lieutenant, captain, and major. After about a year’s 
service he became a member of the staff of General 
Alexander Hayes, commanding the Third Division of 
the Second Army Corps, who was killed in the battle 
of the Wilderness. He was then transferred to the staff 
of General Nelson A. Miles, with whom he served, 
while able to do duty, until the close of the war. He 
was actively engaged in about twenty-five battles, re- 
ceived three wounds at Chancellorsville—from one of 
which he has never entirely recovered—was wounded 
twice afterwards, and had his horse shot under him at 
the battle of the Wilderness, at which time he was made 
a prisoner of war. He was taken before and introduced 
to the rebel chieftain, General Lee, on the battle-field, 
and held a conversation with him. Here began a chap- 
ter of hardships in the life of Major Mattison such as 
can be realized only by men who have been obliged to 
He 
was first taken to Lynchburg, Virginia, and confined in 
an old hotel; thence to Macon, Georgia, and there con- 
fined and almost starved to death from the latter part of 
May until about the first of July, when he was taken to 
Savannah, Georgia. He was one of fifty Federal offi- 
cers taken from this place by the rebei authorities 
and placed under the fire of the Federal guns while 
they were shelling the city of Charleston from Folly 
Island. After remaining here for several weeks, he, 
with others, was taken to Columbia, South Caroliiia, 
and put in a pen exposed to all kinds of weather with- 
out shelter of any kind, and fed only on coarse corn- 
The sufferings here endured by 
these prisoners can more easily be imagined than de- 
scribed, and, after remaining there from September until 
the 28th of November, Major Mattison, in company 
with a fellow prisoner, Rev. John Schamahorn, now 
pastor of the Ingle Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 
of Evansville, made his escape. The two left Colum- 
bia without money or food, and with a scanty sup- 
ply of clothing took to the woods, and started out 
to meet General Sherman’s army, which they believed 
to be coming to Augusta, Georgia. They traveled 
across the state of South Carolina, being obliged to 
to walk by night and conceal themselves in the woods 
and swamps during the day. 


undergo similar sufferings in Southern prison-pens. 


meal and sorghum. 


Reaching the Savannah 


34 


River a short distance below Augusta, they took pos- 
session of a small boat, and ran the gauntlet of rebel 
guards and steamers until they reached the lines of 
General Sherman’s army at Savannah, which city had 
been captured since they had escaped. They had trav- 
eled nearly fifteen hundred miles through a rebel coun- 
try, and were nearly prostrated with fatigue. General 
Sherman ordered Major Mattison to report to the Army 
of the Potomac as soon as he was able to return to duty. 
After visiting his home in New York he rejoined the 
Army of the Potomac about the Ist of March, 1865, 
and took part in all the battles in which that army was 
engaged until the surrender of Lee, some six weeks 
after. He was mustered out of service at the close of 
the war, and soon after entered the Albany law school, 
from which he graduated and received the degree 
of LL. B. in 1866. The same year he married the 
daughter of Hon. Marinus Fairchild, of Salem, New 
York, a distinguished member of the bar, of large legal 
attainments, ex-Judge of the Surrogate Court, and at 
present district attorney for Washington County, New 
York. He began the practice of law at Salem, New 
York, in partnership with his father-in-law. In Febru- 
ary, 1868, he removed to Evansville, Indiana, and in 
the following fall took an active part in the political 
campaign, advocating the election of General Grant for 
President of the United States. In 1870 he was ap- 
pointed county attorney, but resigned this office in the 
following year for the purpose of accepting the appoint- 
ment by the Governor to the office of prosecuting attor- 
ney of Vanderburg Criminal Circuit Court, to fill a 
In the fall of 1872 he was elected by the 
people to the same office for a term of two years. In 
1876 he was appointed, by United States Chief Justice 
Waite, register in bankruptcy, which office he now 
holds. Ever since his residence in Evansville, Major 
Mattison has taken an active part in city, county, and 
state politics, and has served for four years as chairman 
of the Republican executive committee of the county 
and city. He attended the National Republican Con- 
vention of 1876 as an alternate delegate at large from 
the state. Major Mattison became a member of -the 
Masonic Fraternity at Troy, New York, in 1865; has 
been Master of Reed Lodge, No. 316, of Evansville, 
and has held the offices of junior warden, senior war- 
den, and is at present E. C. of Lavalette Command- 
ery of Knights Templar, No. 15. He joined Trinity 
Methodist Episcopal Church soon after moving to Evans- 
ville, and has been an active member of both Church 
and Sunday-school. His wife having died in 1873, he 
was married again February 7, 1878, to Miss Henrietta 


vacancy, 


York. We has one daughter, now eight years old, 
the fruit of his first marriage. Major Mattison bears 
the reputation of being one of the leading lawyers of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| than ordinary reading for that time and place. 
M. Bennett, of Evansville, formerly of Brooklyn, New | 


[ 2st Dest. 


Evansville. He has been eminently successful since he 
took up his residence in that city, and in all the offices 
he has held he has performed his duties in a praise- 
worthy manner. He is a’genial, kind-hearted, and court- 
eous gentleman, and is esteemed as a man of honor 
and strict integrity in all business matters. 


A'TTHEWSON, DOCTOR REUBEN CLARK, de- 

ceased, of Boonville, was born October 16, 1804, 
E in Steuben County, New York. His parents were 

Oliver and Agnes Matthewson, who were both 
large, healthy, and robust persons, and lived to be very old. 
The father died at the age of eighty-two, of apoplexy, 
very suddenly; the mother, whose maiden name was 
Clark, of heart disease, aged about seventy-five years. 
She was the descendant of a highly intellectual family, 
and was herself a lady of very superior intellect, and it 
is thought by the relatives that the subject of this 
sketch is indebted to her for most of that ability which 
he displayed through his career from boyhood to old 
age. The family moved from their home in New York 
in 1817 to the town of Princeton, Gibson County, In- 
diana, where they located, and where the father and 
mother ever after lived, and where they both died and 
lie buried. Young Reuben was thirteen years old at 
this time, and had been sent to school but little. He 
very early in life displayed a fondness for books and 
music, to which he ever clung with great tenacity, 
although the father wished him to be a carpenter, the 
trade which he himself followed. About this time 
young Reuben was sent to school to Doctor Ira Bost- 
wick, a gentleman of very excellent scholastic attain- 
ments and polished manners. Teacher and pupil soon 
became warmly attached to each other, and this relation 
was never broken until the death of Dr. Bostwick, many 
years after the manhood of the pupil. At a later period 
in life he received tuition in Princeton from William 
Chittenden, a gentleman of very high literary attain- 
ments, and in this school he may be said to have grad- 
uated, for he never attended afterwards, He was now 
about twenty years old, diffident, quiet, and very re- 
served; evincing a marked passion for books, and reading 
much in solitude. He expressed to his father a desire 
to read medicine, but Mr. Matthewson tried to discour- 
age him, telling him that he did not possess the capacity 
or scholarship to engage in such high notions. He was, 
however, permitted to enter the office of Doctor Charles 
Fullerton, a practicing physician in Princeton of more 
Doctor 
Fullerton was also a fine musician, and teacher of both 
vocal and instrumental music, and here the student of 
medicine spent some of his leisure time in learning 


| melodies and harmonies which were of great use to him 


rst Dist.] 


early in life. He also studied the languages, particu- 
larly Latin, French, and German, and was a regular sub- 
scriber and reader of a German newspaper for many 
years. He was licensed to practice medicine at the age 
of twenty-two, and at once located in Boonville, where 
he began his rounds in the healing art. He was married 
to Miss Lorinda Baldwin, of Boonville, on February 
16, 1828. Miss Baldwin was a young lady of good 
family, a native of the state of New York, and 
possessed many attractive charms both of mind and 
person. She died August 19, 1860, a little more than 
forty-eight years old, after a long and lingering disease, 
greatly lamented by all her numerous friends and rela- 
tives. In some business speculation in 1832 or 1833 Doc- 
tor Matthewson became much involved financially. He, 
therefore, gave up his practice in Boonville and went to 
Bardstown, Kentucky, where he was made professor of 
music in the college in that place. He filled the chair 
with entire satisfaction for several years, and then re- 
turned to his own home and the practice of his pro- 
fession, having made enough in the time by his knowl- 
edge of music to pay off all his liabilities and start him 
anew. He was always a hard student of medicine, as 
his books of reference evince by their many marginal 
notes. He was a very skillful, successful, and conse- 
quently a very popular physician. In his diagnosis and 
prognosis of diseases he excelled most practitioners, 
hence to his opinion was given great weight in critical 
and doubtful cases. He was never a graduate in medi- 
cine, but attended a partial course of lectures in the 
Ohio Medical College, of Cincinnati; yet he knew more 
- about the real and scientific principles and details of the 
medical sciences than very many of the medical pro- 
fessors and teachers in the medical colleges of this day. 
He confined himself closely to his profession, with the 
exception of the time he was engaged in teaching music 
in the Bardstown college, for nearly fifty years. His 
children were five in number, three sons and two 
daughters; two of the sons died in 1847, before they 
were grown; this was his first great trouble, and after 
this he was never known to laugh so heartily as before. 
His remaining son, Charles Clark Matthewson, is a 
bachelor, nearly forty years old, and a most excellent 
and worthy gentleman. He resides at the old home- 
stead, in Boonville ; is a druggist, and is succeeding well 
_ in his business. Isabella Helen, the second child and 

eldest daughter, was married in April, 1850, to Doctor 
W. G. Ralston. (See sketch.) Lucy Maria, the other 
daughter and youngest child, a very beautiful and 
fascinating young lady and the favorite of her father, 
was married to John Brackenridge, in April, 1876, and 
died in June of the same year, just two months after her 
marriage. Doctor Matthewson was a prudent and suc- 
cessful business man and acquired considerable property, 
and was always regarded as honest and upright. He 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


35 


was for many years skeptical in religious matters, but 
later in life he often said that his former notions had 
undergone a change, and that he now entertained the 
hope and belief that the soul was immortal and would 
live in the future. He was entertaining in conversation, 
having read almost every thing that he considered worthy 
of perusal, making him an acquisition in the social 
circle. His physical appearance was full and erect; his 
complexion was florid; he had full, sparkling hazel 
eyes, and red hair when young, which became almost 
white before his death; his weight was about one hun- 
dred and sixty pounds, and his height five feet ten 
inches. In politics he was an old Whig, and afterwards 
a Republican, but was never a candidate for political 
favor. He filled the office of postmaster in Boonville 
for four years, from 1841 to 1845. He died June 22, 
1876, of a brief illness, supposed to be heart disease; 


. but had been in a feeble state of health for several 


years, which was doubtless a gradual softening of the 
brain. A large number of his friends and the excellent 
Sax-horn Band, to which he had belonged for many 
years, attended his funeral. He was buried in Maple 
Grove Cemetery, near the town of Boonville. 


° — GOCE — 


es JUDGE ISAAC §., of Boonville, a promi- 
ji i nent lawyer of that place, was born May 24, 
© 1831, in Warrick County, Indiana. His father, 

z Joel W. B. Moore, emigrated from near Geneva, 
New York, to Spencer County, Indiana, in 1827, and 
two years later removed to Warrick County, where, in 
1831, at the age of thirty years, he was elected Probate 
Judge, in which capacity he served three years. After- 
wards he filled the office of county clerk for fourteen 
years. In 1856 he was elected Common Pleas Judge. 
On the breaking out of the Rebellion, though burdened 
with his threescore years, he enlisted as a private in the 
1st Indiana Cavalry, commanded by Governor Baker, 
and remained in the service about a year. In all the 
positions he held he was noted for his zealous regard 
for the rights of the people, and for the energy and 
fidelity with which all public duties were discharged. 
For more than fifty years he was an active and earnest 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died 
October 6, 1876. His friends remember him as a kind, 
agreeable old gentleman. Such was the father of our 
subject. His mother was Orra Shelby, a relative of 
Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, who was a_ brother 
of General James Shelby, of Revolutionary fame. She 
was born in 1808, in Clark County, Kentucky. At an 
early day her father moved to Warrick County, Indiana. 
Among his goods and chattels were some twenty-five 
In 1816 Indiana was made a free state, and 
slave-holders generally shipped their negroes back to 


slaves. 


30 


Kentucky, but Mr. Shelby provided for his under the 
apprentice laws, and set them free. At the age of 
twelve years Isaac was employed in the county clerk’s 
office. It proved to be an excellent school for the lad. 
Here he acquired’the ready use of the pen so indis- 
pensable to the lawyer, and in this place he also found 
a field for the practice of his inborn courtesy and good- 
fellowship. His educational opportunities were some- 
what limited, but he was able to attend one year at As- 
bury University. He found in his father an excellent 
instructor, and this, with the public schools and his 
habit of constant reading, fully compensated for the 
loss of the full collegiate course. After quitting the 
clerk’s office he pursued his legal studies with General 
Hovey at Evansville, Indiana, and was admitted to the 
bar in 1853, after having passed a searching exami- 
nation. Nearly two years prior to his admission he mar- 
ried Miss Elizabeth Hudson, daughter of the county 
sheriff. In 1854 he was elected prosecuting attorney. 
He served a year and then relinquished the honor and 
the duties, and moved to Jasper, in Dubois County. He 
could not forget his old home, and in a year or two 
came back to it. In politics he was a Douglas Demo- 
crat, but the war made him a stanch Republican. Two 
of his brothers—Tanner, a farmer,» and James, a 
young lawyer—were among the earliest volunteers. 
Both were killed in battle—one at Dallas, and the other 
at Hatchie Landing. 
in 1864. His practice and his fame steadily grew to- 
gether. In 1868 he was nominated for Common Pleas 
Judge. The district was intensely Democratic, and 
there was no hope for his election. He was defeated 
by only a small majority, however. In 1870 he was 
again a candidate, and again suffered defeat, but 
the vote given demonstrated his popularity. He 
carried his own county by a majority of more than 
two hundred, at a time when the ordinary Demo- 
cratic majority was about five hundred; and, though 
the other four counties in the circuit were largely Dem- 
ocratic, his opponent was elected by only seventy-two 
majority. In 1876 he was chosen by the state conven- 
tion one of the electors at large. Two years later, in 
1878, he was the candidate for Secretary of State. Indi- 
ana is a state much given to political somersaults, and 
1878 proved to be the year when she fell Democratic. 
So it will be seen that the Judge has been rather unlucky 
in his political contests. He takes defeat, however, like 
some old Greek philosopher. Indeed, there is nothing 
of the modern-school politician about him. He loathes 
all trickery and chicanery, and would prefer defeat a 
thousand times to success by dishonorable means. As 
a lawyer Judge Moore has been eminently successful. 
For a number of years there has scarcely been an im- 
portant case in the county in which he was not retained. 
His briefs in the Supreme Court are masterpieces of 


Isaac himself was in the service 


RLPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zs¢ Dest. 


logic. He-.gives to a case the most faithful and earnest 
work, going about it in a manner that makes one feel 
there is no such word as fail. Before a jury he speaks 
generally in a conversational tone that at once enlists 
the attention. His arrangement and presentation of the 
facts of his case to the jury are almost marvelous. Of 
some fifteen murder trials in which he has been retained 
he has been unsuccessful in two only. He takes pride in 
being entirely unrepresented in the penitentiary. <A 
man with a better heart in him than Judge Moore can 
be found nowhere. Poverty and want never applied at 
his door in vain. None were ever turned away empty. 
One of the finest traits in his character is his kindness to 
young men, to whom he is always ready to lend a helping 
hand. His stanchest friends are among the young men. 
He has had many students in his office. To all, his time, 
his counsel, and his books were free. He would hear 
them recite and explain the lessons for hours at a time, 
with patience and gentleness. Wherever he is known 
he is honored. He enjoys the highest respect of the 
bar of the state. His agreeable manners and his apti- 
tude for telling a good story render him an acquisition 
to any circle. He has always been a close student. He 
devours every thing that comes in his way in the shape 
of reading. His room is littered with books and papers. 
At night he generally reads himself to sleep. Since the 
death of his wife, which happened about two years 
since, he has lived very secluded. He rarely comes 
down in town unless business absolutely compels him. 
His working up of cases and writing of pleadings is 
done chiefly at home. His partners, Robert D. O. 
Moore, a younger brother, and Edward Gough, attend 
to the office business. He has four children, all boys, 
the youngest attending school and the others engaged in 
business. Judge Moore is now in the prime of life. If 
he were but moved by ambition there is no telling to 
what eminent positions he might not rise. His friends 
all consider him too modest and diffident, and all will 
acknowledge these to be very unusual qualities for a 
public man. 
600 — 


ESTER, JOHN, of Boonville, Warrick County, 
was born in Fussgornheim, Germany, on the Rhine, 
Bavaria, November 3, 1837. His father being 
only a well-to-do mechanic, and his mother having 
died when he was quite young, seemed to necessitate 
the lad’s staying at home to work, instead of going to 
school. His educational opportunities—unlike those of 
his father, which consisted of seven years’ schooling 
and military instructions, after the manner of the Ger- 
manic tuition laws—were confined to two weeks’ instruc- 
tion at a night school after he had come to this coun- 
try. In 1851 John and his father came to this country, 
being followed in a few years by the other children. 


rst Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
He finally made his way to Troy, Perry County, Indi- 
ana, where he worked on a farm for a time at four dol- 
lars a month, and afterwards for a few months in a 
brick-yard. He then learned the trade of harness-making, 
an employment which he followed for ten years. In 
1859 he married Magdalena Hochalter, of Newburg, In- 
diana. After this event he engaged in the grocery 
and harness-making business in Newburg, until 1870, 
when he was elected auditor of Warrick County, serv- 
ing a term of four years, and being afterwards re-elected. 
The first time he received a Democratic majority of one 
hundred and seventeen votes; the second time, thirteen 
hundred and fifteen. In 1878 he received in the Demo- 
cratic state convention a solid vote from the First Con- 
gressional District for auditor of state; other counties 
likewise voted for him, but he finally withdrew in favor 
of General Manson. Mr. Nester is a kind-hearted, 
agreeable man, much respected by every one. He has a 
family of four children. 


OCS —— 


EWCOMB, DWIGHT, president of the Indiana 
Cotton Mills, Cannelton, Perry: County, was born 
at Bernardston, Franklin County, Massachusetts, 
December I, 1830. His parents were Dalton and 
Harriet Newcomb. His father was a farmer, and he 
was brought up on his father’s farm, receiving his edu- 
cation in the common schools of Franklin County. His 
ancestors were English. He wrought in his younger 
days as a machinist, but in 1841 he removed to Louis- 
ville, where for five years he was a clerk in his broth- 
er’s store. Then he engaged in steamboating between 
Louisville and New Orleans for some five years, when 
he finally settled at Cannelton as agent of the Indiana 
Cotton Mills, which had been built some little time pre- 
vious. He acted in the capacity of agent for the mill 
for five years, and in 1856 engaged in the coal business, 
continuing his manufacturing connection at the same 
time, but subsequently severing it. It was again re- 
newed on the death of his brother, If. D. Newcomb, in 
1876, and he was elected to the same position which 
had been held by his brother—that of president. The 
present company was formed in 1853, taking the place 
of an old one known as the Cannelton Cotton Mills. 
Mr. Newcomb is a man who has never sought and 
would not accept public or political office. In politics 
he is a Democrat, having joined their ranks from the 
old Whig party. A man full of tact, energy, and en- 
terprise, he is widely known and respected. From the 
Western Grocer and Trade Journal of July 6, 1878, we 
take the following: ‘‘No one can overestimate the value 
of this magnificent, well-arranged, and abundantly sup- 
plied emporium of manufacture. The whole man is in- 


) 


formed and elevated; his reason, his taste, his thinking 


MEN OF INDIANA. 37 
powers are all ministered to, and not even the stupidest 
rustic could spend a day in this hive of industry with- 
out leaving the building a new and wiser man. 
This concern was established in 1853, and since that 
time has built up a trade which penetrates Cincinnati, 
Louisville, Chicago, and St. Louis. The building is a 
handsome sandstone three-story one, measuring sixty- 
seven by two hundred and eighty-seven feet, and is 
in every way well adapted to the purpose for which it 
is used, and is provided with all the latest improved 
machinery. The capacity per day of this mammoth 
enterprise is eighteen thousand yards, and they use 
each year forty-two hundred bales of cotton. In these 
works three hundred hands may be seen at all times, 
busily engaged in running looms, spindles, etc., present- 
ing, to say the least, a perfect hive of industry. This 
establishment runs ten thousand eight hundred spindles 
and three hundred and seventy-two looms. Mr. D. 
Newcomb, the president, and Mr. E. Wilbur, the su- 
perintendent, have spared neither labor, money, nor 
time to make these works complete in every respect. 
This is the leading cotton mill in the Western country, 
The goods made at these works are of the best material, 
and the concern is known far and near for its honora- 
ble and fair dealing.” 


> 4006 


WEN, RICHARD, the youngest son of Robert 
Owen, the philanthropist, was born at Braxfield 
House, near New Lanark, Scotland, January 6, 
co» 1810. He was educated chiefly at Hofwyl, Switz- 
erland, and subsequently attended courses of lectures 
in Glasgow, delivered by Dr. Andrew Ure, author of 
the ‘‘Chemical Dictionary.”” He emigrated to the 
United States, reaching, when about eighteen years of 
age, New Harmony, the scene of his father’s social ex- 
periments. Here he farmed until the Mexican War 
broke out, when he obtained a captain’s commission in 
the 16th United States Infantry, one of the ten new regi- 
ments, and served until the close of the war, being first 
under General Z. Taylor, and subsequently under com- 
mand of General Wool. Returning in the fall of 1849, 
he became assistant to his brother, Doctor D. D. Owen, 


in his survey of the north-west territories, under 
the general government, and, in company with Doctor 
I. G. Norwood, examined the north shore vf Lake Su- 
perior. Some of the maps and many of the wood-cuts 
in his brother’s quarto report of those regions are from 
his sketches. On invitation of Colonel Vhornton F. 
Johnson, of Kentucky, who carried on the Western 
Military Institute, first at Georgetown, and later at Blue 
Lick, Richard Owen was invited to take the chair of 
natural science and chemistry, at first with the rank of 


major (the commissions being issued by the governor 


38 


of the state), and later, at the death of Colonel T. F. 
Johnson, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, as com- 
mandant, while Colonel B. R. Johnson, a graduate of 
West Point, was superintendent. These two assumed 
the whole financial responsibility of the institute, and, 
on the typhoid fever breaking out at Drennon Springs 
(to which place Colonel T. F, Johnson removed from 
Blue Lick), they transferred the whole institution to 
Nashville, Tennessee, where it became the literary de- 
partment of the Nashville University. While here Pro- 
fessor Owen, after taking the necessary course of study 
at the medical college, received the degree of M. D., and 
also published a work entitled ‘‘ Key to the Geology of 
the Globe,” of which the Worth American Review says, 
at page 275 of the July (1857) number: ‘‘Unity of 
plan and uniformity of causes are the germinal idea 
of his system. . . The aim of the entire work is 
in the direction in which alone truth is to be sought.” 
A copy of the work being sent to the great scientist 
Alexander von Humboldt, he replied in an autograph 
letter, accepting many of the generalizations; and Pro- 
fessor Dana, in his ‘‘ Manual of Geology,” admits that 
Doctor Owen, in the above work, was the first to point 
out the coincidence of continental outlines with great 
circles which form secondaries to the ecliptic, and hence 
point to solar influence as remotely the chief cause of 
land dynamics. In 1858, Professor Owen, foreseeing the 
threatened rupture between the North and South, sold 
out his claims in the institute to Colonel B. R. Johnson, 
the superintendent, who subsequently became General 
Johnson, of the Confederate army. Professor Owen, on 
reaching Indiana, was immediately made assistant state 
geologist, and, later, state geologist, of Indiana, conduct- 
ing surveys during the year 1859 and part of 1860, and 
embodying the results in a large octavo volume. On 
the breaking out of the late war, Doctor Owen was com- 
missioned by the late Governor O. P. Morton to a lieu- 
tenant-coloneley in the 15th Indiana Volunteers, and 
participated in the battles of Rich Mountain and Green- 
brier, West Virginia. He was then promoted, and 
directed to form a new regiment, the 6oth Indiana Vol- 
unteers. During its formation he organized, and com- 
manded for four months,a camp of about four thousand 
prisoners, in Camp Morton, Indianapolis, and was com- 
plimented by a telegram from Secretary Stanton, saying 
his was the best regulated of all the Federal camps of 
prisoners. Colonel Owen, with his regiment, in which 
his two sons were officers, was now sent to Kentucky, 
and was subsequently, when ordered to the relief of the 
garrison at Mumfordsville, captured by General Bragg’s 
army. Soon after, however, an exchange of prisoners 
having taken place, the 60th was assigned to the Fourth 
Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, in the Army of 
Tennessee, as it was first called; and at the taking 
of Arkansas Post, under Generals Sherman and Mc- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN Of INDIANA. 


[zst Dest. 


Clernand, Colonel Owen’s regiment lost heavily, and 
many were killed or wounded on each side of him, 
within a few feet. His regiment was at General Grant’s 
siege of Vicksburg until then with 
General Sherman at the capture of Jackson, Missis- 
sippi. Subsequently, the 60th was ordered to join the 
forces of General Banks in the Red River campaign, 
and Colonel Owen, placed in command of a brigade, 
lost heavily in killed and wounded at the battle of 
Carrion-crow Bayou. About the close of the Red River 
campaign, an offer of the professorship of natural sci- 
ence in the Indiana State University was made to Doctor 
Owen, who thereupon tendered his resignation as colonel, 
to take effect at the close of the campaign. This en- 
abled him to reach Bloomington, Indiana, the seat of 
the university, on the first day of January, 1864, after 
more than two years and a half of service in the Fed- 
eral army. His connection with this college lasted 
nearly sixteen years, as he only recently retired to New 
Harmony, with the intention of pursuing the original 
researches commenced at Bloomington. These consisted 
chiefly in demonstrating, by means of the galvanome- 
ter, the existence of thermo-electrical currents in the 
earth’s crust, chiefly bearing from east to west, and in 
our north hemisphere from south to north, as high as 
latitude seventy degrees or thereby. He also constructed 
an electrical globe to demonstrate and explain the dec- 
lination and inclination of the compass. Papers con- 
nected with these subjects, and with terrestrial magnet- 
ism as bearing on the dynamics of geology, were read by 
Doctor Owen at several meetings of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, and were also 
published in various periodicals, as the Sczentefic Ameri- 
can, Polytechnic Review, Transactions of Academy of Sci- 
ences, at St. Louis, Valley Naturalist, and Indianapolis 
daily Journal. The account of some researches on the fly- 
ing weevil, made while on his farm, will be found in the 
Albany (New York) Czltevator, of 1846; and a series of 
letters on Education were furnished to the Sowth-western 
Sentinel, in Evansville, Indiana, in 1840; later articles 
on Education and Agriculture appeared in the Indiana 
School Journal, Indiana Farmer, Yale College Courant, 
Reports of the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, 
Tennessee farmer, etc., besides papers on the Rain- 
fall, the Preservation of ‘Timber, the Cause of Indian 
Summer, and other subjects connected with physical 
geography, published in various Western periodicals; 
also a series of letters from Europe, the Holy Land, 
and Egypt, partly in the New York 77bume, but chiefly 
in the Evansville /owrnal. Many public lectures on 
scientific subjects were at various times delivered by in- 
vitation, chiefly in Tennessee and Indiana. In 1872 
Doctor Owen was elected president of the Indiana State 


its surrender, 


Agricultural College (Purdue University); but, as two 


years afterwards it was still unorganized, and his labors * 


1st ‘Dist.] 


at Bloomington had been continued, with the additional 
offer of the curatorship of the new museum there (con- 
sisting mainly of eighty-five thousand specimens purchased 
from the estate of his late brother), Doctor Owen de- 
cided to remain, and tendered his resignation as president 
of Purdue. Wabash College conferred on Doctor Owen 
the degree of LL. D., and Louisiana also made him 
honorary member of her scientific association. In 
1874 he served as Grand Master, Independent Order of 
Odd-fellows, of Indiana, and in 1875 was delegate to 
the Grand Lodge of the United States, which met that 
year at Indianapolis. Doctor Owen married, in 1837, 
the fifth daughter of Professor Joseph Neef (formerly 
an associate of Pestalozzi, and invited to this country 
for the purpose of introducing that educator’s system); 
and three children, a daughter and two sons, were born 
to them. The former died, but the two latter are mar- 
ried, and reside in New Harmony. Professor Owen is 
the only surviving member of the immediate family 
of Robert Owen. 
—+-g0t@-o— 


WEN, DAVID DALE, M. D., of New Harmony, 
Indiana, a prominent geologist, was born in Brax- 

field House, near New Lanark, Scotland, June 24, 
1807, and died in New Harmony, Indiana, Novem- 

ber 13, 1860. He was the third son of Robert Owen— 
the second son, William, dying earlier—and brother of 
Robert Dale Owen. He was educated with his young- 
est brother, Professor Richard Owen, M. D., LL. D., at 
Hofwyl, Switzerland, and in 1826 accompanied his father 
to the settlement established by the latter in New Har- 
mony, Indiana. He subsequently returned to Europe, 
where he spent two years in studying geology and 
chemistry, as well as improving himself in painting, for 
which he had great taste, and in 1833 took up his per- 
manent residence in the United States. In 1835 he 
received the degree of M. D. from the Ohio Medical 
College, and two years later was employed by the Leg- 
islature of Indiana to make a geological reconnoissance 
of the state, the results of which were published in a 
small work, of which a reprint appeared in 1859. He 
subsequently, under instructions from the United States 
general land-office at Washington, made a minute ex- 
amination of the mineral lands of Iowa; and in 1848, 
having spent the interval chiefly in scientific study, he 
was employed by the government to conduct the geo- 
logical survey of Wisconsin, Towa, and Minnesota. The 
result of his three years’ labor in this extensive field 
was in 1852 published by Congress, in a quarto volume, 
embracing over six hundred pages, accompanied by nu- 
merous maps and illustrations executed in the highest 
style of art. During the next five years, from 1852 to 
1857, he conducted the survey of the state of Kentucky, 
three volumes relating to which, with maps and illustra- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


39 


tions, have been published; the fourth was sent to press 
a few weeks before his death. In 1857 he was appointed 
state geologist of Arkansas, and in the succeeding year 
the report of his survey was published in one octavo 
volume. The preparation of a companion volume was 
about completed at his death, and was issued by his 
younger brother and administrator, Doctor Richard 
Owen, shortly after the death of Doctor David D. Owen. 
He also conducted various important examinations for 
private individuals and corporations. He was an inde- 
fatigable and enthusiastic laborer in his peculiar walk, 
and his death was hastened by the exposure incidental 
to camp life in the miasmatic regions last surveyed by him. 
He had just finished arranging a large private museum 
and laboratory at his home in New Harmony, which was 
said to be one of the most complete in the country. 
His collection of specimens in geology, mineralogy, and 
natural history, which formed his museum, is said to 
have equaled, if not surpassed, any in the Union; and 
this, after his death, was purchased by the state of 
Indiana for the State University, and is now at Bloom- 
ington, rearranged and labeled under the direction of 
his brother, Professor Richard Owen. During his life 
David Dale Owen made a great reputation as a geologist 
and scientist, being famous in scientific circles of Eu- 
rope, as well as in America. Just previous to his death, 
in 1860, he was regarded as the most eminent geologist 
in America. His labors have been of incalculable ben- 
efit for the several states in which they were performed, 
and the volumes containing the result of his geological 
surveys have been looked upon as most valuable addi- 
tions to the literature of natural science of America. 
He was an incessant worker, both while in the field and 
in the laboratory, and was constantly at work from early 
morning till Jate at night. He has probably accom- 
plished as much for geology in this country as any one 
man. He married Caroline, fourth daughter of Joseph 
Neef, of New Harmony, himself a celebrated educator, 
who had been an associate of Pestalozzi, and who, soon 
after his arrival in the United States, published two 
works on education. David Dale Owen had two sons 
and two daughters, all of whom are now living. The 
oldest son, Alfred Dale Owen, served as an officer in 
the Federal army during the late Civil War, the latter 
part of it as colonel of the 18th Indiana Volunteers. 


—>-4006-— 


EN 


WEN, ROBERT, an English social reformer, for- 
merly a resident of New Harmony, Indiana, was 
born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, England, in 
1771, and died there November 19, 1858. Al- 
though the son of poor parents, he received a respect- 
able education. He entered upon commercial pursuits, 


and when fourteen years old procured a situation in 


40 


London, where he soon recommended himself by his 
talents for business. At the age of eighteen years he 
became partner in a cotton mill, and subsequently re- 
moved to the Chorlton Mills, near Manchester. Pros- 
pering in this undertaking, he married, in 1801, the 
daughter of David Dale, a Glasgow manufacturer, and 
afterward assumed charge of a large cotton factory in 
New Lanark, Scotland, belonging to his father-in-law. 
Here he introduced a system of reform which proved 
for a time highly successful. He then turned his atten- 
tion to more extensive social evils, and published, in 
1812, ‘*New Views of Society; or, Essays upon the 
Formation of Human Character ;” and subsequently a 
‘““Book of the New Moral World,” in which he main- 
tained a theory of modified communism, insisting on an 
absolute equality in all rights and duties, and the abo- 
lition of all superiority, even that of capital and intelli- 
gence. By the aid of his immense fortune he was 
enabled to distribute a large number of tracts develop- 
ing his peculiar views, and soon had every-where numer- 
ous followers; but, attacked on all sides, and particu- 
larly by the religious press, he set out in 1823, after the 
death of his patron, the Duke of Kent, for the United 
States, where he determined to found at his own cost 
a communist society; and with this view he bought 
from George Rapp the settlement of New Harmony, 
Indiana, on the banks of the Wabash, embracing thirty 
thousand acres, and dwellings for two thousand persons. 
The scheme, however, proved an utter failure, and in 
1827 he returned to England, where experiments of a 
similar nature, attended by similar results, were made 
at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire, and at Tytherly, in Hamp- 


shire. He succeeded no better in establishing a ‘ labor 
exchange” in London, in connection with a bazaar and 
bank. In 1828 he went to Mexico, on the invitation 


of the government, to carry out his experiment there, 
but effected nothing. His ill success, however, neither 
weakened his confidence nor lessened his activity, and 
during the remainder of his life he constantly appeared 
before the public as a lecturer and journalist. His 
ideas are most clearly developed in his ‘‘ Lectures on a 
New State of Society,” ‘* Essays on the Formation of 
Human Character,” and ‘Outlines of the Rational Sys- 
tem ;” and especially in his principal work, ‘‘The Book 
of the New Moral World,” in which he came forward 
as the founder of a system of religion and society ac- 
cording to reason. He and his followers, the so-called 
Owenites, became, in 1827, the soul of the labor leagues, 
out of which sprang the Chartist movement. During 
his last years he was a believer in spiritualism, and 
published several conversations held with Benjamin 
Franklin, and other persons. He was one of the first 
to found infant schools, and through him they were in- 
troduced into England, and from there to the other coun- 
tries of the globe. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7st Dist. 


(X WEN, ROBERT DALE, New Harmony, author 
J and statesman, eldest son of Robert Owen, whose 
sketch is given elsewhere, was born in Glasgow, 
Scotland, in 1801. He was educated with a 
younger brother, William, at Hofwyl, Switzerland, and 
about 1825 accompanied his father to America, when 
the latter bought out the Rapp Harmonists, and began 
to establish his community at New Harmony, Indiana. 
Robert Dale Owen went to the latter place and there 
began the New Harmony Gazette, a weekly literary 
and socialistic paper, devoted to the interests of the 
new community, and published it about two years. He 
then removed to New York City, and for four or five 
years was editor and publisher of the New York /7ce 
Enquirer, « weekly literary journal. At New York he 
married Mary Jane Robinson, and, after having made a 
trip to Europe, removed to New Harmony, Indiana, 
about the year 1833, and made that his future home. 
He entered the arena of politics, and was elected on 
the Democratic ticket as a Representative to the state 
Legislature for two or three terms. He was twice 
elected as a Representative to Congress for the First 
Congressional District of Indiana, holding his seat in 
Congress from 1843 to 1847. In Congress he took a 
leading part in settling the north-western boundary dis- 
pute, and in 1845 introduced a bill organizing the 
Smithsonian Institute. He was a member of the In- 
diana state constitutional convention of 1850, which 
framed the present Constitution of the state, and was 
chairman of the revision committee. He was the author 
of several important measures which were embodied in 
the Constitution; notably one to secure to married women 
independent rights of property. As a testimonial to his 
services in this respect, he was presented by the women 
of Indiana with an elegant and massive silver pitcher. 
In 1853 he was appointed by President Buchanan as 
United States Chargé d’ Affaires, and afterwards Minister 
to Naples, which office he held until 1858, when he re- 
turned to this country. He took a prominent part in 
the organization of the Smithsonian Institute, at 
Washington, District of Columbia, and was one of its 
first regents. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, 
in 1861, casting aside political preferences, he gave his 
entire influence towards the suppression of the Rebellion. 
He was commissioned by Governor Morton, of Indiana, 
to purchase a large supply of arms for that state, which 
commission he faithfully executed. He encouraged, 
both by public addresses and contributions to the pub- 
lic journals, the enlistment of troops for the Union 
armies, and was a firm friend to President Lincoln and 
his cabinet, to whom he freely communicated his opinion 
on matters of state policy. He urged upon Mr. Lincoln 
in the early part of the war the necessity of emancipa- 
tion, and drew up the form of an emancipation procla- 
mation, which he submitted to President Lincoln, the 


rst Dist.) 


main features of which the latter embodied in his 
famous proclamation declaring freedom to slaves in in- 
surrectionary states. Mr. Lincoln is reported to have 
said that it was the letters received from,and the argu- 
ments presented by, Mr. Owen that induced him to issue 
the proclamation. He was appointed a member of a 
committee of three to devise means for the amelioration 
of the colored population, released from slavery at the 
close of the war, the result of these labors being the 
establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau. After the 
close of the war, Mr. Owen devoted himself mostly to 
literary pursuits, and was a frequent contributor to the 
magazines and journals of the day. He is the author 
of a number of works, among which may be mentioned 
‘«‘New Views of Society,” ‘‘Hints on Public Architec- 
ture,’ with one hundred and thirteen illustrations, pub- 
lished by the Smithsonian Institute; ‘‘ Footfalls on the 
Boundaries of Another World ;” also a drama, ‘‘ Pocahon- 
tas,” and minor works, besides a serial, entitled ‘‘ Beyond 
the Breakers;’’ and ‘‘ Threading my Way,” an autobiogra- 
phy, bringing the events of his life up to his twenty-sev- 
enth year; ‘*The Debatable Land between This World 
and the Next.” The first third of this, addressed to the 
Protestant clergy, he considered the best of his writings. 
His first wife having died, he some years afterwards mar- 
ried Miss Lottie W. Kellogg, of Lake George, New York, 
where he died June 24, 1877, and where his remains now 
rest. By his first wife he left two sons and one daughter. 
His oldest son was a lieutenant-colonel of the Ist Indi- 
ana Cavalry during the late war; the youngest son prac- 
tices law. 
40 


Sf\EARSE, MILTON W., attorney-at-law, of Mount 
Vernon, was born in Friendship, Alleghany 

C County, New York, July 4, 1841. His ances- 
G’ tors were among the early settlers of Bristol, 
Rhode Island, and several members of his grandfather’s 
family were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Milton 
W. Pearse was raised on a farm, received an academic 
education, and at the age of nineteen years started for 
the West. He went to Mount Vernon in 1860, where he 
was engaged in teaching school for about four years. 
In April, 1864, at the call of the President for volun- 
teers for one hundred days, he enlisted, and spent three 
months in the military service. He subsequently studied 
law in Mount Vernon, and was admitted to the bar in 
1866. He entered at once upon the practice of his pro- 
fession, in which he has ever since been successfully en- 
gaged. In 1868 he was elected prosecuting attorney for 
the judicial circuit comprising Posey, Gibson, Vander- 
burg, and Warrick Counties, and held the office for two 
years, declining a nomination for re-election. He is a 
Democrat in politics, has taken an active part in every 
political campaign since the year 1860, and is now chair- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


4I 


man of the Democratic county committee for Posey 
County, which position he has held for several years. 
He was married, in 1865, to Miss Mary Nettleton, of 
Mount Vernon. 

—<>- Fate<—_ 


ay ERIGO, EZEKIEL, of Boonville, one of the old 
! settlers of Warrick County, was born there on the 
») 6th of August, 1802. His father came from Mary- 

land, and was born in that state during the strife 
with Great Britain. He had at an early day moved to 
Kentucky, at a time when Indians were troublesome, 
and when panthers and other wild beasts were there to 
molest them. At eighteen years of age he moved to 
Ohio County, Kentucky, and when twenty-one years of 
age married Miss Hinman. This was in 1800. In 1802 
Ezekiel was born, and when he was sixteen years of age 
his father moved to Warrick County, Indiana. His 
mother was a woman of nerve, and could handle a gun 
and shoot a wild-cat as well as a man. She died by a 
stroke of palsy in 1822. Shortly afterwards Ezekiel 
was married to Miss Hudson, a consistent member of 
the Methodist Church, who lived to the good, ripe age 
His father died about 1830. 
Mr. Perigo has identified himself with the people of 
Warrick County in many public ways. His early ad- 
vantages in instruction were limited to a few days in 
each winter for two or three years only. He obtained 
the most of his education himself after he was married, 
by pursuing a regular and systematic course of study. 
This proved of great practical use to him afterwards. 
He began life in farming, and continued in that busi- 
ness until fifty-four years of age, when he went into a 
mill for eighteen months, from this into a saddle and 
harness shop, and thence to selling dry-goods. He 
finally retired to his farm, where he still lives, and will 
spend the remainder of his days. He began in mercan- 
tile business in 1856, and suspended it in 1872. He 
had one son, who was killed in the war, at Atlanta, 
Georgia. Mr. Perigo is a stanch Union man, and did 
much to assist in the war by helping to feed and clothe 
soldiers’ families, and otherwise encouraging in the 
work of fighting our battles. He has been most of his 
life a public man, and the county has imposed upon him 
onerous duties. The first office held was that of consta- 
ble, in which he served two terms. 


of seventy-three years. 


He was also com- 
missioner of the county seminary for six years, and then 
for a while collector of taxes. In this he was required 
to ride through the county on horseback and make per- 
sonal collections. He remem- 
bers of paying himself off one time after the year’s work 
was done, and of counting out the silver by throwing it 
into one of Jackson’s ‘‘ old-fashioned tin-cups,” that held 
about three pints, completely filling it. This was his 


salary for the year’s work, and consisted of about two 


He was very successful. 


42 


hundred dollars. He has been for a long time commis- 
sioner of the Warrick County swamp lands. He has 
been treasurer of the township four years, trustee four 
years, and served as administrator in settling up forty- 
five estates, and commissioner in partition in closing up 
forty other estates. He has been a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for fifty-two years. His 
wife died the 27th of June, 1878, and he now lives 
with a granddaughter. Mr. Perigo has been a useful 
member of society all through his long life, and is spoken 
of by his neighbors as a man of sterling worth, strictly 
honorable and upright in all his dealings. 


—-$00-<— 


NG 

oy osey, FRANCIS BLACKBURN, attorney-at-law, 
i. Petersburg, Pike County, one of the most success- 
~-/ ful lawyers and prominent politicians of the dis- 
GG’ trict, was born April 28, 1848, at Petersburg. His 
parents were John W. and Sarah B. Posey. His father, 
a large farmer, was among the earliest settlers of the 
county, and gave his son a thorough and complete 
education. After learning all that was taught at the 
common schools he went to Asbury University, and was 
there from 1864 to 1867 inclusive. Young Posey needed 
no incentive to study; it was his nature. He seemed 


to have formed an early determination to excel, and 
excel he did, carrying with him all through his life that 
Although comparatively young, he is a 
leader of men, a ready and efficient speaker, with a 
Logical and plain in his arguments, 
The writer has 


same spirit. 


clear, firm voice. 
he carries conviction to his hearers. 
heard him in a speech, during the past campaign, 
hold his audience almost spell-bound, riveting their 
attention and eliciting their applause. He is a fine 
specimen of aman. He is robust and in the enjoyment 
of full health. He is about six feet high, portly, with 
a frank and open countenance, and has such an appear- 
ance as indicates honor, integrity, honesty of purpose, 
and determination. In politics he is a Republican, 
standing in the foremost rank in the county, and is an 
ardent and zealous worker, who acts from strong con- 
In 1869 he graduated at the state law school, 
and entered upon the practice of his chosen profession 
at Petersburg. In 1873 he removed to Vincennes, but 
in 1875 he returned to his native town, remaining there 
ever since, and enjoying a large and lucrative prac- 
tice. In 1872 he was appointed by Governor Baker 
prosecuting attorney. Being a Republican in an over- 
whelmingly Democratic district, it was only by an 
appointment that an office could be held by him. He is 
exceedingly popular, and as a politician his influence is 
great. Genial, affable, and courteous, he enjoys the 
respect and friendship of those who differ from him 


victions. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zs¢ Dost. 


politically. January 17, 1878, he was married to Emma 
Brown, the most estimable daughter of the Hon. Perry 
Brown, of Pike County. 


—- HCE 


: 
ners, ABRAHAM M., of Newburg, was born 


, January 6, 1798, in Hartford, Vermont. His 
t/ father, who was a soldier under Arnold at West 
a Point, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, 
in 1765, and was married to Margaret Hamilton in 1796. 
Their son Abraham endured in youth all the hardships 
incident to our early civilization, and, while he failed 
to receive much of a school education, became well 
grounded in those principles of rectitude that should 
underlie every business career. When nineteen years 
of age he commenced to work for himself, and, by means 
of hard labor at low wages. during the summer months, 
was able to attend the Royalton Academy during the 
He struggled on in this way for three succes- 
sive years in his efforts to acquire something of an edu- 
cation. In June, 1820, when twenty-two years of age, 
he started on foot for the far West, traveling thus for 
three or four hundred miles, until he reached Black 
Rock, near Buffalo, New York. There he took a 
steamer, called ‘‘ Walk-in-the-Water,” the first one that 
was built on the western lakes. For about three miles 
the steamer was propelled by four yoke of oxen, that it 
might not be drawn over the falls. After the oxen were 
withdrawn from the boat, its rate of speed did not ex- 
ceed four or five miles an hour, thus making the journey 
to Cleveland a tedious one. From Cleveland he went 
to Franklin, Ohio, where he taught school for nearly 
two years. While there he entered the employ of a 
New Orleans shipper of produce, where he had an op- 
portunity to barter a little in the way of provisions on 
his trip down the river. After that Mr. Phelps oper- 
ated solely on his own account, and engaged in com- 
merce in a small way up and down the Mississippi River, 
his trade being principally between Memphis and Natchez. 
For a time he engaged in trade in Evansville, after 
which he removed to Newburg, where he has since 
resided. June 7, 1827, he was married to Miss Frances 
Johnson, of Evansville, a lady who, by her many acts 
of kindness, has endeared herself to all who know her. 
Mr. Phelps has been so successful as a merchant that 
during the panic of 1837 he was about the only man in 
that section of the country who could buy goods in New 
York. He continued in business until 1865, when he 
retired from mercantile life. He has been a consistent 
member of the Church to which he belongs, the mate- 
rial interests of which he has greatly advanced. He 
built the First Presbyterian Church of Newburg, and 
afterwards, when a new one was built, contributed most 
liberally to its erection. He was also instrumental in 


C 
oy 


winter. 


ist Dist.] 


building the seminary in Newburg, which for a time had 
a most excellent patronage. Mr. Phelps is now reaping 
the fruits of his long career of toil in a life of ease and 
affluence. 

9006-0 


EAVIS, WILLIAM, of Evansville, was born on 
the 27th of August, 1815, in Gibson County, In- 
diana, then a territory, and a comparatively unin- 
habited wilderness. His advent to this world 
was made ‘amid the howling of wolves, the growling of 
bears and catamounts, and the screaming of panthers. 
His father, Isham, was born in North Carolina, and his 
mother, whose maiden name was Strickland, was born 
in South Carolina, and in 1813, soon after her marriage, 
moved to Indiana. The country was thinly settled, and 
savages in small squads were still prowling around. 
Bread was scarce, and hominy was oftentimes used as a 
substitute. They had, however, of 
food, fish, flesh, and fowl, and were always able to pre- 
pare a feast that would have proved savory to a king. 
Mis father engaged in stock-raising, in which, however, 
he had nothing to do but to keep his cattle gentle with 
salt, and protect them from the ravages of wild beasts. 
For this latter purpose he kept two rifles, one for him- 
self and one for his wife, who knew how to use it. He 
killed three bears in one day, and at another time his 
wife killed a wild-cat that came into the yard for a pig. 
She chased it up into a tall tree and coolly shot it. 
William was taught early in life how to handle a gun. 
He killed deer before he was fourteen years of age. 
These were his surroundings. He had the grand old 
woods and the open sky for a school-room, but he can 
never recollect when he could not read; knowledge for 
him had charms, and he thirsted for it as the panting 
hart for the brook. Later, however, he had an occa- 
sional teacher, who could read, write, and cipher, and 
was permitted to go to school about six weeks out of 
the year, The Old-school Baptist ministers were numer- 
ous among the settlers, and they often held worship 
from house to house, as they had no church building. 
When he was ten years of age his father died, leav- 
ing the duties of the farm and the care of the house- 
hold to devolve largely upon him. He thus gained 
much experience that became useful in after life. His 
constant passion was for books, more literature. Every 
odd moment was thus utilized. His mother gave him 
his liberty when he was twenty years of age, and, in 
addition, a horse, bridle, and saddle. 
posed of and went immediately to school. In his four 
months’ tuition he gained a knowledge of the principles 
of grammar which has aided him materially many 
times since then in the tongue battles he has waged so 
unmercifully on political heretics. Before he was 
twenty years of age he had taught two schools. These 


many varieties 


These he dis- | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


43 


were in the days of Eggleston’s Hoosier Schoolmaster, 
and he thinks ‘that picture not overdrawn. 
married on the 12th of December, 1836, to Miss Eleanor 
C. Burton, by whom he had eight children. In 1839 
he was baptized in the general Baptist Church. In the 
year 1846 he was elected treasurer of his native county. 
The records on file in Indianapolis show that he had the 
least delinquent list in proportion to taxables of any 


He was 


treasurer in the state the first year. In 1849 he was urged 
to run for the position again, and was elected by a 
largely increased majority. He held his office for six 
consecutive years. During his second term the famous 
school law, taxing the property of every citizen ad vwa- 
lorem, was passed by the Indiana Legislature. Mr. 
Reavis strongly advocated this enactment, but it was op- 
posed in his county as unconstitutional by lawyers, and 
even by Judge Hall, one of his bondsmen, the latter re- 
fusing to stand longer on his bond if he attempted to 
collect the tax; but Mr. Reavis, knowing his duty, col- 
lected it from Judge Hall, threatening to levy on his 
favorite horse and buggy in case he refused to pay 
it. Judge Hall paid it, but he withdrew his name 
from the paper, whereupon Mr. Reavis gave another, 
representing the largest amount of wealth of any 
bond ever given in the county, and the schools 
were opened amid general rejoicings. In 1852, with- 
out any solicitation on his part, he was nominated 
for Congress by the Whig party, but was defeated, 
although he ran ahead of his ticket. Shortly after 
this time his wife died. He was still exercising the 
functions of a Baptist minister, when, getting into a 
difficulty with a couple of men, he gave them a sound 
thrashing. He then offered to surrender his credentials 
to the Church, which being refused and his short-com- 
ings forgiven, he continued to preach. In 1858 he mar- 
ried again, this time Mrs. Damon, widow of the late 
Volney Damon, Esq., of Vanderburg County, Indiana. 
In 1859 he removed to Benton, Franklin County, Illi- 
nois, where he engaged in the practice of law. Here 
he was intimately associated with Hon. John A. Logan, 
then a citizen of that place. Mr. Reavis had, while at 
Benton, written articles to the Benton Standard, and, 
although a Democratic paper, his contributions had per- 
suaded it into the Union line. He also wrote for the 
Hamilton Sucker, another Democratic journal, and im- 
bued that newspaper also with Union principles. A 
large majority of the people were, notwithstanding, for 
the Confederacy, only eight votes in the county having 
been cast for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Rebellion was 
rife in this section. The editor’s life was threatened, 
and he was obliged to discontinue his paper. ‘Union 
men were forbidden, by bold, intrepid rebels, to make 
recruiting speeches, under penalty of death; and conse- 
quently old politicians, when called upon, refused to ap- 
pear. At one time the people of Southern Illinois raised 


44 


a company for the South, and many isolated individuals 
actually entered in its service. Mr. Reavis then opened 
a correspondence with General Grant regarding the situ- 
ation, which resulted in the latter’s sending a company 
of men to that place to quell disturbances. Under 
these circumstances Mr. Reavis went forth to 
speeches and recruits for the 6th Cavalry and 4oth Ili- 
nois Infantry. Those were the days that tried men’s souls, 
but he had the love of his country in his heart, and 
forgot all else in the many dangers he passed through. 
Often was he assaulted, and attempts were even made 
He claimed no credit for loving his 
He was taught it 


make 


to assassinate him. 
country, he simply could not help it. 
between his father’s knees, and he drew it from his 
mother’s breast, while the songs concerning the victory 
of Perry on the lakes, and of Jackson at New Orleans, 
sung by his mother as a lullaby, were recollections that 
buoyed him up in the face of all danger. At McLeans- 
boro, Illinois, some bold rebels threatened to kill any 
man who should attempt to make a recruiting speech 
Captain Scott, of the goth Lllinois, was 
A few hundred men gathered 


at that place. 
there with a few soldiers. 
about him, and so intimidated them that they feared to 
go into the court-house. Mr. Reavis came upon the 
ground, assumed command, at once ordered the doors 
unlocked, and marched the men in and mounted the 
platform. Taking Stephen A. Douglas’s dying words 
for his text, he assumed the ground that there were but two 
parties, patriots and traitors, and boldly discussed the 
issues of the day. Thus, day after day, he spoke for 
his country; andit is safe to say he did more recruiting 
for the goth Illinois Infantry and the 6th Cavalry Vol- 
unteers than any other one’man, encountering more 
dangers in this work than he did while in actual service. 
He assisted in recruiting the 56th Illinois Infantry, being 
a captain in Company G of that regiment, and with it he 
participated in the siege of Corinth, Mississippi, when 
Beauregard evacuated the place, and was also at the bat- 
tle of Corinth, on October 3 and 4, 1862. When the 
battle began he was sick in camp quarters, with a sur- 
geon’s certificate of disability, but longed to be on the 
field; and, when the news was received that the troops 
were surrounded by General Price, with a force of two 
to one, he sprang from his couch, aroused his sick com- 
rades, thirty-eight of whom followed him to the front. 
There he headed his own company, and by his words of 
cheer and encouragement gained for them a victory. In 
acknowledgment of his services, a portion of his regi- 
ment held a meeting, and passed and signed a preamble 
and resolutions, the concluding portion of which reads: 


“Resolved, That for his courage on the battle-field 
of Corinth, Mississippi, on the 3d and 4th of October, 
1862, in leaving his sick-quarters and rallying thirty- 
eight convalescents to the scene, heading his company, 
fighting all through that ever-memorable battle, and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[1st Dest. 


cheering us on to victory both by words and actions, 
he deserves to be held in everlasting remembrance by a 
grateful people and country.” 


After his resignation he removed to Evansville and 
engaged in the government claim business. He was ap- 
pointed by Chief Justice Chase register in bankruptcy, 
and held that office for four years. Mr. Reavis is 
above the medium height, has a strong and well propor- 
tioned physique, and has an unusual amount of vitality 
and energy. He is characteristically positive, reads men 
readily, and, with his impulsive nature, always acts 
He has an excellent command of language, is 
a forcible partisan, and an eloquent statesman. In what- 
ever employment Mr. Reavis has been engaged or posi- 
tion he has occupied, either civil or military, he has 
acquitted himself honorably, creditably, and to the sat- 
isfaction of the people. 


promptly. 


—- FOE 


. 


) APP, GEORGE, the founder of New Harmony, 
'), Indiana, and of the Society of Harmonists, was 


£5 berg. He was the son of a small farmer and vine- 
dresser, received a moderate common school education, 
and upon leaving school assisted his father on the farm, 
working as a weaver during the winter months. Rapp 
from his early years was fond of reading, and, his sup- 
ply of books not being plentiful, he became a student of 
the Bible, and began to compare the condition of the 
people he lived among with the social order described in 
the New Testament. He became dissatisfied, especially 
with the lifeless condition of the Churches; and in the 
year 1787, when he was thirty years old, he began to 
preach in his own house on Sundays to a small congre- 
gation of people, whom he evidently found to hold the 
same opinions as himself. The clergy resented this in- 
terference with their office, and persecuted Rapp and 
his adherents, who were fined and imprisoned. This 
had a tendency to increase the number of his followers, 
and in the course of six years he had gathered about 
him not less than three hundred families. He had la- 
bored upon his farm so industriously that he had accu- 
mulated some property, and in 1803 his adherents de- 
termined upon emigrating in a body to America, where 
they were sure of freedom to worship God after their 
own desires. In 1783 Rapp had married a farmer’s 
daughter, who bore him a son, John, and a daughter, Ro- 
sina. In 1803, accompanied by his son John and two 
other persons, he sailed for Baltimore, and, after look- 
ing about in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, they 
purchased five thousand acres of wild land about 
twenty-five miles north of Pittsburgh as a place of set- 
tlement. In the summer of 1804 six hundred of Rapp’s 
people, under the supervision of Frederick (Reichart) 


rst Dist] 


Rapp, an adopted son of George Rapp, arrived in this 
country. There were among them a few of moderately 
good education, and some who had considerable prop- 
erty for emigrants in those days. All were thrifty and 
few were destitute. Rapp met them upon their ar- 
rival, and settled them in different parts of Maryland 
and Pennsylvania, while he took a number of the ablest 
mechanics and laborers to proceed to the destined place 
of settlement to prepare habitations for the remainder. 
In 1805 they removed to the settlement and organized 
themselves into the Harmony Society, agreeing to place 
all their possessions in a common fund, adopt a uniform 
style of dress, keep all things in common, and labor for 
the good of the whole body. By a further addition in 
the spring of that year, the community embraced one 
hundred and fifty families, or about seven hundred and 
fifty men, women, and children. 
pered with great rapidity, and in 1807, amid a deep 
religious fervor which pervaded the society, they adopted 
as a new article of their creed ‘a resolution to forever 
after refrain from marriage. A certain number of the 
young people, feeling no desire for a celibate life, with- 
drew from the society; but the great majority, how- 
ever, remained, and faithfully ceased from conjugal 
relations. At the same time they agreed to cease using 
tobacco in every form. The site in Pennsylvania not 
being a desirable one, the society in 1814 determined to 
remove to Posey County, Indiana, where they purchased 
a tract of thirty thousand acres of land. Thither one 
hundred persons proceeded, in June, 1814, to prepare a 
place for the rest, and by the summer of 1815 the whole 
colony was in its new home, now known by the name 
of New Harmony. Here they erected large factories, 
mills, and dwelling-houses, many of them very substan- 
tially built of brick, most of which are still standing. 
In 1817 one hundred and thirty persons came over at 
one time from Wiirtemberg and joined them, and they 
received at various times other accessions, so that 
while at New Harmony they numbered some seven 
or eight hundred. The Harmonists appear to have 
been under the complete control and direction of their 
leader, Rapp, whom they believed to be led by a sort 
of inspiration from God, and who appears to have 
guided his people wisely. He was a man of robust 
frame and sound health, with great perseverance, enter- 
prise, executive ability, and remarkable common sense, 
a man who was seldom if ever idle, an indomitable 
worker, and a hard student and reader. He remained 
with his followers at New Harmony but ten years, 
when, the Harmonists having suffered severely from the 
malarial fevers of that locality and from unpleasant 
neighbors, they sold out their thirty thousand acres of 
Jand, with all improvements, including about one hun- 
dred and twenty buildings, to Robert Owen, of Scot- 
land, for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They 


The community pros- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


‘Oxford, Ohio. 


45 


then bought property at Economy, Pennsylvania, and 
removed to this their final home in the summer of 1825. 
With their habits of industry, they gradually acquired 
large wealth, which is still retained by the few adherents 
to the society. Rapp continued his control over the 
Harmonists, which in his old age became almost abso- 


lute, and died in 1847, at the age of ninety years. 
—-FO0E-— 


) EINHARD, GEO. L., attorney-at-law, Rockport, 
Spencer County, was born in Bavaria, Germany, 
July 5, 1843, where he attended the primary 
schools until the age of fourteen, thereby receiv- 
ing the groundwork of a very liberal education. He 
then at that early age emigrated to the United States, in 
the year 1857, and remained for a time in Cincinnati, 
Ohio. During 1858-59 he attended school at Cincinnati, 
and at the same time was employed in working at the 
spoke and wheel manufactory of his uncle, who was a 
In 1860 he re- 
moved to Union County, Indiana, where he attended 
public school and labored hard for a livelihood. The 
war breaking out, he determined to defend the old flag, 
enlisting as a private in Company I, 16th Indiana Vol- 
unteers, under Captain (afterward general) T. W. Ben- 
nett. His company was subsequently transferred to the 
15th Regiment, and he served until the expiration of 


large and wealthy manufacturer there, 


his term, three years and four months, engaging in the 
battles of Greenbrier, Perryville, Pittsburgh Landing, 
Stone River, and many others. At the battle of Stone 
River he had his gun shot from his shoulder and shat- 
tered into fragments by a cannon ball. 
either wounded or taken prisoner, but came home very 
much broken down in health. After his discharge 
he determined to pursue his studies still further, and 
to obtain as good an education as his circumstances 
would permit. From 1864 to 1868 he attended a 
high school at Cincinnati, and Miami University, at 
During part of this time he taught 
school, and also a German class among the students, 
and clerked in a dry-goods store, in order to acquire 
means to prosecute his studies. 
tion at Owensboro, Kentucky. 


He was never 


Later he gave instruc- 

He had thoroughly 
studied Greek, Latin, mathematics, the sciences, and 
the German and English languages, making rapid pro- 
gress in his acquirements in all. Early in 1868 he 
commenced the study of law, and in September, 1869, 
was admitted to practice at Owensboro, Kentucky, after 
passing a successful examination before Judge G. W. 
Williams. In the winter of 1870 he removed to, and 
settled in, Rockport, Indiana. He succeeded at once 
in establishing a good practice, and has been most 
remarkably successful. He is now recognized, not only 
as one of the leading attorneys of the bar, but also 


46 REPRESENTATIVE 
as one of the ablest and most popular lawyers of South- 
‘ern Indiana. His success is due to his indomitable 
pluck, perseverance, and native talent. He had to un- 
dergo many privations and hardships in early life, but 
he started with a determination which was not easily 
discomfited by obstacles. He has fought his way to the 
front, and to-day as a reward he occupies a high posi- 
tion. He always endeavors to discharge his official and 
professional duties with honesty and fidelity. In 1876 
he was elected to th® office of prosecuting attorney of 
the Second Judicial Circuit, by a majority of twelve hun- 
dred. In 1878 he was re-elected without opposition. 
He is the author of ‘‘ Reinhard’s Indiana Criminal Law,” 
a work that reflects the greatest credit on its author. It 
was written during his first term of office, and is a work 
to which his brethren at the bar and the bench and 
critics have testified in the most flattering terms. Hon. 
W. E. Niblack, Judge of the Supreme Court, said: *I 
take great pleasure in saying that I am very much 
pleased with its general scope and arrangement, and 
have no doubt that it will prove to be not only a valua- 
ble contribution to the legal literature of the state, but 
of great assistance to those engaged in the administration 
Hon. R. S. Hicks, of Rockport, 
“Tt is one of the best digests of Indiana criminal 
law ever put before the public.” John B. Elam, prose- 
cuting attorney of Marion Criminal Circuit Court, said: 
Fon.)= B: 
Handy said: ‘‘I keep it by me while on the bench. It 
is a good, convenient, and useful book. Every Justice 
of the Peace in the state ought to have a copy.”? Hon. 
Benjamin Harrison said: ‘‘I am satisfied that this book 
is one which will meet with general favor.”? The Evans- 
ville Journal remarked: 


of our criminal laws.”’ 
said: 


‘‘To prosecuting attorneys it is invaluable.” 


‘‘Mr. Reinhard has done his work thoroughly and 
conscientiously, and he is to be congratulated upon hay- 
ing given the profession an accurate and useful book.” 

Many other favorable comments might be given. In 
politics he is a Democrat, though formerly a Republican. 
He is very conscientious in his convictions and acts by 
them. He speaks English and German with equal flu- 
ency, and frequently addresses audiences in both lan- 
He married, in the fall of 1869, Mary E. Wilson, 
a most estimable young lady, daughter of a Kentucky 
farmer of good family. They have two children living, 
a boy of ten and a little girl of three. 
lost two little girls. 


guages. 


They have also 
June 12, 1880, he was nominated as 
Circuit Judge, but, owing to a decision of the Supreme 
Court, the election is postponed two years. Mr. Rein- 
hard is about five feet ten inches in height, has dark hair 
and eyes, a full, smooth face, large head, broad, intel- 
lectual forehead, and weighs about two hundred pounds. 
His voice is full, clear, and round. As a speaker, he 
is strong, conyincing, logical, and terse, rather than 
eloquent, though at times, when he warms up in debate, 


MEN OF INDIANA, [2st Dist. 
he rises to the highest pitch. He possesses good social 
qualities, is highly successful in his business career, and 
stands in the front rank of his profession. He is hon- 
ored, admired, and respected, and enjoys the confidence 
He is a well read and courteous 


S000 — 


of the community. 
gentleman. 
af 
Gf) OBERTS, JUDGE GAINS, of Newburg, one of 
4, the original settlers of Warrick County, Indiana, 
was born May 13, 1793, in Asheville, Buncombe 
County, N. C. He was married to Catherine Upp, 

of Henderson County, Ky., January 2, 1817, who died 
June 23, 1854. Nine children were the result of this 
union, of whom only one is now living. In November, 
1855, the Judge married Mrs. Susan Morris, of Lima, 
New York, who died in the fall of 1862. It was at an 
early date in the history of Warrick County that Judge 
Roberts and his wife removed from Kentucky to the 
vicinity of Newburg, and located on an uncultivated 
tract of land. So eager were the young couple to taste 
the adventures of pioneer life that they took up their 
abode in their new log-cabin before it was completed, 
and on the first night enjoyed the novelty of having a 
blanket of snow for a bed-covering. This cool recep- 
tion did not, however, dampen their enthusiasm. From 
that time to the day of his death the career of Judge 
Roberts was marked by complete success. He bought 
farms and cleared them, owning at one time fifteen dif- 
ferent tracts of land in Warrick County. He first 
lived on a farm a short distance west of the town, but 
afterwards moved to the east of the village and built 
the Rock House, which still stands, a monument of his 
early enterprises. In 1864 he removed to Vanderburg 
County, about three miles west of Newburg, where he 
lived until the time of his death. Judge Roberts served 
for a number of years as Probate Judge, and then was 
elected state Senator from his district. He also filled 
other offices of less importance. He was bank director 
of the Evansville Bank for fifteen or twenty years, and 
took an active part in every public enterprise tending to 
promote the welfare of his neighborhood. He possessed 
a robust constitution, and seemed able to endure any 
amount of hardship. Near his home at the Rock House 
he kept a wood-yard, and supplied steamboats with 
fuel. There would often be three or four thousand 
cords of wood, so that ‘*Roberts’s wood-yard” was 
known by boatmen the entire length of the river. The 
Judge had no advantages whatever for an education; 
but he could write a good hand, and mastered a prac- 
tical business education. His twin children were edu- 
cated in good seminaries and colleges. One of them, 
Eliza Ann Roberts, married Mr. A. Hazen, who is ex- 
tensively known by steamboat men and along the banks 
of the Ohio River. He was born in Windsor County, 


4 


rst Dist.) 


Vermont, but early went to Newburg, and has ever 
since been identified with its growth and history. He 
has been in the commission business for a number of 
years; has also an extensive coal bank, in which he em- 
ploys about one hundred hands when in full operation. 


—0-0$0400—— 


2 ALSTON, WILLIAM G., M. D., of Evansville, 
; was born February 13, 1819, in Princeton, Gibson 
County, Indiana. His paternal grandfather, Will- 
iam Ralston, was at the siege of Yorktown when 
Cornwallis surrendered to Washington. His maternal 
grandfather, Major Joseph Neely, a man of marked 
ability, was major of a regiment in the Revolutionary 
War. Andrew Ralston, his father, was a soldier in the 
War of 1812 when but eighteen years of age, having 
run away from home to enlist. 
tion when thirty-three years old, 


He died of consump- 

He was married, in 
1818, to Patsy Neely, daughter of Major Joseph Neely, 
of Kentucky, who still survives her husband, and who, 
at the age of eighty-eight, retains to a wonderful degree 
her mental and physical vigor. 
woman of much 


She has always been a 
Doctor William 
Ralston was reared on a farm, and received only the 
limited educational advantages of a country school. His 
father having died when he was but ten years of age, 
and he being the oldest child, it devolved upon him to 
take lreavy responsibilities when still quite young. He 
worked on the farm in summer and attended school in 
winter until 1840, when he taught school for one year. 
In 1841 he went to Posey County and studied medicine 
with his uncle, Doctor Joseph Neely, of Cynthiana. 
After a four years’ course of study, he went to Boon- 
ville, and there practiced his profession until 1848, 
when, feeling the need of a course of lectures, he at- 
tended for a time the Ohio Medical College, in Cincin- 
nati, and some years after graduated in the Medical 
College of Evansville. On April 11, 1850, Doctor Rals- 
ton married Isabella Matthewson, daughter of Doctor 
RK. C. Matthewson, of Boonville, whose sketch also ap- 
pears in this book. During the following eighteen years 
he practiced medicine in that town, as well as the 
adjacent counties of Spencer, Pike, and Vanderburg, 
The sparsely settled condition of that part of the coun- 
try in those early days caused his practice to be a very 
laborious one. His travels were performed on horseback, 
over roads rendered unsafe by swollen creeks, the ab- 
sence of bridges, and numerous other perils. In many 
ways he endured hardships which would have broken 
down a man of less robust constitution. In all proba- 
bility there was allied to the good constitution an in- 
domitable will, that helped to carry him safely through. 
He can boast of the fact that in all his life he never 
was sick but one week consecutively. At the beginning 


force of character. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


47 


of the Civil] War, Doctor Ralston was appointed by 
Governor Morton surgeon of the 81st Regiment Indiana 
Volunteers. After serving less than a year in the Army 
of the Cumberland, and while still with his regiment in 
the field, he was appointed surgeon of the board of en- 
rollment of the First Congressional District of Indiana. 
This appointment was made by the Secretary of War, 
unexpectedly, and without his knowledge. While acting 
in this capacity he examined over ten thousand meu as 
volunteers, substitutes, and drafted men. The office 
was continued until April 14, 1865, the day of the assas- 
sination of President Lincoln. In 1865 he returned to 
the practice of medicine, having removed with his family 
to Evansville, where he still resides, and where he is 
favored with an extensive patronage. He was appointed 
United States surgeon of the Marine Hospital at the 
port of Evansville. He occupied this position for four 
years. He has been a member for thirty-eight years of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and ruling elder 
and clerk of the sessions most of that time. He has 
also been an Odd-fellow for twenty-five years; has taken 
all the degrees and filled all the chairs. He has three 
sons, all grown men, two of whom are following the 
profession of their father, and one is a druggist. Doc- 
tor Ralston bears an unblemished reputation. As aman, 
a physician, and a Christian gentleman, he stands high 
in the estimation of all who know him. He is now hale 
and hearty, in the sixty-second year of his age. 


——0.09@400— 


OGERS, EDMUND J., of Rockport, is a direct 
), descendant of John Rogers, the martyr, whose 
grandson, Thomas, came to America in the ‘‘ May- 
flower,” in 1620. Thomas Rogers’s grandson, 
Noah, was born in Huntington, Long Island, but removed 
to Branford, Connecticut, where he married Elizabeth 
Taintor, whose father came from Wales. Their son, 
Noah, who married Elizabeth Wheeler, of Branford, had 
two sons, one of whom, Captain Edward Rogers, led a 
company to Danbury when it was invaded by the British 
in 1777. His men being unwilling to take Continental 
money, he paid them out of his own purse sixteen hun- 
dred dollars in gold, which the government has never 
refunded. The other son, Noah, was one of the soldiers 
sent to arrest the progress of Burgoyne; he married 
Rhoda Leet, daughter of Governor Leet, of Guilford, 
Connecticut. Their son John married Thankful Harri- 
son, of Branford, and settled at Damascus. John Rogers’s 
son, who bore his father’s name, married Sarah Barker, 
of Branford; and Jonathan, their son, married Orphany, 
youngest daughter of Captain Edmund Rogers. The 
latter was a descendant of James Rogers, captain of the 
ship “Innocence,” in which he came to this country in 
1635. He settled at New London, from which place 


48 


Captain Edmund Rogers removed to Branford, where he 
married Lydia Frisbee. He was engaged in the West 
India trade, and sailed for the West Indies January 6, 
1685, accompanied by his eldest son, Edmund, and John 
and Peter Rogers, brothers of Jonathan Rogers; but 
they and their companions were never afterward heard 
from. Jonathan Rogers settled at Stony Creek in 1798, 
whence he removed in 1810 to the old Rogers homestead 
at Damascus. In 1812 he became a member of the 
Branford Artillery Company, being elected lieutenant. 
This company was composed of seamen, many of whom 
had been owners and captains of vessels, or prominent 
in the Continental navy of 1776. In 1818, induced by 
the favorable report of Doctor Gould, he removed with 
his family to Carlisle, Sullivan County, Indiana. Ed- 
mund J. Rogers, his son, drove a four-horse team the 
entire distance. In 1822 Mr. Rogers was elected Asso- 
ciate Judge of Sullivan County, his commission being 
signed by Jonathan Jennings, then Governor. Two 
years afterwards he removed to New Harmony. His 
son, Edmund J. Rogers, remained at Carlisle until 
1827, when he also went to New Harmony, and opened 
a store of general merchandise in connection with 
Adam Moffitt, of Mount Vernon. The establishment 
was soon closed by a writ of injunction from Judge 
Goodlet, on complaint of W. G. Taylor, one of a com- 
pany who claimed to have a lease giving them the ex- 
clusive right to sell merchandise in the town of New 
Harmony. A man who had been an apparent.friend to 
the proprietors of the new store purchased a thimble of 
them and then made complaint to Judge Goodlet, who 
ordered them to be put in jail to await further orders 
from the court. They were locked in the old Jog jail at 
Mount Vernon, but were immediately released by order 
of the Associate Judges of Posey County. Suits growing 
out of this matter were carried to the higher courts, 
and decisions rendered in favor of Rogers & Moffitt; 
the latter, who sued for damages for false imprison- 
ment, received three thousand dollars. The history of 
these suits is to be found in ‘Blackford’s Reports.” In 
1829 Mr. Rogers formed a copartnership with Alexan- 
der McClure, brother of William McClure, who died in 
Mexico, leaving a large estate to. establish libraries. 
The firm conducted a tannery and shoemaking estab- 
lishment, besides dealing in general merchandise, until 
in 1844 Mr. Rogers bought the interest of his partner, 
and continued the business on his own account. In 
March, 1861, his warehouse, containing a large stock of 
goods upon which there was little insurance, was de- 
stroyed by fire. He sold his property in New Harmony 
in 1870, and removed to Rockport, where he engaged 
for five years in the general grocery trade. He retired 
from: business in March, 1875. During the late Civil 
War, being too old to go into the service himself, Mr. 
Rogers donated money in aid of the Union cause to the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7st Dest. 


amount of more than six hundred dollars. In 1836 he 
married Celia Guild, of Cincinnati, whose father came 
from Connecticut in 1818 and settled at Oxford, Ohio. 
She died in October, 1858. Mr. Rogers, now in his 
seventy-ninth year, is living at Rockport with his only 
child, Mrs. Celia Laird. His business career has been 
long and active; he is one of the few who never had a 
note protested, and always paid one hundred cents to 
the dollar. 


+00 

eP 
) OMINE, JAMES, of Rockport, was born March 
JA 21, 1832, in Spencer County, Indiana. His father, 
* John Romine, was born August 17, 1806, in Mis- 
d souri, twenty miles from St. Louis, on the Mara- 
mec River. In 1812 he removed to Harrison County, 
Indiana, and in 1815 came to Spencer County. In 1829, 
on the 5th of April, he was married to Hannah Gentry, 
who previously was Kentucky. They were 
among the first settlers in that neighborhood. Mr. 
Romine was considered a prominent man in his day, 
and was honored by holding almost all the positions of 
trust in the county. The place he purchased had 
previously been occupied by Mr. Hawkins, who was the 
only inhabitant of the county, and was two miles from 
Gentryville. He was an active Christian. James at- 
tended the common schools of his neighborhood, re- 
ceiving a fair English education, which has been of 
material use to him in the many responsible positions of 
trust held during life. He even obtained a proficiency 
in the higher mathematics greater than ordinarily found 
at that day. Up to 160 James Romine followed 
farming, living until that period a quiet, retired life, 
when he was called from his country home to take the 
office of county recorder of Spencer County. He advo- 
cated the Democratic principles in politics, and was 
elected to office by that party. In 1874 he was elected 
to the Lower House of the Legislature by a majority 
of five hundred and forty-one votes, running ahead of 
the state ticket throughout the county. The number of 
votes polled in this election showed that Mr. Romine 
was no sluggard in the race, and that he must have 
been very popular among his political opponents, as 
well as among his own party friends. In 1876 he was 
put in nomination for county clerk and elected, and in 
this contest beat an excellent man, which also speaks 
volumes for his popularity in his own county. In De- 
cember, 1858, he was married to Miss Sydney Olive 
Stites, of Spencer County, and is the father of six chil- 
Mr. Romine is a very kind-hearted and affable 
He is courteous 


from 


dren. 
gentleman, strictly honest and upright. 
in his manner, and is an excellent choice for any office 
intrusted to him by the people. He has the reputation 
of attending strictly to business, and of being temperate 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF IHLIN@IC 


rst Dist. ] REPRESENTATIVE 


not only in his views of men and things, but also in 
his habits. He is regarded as a representative man by 
the people of Spencer County. 


—>-4006-o— 


7 AMPSON, JAMES, retired merchant, of New Har- 
)) mony, Indiana, was born in Roxbury, Massachu- 
setts, September 6, 1806. At the age of ten years 
his father’s family removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, 
arriving there on Christmas day, 1816. His education 
was principally obtained at Cincinnati, where he at- 
tended for some time a school taught by a brother of 
General Harrison, afterwards President of the United 
States. After receiving a fair education at the public 
schools he was apprenticed by his father to learn the 
saddlery trade. In the year 1827 he removed to New 
Harmony, Indiana. A school of industry was then in 
progress at that place, in which he was engaged to 
teach his trade. Soon after, he opened a small shop 
and began business as a saddler and _ harness-maker. 
He continued successfully at this until 1839, when he 
formed a partnership with R. H. Fauntelroy, and en- 
Dur- 
ing this time he made three trips to New Orleans on 
flat-boats with cargoes of produce and grain. 
count of a general depression in trade he determined in 
1843 to withdraw from active commerce until times be- 
came more prosperous, and sold out to his partner. In 
1845 he,in turn, bought out Mr, Fauntelroy, and con- 
ducted the business himself until 1856, when he entered 
into partnership with A. E. Fretagest. In 1859, having 
acquired means sufficient to keep himself and family 
during the remainder of his life, he determined to retire, 
and disposed of his interest to his partner. Since then 
he has devoted his time to the gratification of a taste 
for the natural sciences. While a young man Mr. 
Sampson was accustomed to collect such specimens in 
natural science as could be found around New Harmony 
for Thomas Say, and afterwards Doctor David Dale 
Owen, and had acquired so great a taste for this that 
when he retired from active businesss he devoted his 
spare time tothe collection of all kinds of specimens of 
natural science and natural history to be found along 
Wabash River and in the vicinity of New Harmony. 
He also obtained various scientific works, and made a 
special study of conchology for the purpose of properly 
classifying and arranging his vast collection of shells. 
He has taken great pleasure in this pursuit, which he 
follows as a mere pastime, and has a museum embrac- 
ing a vast and very valuable collection of shells, fossils, 
and other specimens of natural science, collected en- 
tirely by himself. All these he has carefully classified, 
labeled, and for the most part arranged in cabinets, and 


they embrace specimens of almost every species of 
A—s. : 


gaged in general mercantile business until 1843. 


On ac= 


MEN OF INDIANA. 49 
shells that has been found to exist, or to have ever ex- 
isted, in the Wabash River, some of which are exceed- 
ingly rare. 
of natural history, most of which were secured and@pre- 
pared for preservation by his own hands. 


His museum also contains many specimens 


Mr. Sampson, 
though seventy-three years of age, is vigorous, and keeps 
himself constantly employed, as he is daily finding new 
objects of interest in science for study and investigation. 
Mr. Sampson has always been a Democrat in politics. 
In 1833 he was elected a Justice of the Peace, which 
office he held for several years, being also an ex officto 
county commissioner. After the present law regarding 
county commissioners took effect he was a member of the 
first board, the other members being J. T. Morehead and 
Richard Barter. He was also trustee of the township 
for six years. He was the first president of the New 
Harmony Maclurean Institute, an office which he held 
for several years. He was married in August, 1828, to 
Miss Eliza Wheatcroft, of New Harmony, a native of 
Virginia, Three daughters have been born to them; 
the oldest is the wife of Professor Edward T. Cox, late 
state geologist of Indiana; the second was married to 
Julian Dale Owen, and was drowned by the sinking of a 
steamboat in the Mississippi River while going on a visit 
to him at Helena, Arkansas, during the late Civil War. 
The third daughter is the wife of Absalom Boran, of 


New Harmony. 
—>-gnte-<-—_—- 


HERWOOD, MARCUS, of Evansville, was born in 
Fairfield County, Connecticut, on the 28th of May, 
1803. His father, David Sherwood, was born June 
13, 1777, was a stone-mason by trade, and was at 
one time a member of the state Legislature. He was 
married to Mary Turney, April 23, 1801, from which 
union they had four children, the subject of our sketch 
being the second child, and the only one now living. 
Marcus, like most of our New England boys of that day, 
attended school in the winter only, and when spring 
came his slate, arithmetic, and copy-book were laid away, 
while he devoted the remaining nine months of the 
year to work for his father. In his early boyhood Mar- 
cus was seized with the ‘‘ Western fever.’’ His uncle, 
Eli Sherwood, had made an extensive trip on horse- 
back through the southern wilds of Indiana, and on 


his return home gave glowing accounts of his adven- 
tures. The boy was captivated, and, notwithsanding 
his father’s desire to keep him at home and apprentice 
him to a blacksmith, he finally, after considerable 
pleading, obtained his parents’ permission to go West. 
He started for Evansville with his uncle, a distance of 
one thousand miles, driving an ox team from his home 
to Pittsburgh. This part of their journey was slow 
and difficult, owing to the zigzag course they were 
obliged to take across rivers and over mountains. The 


° 


50 


trials were sometimes severe, but Marcus perseveringly 
drove his team, and in fifty-eight days they reached 
Pittsburgh, he having walked every step of the way, 
bothmen and animals being nearly worn out. Here 
they purchased a flat-boat, loaded it with all their ef- 
fects, and, after a long voyage, arrived at Evansville on 
the 6th of June, 1819. Marcus was now but sixteen 
years old. He continued to work for his uncle un- 
til he was of age, and then struck out for himself 
at odd jobs. He soon earned the reputation of be- 
ing a first-class man, and was in request. As a day 
laborer, at fifty cents a day, he gradually acquired 
means sufficient to buy a flat-boat and begin operations 
for himself. For the first two years he served as a fore 
hand, and during the ten following years was proprie- 
tor, his business from the first being profitable, the sec- 
ond trip alone yielding one thousand dollars net income. 
In the twelve years he spent on the river, he visited 
New Orleans twenty-eight times. He speculated largely 
in pork and produce, and always realized handsome 
profits. Few men of Southern Indiana struggled more 
persistently or more successfully than did Marcus 
Sherwood. Being governed by the motto, ‘‘Zador 
omnia vincit,’ and possessing the courage to test it, 
he made his way against reverses that would have 
hindered the progress of most men. His rule of life 
was founded upon the principle of never deviating 
from a fixed purpose to do right, and by his faithful- 
ness he retained the confidence of all around him. 
Upon coming to Evansville Mr. Sherwood found it a 
mere village of a few log huts, with wolves and deer 
on every side; he has lived to see it a city of over forty 
thousand inhabitants, and to become one of its wealthy 
citizens, The capital earned in his former years he in- 
vested in real estate, and that principally the land upon 
which Evansville now stands, thereby laying the founda- 
tion of his present wealth. Mr. Sherwood was one of 
the advocates and contractors of the canal and levee, 
and to him great credit is due for the excellent public 
He constructed the 
‘Sherwood House” at a time when most people doubted 
the success of the undertaking, but it stands to-day a 
monument to his enterprise. 


work he so admirably performed. 


He is a member and one 
of the founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church 
in this city. Being open-hearted as well as full-handed, 
he gave of his wealth whenever and wherever it was 
needed, and has thus indelibly stamped his memory in 
the hearts of all who knew him. In_ support. of 
Churches, colleges; and charitable institutions, he has 
given many thousands of dollars. As a private citizen 
he has been found generous and full of noble im- 
pulses. Orphan children have found their way to his 
house, and his home has been their home; one of these 
little ones remained with him seventeen years, and 
three others were fully reared and started in life before 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zs¢ Dist, 


going from his door. He was married, in 1834, to Miss 
Prudence Johnson, daughter of Alexander Johnson, 
Esq., one of the most amiable and pious women of her 
time. She took a lively interest in all that pertained to 
the welfare of the community, and gave earnest aid to 
her husband in his various enterprises. She was a de- 
voted member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church 
from its organization, in 1851, until her death, which 
occurred on the morning of July 18, 1870. She left a 
bereaved husband, an only son, and sympathizing 
friends, who will not soon forget her example of Chris- 
tian fortitude and purity of life. Mr. Sherwood has 
always enjoyed good health, having been blessed with a 
frame and constitution well suited to the hardships of 
pioneer life. Though not a student of medicine, he 
possesses a wide knowledge of its principles, and seems 
to contain a materia medica within himself. In his 
later days he has given up worldly pursuits, and devoted 
his time to the study of the Bible and the interests of 
his Church. 


oy 
Ni 


—-300G-— 


AY, THOMAS, naturalist, was. born in Philadel- 
oY phia, July 27, 1787, and died. at New Harmony, 
Os Indiana, October 10, 1834. He was educated in 
> Philadelphia, and gave his entire time to the nat- 
ural sciences. In 1812 he was one of the founders of 
the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. In 
1815 he spent some months in East Florida, investi- 
gating the natural history of that region. In 1819 he. 
was appointed chief zodlogist in Long’s expedition to 
the Rocky Mountains, and in 1823 accompanied that to 
St. Peter’s River in the same capacity. In 1825, upon 
the urgent solicitation of William Maclure, Esq., he 
removed to New Harmony, Indiana, where he spent the 
remainder of his life, devoting himself to the prep- 
aration of his works for the press and to extensive ex- 
plorations in that region. Here he wrote his work on 
«¢American Entomology” (except the first two volumes, 
which he had published before leaving Philadelphia), 
and his work on ‘American Conchology.”? His com- 
plete writings on ‘‘Entomology” were edited by J. L. 
Le Conte (New York, 1859), and on ‘*Conchology” by 
W. G. Birney (New York, 1858). 


—>-gntt>—_ 


He pursued a course of 
instruction in the Stanford high school. At the 
age of twenty he wds commissioned as a first lieuten- 
ant in the army, and served in the Mexican War, 
in 1847 and 1848. On the outbreak of the Civil War, 
in 1861, he was. commissioned colonel, and commanded 


rst Dist.) 


a regiment at Fort Donelson. He next raised a regi- 
ment of cavalry, and, being promoted to brigadier-gen- 
eral, started through Southern Indiana and Ohio after 
General Morgan, the confederate chief. The chase 
lasted about thirty days, and was terminated by Mor- 
gan’s capture near New Lisbon, Ohio. General Shackel- 
ford next figured conspicuously for several months in 
the East Tennessee campaign, when he was called home 
by the death of’ his wife. Although offered a major- 
general’s commission, he refused to remain longer. He 
studied law under Judge Cook, and afterwards practiced 
with him in Madisonville, Kentucky, since removing to 
Evansville. He has been very successful in his profes- 
sion while in the state of Indiana. 


—_--9096~<>—- 


LAUGHTER, DOCTOR W. W., was born No- 
<™N) vember 16, 1825, in Corydon, Harrison County, 
Ws Indiana, the former capital of the state. His 

father, James Brooks Slaughter, was born in Nel- 
son County, Kentucky, in 1792, of English parentage, 
who emigrated to Virginia from Herefordshire, England. 
James Brooks Slaughter was a physician of conside 
erable local celebrity, as well as a politician, hav- 
ing served the people of his county in both branches of 
the state Legislature. He died of Asiatic cholera in 
1832, leaving a family of six children. The mother of 
the subject of our sketch, Delilah Slaughter, born in 
Shelby County, Kentucky, was a daughter of Captain 
Spier Spencer, celebrated among the pioneers as an In- 
dian fighter. He accompanied General St. Clair in his 
disastrous campaign against the Shawnees, in the region 
now constituting the state of Ohio, participating in the 
battle of Blue Licks and many other engagements. 
He commanded a company called the Yellow Jackets, 
under General W. H. Harrison, at- Tippecanoe, where 
he was killed. A county in Kentucky, and one in 
Indiana, bear his name. Doctor W. W. Slaughter had 
but limited educational advantages in his youth, being 
only such as were afforded at the primitive district 
schools of early days. When sixteen years of age he 
entered a printing-office in his native village, with the 
intention of learning the trade. The press and other 
implements were very crude, and he soon became pro- 
ficient in their use. This employment was not con- 
genial to his taste, and he decided to abandon it for the 
profession of medicine, for which he was better fitted 
both physically and mentally. He studied two years 
under the direction of Doctor John Slemons, a graduate 
of an Eastern school, and a very successful practitioner, 
and afterwards with Doctors Meeker and Higday, of 
Laporte, Indiana, where he graduated from the medical 
school in 1849. He began the practice of his profession 
at Cannelton, Perry County, Indiana, where he married 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


51 


Miss Caroline Pell, of his native county, and soon there- 
after removed to Kentucky. In the last-named state he 
resided from the year 1850 to 1860. He then returned 
to Indiana, locating at Newburg, where he now resides 
with his children—a son and daughter. His wife died 
in 1872. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he ear- 
nestly espoused the cause of the government, and labored 
faithfully for the Union until the close of the war. He 
raised a company for the 60th Indiana Regiment—Colo- 
nel Richard Owen—and was appointed assistant sur- 
geon, and subsequently surgeon of that organization. 
He served until 1864, when he resigned on account of 
ill-health. He was taken prisoner at Mumfordsville 
with a battalion of the regiment, but was exchanged 
in a few weeks, He was with General Sherman’s army 
at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, in the first attack on 
Vicksburg, at the storming of Arkansas Post, and the 
capture of Jackson, Mississippi. He was also present 
with General Grant’s army at the siege and surrender 
of Vicksburg. After the latter event the Thirteenth 
Corps, to which his regiment belonged, was removed to 
the Department of the Gulf, under General Banks, and 
afterwards to the Bay of Matagorda, Texas, where it 
remained until the spring following, when it was ordered 
to New Orleans. Doctor Slaughter as a citizen has 
taken an active interest in the educational work of his 
adopted home. While occupying the position of town 
trustee, he was instrumental in the erection of a commo- 
dious brick school-house in Newburg, having contributed 
largely of his means. He is an earnest advocate of the 
cause of temperance, and wields a great influence in the 
Doctor Slaughter has 
been the nominee of the Republican party for the state 
Legislature. He is a useful, public-spirited citizen, and 
enjoys the respect and esteem of the citizens of his town 
and county. 


community in which he lives, 


—>- $0 — 


MITH, - ANDREW« J:7 Mo Dis fell City,» Perry 
gf) County, was born in Ohio County, Kentucky, De- 
(5 cember 31, 1841, being the son of Benjamin and 

Katherine W. Smith. His father, who was a 
farmer of Scotch descent, was an early settler in Ken- 
tucky, and his mother was of German ancestry. The 
nature of the times and the place afforded no educa- 
tional advantages. Three months of any sort of schooling 
was all young Smith had any opportunity of obtaining, 
and great is the credit to-day due him as a man for the 
position he occupies. He is a man who has gained for 
himself, by dint of pluck, perseverance, and study, all 
that he knows and possesses. To-day he is the leading 
physician of his county. At the age of thirteen, being 
disgusted with the institution of slavery and his sur- 
roundings (though not of his home), he determined to 
$trike out into the world, where he could attain to a 


52 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


higher sphere than his home vicinity could ever afford. 
His father at the time was a slave-owner, and, although 
he was a kind master, the son was so impressed with 
the evil of slavery that he determined to go to one of 
the free states. He was, as he afterwards remarked, a 
born Abolitionist. And so, at the age of thirteen, he 
left home and worked his way to New Orleans on a 
flat-boat, there entering the United States navy, in 
which he served three years and seven months, gaining 
considerable experience, and being instructed in the 
ship school, that being under the charge of the chap- 
lain, and attended by all the boys on board. During 
that time he cruised in the Mediterranean and off the 
coast of Newfoundland, and visited Liverpool and 
Havre de Grace. On leaving the service he made his 
way to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he obtained employment 
in a foundry, boarding himself in a garret, it being all 
his pay would afford, and attended night school, being 
determined to gain an education for himself. In 1859 
he went to Louisville, where he attended the Medical 
College until the spring of 1861, making great progress 
in his studies. The war breaking out, the college dis- 
solved, the professors entering the armies. Some joined 
the North, and others the South. Young Smith then 
returned to Cincinnati, where he enlisted in the Ist 
Kentucky Regiment, at Camp Clay, Ohio. A few days 
before his term of service expired he engaged in the 
battle of Bull Run, where he received a slight wound. 
His term of service expired, he returned to Louisville, 
and re-enlisted in the Louisville Legion, Colonel L. H. 
Rousseau, commander. It was the first regiment that 
went South from Louisville. He was at the battle of 
Shiloh, where he was again slightly wounded in the left 
side, and then participated in the siege of Corinth. 
After that he marched to Battle Creek, East Tennessee, 
but, his force being outflanked by General Bragg, it 
retreated to Louisville in 1862; then, pressing Bragg 
back, brought on the battle of Perryville. His com- 
mander followed Bragg till he passed Cumberland Gap, 
and then went on to Nashville. From there they ad- 
vanced to Murfreesboro, where the enemy was encoun- 
tered at the battle of Stone River, December 31. The 
Doctor at that battle was in the right wing, which was 
hard pressed, and was most severely wounded by shell 
and ball, which laid him up four months in a hospital. 
On recovering, he rejoined the army the day before the 
battle of Chickamauga, in which he took part and was 
again badly wounded, necessitating a return to hospital. 
On recovering he again joined his regiment, engaged 
in the battle of Chattanooga and the storming of Mis- 
sion Ridge, where the regiment lost five color-bearers. 
He was the sixth, but was not discouraged. He boldly 
seized the colors, and bore them in triumph to the top 
of the Ridge. Two hours after the Ridge was taken 


they marched off to Knoxville to relieve Burnside, who’ 


[2st Dist. 


at that time was*hard pressed by Longstreet, and re- 
mained for the winter at Knoxville. In the following 
spring he was in the Georgia campaign, in which he 
fought in all the actions up to the battle of Jonesboro. 
His term of service having again expired, he was 
mustered out, October 17, 1864. 
enlisted in the 4th United States Veteran Infantry, 
a corps of honor made up as guard to General Han- 
cock, being composed only of those men who could 
show a record of three years’ active and meritorious 
service. Most of the time until the close of the war 
was spent in the Shenandoah Valley. At the end of 
the struggle he returned to Washington City, where he 
was one of the guard of the assassins of the President, 
and was on the scaffold at the time they were hanged. 
Then he was ordered to Texas, and from there to Min- 
nesota, to assist in quelling Indian hostilities. March, 
1866, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and 
appointed second assistant surgeon to the regiment. A 
month later, in a fight with the Indians, he received a 
severe scalp wound, escaping death very narrowly, for, 
after he had fallen an Indian ran up to him to scalp 
him, when a comrade fired, and the Indian fell in the 
very act of killing him. The Doctor retired from the 
service early in May, 1866, being no longer able to stand 
the exposure and fatigue, owing to his many wounds, and 
particularly his last one. During the war he had in- 


He immediately re- 


trusted all his pay to a friend. He made his way to 
him at Rockport, Indiana, only to find on arriving there 
that this person had proved false to his trust, and had 
squandered all the money committed to his care. The 
Doctor then found himself almost entirely without 
means, but did not give up in despair, for he immedi- 
ately made his way to Richland and began as a phy- 
sician, encountering the most intense opposition from the 
medical profession, and from the very people to whose 
protection he had so largely contributed during the war 
by his gallant and arduous services. While there he be- 
came acquainted with Miss Amanda K. Hill, a most es- 
timable young lady, to whom he was married May 17, 
1866. Immediately after his marriage he removed to 
Newtonville, Spencer County, where he engaged in the 
practice of his profession, and met with the most flat- 
tering success. In 1872 the Doctor attended a course 
of lectures at the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincin- 
nati, where he graduated with full honors. In 1873 he 
moved to Tell City, where he has since resided, still 
meeting with great favor, and enjoying the confidence, 


honor, and respect of his fellow-citizens. During three. 


years of his residence in Tell City he was United States 
pension surgeon, and was lecturer on physiology at the 
public school in the winter of 1879-80. He is a regular 
contributor to some of the leading medical journals. 
Last year the Doctor contributed an article on ‘ Vari- 
cose Ulcers of the Leg, and How to Cure Them With- 


rst Dist.] 


out Medicine, an article which has been freely copied 
by some of the leading English medical journals, such 
as the London Zazcet. He is now preparing a work of 
great importance to his portion of the state, treating on 
general diseases peculiar to that region. The Doctor 
has in his possession several papers from General Sheri- 
dan, R. M. Johnson, Colonel J. L. Trainor, and Major 
Blake, expressive of their appreciation of him as a man, 
a surgeon, and a soldier during the war. His personal 
appearance is fine. He is of temperate habits, and in 
the enjoyment of good health. He is doing much good 
in the temperance field, accompanying his lectures 
with various diagrams showing the evil influences of in- 
toxicating liquors on the human system. He has been 
an Odd-fellow for some twelve years, in which he has 
taken all the degrees, including the Grand Lodge. In 
religious views he is liberal. His politics are Repub- 
lican. 
—>-40%--— 


e MITH, EDWARD Q., of Evansville, chair manu- 

5 facturer, was born in Hunter, Greene County, New 
(455 York, February 7, 1828. His father, Jeremiah 
Smith, was a carpenter and millwright, and withal 

an ingenious mechanic, who was superintendent of the 
machinery in a chair factory at Hunter. Here Edward 
when a boy was accustomed to assist his father, and as 
he grew older worked with him at the factory, learn- 
ing all the details of the business, and familiarizing him- 
self with the machinery for making chairs. He was em- 
ployed there until July, 1848, when he determined to 
see something of the Western country, and visited Mil- 
waukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, and other West- 
ern cities. While at St. Louis, after having returned 
from a trip to Memphis, he received a letter asking him 
to go to Cincinnati and assist in making and putting up 
machinery for the first machine chair factory west of 
the Alleghanies. He arrived there in January, 1849, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


and spent nearly two years in that city, assisting mate- | 


rially in getting the chair factory into successful opera- 
tion. He then removed to Detroit, where he was en- 
gaged for about two years in a furniture and chair 
manufacturing establishment. He returned to Cincin- 
nati, and engaged as foreman of the largest chair factory 
in that city. Here he displayed his ingenuity by the 
invention of various kinds of wood-working machinery, 
and by making important improvements in the old ma- 
chines. Upon three of these inventions he secured patents, 
and all of them have been generally adopted by chair 
manufacturers. In 1858 he determined to begin manu- 
facturing chairs on his own account, and in November 
of that year he removed to Evansville, Indiana, where 
he erected a factory and commenced business. His ef- 
forts met with success, and, finding in the rapidly set- 
tling country a ready market, he was soon enabled to 


53 


enlarge his establishment, which has now become one 
of the largest, most convenient, and best equipped in 
the West. It contains the very best machinery adapted 
for the work to be done, some of which is the invention 
of Mr. Smith himself. Among other improvements it 
may be mentioned that he saws out the lumber used in 
the manufacture of chairs from the log, having a small 
saw-mill in operation for that purpose. He is regarded 
as one of Evansville’s most enterprising manufacturers, 
gives employment annually to from fifty to sixty men, 
and turns out about sixty thousand chairs per year. The 
market for these is found mostly north of the Ohio River, 
and so favorably is he known that he has had all the 
orders he could fill, without soliciting by commercial 
travelers. Both as a manufacturer and inventor Mr. 
Smith is one of the representative men of Indiana. His in- 
genuity and inventive skill have resulted in greatly cheap- 
ening the products of labor, while his business energy 
and enterprise have built up one of the largest manu- 
facturing interests in Southern Indiana. He is esteemed 
for his honor and integrity, and is of a frank, genial, 
and social nature. He was married, at Detroit, in March, 
1852, to Miss Marion W. Ray, daughter of Elijah Ray, 
of Vermont. 
—+-900§-o— 


¢ MITH, HAMILTON, of Cannelton, was born at 
fy Durham, New Hampshire, of a family that has 
5 been resident there since 1659, and which claims 

descent from the Smiths of Old Hough, County 
Chester, England, and, by a maternal line, from Chris- 
topher Hatton, Lord Chancellor in the reign of Eliza- 
beth. His father, the Hon. Valentine Smith, a leading 
magistrate in the county of Strafford, afterwards Chief 
Justice in the Court of Sessions, and a Judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas, was a man of note and influ- 
At the age of fourteen, Hamilton entered Phillips- 
Exeter Academy, a school distinguished for the educa- 
tion of such men in the past as Webster, Cass, and 
Woodbury. At twenty-one years of age he entered 
Dartmouth, and became prominent as a writer and as a 
speaker. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, re- 
ceived one of the college honors of the class, and was 
elected orator of the literary society, an honor which 
was coveted more than any other. He graduated in 
1829, and immediately went to Washington City, where 
he succeeded a gentleman, who afterwards became a 
Senator from Ohio, in the charge of a select school. 
He studied law while in Washington, and was admitted 
to the bar in 1832. After this he visited Cuba, and 
then returned to Louisville, Kentucky, where he opened 
an office and began the practice of his profession. In 
1840 he became interested in a large tract of coal land 
at Cannelton, a point which had been selected by Robert 
Fulton as an important site for future operations, and to 


ence, 


54 


this point Mr. Smith directed his attention to the build- 
ing up of a ‘*market at home.” In 1847 he commenced 
a series of articles in the Louisville /ourna/, and through 
the influence of these papers induced a number of lead- 
ing gentlemen from Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, and 
Louisiana, to form a company, which contracted for the 
building of a cotton mill at Cannelton. In 1851 the mill 
was put in operation, and the ten thousand spindles and 
three hundred and seventy-two looms have been in opera- 
tion ever since, In behalf of this enterprise Mr. Smith 
took an active part, so impressed was he with the great 
importance of some relief to the people of the West by 
throwing off to a certain extent their dependence upon 
the East. There is a great lack of economy in raising 
all necessary articles in the West and South, and trans- 
porting them to the East to be made up, then returning 
them here, with the expense of double freight, and the 
loss to the Western community of the value of the labor. 


—o-$90 <-— 


@ WINT, WILLIAM, of Boonville, was born in Jas- 
ig per, Dubois County, Indiana, April 16, 1844, and 
irs was the fourth child and first son of a family of 

seven children, four of whom still survive. His 
parents were Catholics. His father, Conrad Swint 
(Schwint), was born at Heidelberg, Germany, May 1, 
1808, where he resided until 1830, when he was married 
to Miss Adaline Lechner, and in the same year emigrated 
to America. He died at Troy, Perry County, Indiana, 
April, 1859. He was a graduate of the Heidelberg 
University. His mother was born in January, 1812, and 
died January, 1869, and lies in the cemetery with her 
husband. She was the daughter of Franz Lechner, a 
soldier under Napoleon for 


twenty-four years, who 
died in Indiana at the age of eighty-nine. William 
Swint attended the common schools until twelve years 
of age, when he apprenticed himself in the Rockport 
Democrat office, where he remained until the breaking 
out of the Civil War. He enlisted in 1861 in the 25th 
Indiana Regiment, at the age of seventeen years, serv- 
ing until mustered out of the service in 1864, and being 
engaged in all the campaigns and battles participated in 
by the regiment. After his return home he was for a time 
in the clerk’s office of Spencer County; where he again 
took up his old position in the printing-office until 1868, 
when he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and was 
employed on the Louisville Journal and Courter -Journal 
until 1870. At that time he removed to Boonville, In- 
diana, purchasing the Boonville Enquzrer, a Democratic 
newspaper, in which he is still engaged, making it a 
vigorous and influential journal for the county and dis- 
trict, and engaging actively in politics. He has never 
aspired to any office, but has held the position of mem- 


ber of the school board in Boonville for four terms, and | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF JNDIANA. 


[zst Dist. 


was appointed a doorkeeper of the Forty-fifth Congress, 
but resigned that position. He was married, by Rey. 
S. Ravenscroft, in the spring of 1868, to Katie A. 
Dreher, youngest of four daughters of Ezra and Catherine 
(Tiffin) Dreher; her grandfather on her.mother’s side 
being Edward Tiffin, the first Governor of Ohio. She 
was born at Madison, Indiana, November 26, 1849, and 
died of pneumonia February 11, 1879, after an illness 
of one week; leaving three children, two girls and one 
boy; the latter born on Washington’s birthday, 1877. 
As a writer Mr. Swint is characterized by precision and 
purity of style. In the presentation of a fact or the 
statement of a proposition he is always candid, lucid, 
comprehensive; his writings abound in Saxon 
phrases. He has been a decided factor in the current 
political literature of his party, and has been recognized 
as of decided importance to the solution of the party 
problem. He is an honorable and dignified gentleman, 
and is an ornament to society. 


and 


(” PENCER, ELIJAH M., of Mount Vernon, Indiana, 
‘y) attorney and counselor at law, was born in Erie 
@ County, Pennsylvania, December 6, 1831. His 
4) father was a native of Connecticut, and his mother 
of Vermont. Elijah was reared upon a farm, receiving 
At the age of 
nineteen years he entered Allegheny College, at Mead- 
ville, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1855, 
having in the mean time taught school for two or three 
winters to defray his college expenses. Immediately 
upon graduating, in May, 1855, he went to Rising Sun, 
Ohio County, Indiana, and began the study of law in 
the office of his brother, John W. Spencer, who subse- 
quently became Judge of the Circuit Court. In July, 
1856, he was admitted to the bar, when he at once re- 
moved to Mount Vernon, Indiana, and began the prac- 
tice of his profession. In the fall of the same year, he 
was elected tothe office of prosecuting attorney for the 
counties of Posey and Gibson, and held the office for 


an ordinary common school education. 


two years, refusing to accept the nomination for the 
second term, as his practice had increased to such an 
extent as to demand his whole time and attention. In 
the fall of 1861, he was elected a Representative to the 
Indiana Legislature, and was re-elected to the same 
office in 1863, serving four years. Since then he has 
not held any public office, nor sought any, but has de- 
voted his time to the practice of law, and also, of late 
years, to farming. He has enjoyed a large and lucrative 
business for many years, and is ranked among the most 
eminent members of the bar of Posey County. In poli- 
tics he has always been a Democrat. Mr. Spencer was 
married, in November, 1860, to Miss Mary Morse, of 
Akron, Ohio. 


rst Dist.) 


JAYLOR, JOHN L., attorney-at-law, of Boonville, 


| was born in Warrick County, Indiana, August 30, 
) 


eh 1850. During his youth he was accustomed to the 
“67 hard manual labor of a farm. At the age of 


twenty-one he decided to study law, and accordingly, in 
1871, he entered the state university, from which he 
graduated in 1875. For a few years he taught school. 
In 1878 he attended a course of lectures and graduated 
in the Cincinnati Law School. On his return home 
he was elected by the Democratic party as Repre- 
sentative of Warrick County in the Legislature of the 
state. Mr. Taylor was married, in 1879, to Katie 
Brackenridge Barker, daughter of Doctor Barker, of 
Boonville. He has been successful in the practice of 
his profession, and bids fair to become one of the lead- 
ing men of the county. 
Me isa: 

[ERRY, OLIVER C., mayor of the city of Mount 
Vernon, was born in the parish of Lafayette, Lou- 
isiana, August 3, 1834. His father removed to 
So} Evansville, Indiana, in 1845, and died there two 
years afterwards, leaving Oliver, at the age of thirteen 
years, to fight his own way in the world. In 1848 he 
was bound out at service to a wealthy planter named 
Whitman, in Henderson ‘County, Kentucky, to remain 
until he was twenty-one years of age. Mr. Whitman 
was a large slave-owner, and the lad, being associated 
with the blacks in the labors of the plantation and after- 
wards as an oyerseer, at an early period of his life be- 
came imbued with strong anti-slavery sentiments. His 
education was received mostly in Kentucky, at the com- 


mon schools, and at the age of twenty years he was 
placed by Mr. Whitman in full charge of his plantation 
and his slaves. After remaining for a year beyond the 
expiration of the term of his bound service, his dislike 
for slavery had become so great that he determined to 
remoye to a free state, and crossing the Ohio River he 
settled in Mount Vernon, Indiana, in 1856. He there 
engaged with L. H. Floyd, a merchant, as his clerk, 
and remained with him until after the breaking out of 
in 1861, 
Cavalry, raised and commanded by Colonel Baker, and 
was made orderly sergeant of his company. He re- 
mained in active service for about a year, when he was 
discharged on account of sickness, and returned to 
Mount Vernon, 


the war, when he enlisted in the 1st Indiana 


Soon after he was appointed to a posi- 
tion in the United States internal revenue service, and 
held various offices until 1872, including those of in- 
spector of tobacco and cigars, gauger of liquors, deputy 
United States collector of internal revenue, and deputy 
United States assessor of internal revenue. In 1868 he 
was elected city treasurer of Mount Vernon, and was 
four times re-elected, holding the office for ten years. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


55 


In 1873 he was appointed agent at Mount Vernon for 
the Adams Express Company, which position he still re- 
tains. In 1878 he was elected mayor of the city of 
Mount Vernon for a term of two years. In politics he 
has always been a firm Republican, has taken a deep 
interest in political matters, and for several years has 
been a member of the Republican county committee. 
In 1876 he received the nomination of his party for 
county clerk, and with the rest of his ticket shared de- 
feat, but led his party ticket by eight hundred votes. 
Mr. 


public and private trusts, and is highly esteemed for his 


Terry has always been faithful to his numerous 
honor and integrity by all with whom he has business 
or social relations. He was married, in July, 1863, to 


Miss Eliza Jane Burtis, of Mount Vernon. 


—>-8¢0£-~o— 


ALKER, DR. GEORGE BRINTON, of Evans- 
ville, was born December 6, 1807, at Salem, New 
aN Jersey. His father, William Walker, was a resi- 
G dent of Delaware; he married Miss Catharine 
Tyler, of Salem, at which place they took up their abode. 
Dr. Walker attended private schools in Salem and Cin- 
cinnati. 


He also pursued an extensive medical course, 
graduating in the year 1830; after which he practiced 
his profession in Cincinnati for five years. He then re- 
moved to Evansville, where he has been for over forty 
years. During the late Civil War he was hospital sur- 
geon at the soldiers’ hospital at this place for over three 
years. He was president of the board of health of 
Evansville for several years, member of the medical 
college faculty, and dean and professor of obstetrics in 
the medical college of Evansville from its organiza- 
tion. He has been a member of the Evansville Med- 
ical Society, of the Vanderburg Medical Society, of the 
Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky Tri-state Medical So- 
ciety, of the Drake Academy of Medicine, and of the 
American Medical Association. In politics Dr. Walker 
is a Democrat. His first vote for President was cast for 
General Jackson. During the late Civil War he was 
hospital surgeon at the soldiers’ hospital in Evansville 
three years. His public services were not, 
confined to his profession. 


however, 
During the construction of 
the Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad, he was a 
director. He was also a state director of the Evansville 
branch of the State Bank of Indiana, and a member of 
the board of directors of the Public Hall Company and 
of the Evansville Street Railway. In 1852 he was a dele- 
gate to the Democratic convention which met at Balti- 
more and nominated Franklin Pierce for the presidency. 
In 1856, in company with Judge Battell, Dr. Walker 
was appointed by the citizens of Evansville to visit In- 
dianapolis and request the Governor of the state to pro* 
vide means for the suppression of the riotous proceed- 


56 


ings in Clay County, in the eutting of the banks of the 
canal. The delegation was successful, and the result 
was the breaking up of the ‘‘Clay County war.” Dr. 
Walker was married to Miss Lizzie Clark, on the 
23d of June, 1835. As a lecturer, he is regarded by 
the members of his profession as second to none in the 
United States. As a professor and practitioner in ob- 
stetrics he excels. He has some note also as a writer. 
As a man he is moderate and temperate in all things, 
kind and humane, much beloved and respected by all. 


—>-400-o— 


EDDING, CHARLES LEE, Rockport, the sub- 
ject of this sketch, is an illustrious example of 
« that successful class of individuals known as 
G2 selfmade men. He was born of poor parentage, 
October 17, 1845, in Ohio County, Kentucky, on his 
father’s little farm, where his infancy and boyhood were 
spent in the usual monotony of a farm life. Reared in 
the interior, he had but little opportunity afforded him 
of acquiring an education; and inferior advantages 
found a powerful ally in retarding his progress in his 
delicate health and fragile constitution. Short, infre- 
quent terms at school, and incompetent teachers, gave 
to the ambitious youth but poor facilities for the culti- 
vation of his mind, especially at that time; for, twenty- 
five years ago, Kentucky was as famous for her imper- 
fect system of common schools as she then was, and 
still is, for the chivalry of her sons and the loveliness of 
But this was not enough. The tedium 
of such an existence soon grew irksome. The sound 
of intellectual conflicts in the outer world reached the 
ear of the young Kentuckian; the gleam of crossing 
blades, engaged on the battle-fields of the mind, flashed 
across his view ; and ambition breathed ‘¢upon his lids 
a spell that murders sleep.” 


her daughters. 


He longed to leap into 
the arena and grapple with the intellectual athletes in 
their grand feats of gladiatorial skill. While still quite 
young, he selected the legal profession as the theater 
of action most suited to his tastes, and best adapted for 
the consummation of his wishes. He commenced the 
study of the law, at the early age of sixteen, by reading 
Blackstone at his home on his father’s farm, with no 
college but ‘*God’s first temples,’? no classmate but 
solitude, and no preceptor but his energy. At the age 
of eighteen, after two years of untiring study, he passed 
a creditable examination, and was admitted to the bar 
in Kentucky, in 1864. Finding the courts of his native 
state suspended, and the business outlook gloomy, on 
account of the agitation of the war then in progress, he 
removed to Rockport, Indiana, where he has ever since 
resided and pursued the practice of his chosen profes- 
sion. On his arrival, a smooth-faced boy of nineteen, 
he found the Rockport bar filled to repletion with able 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zs¢ Dist. 


and brilliant lawyers with an established reputation that 
gave them full sway over the legal practice, not only 
of their own county, but also of a large portion of 
Southern Indiana. This was decidedly a discouraging 
and gloomy prospect for the young lawyer, who was 
beardless, penniless, and an utter stranger. But un- 
daunted by these circumstances, which might well have 
appalled even a stouter heart, Mr. Wedding entered 
upon the practice of the law. Two lingering years of 
heart-sick waiting and deferred hope dragged their leaden 
hours by, and but little business or money came to 
cheer the lonely days or to realize the sanguine dreams 
of the daring youth. But 
*6In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves 

For a bright manhood, there is no such word ~ 

As fail.” F 
Disregarding all the disadvantages under which he 
labored, all the discouragements "hat cast a shadow 
over his path, and all the remonstrances of those 
who wished to do him a kindness, he persevered in his 
determination to succeed. At Jength fortune ceased her 
frowning and began to smile. Mr. Wedding, at the 
end of two years, received an invitation, with but a few 
days’ notice, to deliver an oration at a Fourth of July 
celebration at his new home. In compliance with this 
solicitation, he found his first opportunity of distin- 
guishing himself before the people of the county, and 
of exhibiting to them the powers with which nature 
had endowed him. So creditably did he acquit him- 
self on that occasion that he succeeded in winning no 
small amount of attention, and as a consequence his 
business horizon soon began to brighten. It was the 
dawning of a new day for the young disciple of Black- 
stone. Opportunity after opportunity was now in rapid 
succession afforded him to bring himself before the pub- 
lic view; and each occasion only added honor to the 
Cases 
of importance soon began to be intrusted to his care. 
A noted will case, which had been refused by some of 
the best lawyers of the bar, was undertaken by Mr. 
Wedding, and was finally won by him, in defiance of 
some of the keenest legal talent of the state. This was 
soon followed by an important contested election case, 
in which he was pitted, single-handed, against almost 
the entire legal talent of the bar; in this case his sagac- 
ity and skill, as well as his eloquence, which frequently 
blazed forth in the ten days’ trial, successfully defended 
the cause of his client, and established his own reputa- 
tion as a lawyer. From that time his practice rapidly 
and steadily improved, until in a few years he became 
recognized as one of the leading members of the Rock- 
port bar, as well as one among the finest and most reli- 
able lawyers of the southern portion of his state. His 
numerous cases and his successful practice in the Su- 
preme Court of Indiana and in the Federal Courts, 


v 


growing fame of the young and rising lawyer. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILEINAIS 


SS 
SSS SS 
Saw 
SS 


Sas 


) 


rst Dist.) 


attest that his ability is recognized, and his skill appre- 
ciated abroad as well as at home. He has a powerful 
auxiliary in the practice of the law, and in the pursuit 
of legal learning, in the large and extensive law library 
with which his office is furnished, a part of the fruits 
of his toil. It comprises the reports of the Supreme 
Court of the United States and of several of the states, 
as well as a large selection of elementary works and text- 
books, containing over two thousand volumes.  Polit- 
ically Mr. Wedding was opposed to secession, serving 
during the war in the state militia of Kentucky, while 
only sixteen years of age. He voted with the Republi- 
can party, and advocated their cause until 1872, when, 
with the Liberals, he supported Greeley and Brown. 
He afterward took an active and important part in the 
canvass of 1876 in favor of Tilden and Hendricks, both 
in his own and neighboring states, and his powerful 
appeals in behalf of the cause he represented were 
doubtless the parents of many a Democratic vote. He 
has never been an office-holder or an office-seeker, and 
though in 1878 his name was favorably mentioned as a 
probable nominee for the office of attorney-general of 
the state of Indiana, he made no effort whatever to se- 
cure the nomination. As an orator Mr. Wedding ranks 
among the best speakers of his portion of the state. He 
made his first public speech in 1862 at a political meet- 
ing at Fordsville, Kentucky, and in his subsequent career 
he has often been called upon, on those occasions so fre- 
quent in the life of a lawyer, to give play to the powers 
If, as 
has been said, *‘ oratory is the great art of persuasion,” 
the successful practice of Mr. Wedding testifies that he 
possesses the gift in no ordinary degree. Its study 
seems to be his passion, almost his religion; and viewing 
him as he is to-day, a fluent and an able speaker, though 
only a young man, if the carping critic should seize 
upon an occasional fault, we might say of him as was 
_ said of Charles Phillips, the eminent Irish orator, in his 


of oratory which nature has bestowed upon him, 


palmiest days, ‘‘ His youth carries with it not only much 
excuse, but much promise of future improvement, and 
doubtless he will not neglect to apply the fruits of 
study and the lights of experience to each succeeding 
exertion.” The laurels he has won in the forum are 
mingled with the roses that entwine about his private 
life. In 1866 he was married to Mary English, an esti- 
-mable young lady of Rockport, and has dwelt uninter- 
ruptedly since that time in the sunlight of a happy 
home. His family now consists of his wife and two 
little boys. In his private life he is sociable, hospita- 
ble, and generous; in his professional capacity he is of 
irreproachable integrity, and is zealous and energetic to 
an extraordinary degree, becoming almost vindictive on 
the trail of fraud or wrong. Although almost a veteran 
in the law, he is still studious and industrious. Nor 
does he confine his study to legal lore exclusively, for it is 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


57 


his delight to immure himself in the depths of his mag- 
nificent private miscellaneous library, and linger for 
hours in rapt converse with his favorites, the intel- 
lectual giants of all times. He is still a young man, 
being but thirty-three years of age, and no one can 
foretell whether his future pathway will bloom with the 
bright blossoms of joy and success, or lie in the somber 
shadow of the gloomy cypress. Already has he won many 
victories on life’s battle-fields, and it is no extravagant 
flight of fancy to indulge in the prediction that many more 
of life’s triumphs will yet be his, while still we see him 
‘actively employing the summer of his life in gathering 
honors for his name and garlands for his grave.” We are 
indebted for the above sketch to Mr. Elbert M. Swan, a 
member of the Rockport bar. Since the above was writ- 
ten, Mr. Wedding, seeking a wider field of action, has re- 
moved to Evansyille. 
—<-$0t6-o— 


EST, VINCENT THARP, M. D., of Princeton, 
/\> Indiana, was born in Clermont County, Ohio, 
eA) February 16, 1812. His education was obtained 

G in the common school and at an academy at 
Augusta, Kentucky, after which he engaged in teaching. 
While doing this he also read medicine, and afterwards 
attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College, at Cin- 
cinnati. In the spring of 1839 he removed to Indiana, 
and settled in Pike County, near the present village of 
Union, and began as a physician, continuing in the oc- 
cupation there for some fourteen years, when, in 1853, 
he removed to Princeton, Gibson County, and has ever 
since been engaged in the general practice of medicine 
and surgery, being the oldest resident physician in that 
city and vicinity. In politics he was an old-line Whig, 
and is now a Republican, but has never held or sought 
for any public office. He was married, in 1842, to Miss 
Charity Robb, daughter of Hon. David Robb, who set- 
tled in Knox County, Indiana, in the year 1800, and 
was, during his life one of the most prominent men of 
that county. She died during the first year of marriage, 
and in 1845 Doctor West was united to her sister, Miss 
Cornelia Robb. Of this marriage three daughters were 
born, all of whom are now living. 


W].ELBORN, JOSEPH F., of Mt. Vernon, was born 
in Guilford County, North Carolina, August 6, 
1818, and with his father’s family emigrated to 

G Mt. Vernon, Indiana, in 1833. His father was a 
wagon-maker, and worked at his trade at Mt. Vernon 
for five years after settling there. His circumstances 
did not admit of his giving his son more than a limited 
common school education. Joseph worked upon a small 
farm of his father’s near Mt. Vernon, and at the age of 


58 


twenty-one engaged for himse]f in farming and stock- 
raising about ten miles north of Mt. Vernon, in the town- 
ship of Robinson, in both of which he was very successful. 
He gave particular attention to the raising of hogs, hay- 
ing at one time over four hundred on his farm, and was 
especially interested in the improvement of the stock, 
securing the best breeds that could be obtained. In 
1856 he leased his farm and removed to Mt. Vernon, 
where he entered into partnership with the late W. J. 
Lowry. The firm engaged largely in grain and produce 
dealings, and carried on an extensive business in pork- 
packing, having packed as many as nine thousand hogs 
in a single year. About 1862 Mr. E. T. Sullivan was 
admitted to the firm, which carried on a very extensive 
grain and produce business until after the close of the 
war. During a single year their transactions in corn 
alone amounted to four hundred and fifty thousand bush- 
els. This partnership continued till about 1872, and was 
a source of large profit to all of its members. After its 
dissolution, Mr. Welborn, in company with E. T. Sulli- 
van, C. A. Parke, and S. M. Leavenworth, organized 
the Mt. Vernon Banking Company, of which Mr. Wel- 
born was chosen president. The bank became very pop- 
ular, and did a flourishing business, Mr. Welborn re- 
maining at its head until 1877, when he sold out his in- 
After retiring from the produce business, in 
1872, he devoted his energies more particularly to real 


terest. 


estate transactions, buying, improving, and selling farms 
in Posey County. His homestead farm of three hundred 
and sixty acres is reputed to be one of the finest and 
most profitable in the state. By a system of tile-draining 
he has reclaimed a considerable amount of land in Posey 
County, and by the same means has so improved his 
farms that they are among the best and most fertile 
He has now from fifteen to, eighteen 
hundred acres in Posey County, most of which is of the 
very best kind, and this is but a portion of the amount 
With 


his activity in business affairs, Mr. Welborn has been 


lands in Indiana. 


he has improved and brought under cultivation. 


one of the most public-spirited citizens of Posey County. 
Ife was mainly instrumental in the organization of the 
Mt. Vernon and Grayville Railroad Company, and was 
its president until it was consolidated with the Illinois 
and Chicago Railroad Company. In 1858 he was elected 
treasurer of Posey County, which office he held for two 
years. In the fall of 1876 he was elected a member of 
the House of Representatives of the state Legislature, 
and served during the sessions of 1877 and 1878. Polit- 
ically he has always been a Democrat, strong in his con- 
victions. For fifteen years he was chairman of the 
county central committee; has been a delegate to nu- 
merous state conventions, and in 1864 was a member 
of the National Democratic Convention, held at Chicago, 
which nominated General McClellan for President. He 
was married, in 1844, to Miss Nancy Mills, whose father 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ast Dist. 


was one of the early settlers of Posey County, and at an 
early day held the offices of sheriff and treasurer for a 
number of years. Her brother, Felix Mills, was several 
times elected sheriff, and was well known and very pop- 
ular in the county. Having begun life a poor boy, with 
but a limited education, Mr. Welborn, by his own exer- 
tions, has not only become a wealthy citizen and a large 
land-owner, but has advanced the material interests and 
added to the productive wealth of the state. It has 
been said that he who makes two blades of grass grow 
where only one grew before is a public benefactor. 
Viewed in this light, Mr. Welborn, who has reclaimed 
valueless ground, and, by a system of draining, has 
more than doubled the fertility and value of other 
lands, is indeed deserving of the gratitude of his fel- 
low-men. He has also distinguished himself in business 
affairs as a man of good executive ability, able to man- 
age successfully enterprises that require more than ordi- 
nary acumen and tact, and has the universal respect of 
his fellow-citizens for honor and integrity in business 
transactions. At the age of sixty-one years he is well 
preserved, as alert and energetic as when in the prime 
of life. He bids fair to continue his activity for many 


years. 


ELBORN, OSCAR M., Princeton, Indiana, Judge 
of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of the 


near Owensville, Gibson County, Indiana. He 
is a son of Samuel P. Welborn, a native of North Caro- 
lina, who settled in Indiana in 1833, and was a promi- 
nent farmer and citizen of Gibson County. Oscar M. 
Welborn received a high school education at Princeton, 
Indiana, and at the age of nineteen years commenced 
the study of law with Hon. A. C. Donald, one of the 
most prominent attorneys of Princeton. He then at- 
tended lectures, and graduated at the law school of 
Cleveland, Ohio, in 1863, when he returned to Prince- 
ton and was appointed clerk of the Circuit Court of the 
Gibson County Circuit, to fill a vacancy, holding the 
office some seven or eight months. He then entered 
upon the practice of law, in which he became quite 
successful, and took a prominent position among the 
younger members of the bar, securing in time a large 
business. He continued in practice until the year 1873, 
when he was appointed by Governor Hendricks to the 
office of Judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of thestate 
of Indiana, to fill a vacancy. In the fall of the same 
year he was elected to the same office for six years, and 
in 1878 was re-elected to serve for six years, from No- 
vember, 1879. He fulfilled the duties of his position for 
his first term very creditably to himself, and to the gen- 
eral satisfaction of the community, as is evinced by the 
fact of his re-election.’ As a Judge he is conscientious 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY aF ILkINQI° 


rst Dtst.] 


and forbearing, an industrious worker, and his decisions 
and rulings have been almost uniformly correct, and, 
when appealed, have been affirmed by the Supreme 
Court of the state. Though still a young man, he has 
already made a good reputation, both as a lawyer and 
jurist, among members of the bar who practice in his 
and is much esteemed and respected by the 
community in which he lives. In politics he is, and 


court, 
always has been, a Democrat. 


—~ >to — 


A high sche was Sern in Butler County, Ohio, in 
1830. His father was a clergyman and a well-to- 
farmer, but not wealthy. His maternal grand- 
father was the first bishop of the United Brethren 
Church west of the Alleghany Mountains, and was 
noted for his fervor and zeal in the cause of religion. 
The bishop settled at an early day in Butler County, 
and reared a family of eleven children, nine of whom 
survive, and constitute, with their posterity, one of the 
most numerous and influential families of Southern 
Ohio. Jacob Zeller’s ancestors were remarkable for 
longevity and sturdy character. His own parents were 
born in Pennsylvania, and he himself was reared on a 
farm and accustomed to hard labor. About thirty days 
of each year spared from work he spent at an old log 
school-house, where he acquired some knowledge of the 
rudiments of a common school education, and when but 
eighteen years of age was deemed by the neighbors and 
school directors amply qualified to take charge of his 
native district school, in place of an Irish pedagogue 
who had been dismissed in the middle of the term on 
account of his fiery disposition. In 1851 Mr. Zeller en- 
tered the preparatory department of the Miami Univer- 
sity, Oxford, Ohio, and graduated in a class of twenty- 
six, taking the degree of A. B. in the year 1856. In this 
class we note some prominent names, as Whitelaw Reid, 
of the New York 77z6une; Professors Hutchinson and 
Rogers, of Monmouth University, Illinois, and others. 
Professor Zeller also read law, taught school two years, 
and graduated from the Cincinnati Law School. In 
1858 he returned to his native county, intending to 
practice law, but was turned aside by ‘the late Civil 
‘War. After this he was superintendent of the Oxford 
schools, Ohio, for seven years, when he was appointed 
principal of the Evansville high school, in which, for 
the last nine years, he has done much to raise the 
standard of excellence, and has given it the name it so 
proudly bears throughout the state. Nine years ago 
(1870) he entered upon his duties under embarrassing 
circumstances. His predecessor was a man of ability 
and remarkable popularity, whose personal influence 
was sufficient to keep within bounds the disorderly ele- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


59 


ments that surrounded him, but his ill-health, and sub- 
sequent retirement from his duties in the middle of the 
school year, resulted in demoralization; and a reorgan- 
ization, with somewhat new methods of discipline, was 
found to be necessary. It was fully realized by the 
superintendent and board that whoever undertook this 
work would encounter a serious risk of failure; and Mr. 
Gow, then superintendent, undertook the selection of 
the new principal with deliberation and care. Those 
who are familiar with the history of the school since 
1870 know to what extent he was successful, and agree 
that, when he found Professor Zeller, in Oxford, Ohio, 
and placed him in charge, he did honor to his own 
judgment and conferred a lasting benefit upon the city. 
Since his advent the school has enjoyed a reputation for 
discipline, thoroughness, and high character, second to 
none in the state, and all agree that these results are 
due to his efficiency. Professor Zeller, in 1871, grad- 
uated from the high school a class of nine pupils; he 
now (1879) has an enrollment of two hundred and 
eighty, and graduated a class of forty-five. These pu- 
pils are then admitted on their diplomas to the state 
university of Indiana. As a citizen Professor Zeller 
stands well in the community in which he lives. He is 
genial, affable, and courteous, and, although wedded to 
his profession, is one of the few that would not be 
picked out as a teacher simply by his demeanor. He 
takes a high standing in regard to his duties to his pro- 
fession, his country, and his God. His mind, devel- 
oped by a comprehensive culture, makes him one of the 
intellectually strong men of his city, and places him in 
a high rank in his profession. 


EILMAN, WILLIAM, of Evansville, was born at 
_ Albig, in Rhenish Hesse, on the 11th of Octo- 
ber, 1824. His father, Valentine Heilman, died 
: when William was a year and a half old; 
mother then married Peter Weintz, and the family emi- 
grated to America, reaching New Orleans in 1843. 
They went to St. Louis, and shortly afterward removed 


his 


to Indiana and settled in Posey County. William was now 
nineteen years old, and his first work in his new home 
was done on a farm, assisting his step-father. At that 
time all kinds of farm produce brought only a mere pit- 
tance, and as the work was hard William determined to 
seek a more profitable avocation. In 1847, with Chris- 
tian Kratz, his brother-in-law, an experienced hand in 
the foundry business, he formed a copartnership and 
started a small foundry and machine shop in Evansville. 
Their foundry, a rudely constructed frame building, was 
on Pine Street. Each partner possessed a blind horse, 
which supplied the motive power. At first they manu- 
factured dog-irons, stoves, plows, etc., and employed but 


60 


six hands. In 18s0 they built a brick shop, and, with 
an engine and boiler of their own make, carried on the 
business on a more extensive scale. In 1854 they manu- 
factured the first ‘‘ portable steam-engine,” and in 1859 
their first thresher, patterned after the ‘‘ Pitts machine.” 
Their work now began to obtain great favor among the 

Up to the 
was steadily 


people, proving very effective and durable. 
beginning of the war the ‘‘City Foundry ” 
on the increase, and orders came in from the whole 
country. During the war Mr. Heilman took a decided 
stand in favor of the Union, yet, nevertheless, the South 
patronized the foundry just as before, and indeed the 
firm was compelled to erect new buildings and employ 
more workmen to keep up with the demands of the 
In 1864 Mr. Kratz withdrew, receiving for his 
Since that time 


trade. 
interest one hundred thousand dollars. 
Mr. Heilman has conducted the business alone, and 
through his energy the buildings have grown into mas- 
sive proportions, now occupying nearly the whole block 
comprised within the space of First and Second, Pine 
and Ingle Streets. The present commodious salesroom 
was built in 1868, on the site of Mr. Heilman’s former 
He now lives in a very costly and beautiful 
mansion, situated on First Avenue, fronting on Iowa 
Street, with a park containing four acres. Not only as 
a business man does Mr. Heilman succeed, but he also 
takes rank with those who can be trusted in matters of 
Notwithstanding the fact of 
his having been carrying on a business on an extensive 
scale, he found time to attend to public matters when- 
ever called upon. In 1852, as a citizens’ candidate, he 
was elected councilman; he filled. the office many times. 
From the time of its early inception Mr. Heilman has 
been a warm supporter of the Republican party. In 
1870 his party friends elected him as a Representative 
to the state Legislature. In 1872 he was nominated for 
their Congressional candidate, and, although the district 
was two thousand and five hundred Democratic, he was 
only beaten one hundred and twelve votes. In 1874, 
a year fraught with disastrous defeats for the Repub- 
licans, he again had the satisfaction of reducing his op- 
ponent’s majority to a very insignificant number of votes. 
In 1876 Mr. Heilman was elected from Vanderburg 
County as state Senator, and in 1878, whilst he was in 
Europe, the Republicans of the First Indiana Congres- 
sional District nominated him again as their standard- 
bearer. He accepted the honor thus tendered, returned 
after a short stay in his native land, and, entering into 
a vigorous and spirited canvass, was elected by a major- 
ity of nearly a thousand votes, the first Republican who 
had ever carried the district. His educational advan- 
tages were limited, as when young he was obliged to 
work on a farm. He never entered a school-house after 
he was thirteen and a half years old; but by his indom- 
itable energy he has risen from a poor German boy, to 


residence. 


great public importance. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[zs¢ Dost. 


whose difficulties was added the want of knowledge of 
the very language of the people amongst whom he had 
determined to find his future home. He rose, not by 
fortune, favor, or chance, but by his own persevering 
will, keen foresight, and prudent management of his 
business, to prominence as one of the most successful 
business men in the county. It is safe to assert that 
the enterprise and genius of Mr. Heilman have done 
more to advance and foster the commercial prosperity 
of the state of Indiana, and more particularly the city 
of Evansville, than any other man has been able to do 
The cotton mill at Evansville, of which he 
is also president, owes its existence to his energy and 
sagacity in financial investments. It is one of the largest 
and most complete in the United States, manufactures 
daily twenty-five thousand yards of standard sheeting 
and drills, and consumes annually about seven thousand 
bales of cotton. Its capacity will soon be increased to 
forty thousand yards daily, and the quality of the goods 
fully equals the best made in this country and Europe. 
IIe also owns the controlling interest in the Gas Works, 
and is director of the Evansville National Bank, Evans- 
ville and Terre Haute and other railroads leading into 
Evansville. In 1848 Mr. Heilman married Miss Mary 
Jenner. Their union was blessed with nine children. 
When Mr. Heilman took his seat in Congress, during 
the extra session in 1879, he soon found an opportunity 
to show his sterling qualities as a business man. The 
preceding session had been taken taken up by the Dem- 
ocratic majority with fruitless efforts to manufacture 
political capital, and as a consequence they had neg- 
lected to provide the means to carry on the government. 
To avoid a standstill in that ponderous machinery which 
conducts the public business of the country, the Pres- 
ident was compelled to call an extra session of Congress, 
in order to obtain the necessary appropriation. But 
Congress had no sooner assembled than a torrent of 
new bills and proposed measures poured in upon it. 
Every member, almost, had some pet project to advo- 
cate and bring to a passage. Notable amongst them 
were the large number of financial measures, not a few 
of which had for their object the most unscrupulous 
use of the government’s authority to increase its indebt- 
edness by means of paper money issued in unlimited 
quantities, or the unlimited coinage of an inferior de- 
preciated silver dollar. Mr. Heilman, however, had 
been an apt pupil in the practical school of life; as in 
private transactions, so he insisted in public place that 
honesty is always the best policy, and vigorously op- 
posed all measures that would have impaired the credit 
of the country, which was just then showing healthy 
signs of an increased confidence at home and abroad. 
His business training asserted itself especially in the 
remarks made by him upon the floor of the House of 
Representatives, pending the consideration of Mr. War- 


for them. 


1st Dist.] 


ner’s coinage bill, which intended to permit the owners of 
silver in bullion to have it coined into standard dollars, 
by which process they would have been enriched to the 
amount of fifteen cents on every dollar, at the expense 
of the people, the standard dollar representing then but 
eighty-five cents in bullion. ‘*By far the best” (said 
Mr. Heilman at the very outset) ‘*that we can do for 
the good of the country at the present time and under 
existing circumstances is to do nothing but pass the appro- 
priation bills and go home.” While others indulged in 
oratorical display, Mr. Heilman spoke like a plain, sim- 
ple business man for the true interests of the people. 
He wanted Congress to provide for the United States 
courts, the marshals and jurors, the diplomatic and con- 
sular service, the protection of its citizens and their 
rights and commercial interests at home and abroad, the 
administration of the government by the executive de- 
partments at Washington, and, having performed this 
duty imposed upon it by the Constitution, he wanted 
Congress to adjourn and let the individual members 
take care of their private business, just as he was anxious 
to do in his own case. Nevertheless, it need hardly be 
said that Mr. Heilman, at the same time, was not un- 
mindful of other needs of the country. Keen foresight 
and watchful study of public affairs had convinced him, 
however, that the success of the important measure of 
resumption, which had then stood the test of but a few 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


61 


months, required nothing more than absolute non-inter- 
ference by Congress with the financial policy of the ad- 
ministration. He thus expressed these views in the 
course of his remarks above referred to: 

‘¢T am strongly in favor of practical, well-considered 
legislation to benefit the manufacturing and agricultural 
interests, to increase our commerce and our wealth; but 
by all means let us also have some stability, especially 
in our financial legislation. The condition of the coun- 
try is at last surely getting better, although it may be 
slowly, and what commerce and the finances want just 
now more than any thing else is to be let alone.” 

And then returning to the subject under consideration, 
like the trusty teller of a bank, whose experienced hand 
rejects the spurious coin at the very touch, he exclaimed, 
when closing his remarks amid general laughter and 
applause, ‘‘This bill is a cheat—nothing else.” From 
these instances, and his splendid record as a member of 
the national legislature in other respects, his constitu- 
ents have now learned to look upon him as his fellow- 
members do, who consider him one of the best business 
legislators in the present Congress. He speaks seldom, 
but when he does every word is to the point. His 
views are practical and his advice is sound. Command- 
ing the respect of all parties, his influence in and out of 
Congress has steadily increased at Washington, enabling 
him to render his constituents signal service where oth- 
ers before him would have failed. 


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SECOND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 


1. LBERT, JOHN C., capitalist, of Paoli, Indiana, 

- was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 
March 5, 1818, and was the second son of Peter 
and Fannie (Breneman) Albert. His father was 
a farmer, and his ancestors on his mother’s side were 
among the wealthy families of Pennsylvania. His par- 
ents removed to Wayne County, Ohio, in 1819, and 
while a lad he attended school a few terms. He has 
since acquired a fair English education by his own exer- 
tion. At the age of fourteen he was thrown upon his 
own resources by the death of his father and the subse- 
quent marriage of his mother, and he apprenticed him- 
self to the tailor’s trade, serving five years. When nine- 
teen years of age he removed West, and, settling at 
Paoli, opened a shop, which he carried on for five years. 
At the end of that time, owing to failing health, he was 
compelled to abandon this occupation, and began to 
deal in real estate. In this business he has since been 
engaged, extending his operations all over the West, 
and meeting with uniform success in all his transactions. 
In 1858 he commenced to build, and among his noted 
edifices was the Albert House, which was one of the 
best hotel buildings in the state. He erected many 
residences and improved others. In 1868 he made the 
Republican race for auditor, and was defeated by only 
forty votes, the county giving a usual Democratic ma- 
jority of six hundred. In 1864 he was appointed by 
President Lincoln as internal revenue collector of the 
First Indiana District, but was not confirmed by the 
Senate, owing to Democratic opposition. In February, 
1870, he suffered the loss of his hotel by fire, the de- 
struction proving greatly detrimental to the town of 
Paoli. In 1853 he was elected treasurer of Orange 
County, and was re-elected in 1855 without opposition. 
In 1865 he was chosen cashier of the Bank of Paoli, a 
bank of issue and deposit, which position he held until 
its affairs were wound up in 1872. In politics he was 
for many years a Democrat, but in 1861 joined the Re- 


publican party, and, being an active member of that 
organization, was a delegate in the National Convention 
at Chicago which nominated General Grant. He has 
many times been urged to run as a candidate for state 
Treasurer, but has always declined. Mr. Albert is now 
a member of the National party, and in 1876 he cast 
the solitary vote in Paoli for Peter Cooper. He was 
married, October 7, 1841, to Ellen McVey, of Paoli, 
daughter. of the county recorder, by whom he has 
had four children, John C., captain in the 67th Ohio, 
was killed at the storming of Fort Wagner, South 
Carolina, July 18, 1863; James M. died, in 1865, from 
disease contracted while in the army; Mary married 
N. V. Huddess, a farmer in Kansas; Dessie F. married 
George Buskirk, an attorney of Paoli, Indiana. Mr. 
Albert lost his wife in 1872. He has done more to im- 
prove Paoli and Orange County than any other of her 
citizens, and many of the fine buildings in Paoli, whose’ 
erection is due to his energy, would be fit ornaments to 
streets of a large city. As an honest and upright citi- 
zen and gentleman, he is well known all over Indiana. 


—~- FO — 


\. RMSTRONG, WILLIAM B. C., attorney-at-law, 
i\, of Washington, was born in Knox County, In- 
of diana, January 17, 1849, and is a son of John F. 
o&° and Eliza (McCord) Armstrong. During his boy- 
hood he attended the common schools and worked on 
his father’s farm. At the age of twenty he entered the 
State University at Bloomington, Indiana, and graduated 
in 1872, also graduating in the law department. He 
immediately went to Evansville, where he spent two 
years in the offices of General J. M. Shackleford and S. 
R. Hornbrook. In the summer of 1874 he removed to 
Washington, Indiana, and commenced the practice of 
his profession. By strict attention to business, sterling 
integrity, and gentlemanly manners, he has succeeded in 


2 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


building up a good practice, and is the legal adviser of 
several wealthy men of the city and county. In pol- 
itics Mr. Armstrong is a Republican. He is an active 
worker, a member of the state central committee, and 
at present chairman of the county central committee. 
He was brought up in the Presbyterian faith. January 
31, 1876, he married Alice Kercheval, daughter of a 
banker of Rockport, Indiana. Mr. Armstrong is a young 
lawyer who is fast winning his way to a prominent posi- 
tion at the Indiana bar, and is known and respected by 
the community in which he lives as a useful, honorable 


citizen. 


oF 


—+-3206-— 


was born in johucon County, 
Gaen cedine. January 13, 1835. He is a son of George 
P. and Fannie Bartlett, who formerly lived near 
Louisville, Kentucky, but came to Indiana about 1825, 
and located on a farm in the above-named county. 
When Thomas was but two years old his father removed 
to Morgan County, where they remained for five years, 
and then moved again to Monroe County. In the rude 
log school-houses of Morgan and Monroe Counties, all 
the early education of Mr. Bartlett was received. This, 
of course, was very rudimentary and imperfect. And 
these facilities, meager as they were, were accessible for 
but a few short weeks in the winter. All suitable 
weather for out-door work was occupied in the most 
exhaustive manual labor; clearing the forests, and pre- 
paring and tilling the soil. In 1851 his father removed 
to Fayette County, Illinois, where he soon after died. 
Thomas, however, remained until 1857, when, at the 
age of twenty-two, he came to Edwardsport, where, 
with little exception, he has ever since lived. Immedi- 
ately on his arrival in his newly adopted home, he be- 
gan an apprenticeship at smithing, with Mr. Murphy. 
He then formed a partnership in the same business 
with William Hollingsworth. This connection con- 
tinued without change for three years; 
chased a saw-mill, carrying it on until the spring of 
1861, then selling out, and by mutual consent sepa- 
rating. After this Mr. Bartlett removed to a farm near 
the town, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits till 
1865. In that year he went back to Edwardsport and 
began mercantile life again, in which he has continued 
ever since. He joined the Independent Order of Odd- 
fellows in 1867, and the Independent Order of Good 
Templars in 1865. He has held all the offices in the 
subordinate lodge, several times representing that body 
in the Grand Lodge, and always with credit to him- 
self and benefit to the society. He is a faithful and 
consistent member of the Christian Church—having 
joined it in 1854. He is a steadfast Democrat, having 
cast his first vote for James Buchanan in 1856. March 


when they pur-. 


[2d Dist. 


18, 1860, he was married to Miss Mary J. Killion, who 
is a daughter of David and Mary M. Killion. He is the 
father of eight children, seven of whom are living. Mr. 
Bartlett’s career has been one of uniform success, though 
unattended with noise or boasting. As a business man 
he is cool and calculating. He makes few advances 
and less ventures. His plans are always well laid, and 
quietly but carefully carried into effect. Ne now occu- 
pies a large, handsome store of his own, and is slowly 
but surely amassing a fortune. As a citizen he always 
stands ready to aid and encourage every worthy enter- 
prise. In all his business transactions. with the world, 
none have ever accused him of a mean or dishonest act. 
His integrity has always been above reproach, and, asa 
result, he enjoys the fullest confidence of the entire 
community. His business career knows no stigma; his 
moral character is without blemish; and to posterity he 
will leave a character worthy the emulation of the 
wisest and best of mankind. 


4 AXTER, JAMES R., attorney-at-law, Bloomfield, 
Greene County, Indiana, was born in Jefferson 
C County, Indiana, on the 25th of November, 1832. 
6g He is the son of William and Jane Baxter; his 
father was of Irish lineage, and his mother Scotch. He 
was educated in the common schools of Jefferson County 
until sixteen years old, when he entered Asbury Uni- 
versity, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he graduated 
in 1855. Ilis early life was spent on a farm. In 
the year 1853 he taught a term of school in Jefferson 
County, and afterward five months at Dupont in the 
same county, as principal of the school. In 1857 he 
removed to Greene County and was elected principal of 
the Bloomfield high school, remaining in charge for the 
next five years, all the time reading law with a view 
of making that his profession. At the expiration of 
his engagement as principal of the Bloomfield schools 
he opened a law office in the county seat of Greene 
County, and began practice, and he is still so employed. 
He was trustee of Richland Township from 1863 to 
1868, and was the Republican candidate for clerk of 
Greene County in 1862, and defeated. In 1872 Mr. 
Baxter was the Republican candidate for Representative 
to the state Legislature, being beaten by a small major- 
ity. In 1876 he was again the nominee of his party for 
the same office, and elected, serving in the regular and 
special sessions of 1876-7 as a member of the Commit- 
tees on the Judiciary and on Engrossed Bills, and was 
chairman of the Committee on Corporations. In 1878 
he was again a candidate for the Legislature, but was 
beaten by Hon. Andrew Humphreys. Mr. Baxter joined 
the Methodist Episcopal Church when but fifteen years 
old, and is still a member. In politics he was originally 


2d Dist.) 


a Whig, but has been a steadfast Republican ever since 
the organization of that party. He was married, Octo- 
ber 27, 1863, to Miss Frances F. Taylor, his present 
companion. He is the father of three children, and 
has a happy home. Mr. Baxter has always been iden- 
tified with the public movements of his town and 
county, and is public-spirited and active in every thing 
of a progressive character. He is one of the prominent 
citizens of Greene County, and stands well with his 
townsmen. 
—+-$006-o— 


oi LAND, THOMAS A., M. D., was born at Bloom- 
field, Greene County, Indiana, May 21, 1830. His 
father, Thomas Bland, a native of North Carolina, 
was a pioneer. He came the year after Indiana 
was admitted to the sisterhood of states, and, building 
a cabin and opening a farm, he laid the foundations of 
a home near where Bloomfield was afterwards laid out. 
He sold this farm in 1850, and removed to*Central Illi- 
nois, where he died in 1862. Thomas A. Bland was 
bred a farmer, with no facilities for an education save 
those furnished by the county schools of. that day. He 
was a hard student, and made the most of his opportu- 
nities. His taste for reading was so great that he pe- 
rused all the books he could beg or borrow. Hon. S. 
R. Cairns, Hon. Hugh T. Livingstone, and Captain 
(afterwards General) L. H. Rousseau, and other prominent 
friends of his father in the village, freely opened their 
libraries to him; and thus, without a teacher, he acquired 
a good English education and some knowledge of law. 
At the age of twenty-two he won and wedded Miss 
Mary Cornelia Davis, of Hitesville, Illinois, with whom 
he has lived for almost thirty years, and who is as well 
known in literary circles and to the reading and lecture- 
going public as her husband. He chose medicine as his 
profession, graduating at the Eclectic College, of Cin- 
cinnati. But on coming out of the army, where he had 
rendered good service as a surgeon, he became editor 
of the Home Visttor, a literary weekly, published at 
Indianapolis; his wife, M. Cora Bland, becoming his 
associate editor. This was in 1864. In 1865 he estab- 
lished the (Vorthwestern Farmer, which, after he sold it, 
in 1871, was changed in name to the /nzdiana Farmer. 
Mrs. Bland was associate editor of this until 1868, when 
.she established a magazine, the Ladies’ Own. In 1870 
Doctor Bland’s first book was published by Loring, of 
Boston, under the title of ‘‘Farming as a Profession,” 
and sold an edition of ten thousand copies in a year. 
In April, 1872, the Doctor and his wife removed to 
Chicago, where she continued to conduct her magazine, 
and he took the editorship of the Sczentéfic Farmer. Two 
years later they removed the magazine to New York, the 
Doctor assuming the editorship of the Harm and Fireside. 


He also began the preparation. of a large work, now 
A—6 


. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


2 
Pe) 


almost ready for the press, which he proposes to bring 
out under the title of ‘*The Great Thinkers.” In 1875 
he assisted in writing a special ‘‘ History of New Eng- 
land,” for the publishers, Vanslyke & Co., of Boston. 
His ‘Life of General B. F. Butler” was issued by Lee 
& Shepard, of Boston, in 1879, and at once proved a 
success. Doctor Bland located permanently in Wash- 
ington, D. C., in 1878, with a view to devoting his 
life to literature and politics. His wife, having grad- 
uated in medicine, is making a specialty of scientific 
health reform. She has been twice elected presi- 
dent of the Woman’s National Health Association. 
As characteristic of the devotion of this noble-hearted 
woman to any cause she deems just, it were well to cite 
the fact that, when Colonel A. B. Meacham lay helpless 
and paralyzed from the effects of a dozen bullets, this 
heroine watched over the despairing invalid for one 
hundred and fifty long, weary days and nights, until at 
last the brain became clear, the nerves composed, circu- 
lation equalized, and the whole system of the victim of 
Modoc bullets regulated. Then Doctor Bland, with his 
heart alive to the Indian cause, started out in this field, 
as a co-worker with his wife in restoring her patient 
and working for humanity. Nearly four hundred cities 
and towns in New England, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and _ Illinois 
were visited by this trio of workers; Doctor A. T. 
Bland making the appointments and managing the busi- 
ness, ‘‘ the patient” pleading for justice toward the In- 
dian as a solution of the problem, Mrs. Doctor Bland 
devoting herself to the restoration of her patient and to 
lecturing upon the various branches of her profession. 
Since their removal to Washington they have already 
gathered around them a host of warm-hearted friends. 
Mrs. Doctor Bland has given a course of lectures upon 
physical subjects and health, chiefly to ladies, whosq 
appreciation of her ability and culture as a true woman, 
and a scientific teacher and physician, has been mani- 
fested by liberal patronage and voluntary resolutions 
highly complimentary. Their weekly receptions are 
among the most delightful social gatherings to be found 
in that charming city. In religion Doctor Bland and 
his wife are Unitarians of the liberal type. His political 
views are those of the Conservative Nationals. He was 
brought up a Democrat, but in 1856 and 1860 he did 
good service for the Republican party. He is now 
recognized as one of the ablest champions of the prin- 
ciples of the new party. His letters and essays on 
finance are extensively circulated and widely read, and 
regarded as standard by financial reformers. As a 
writer he ranks among the most forcible, logical, and 
graceful, and as an orator he is convincing, eloquent 
and pleasing. He isa good specimen of the class to 
which he belongs—‘‘ self-made men.” His career proves 
that talent, combined with energy and a laudable ambi- 


4 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


tion, rises superior to any condition in life, and is 
able to compel success from circumstances however un- 
favorable. 

—<-S¢06+o— 


OR REEN, JOHN N., merchant, of Loogootee, Indi- 
ana, was born in the county of Wexford, Ireland, 
March 9, 1830, and emigrated to the United 
States in the autumn of 1848, having previously 
received a good English education. He settled in the 
city of Louisville, where he was employed in the whole- 
sale grocery house of John Hayes, now an old, wealthy, 
retired merchant of that city. In 1850 he removed to 
Washington, Daviess County, Indiana, and became en- 
gaged as clerk for Mr. James Campbell, a leading mer- 
chant there. In the year 1857 he formed a partnership 
with Mr. Campbell, for the purpose of carrying on a 
general store in Loogootee, to which place he removed. 
Mr. Campbell died in 1860, but had previously trans- 
ferred his interest in the business to his son, James C. 
Campbell, the firm name still remaining Campbell & 
Breen. They are carrying a large stock, and are the 
leading firm of Loogootee. Mr. Breen is also the pres- 
ident of the National Bank of Washington; and the 
citizens of that place, in speaking of him, say that he 
is a gentleman, and one of the most lberal men in 
Martin County. In political matters he votes the Dem- 
ocratic state ticket; but in local elections casts his ballot 
for the man best qualified to fill the position. He is a 
member of the Church of Rome. October 11, 1865, 
he was married to Mary J., daughter of James Camp- 
bell, of Washington, Indiana. They have six children 


living. 
—~>- $i th —_ 


A )ELDING, STEPHEN, editor and proprietor of 
) the Daviess County Democrat, was born in Wash- 
CR, ington, Indiana, November 21, 1841, and is the 
ég youngest of the ten children of Stephen and Eliz- 
abeth (Clenny) Belding. His father was a shoemaker 
by trade, and during the latter part of his life was a 
boot and shoe merchant. His grandfather Clenny was 
At the age of 
twelve, Stephen Belding began to learn the trade of a 
printer in Washington, and, after serving his apprentice- 
ship, worked at the trade until the year 1859. He then 
entered the State University at Bloomington, where he 
remained two years. Since that time he has continued 
his studies, and by his energy and industry has acquired 
a fair English education. In 1861 he purchased the 
Martin County Herald, which he published at Dover 
Hill until 1863, after which he worked for some time 
on the Evansville Journal, He then went to Cincinnati 
and was employed on the Commercial until the fall of 
1867, when he went back to Washington, Indiana, and, 


a soldier in the war for independence. 


[2d Dist. 


in connection with Mr. J. H. Palmer, organized a joint- 
stock company which started the Daviess County Demo- 
crat. At the end of six months, however, Mr. Belding 
bought the interest of Mr. Palmer and the rest of the 
stockholders, and has since been sole proprietor. The 
paper is, and has been, the Democratic organ of the 
county; and, owing to the ability, energy, and industry 
of Mr. Belding, it has acquired an extensive circulation. 
It is noted for its able discussion of the principal events 
transpiring in the political arena, and as a faithful 
chronicler of all important matters occurring through- 
out the world. In politics he is a Democrat, and is 
regarded as one of the leaders of the party in his county 
and district. On several occasions he has been chairman 
of the central committee. He attends the Presbyterian 
Church. January 22, 1872, he married Miss Cora 
White, of Washington. Mr. Belding has been closely 
identified with the growth and prosperity of Washing- 
ton. He has always taken an active part in the educa- 
tional institutions of the town and county, has been for 
some time a member of the school board, and has always 
devoted considerable space in his paper to educational 
matters. He has a great many friends in the county, 
and is every-where known as a clever, courteous, and 
genial gentleman. 
—2-40te-o — 


J URKE, JUDGE MICHAEL F., deceased, late of 
)) Washington, Indiana, was born in the county 
of Limerick, Ireland, March 10, 1829, and emi- 
grated to America in 1848. Previous to his em- 
igration he had acquired a classical education, and 
immediately on his arrival in America he settled in 
Washington, Indiana, and commenced the study of law. 
He entered the State University at Bloomington, Indi- 
ana, and took a course of lectures, teaching school dur- 
ing the vacations, and graduated in 1851. Returning 
to Washington, he began practice, which he continued 
with great success, and was elected Judge of the Circuit 
Court, which position he still held at the time of his 
death. 
acknowledged leader of that party in the county and 
district in which he resided. In religious matters he 
lived and died a firm believer in the Church of Rome. 
He was married, February 7, 1854, to Miss Honora 
Brett, daughter of Hon. P. M. Brett, a wealthy farmer 
of Washington. They had five children, of whom one 
son and a daughter are now living. The eldest son, 
Matthew F., born December 8, 1855, attended the com- 
mon schools while young, and entered the St. Louis 
University in 1869, from which he graduated in 1874, 
with the degree of A. B. In 1875 he taught school, 
and in 1876 acted as deputy county clerk. In the fall 
of the same year he joined the Indiana State University 
at Bloomington, graduating in the spring of 1877, since 


O] 


In politics he was a Democrat, and was an 


LIBRARY 
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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOK 


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which time he has been practicing his profession. .In 
politics he is a Democrat, and in religion is a Catholic. 
Catherine resides at home, with her mother, on the old 
homestead. Judge Burke was noted in the state as be- 
ing one of the most thorough and intellectual lawyers 
at the Indiana bar. 
to his practical and thorough acquaintance with the 
writings of all eminent lawyers, was enabled to unravel 
and make plain the most intricate legal questions. 
During his life he was known as an honest, upright 
Judge, and a genial, courteous gentleman; and _ his 
death was mourned by a large circle of friends to whom 
he had become endeared. 


He was a hard student, and, owing 


400 — 


Gi URNET, STEPHEN S., lumber merchant, of Vin- 
cennes, Indiana, was born April 8, 1834, near 

¢% Cleveland, Ohio, and is a son of Stephen and Lo- 
myra (Gardiner) Burnet. 

of the Christian Church. Having settled in Vincennes in 
1852, taken a very active part in the affairs of the uni- 
versity, carried on a large nursery, and done much to 
improve the fruit of the country, Stephen S. Burnet is 
considered one of the leading men of that city. He at- 
tended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, Hiram, 
Portage County, Ohio, entering in 1853 and remaining 
one year. Previous to this time he traveled for his 
father through Indiana and Illinois, selling patent med- 
icine. On leaving school he spent some time on the 
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad during its construction, 


His father was a minister 


“and afterwards was in the lead mines of Missouri for 
two years. In the winter of 1860 he removed to Vin- 
cennes, where he engaged in farming for two seasons. 
In 1862 he went to Nashville, and opened a wholesale 
liquor and sutler’s supply store. Selling out in the 
winter of 1865, he returned to Vincennes and engaged 
in trading until 1866, when he removed to Paducah, 
Kentucky, and opened a wholesale liquor store. This 
he continued until the fall of 1867, when he again re- 
turned to Vincennes, and purchased an interest in a fur- 
niture manufactory and planing mill. In 1870 he 
bought out his partner’s interest and went into the lum- 
ber trade, continuing the planing mills. His present 
associate is Thomas Eastham, and the firm name is S. 
S. Burnet & Co. It is regarded as a leading one in 
that city. They are carrying a large stock of lumber, 
and their mill is constantly running. . Mr. Burnet is 
known as a man of sterling integrity. He has been 
closely identified with the growth and prosperity of Vin- 
cennes. He was brought up in the Christian faith, but 
is now a freethinker. In politics he is neutral, voting, 
invariably for the man in his opinion best qualified to 
fill the position. In October, 1868, he married Kate 
Nance, an orphan. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 5 


diy uRTON, GEORGE W., M. D., physician and sur- 
AV) geon, Mitchell, Lawrencé County, Indiana, was 
born in that county, July 22, 1836. He is the son 
of Hardin (and Lucy) Burton, one of the pioneer 
Baptist ministers of the state, who settled in Indiana in 
1826, The Doctor is one of a numerous and illustrious 
family, descended from John P. Burton, who was born 
in Virginia, July, 1758, and whose grandfather came to 
America from England in 1730, and settled in the vicin- 
ity of Richmond, Virginia. His descendants are scat- 
tered in various states, a large portion of them residing 
in Lawrence County. The family is considered to be 
the largest in Indiana, if not in the whole Union, being 


found in nearly all the various callings in life. They 
are represented in all the professions, from the pulpit to 
the school-room; in civil offices, from road supervisor to 
governor; in the military, from corporal to major-gen- 
eral. In religion they are principally Baptists, and are 
honorably represented in all the benevolent institutions. 
A majority of them are Masons. Most of the voters are 
Democrats. They are remarkable as a sociable, peace- 
able, and respectable family, and the ladies are especially 
noted for their beauty and attainments. Its members 
hasten to marry and bring up large families, and all seem 
to do well in life. We find no less than eighteen differ- 
ent towns bearing the name, scattered in twelve differ- 
ent states, and the aggregate population is estimated at 
seventeen thousand. They have a regularly organized 
society, known as the ‘‘ Burton Family Reunion Associ- 
ation,” of which the subject of our sketch was the pro- 
jector, and is chairman and secretary. As a people, 
they are of marked characteristics. Noted for their out- 
spoken honesty, morality, frugality, and generous hos- 
pitality, no more honorable name is known throughout 
the state. George W. Burton received a good, thorough 
common school education, graduating from the high 
school in 1852. In 1853 he took a commercial course. 
On finishing his education he was employed on the staff 
of civil engineers in the construction of the Ohio and 
Mississippi Railroad, on the completion of which he 
commenced the study of medicine with Doctor Thomp- 


” 


son, alternating teaching school for some three years. In 
the fall of 1857 he attended his first course of lectures at 
Towa State University. 
the practice of his chosen profession, but shortly after he 
took a partial course in the McDowell Medical College, 
St. Louis. On the breaking out of the war he entered 
the 5th Missouri, under General Henderson, where he 
served until ill-health compelled him to resign, return- 
ing to Indiana in the spring of 1862, and locating at 
Huron, Lawrence County, where he practiced until Au- 
gust of the same year, when he again entered the army, 
in the 17th Indiana Volunteers, serving in the line and 
on the medical staff alternately until the spring of 1863, 
when he was again compelled to retire on account of ill- 


He then settled in Illinois in 


6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


health, being unfit for duty. He immediately returned 
to his home and practice. On the last call for volun- 
teers, in December, 1864, he raised Company D, 145th 
Indiana Volunteers, of which he was appointed captain, 
and also served as assistant surgeon and afterward as 
acting surgeon of the regiment continued to do so until 
Lee’s surrender, when he once more returned to his 
home. In 1873, his father dying, he removed to Mitch- 
ell, where he has remained ever since, in the enjoy- 
ment of a large and successful business, being acknowl- 
edged one of the leading physicians of the county. 
The Doctor is active, popular, and successful. He is 
prominent in all the various medical organizations of 
the state. He is eminent in his profession, noble and 
pure in his character, and a man of rare attainments. 
He is honored, respected, and beloved. Doctor Burton 
is gifted with a fine intellect, and blessed with good 
physical powers. He joined the Lawrence County Med- 
ical Society on its organization in 1862. He with his 
partner at that time, Doctor H. L. Kimberly, was 
the originator of the Mitchell District Medical So- 
ciety, which was organized in 1874—the first medical 
society of Southern Indiana. He was sent as the first 
delegate of this society to the American Medical Asso- 
ciation, which was held in Detroit, Michigan, in 1874. 
In 1875 he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Indianapolis. 
In 1875, with a number of gentlemen of the Wabash 
Valley, he organized the Tri-state Medical Society of 
Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, and was at the time 
made its secretary, continuing as such ever since. In 
1875 he was made a member of the Indiana State 
Health Commission, and in 1877 took a degree at the 
Hospital Medical College at Louisville. He is an hon- 
orary member of the South-western Kentucky Medical 
Association, and also of those of Jackson and Orange 
Counties. He was one of the originators of the South 
Central and Normal School at Mitchell, Indiana, of 
which he is one of the trustees and most active mem- 
bers, an institution that bids fair to rank among the 
In 1866 he became a Mason, 
having passed the several degrees; in 1869 he became a 
member of the Grand Lodge, in 1872 of the Royal 
Arch, and in 1877 of the Council. He has been a 
member of the town council of Mitchell, and is examin- 
ing surgeon for pensions. In religion he isa Baptist, and 
is a member of the First Baptist Church, having joined 
it in 1866. He is a Republican, although of a Demo- 
cratic family. He married, March 1, 1857, Hattie C. 
Campbell, a most estimable lady, daughter of Dougal 
Campbell, of Illinois, a descendant from the old Dougal 
Campbell family of Scotland. They have four daugh- 
ters, now attending school. Such is the brief record of 
Dr. George W. Burton, one of the younger members of 
a most remarkable family. 


highest in the state. 


[2d Dist. 


“i 


Indiana, was born near Newberry, Greene County, 
CJ Indiana, June 26, 1846, and is a son of Daniel 
ack A. and Mary (Hinds) Bynum. His father was a 
merchant, and at one time treasurer of Greene County; 
he emigrated with his father from North Carolina at an 
early date. The family is extensive in the southern 
states and has been very prominent. 


G 


One member was 


| a Representative in Congress; and another, Judge of 


the Supreme Court of the state of North Carolina. 
William D. Bynum attended the common schools until 
April, 1866, when he entered the State University at 
Bloomington, Indiana, graduating in 1869. During his va- 
cations he was his father’s assistant in the treasurer's of- 
fice. After graduating he entered the office of Hon. 
William Mack, of Terre Haute, and began the study 
of law. He was admitted to practice at the county bar 
in 1869, on motion of Hon. William E. McLane, of 
Terre Haute, Indiana, and to the Supreme Court of 
the state in January, 1879, on motion of Hon. John H. 
O’Niel, of Washington, Indiana. In November, 1869, 
he removed to Washington and began the practice of 
his profession, which he still continues. He was elected 
town attorney in 1870, and in 1872 was chosen city at- 
torney. This position he held until 1875, when he was 
elected mayor, and re-elected in 1877. In January, 
1875, he was appointed by Governor Hendricks as a 
member of the board of trustees of the State Normal 
School, and held the position until June; he then re- 
signed, and Judge W. E. Niblack was appointed to fill 
the vacancy. In politics Mr. Bynum has always been 
a Democrat, and is one of the leaders of the Democ- 
racy of Daviess County. He was assistant secretary of 
the Democratic state convention in 1874; chairman 
of the Second District congressional committee from 
1874 to 1876; a member of the committee on resolu- 
tions in the 8th of January convention at Indianapolis 
in 1877; a member of the committee on resolutions of 
the Democratic state convention in 1878; and in 1876 
was the Democratic elector for the Second Congres- 
sional District. He canvassed several counties for the 
party in 1876, and in 1878 was appointed by the Demo- 
cratic state central committee to canvass the state in the 
interest of that party. October 4, 1871, he was married 
to Rachel Dixson, of Henderson County, Illinois. In 
1879 he delivered the address to the alumni of the State 
University at Bloomington. He takes a warm interest 
in higher education, and believes that there is no reason 
why Indiana should not support a college in which as 
thorough education can be given as in Harvard or Yale, 
or in any university of the giobe. He is a gentleman 
upon whom the citizens of Washington place great reli- 
ance. He is highly respected by all classes of the com- 
munity, and is fast winning a way to prominence at 
the bar. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY. GE ILLINAI 


LO Mite2 ef lo CX 


2d Dist.) 
ee 
AMPBELL, DOCTOR JOHN C. L., physician 
and surgeon, of Loogootee, Indiana, was born in 
<) Iredell County, North Carolina, October 27, 1828, 
cSe and is the son of Milton and Margaret (Smith) 
Campbell. His father was a farmer, also colonel of 
militia, county surveyor, and one of the five magistrates. 
John Campbell attended the academies of the vicinity 
and assisted his father on the farm. In the fall of 1852 
he started for Missouri, and on the journey visited Martin 
County, Indiana, to see some relatives. From his child- 
hood he had a great desire to relieve the sufferings of 
others, and at an early age induced his father to buy him 
some medical books. These he began to study, and after 
his visit to Martin County was urged to attend lectures at 
the Louisville University Medical College, which he did 
in 1852 and 1853. Inthe spring of the latter year he set- 
tled at Mt. Pleasant, and commenced the practice of 
medicine, which he has continued ever since in Martin 
County. In 1855 he removed to Loogootee, and erected 
the third house in that place; he is therefore entitled to 
be called one of its founders. In 1862 he enlisted as a 
private in Company B, 80th Regiment Indiana Volun- 
teer Infantry, and in November, 1863, was transferred 
to the 21st Regiment Indiana Heavy Artillery as assist- 
ant surgeon. In July, 1864, owing to ill-health, he was 
compelled to resign, and returned to his home again to 
resume his practice. He was married, December 20, 
1855, to Miss Brooks, daughter of a merchant of Mar- 
tin County. Seven children have been born to them, 
all of whom are now living. The eldest son, Harlan 
A., is a mechanic, and the two eldest daughters are 
teaching school. Doctor Campbell was reared in the 
Methodist Episcopal faith, and his wife is also a mem- 
ber of that religious denomination. In politics he sym- 
pathizes with the Democratic party, and is an adherent 
of the old Jacksonian school. He is the oldest physi- 
cian in Martin County, and has been closely identified 
with the growth and prosperity of her many interests. 
He takes an especial interest in the promotion of educa- 
tional matters, and is known and appreciated far and 
near as a clever, genial gentleman. 


+4006 


AMPBELL, JAMES, late merchant of Washington, 

Indiana, was born on Good Friday, 1806, at Stew- 
2G) ardstown, County Tyrone, Ireland. His means of 
ay education were very limited, and his schooling 
while a boy in Ireland consisted in attending a com- 
mon pay school for a period of six months. Tis father 
was a farmer, and he assisted in the work on the farm 
and in weaving flax. As soon as he had accumulated 
a sufficient amount of means to pay his passage, he em- 
igrated to the United States, and, at the age of twenty, 
in 1826, on the fiftieth anniversary of American inde- 


4 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| 


7 


pendence, landed in Philadelphia. After remaining in 
that city for a short time, he went to work in a carpet 
factory in Bergen, New Jersey, as a weaver. Being 
requred in his turn to clean out the boiler, and not 
thinking this kind of work consistent with his trade-as 
a weaver, he left his position and went to Philadelphia. 
The following winter he attended school in that city. 
He then became a traveling merchant, peddling notions 
through the country, and in a short time engaged in 
merchandising at the summit of the Alleghany Mount- 
ains. From there he removed to Spruce Creek, and 
from there to Tunnel Hill, in Ohio, where he remained 
in business about two years. Removing to Madison, 
Indiana, he became engaged in mercantile business, 
which he continued two years, after which he went to 
Washington, Daviess County, Indiana, where he opened 
a general store, and continued in business until the year 
1867. He then retired, and lived a life of quiet and 
ease until his death, which occurred August 27, 1876. 
He went to Washington in very early times (October, 
1838), and by close attention to business and a life of 
strict integrity was enabled to accumulate a fortune, 
the fruits of which he enjoyed in his later years. He 
was married in 1833 to Sarah McElheny, a native of 
Pennsylvania, to whom ten children were born, six of 
whom, two sons and four daughters, are now living. 
Peter A. is now a prosperous merchant at Washington, 
Indiana, and James J. is engaged in merchandising in 
Loogootee, in the same state, and is also a gentleman 
of means. Mr. Campbell was brought up in the Roman 
Catholic faith, and always remained a devout member 
of its Church. In politics he was a Democrat, but 
never took an active part in political matters. At his 
death, Washington, Indiana, mourned the loss of one 
of her most highly respected and useful citizens, who 
for years had been closely identified with her growth 
and prosperity. 

; HATARD, FRANCIS SILAS, fifth Bishop of Vin- 
f cennes, Indiana, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, 
keG) December 13, 1834. His parents were Ferdinand 
“2° E. Chatard and Eliza Anna Marean. His father 
was the son of Pierre Chatard, an emzgvé from San Do- 
mingo, who was driven thence on account of the insur- 
rection of the negroes, through which all of his father’s 
property was lost. Pierre, the grandfather of our sub- 
ject, had been sent to Europe, where he studied at 
Toulouse, Montpellier, and Paris, for the medical pro- 
fession. This enabled him to gain a livelihood for his 
father and himself, first at Wilmington, Delaware, where 
his father died shortly after reaching the American con- 
tinent, and afterward in Baltimore. He distinguished 
himself by his success and writings, and became a cor- 


4X 


responding member of the French Academy of Medicine. 


8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


In this city Pierre Chatard met the daughter of another 
émigré.from San Domingo, Marie Francoise Adelaide 
Buisson, who became his wife. Their son, Ferdinand, 
followed in the footsteps of his father, and studied med- 
icine, first in Baltimore, and afterward completed the 
course in Paris, London, and Edinburgh. On his return 
to America he married the daughter of Silas Marean, 
of Brookline, near Boston, Massachusetts, whose father 
served in the Revolutionary War, and was in the battle 
of Concord. His two sons, Silas and Thomas Marean, 
who were then residing near Baltimore, served in the 
War of 1812. Her father had led an active business life 
in the Island of Martinique, where he had discharged 
the duties of American Consul for several years and 
where he had married an Irish lady, the widow of an 
English gentleman, her maiden name having been Eliza 
Ferris. Such was the ancestry of Francis Silas Chatard, 
who was one of a family of eight children, four boys 
and four girls, of whqm three sons (Bishop Chatard be- 
ing the elder) and one daughter are living. His parents 
also are yet living, and reside in Baltimore, at an ad- 
vanced age. Of the two brothers of Bishop Chatard, 
one, Ferdinand, is married, and is a practicing phy- 
sician in Baltimore; and Thomas, having prosecuted 
his studies in chemistry, of which he made a spe- 
cialty, at Harvard, and attended the mining school 
at Freiberg, Saxony, is now at the head of a min- 
ing company in North Carolina. The only sister, Ju- 
liana, is a Sister of Charity at Emmittsburg, Maryland. 
The gentleman who is represented in this sketch was 
educated at Mt. St. Mary’s College, Maryland, whence 
he was graduated in June, 1853. He then became a 
disciple of AZsculapius, as had his paternal ancestors for 
two generations, and devoted himself to the study of 
medicine in the office of that eminent practitioner, Doc- 
tor F. Donaldson, of Baltimore, attending also the lectures 
of the University of Maryland. He resided as a student 
one year in the Baltimore Infirmary, attached to the 
university, and one year in the city alms-house hospital 
as one of the resident physicians. 
ever, held another mission for him, and in the year 1857 
his thoughts and inclinations took a decided direction 
toward the Church of which he was a member—the 
Roman Catholic—and he resolved to study for the min- 
istry. Archbishop Kenrick accepted him as one of his 
students, and procured for him a place in the Urban 
College of the Propaganda, in Rome, Italy. Here he 
remained six years, going through the whole of the 
philosophical and theological courses, in the latter of 
which he stood his examination and received the title 
of Doctor of Divinity, in the Church of the Urban Col- 
lege, in August, 1863. In the month of November of 
the same year he left this institution, to assume the po- 
sition of vice-rector to the American College at Rome, 
then under the presidency of the Right Reverend Doctor 


Providence, how- 


[2d Dist. 


William G. McCloskey, now Bishop of Louisville, who 
had known him from his college days. Here he re- 
mained as vice-rector till May 24, 1868, when the rector 
was consecrated. Doctor Chatard then assumed charge 
of the college, and remained at its head for a period of 
ten years; and it was due to his efforts, supplementing 
those of the Right Reverend George H. Doane, of New 
Jersey, who canvassed the country as agent of the 
American bishops in 1868 with great success, that the 
college was relieved from debt. It was during the lat- 
ter period of his residence in Rome that his health be- 
gan to fail, and by order of his physicians he visited 
his native country, improving so much as to be enabled 
to undertake a collection for the American College, wifh 
the approbation of Pius IX, and the consent and support » 
of Cardinal McCloskey and other archbishops and bishops 
of the United States. He was in this endeavor very 
successful, and obtained the means for relieving the 
college from the embarrassment of insufficient revenue. 
The principal events that marked the decade during 
which Doctor Chatard presided over the college were 
important. First, the meeting of the Vatican Council, 
during which the American College, as the residence 
of twenty American bishops, became a center of great 
interest, and a medium of social intercourse between 
the American bishops and those of the Catholic world. 
This event was followed by the taking of Rome, on 
the 2oth of September, 1870, by the Italian troops, 
after a heavy bombardment lasting six hours; the cre- 
ation of Archbishop McCloskey, of New York, Cardi- 
nal of Holy Church, as Titular Priest of S. Maria 
sopra Minerva; the presentation to the rector of the 
American College, by Pius IX, in Rome, Italy, of a gold 
medal, large size, and of most exquisite design and ele- 
gant finish, as an approval of the rector’s course up to 
that time; a short time thereafter the appointment of 
the rector to the position in the papal court as one of 
the private supernumerary chamberlains to his Holiness, 
in which position he had opportunities of coming in 
contact with the American visitors to the Eternal City, 
their audiences with the sovereign pontiff having been 
expressly placed by Pius IX in the hands of Doctor 
Chatard. ‘The memory of the personal tokens of regard, 
as evidenced by the favors granted to him by Pius IX, 
is to the Bishop a cherished heritage. During the time 
of the rector’s absence, in 1878, taking the collection in the 
United States, the Pope had looked for his return, and 
a few weeks before his death inquired of the vice-rector 
of the college when Doctor Chatard would return. He 
was informed that the rector was probably at that mo- 
ment on his way back to Rome. Pio Nono exclaimed, 
as he turned to go, ‘‘ Lo credo; lo credo.” (1 believe it; 
I believe it.) Doctor Chatard was at that time spoken 
of for an American bishopric, but was not named by 
Leo XIII to Vincennes until the Sunday before his 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILEINOI< 


Nest 


2d Dist.] 


arrival in Rome. Gentlemen of such scholarly attain- 
ments and high position are sometimes thought to be 
austere. Bishop Chatard proves the contrary, and is a 
most genial and charming conversationalist, one whose 
fount of learning is imbibed by all who come within its 
reach.. His manners combine elegance with suavity, 


dignity without affectation. 
400-0 — 


AUTHORN, HENRY S&., attorney-at-law, of Vin- 

cennes, Indiana, was born in Vincennes, February 

23, 1828. His father, Gabriel T. Cauthorn, was 

a native of Virginia, and was able to trace his an- 
cestry in that state for a period of over two hundred 
years. He was a physician, and emigrated to Vincennes 
in her early days. His mother, Susan Cauthorn, was 
the daughter of Elihu Stout, who came to Vincennes 
from Kentucky, and, on the fourth day of July, 1804, 
published the first issue of the first paper in the North- 
west. This newspaper was the second one published 
west of the Alleghany Mountains. Mr. Stout was one 
of the early settlers of Vincennes, and in many and va- 
rious ways added materially to the growth and pros- 
perity of the city. He edited the Sw for more than 
forty years. In 1845 he was appointed postmaster by 
President Polk. He was the first Grand Master of the 
Masonic Grand Lodge of the state of Indiana. He 
held many city and county offices, and the people re- 
garded him as one of the fathers of the city. Mr. 
Cauthorn attended the. common schools, and in 1844 
entered the Asbury University, at Greencastle, Indiana, 
from which he graduated in 1848. He immediately 
commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. Ben- 
jamin Thomas, United States district attorney at the 
time, one of the most prominent attorneys of the state, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1853. He immediately 
commenced the duties of his profession, which he still 
continues, having built up a practice second to none in 
this portion of the state, and to-day he is regarded as 
one of the leading attorneys at the Knox County bar. 
In 1854 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the dis- 
trict comprising Knox, Daviess, Martin, and Pike Coun- 
ties, and in 1855 was elected city attorney, which po- 
sition he held until 1858. In 1859 he was chosen clerk 
of the Circuit Court, and in 1863 was re-elected to the 
same position. In the fall of 1870 he was the Repre- 
sentative from Knox County, and was re-elected in the 
fall of 1872, and again in 1878. During the session of 
the Legislature in 1878 and 1879, he was chosen speaker 
of the House of Representatives, and for the judicious, 
able, and gentlemanly manner in which he discharged 
the onerous duties of this office, he had the warmest 
commendations from members of both political parties, 
not only doing great credit to himself, but to'the state 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 9 


at large. In politics Mr. Cauthorn is one of the 
leaders of the Indiana Democracy. He has been chair- 
man of the Democratic central committee, and has 
always taken great interest in political matters. He is 
a member of the Church of Rome, and was brought up 
in that faith, He was married, October 15, 1868, to 
Margaret C. Bayard, daughter of John F. Bayard, a 
well-known merchant of Vincennes. Mr. Bayard has four 
sons, all of whom have reached prominent positions, 
and are to-day presidents and cashiers of national banks 
at Evansville and Vincennes. Mr. Cauthorn is the 
father of four children, three of whom, two sons and 
one daughter, are now living. He has been closely 
identified with the welfare and growth of Vincennes, 
and is held in high esteem as one of her most useful 
and industrious citizens. 


—>-GOte-o— 


RAVENS, SAMUEL C., M. D., of Bloomfield, 
Greene County, Indiana, was born near the town 

S20 of Hanover, in Jefferson County, Indiana, January 
>)) 3, 1839. He is the son of John C. and Nancy M. 
Cravens, respectively of English and Irish descent, who 
are yet living, after having reared twelve children, all 
of whom survive. His mother, who was very charita- 
ble, and ministered considerably to the wants of the 
sick, often expressed a wish that one of her sons should 
become a physician. In compliance with this desire, 
and by a natural inclination, Samuel studied medicine. 
He was educated in the district and high schools of 
Hanover in winter, and in summer labored on his fa- 
ther’s farm. He was always fond of reading scientific 
works, and his habits have always been good in every 
particular. Doctor Cravens taught school to obtain the 
means of further educating himself, and in 1861 came 
to Scotland, in Greene County, and gave instruction in 
Madison Township, Daviess County, obtaining an eight- 
een months’ license from N. S. Given, then school ex- 
aminer of that county. He worked on a farm near 
Bloomfield during the summer of 1862, and in the fall 
obtained a two years’ license to teach school in Cass 
Township. In the fall of 1862 he assisted in organizing 
the first teachers’ institute ever held in the county. 
While teaching, during the winter of 1862-63, he pro- 
cured works on anatomy and physiology, and read, 
when not engaged with his school, with a view of study- 
ing medicine when school closed. In March, 1863, he 
began the study of medicine, under a preceptor, in 
Bloomfield, and attended Rush Medical College, of 
Chicago, during the session of 1863-64. While at the 
medical college his room-mate took the small-pox, and 
died. Doctor Cravens took care of him during his 
sickness, and after his death saw that he was properly 
buried. He attended the same college during the ses- 


10 


sion of 1865 and 1866, and graduated with honor in the 
latter year. Locating in Bloomfield, he began the 
practice of his profession, which he has continued until 
the present time, with remarkable success. In 1870 
Doctor Cravens attended Long Island College Hospital, 
of New York, and took an ad eundem degree. Doctor 
Cravens has never held, or been a candidate for, any 
public office. He has held all the offices in the Greene 
County Medical Society, and has been a director in the 
Bloomfield Railroad Company. He has always been 
identified with the Democratic party, and cast his first 
presidential vote for Stephen A. Douglas, in 1860. He 
became a charter member of Bloomfield Lodge, No. 
457, Independent Order of Odd-fellows, in 1874, and 
has passed all the chairs of the subordinate lodge, hold- 
ing at the present time the office of treasurer. He is 
not a member of any Church, but always aids in the 
erection of churches, and gives liberally to religious and 
charitable enterprises. Doctor Cravens and Mary L, 
Routt were united in marriage on the 12th of June, 
1866. She is his present companion, and together they 
have a young and interesting family of children. Doc- 
tor Cravens is a gentleman of strict integrity, and no 
man stands higher in the estimation of his fellow-men 
than he. All the qualities that go toward making up 
the perfect man are well-defined elements of his char- 
His pride is in paying his debts, and his life is 
a shining example for the young to follow. 


acter. 
In his pro- 
fession he stands at the head, and is well and favorably 
known all over the state. 


ate 


{;OBB, THOMAS R., member of Congress from the 

|) Second Congressional District of Indiana, was born 
LO two miles east of the town of Springville, Law- 

©? rence County, Indiana, July 2, 1828. He is a son 
of Dixon and Mercy Cobb, the former a native of South 
Carolina, and the latter of Kentucky. His parents came 
to Indiana in 1816, and settled in what was then a dense 
He and his family endured all the hardships 
and privations of pioneer life, with little or no facilities 
for early training of the mind; and, owing to their lim- 
ited circumstances, very little time could be spared for 
home culture, or attendance at the rude log school- 
houses, which were the only ‘‘temples of learning’’ the 
country offered. Mr. Cobb traces his genealogy to some 
very prominent ancestry in the South, New England, 
Michigan, and Kentucky; his mother, whose maiden 
name was Shelby, being a niece of ex-Governor Shelby, 
of that state. He very early in life manifested a desire 
for intellectual improvement, seeking and reading such 
books as were accessible to him, and taking special in- 
terest in ancient history. At the age of eighteen he en- 
tered the Bedford Seminary, at Bedford, Indiana, and, 


forest. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[2d Dist. 


although without a dollar in his possession, managed to 
complete a term of school. He applied himself with 
great diligence, and was rewarded by a rapid advance- 
ment in his studies. After the expiration of the quarter 
he returned to his home, and soon after took charge of 
a district school in the vicinity, as teacher. He subse- 
quently entered the State University at Bloomington, 
Indiana, where he took an irregular literary course of 
study, and then again returned to teaching, alternated 
At the same time he began 
reading law, for he had early in life determined to make 
that profession his future calling. In 1853 he removed 
with his family to Bedford, Indiana, although he him- 
self entered the law school at Bloomington, Indiana, 
where he remained during the winter of 1853 and 1854. 
In the spring of 1854 he returned home and began prac- 
tice soon after, forming a partnership with Hon. C. L. 
Dunham, which continued for one year, and then one 
with Judge A. B. Carleton, now of Terre Haute, Indi- 
ana, with whom he remained one year. Soon after this 
he made a law firm with N. F. Malatt, lasting until that 
gentleman was chosen Judge of the Knox Circuit Court, 
with a residence at Vincennes. After the election of 
Judge Malatt, Mr. Cobb continued practice alone for a 
time, and then made a connection with W. B. Robin- 
son, now clerk of the Knox Circuit Court, this continu- 
ing until the election of Mr. Robinson to that position 
in 1874. From that date to the present he has been as- 
sociated with his son, Orlando H. Cobb. As an attorney 
Mr. Cobb ranked with the ablest in Southern Indiana, 
enjoying for a long period the most lucrative practice of 
any one at the Vincennes bar. In the year 1858 Mr. 
Cobb was elected to the state Senate, from the district 
composed of the counties of Lawrence and Martin, and 
re-elected in 1862, serving in all eight years. While 
a member of the Senate he was on several committees, 
the most important of which was the Committee on the 
Judiciary. In 1876, as the nominee of the Democratic 
party, he was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress, and in 
1878 re-elected to the Forty-sixth Congress. While a 
member of the Forty-fifth Congress he was a member 
of the Committee on Elections, and is now one of the 
Committee on Appropriations, one of the most impor- 
tant of that body. Mr. Cobb has been universally known 
as a public-spirited man, always aiding and encouraging 
every worthy and laudable enterprise calculated to en- 
hance the interest of his town, county, or state. He 
was one of. the prime movers in building the Paris and 
Danville Railroad, which proved of great benefit to 
Vincennes and the contiguous locality. He joined the 
Knights of Pythias in 1875, but belongs to no other se- 
cret organization. He is now, and always has been, a 
Democrat of the Jeffersonian school. Mr. Cobb was 
married, March 10, 1850, to Miss Caroline Anderson, 
daughter of Archibald Anderson, a pioneer of Lawrence 


with farming in summer. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


2d Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
County, Indiana. He is the father of eight children, 
five of whom are living. Mr. Cobb is a gentleman of 
rare legal attainments, and a public speaker of great 
force. As an advocate at the bar, or as an expounder of 
the principles of civil government, he has few equals 
anywhere. He has already been of great service to his 
district and state, and it is to be hoped that his labors 
may long be continued. Personally, he is portly and dig- 
nified, with a courteous and affable bearing, which has 
won for him the admiration and esteem of a large circle 
of personal friends, irrespective of politics or other dif- 
ferences of opinion. 
— Ste 


( «RANE, CHARLES E., farmer and _ stock-dealer, 
“P|, Sandborn, was born in Palmyra, Wayne County, 

New York, February 14, 1836. He is the son of 
Edwin D. and Sarah B. Crane. His mother was 
born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and was the de- 
scendant of a family that came over in the ‘‘May- 
flower.” When Charles E. was only two years old his 
father emigrated to Washtenaw County, Michigan, then 
almost a wilderness, and, purchasing some land, began 
clearing it, preparatory to raising a crop, In 1842 he 
removed to Lenawee County, getting a new .farm near 
the county seat. The son received little education in 
the school-room, but he was so assiduous in his devo- 
tion to his studies that he was soon prepared to enter a 
higher institution of learning, which he did by taking a 
literary course at the high school at Adrian, Michigan, 
and subsequently in the state normal college at Ypsi- 
lanti. A marked characteristic of Mr. Crane’s early life 
was his great fondness for books—a fondness amounting 
almost to a passion, which found its strongest expression 
in literature and history. At seventeen he began teach- 
ing at Blissfield, Michigan, and although so young was 
successful. He next took charge of the union school 
at Hudson as principal, filling the position with much 
dignity and giving perfect satisfaction. In 1855 he 
went South and assumed control of the academy at 
Liberty, De Kalb County, Tennessee, where he remained 
two years. Changing to Cannon County, he took charge 
of Auburn Academy, at Auburn, where he stayed two 
years more. In 1860 he relinquished the profession of 
teaching, and, in company with Professor Harry S. Joy 
and William H. Mott, began the study of law. The 
War of the Rebellion beginning soon after, he left Ten- 
nessee and returned to Michigan. In 1862 he entered 
the army of the Union as quartermaster in the 26th 
Regiment of Michigan Volunteers. In 1863 he returned 
from the army and located at Palmyra, Michigan, in 
the lumber trade. At this he continued for about six 
years, and was successful beyond his most sanguine ex- 
pectations. In the years 1866 and 1867 Mr. Crane was 
the Democratic candidate for the state Senate; but, as 


MEN OF INDIANA. II 
his party was hopelessly in the minority, he was, of 
course, defeated. In 1874, having in the mean time re- 
moved to this state, he received a nomination for Rep- 
resentative to the Indiana state Legislature, being 
elected by a large majority. In the General Assembly 
of which he was a member he filled several important 
positions, being a member of the Committees on Prisons 
and Temperance, and chairman of the Committee on 
Railroads. As a legislator he distinguished himself by 
his clear-headed treatment of the questions to which he 
paid attention. At Palmyra, Michigan, in 1869, he 
joined the Masons, and is yet an honored and respected 
member of that fraternity. In religion he is orthodox, 
but belongs to no Church. He is now, and always has 
been, a steadfast member of the Democratic party, cast- 
ing his first presidential vote for Stephen A. Douglas. 
He was married, on the 2d of May, 1861, to Miss Amanda 
E. Seay, daughter of Major B. W. Seay, of Alexandria, 
Tennessee. He is the father of one son, Charles Julian 
Crane, noted for his gentlemanly demeanor and intel- 
lectual acquirements. Mr. Crane is a gentleman of fine 
social qualities. Beginning life without means or fam- 
ily influence, he has been so persistent in his search for 
knowledge that there are few who have a more general 
acquaintance with science, literature, art, and current 
news than he. He is a literary man of no small pre- 
tensions, and a writer of considerable note. His pro- 
ductions are pointed, versatile, and witty, and abound 
in fertile imagination and profundity of thought. His 
public life, though short, was brilliant and aggressive ; 
and although a thorough and outspoken Democrat, he 
never allows politics to stand in the way of personal 
friendships. He is easily aroused to compassion or pity, 
and his generous nature has been greatly in the way of 
his monetary advancement. He never fails to give aid 
and encouragement to new enterprises calculated to ben- 
efit the town. He has lived a private life without 
blemish, and his public character is above reproach. 
He has many friends. He is hospitable and obliging, 
frank and kind. 

£ 
for 


> orig Pate 


DWARDS, WILLIAM H., of 

Mitchell, was born in Lawrence County, Indiana, 

November 30, 1841, and is a son of John and 
* Lucy (Burton) Edwards. His father was a well- 
to-do farmer. He held many township offices, and was 
highly respected by all with whom he had dealings. 
His mother was a granddaughter of Cody Burton, one 
of the pioneers of Lawrence County, and whose family 
was a leading one in that section. William H. Ed- 
wards lived on the farm with his father until 1862, 
attending such schools as the country afforded, and in 
August of that year enlisted as a private in the 67th 
Regiment Indiana Volunteers. He served until August, 


attorney-at-law, 


12 


1863, when he was discharged on account of sickness, 
and returned home. In November, 1864, he was elected 
township assessor, which position he held for two years, 
and during the time attended Wabash College, at Craw- 
fordsville, Indiana, for one year. In 1867 he entered 
the Law Department of the State University at Bloom- 
ington, Indiana, for one term, and in the fall of 1868 
was admitted to the bar. He immediately commenced 
practice at Mitchell, Indiana, which he has continued 
ever since. In 1869 he was elected town clerk and 
treasurer of Mitchell. In the fall of 1870 he was de- 
feated in the convention for Representative, but in 1872 
was elected to represent Lawrence County in the Legis- 
lature, and served during the regular and special ses- 
sions. While a member of the Legislature he was 
chairman of the Committee on Elections, and also a 
member of the Committee on Courts. In political mat- 
ters he sympathizes with the Republican party, and is 
regarded as the leading Republican in this part of the 
county. He was married, December 8, 1868, to Miss 
Cornelia A. McCoy, of Mitchell, daughter of a merchant 
of that place. Mr. Edwards has by his honest and 
straightforward manner of conducting his business won 
the esteem of the entire community, and is highly re- 
spected and valued as a citizen. 


—>-8906--— 


G(YRIEDLEY, COLONEL GEORGE W., attorney- 
| at-law, Bedford, Lawrence County, was born in 
Harrison County, Indiana, January 1, 1840. He 
9 is the son of John M. and Sophia (Thestand) 
Friedley. His father was a farmer of German descent, 
and emigrated from Kentucky to Indiana in 1816. 
George W. received his early education at the com- 
mon schools of Harrison County, and afterward at the 
Hartsville University, from which he graduated at the 
age of twenty, after taking a full scientific course. On 
leaving the university he commenced reading law with 
Judge John R. Morrledge, of Clarinda, Iowa, After 
studying two years, the war breaking out, he entered 
the army as a private in Company K, 4th Iowa In- 
He was immediately elected first lieutenant 


fantry. 
served one year, when he was compelled to 
resign on account of ill-health, returning to Indiana. 
In May, 1862, his health having considerably improved, 
he entered in the 67th Indiana Infantry, was elected 
captain of Company I of that regiment, and from that 
time was actively engaged until the close of the war, 
serving with distinction throughout. He -participated 
in the battles of Pea Ridge, Mumfordsville, Kentucky ; 
the attack on Vicksburg by Sherman, from Chickasaw 
Bayou, in December, 1862; capture of Arkansas Post 
January 11, 1863; through the siege and capture of 
Vicksburg, and in the battles of Port Gibson, Champion 


and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[2d Dist. 


Hills, and Black River Bridge. During the forty-seven 
days’ siege of Vicksburg and the Vicksburg campaign, 
he served on the staff of General Burbridge, of Ken- 
tucky. After the fall of Vicksburg he was at the cap- 
ture of Jackson. The Thirteenth Army Corps, to which 
he belonged, was then transferred to the Army of the 
Gulf. At the close of the Vicksburg campaign the 
colonel of the regiment was mustered out on account 
of absence, and Captain Friedley, although the youngest 
captain in the regiment, was elected in his place. The 
colonel, afterward returning, however, was reinstated. 
He was then in the Gulf, in the Red River campaign, 
at the siege and capture of Fort Gaines and Fort Mor- 
gan, Alabama, and at the storming of the works at Fort 
Blakely, the last pitched battle of the war, April 9, 
1865. A consequence of its fall was the capture of 
Mobile. He then with the regiment marched to Texas, 
and was mustered out at the close of the war, in August 
following. He returned to Indiana in the fall and set- 
tled at Bedford in the practice of law, where he still 
remains in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative busi- 
ness, being one of the most celebrated criminal lawyers 
in the state. He is a man who has received many ‘hon- 
ors at the hands of the people, of which he has proved 
himself worthy. As a lawyer he is eminent, as a man 
he is beyond reproach; a gentleman of courteous man- 
ners, and of the strictest honor, integrity, and upright- 
ness, he enjoys the confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
In 1870 he was elected to the Lower House of the Leg- 
islature, and served on the Judicial Committee of the 
House during that session. With others he induced 
thirty-four members to resign, thereby frustrating a meas- 
ure brought by the Democratic party to defeat Governor 
Morton. In 1872 he was elected to the Senate, over 
Judge Frank Wilson, for Monroe and Lawrence Coun- 
ties, designated ‘‘the University District.” At the 
special sessions of the Legislature convened in the No- 
vember following, there being a vacancy in the office 
of lieutenant-governor, he was elected president of the 
Senate. He served through a term of four years as 
Senator. In the campaign of 1876 he was chairman of 
the Republican state central committee, and in 1880 
delegate at large to the Chicago Convention. In pol- 
itics he is an ardent Republican. His religious views 
are liberal. He was one of the active spirits in secur- 
ing to Bedford the fine graded school of which the 
town is so justly proud. In person he presents a most 
imposing appearance, being six feet three inches in 
height, and well built and proportioned. He is a ready 
speaker. He was married, January 16, 1867, to Edith 
M. Kelly, a most estimable lady, daughter of one of 
the oldest and most prominent merchants of Bedford. 
They have four young daughters, who are now attend- 
ing school. Such is the brief record of one of Indi- 
ana’s truly representative men. 


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)VARDNER, ELBRIDGE G., undertaker and_fur- 
\W niture dealer, of Vincennes, was born April 1, 
1820, in Vincennes. His father, Andrew Gard- 
ner, from Massachusetts, was a cabinet-maker; his 
mother, Hannah Swift, was a native of New Jersey. 
His father emigrated from Massachusetts to the West, 
and settled in Cincinnati in 1812. After remaining in 
that city until 1816, he removed to Vincennes, Indiana, 
and became engaged in the furniture trade. Elbridge E. 
Gardner’s means of education were very limited. At 
the age of fourteen years he began to help his father in 
the furniture and undertaking business, remaining at 
home until he was twenty-one. He was married, in 
1840, to Dorcas Fellols, a native of Vincennes, to whom 
six children, now living, have been born, three sons and 
three daughters. Two of the sons are now assisting 
their father in business. Mr. Gardner was married 
within one Kundred yards of where he was born, and 
since 1816 the family have been in business, without 
interruption, on the same street in Vincennes. In 
politics he is a liberal Democrat, and believes it 
is a man’s duty to vote for the person who is best 
qualified for the position, He was reared a Meth- 
odist, attending that Church with regularity. His 
father’s house was known far and near as the home 
of the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and its doors were always open, and its hospitality un- 
bounded. Mr. Gardner is regarded as one of the lead- 
ing merchants of Vincennes, and is highly respected 
and esteemed by the entire community. He has been 
closely identified with the growth and prosperity of that 
city, his memory running back to the time when it was 
a very small town. 

—>-40t-o— 


IIBSON, JOHN, secretary of the territory of Indi- 
ana, and acting Governor, was a general in the 
French and Indian and the Revolutionary Wars. 
He was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in May, 

1740, and was well educated. In his youth he served 
under General Forbes, who commanded an expedition 
against Fort Du Quesne, on the site of the present city 
of Pittsburgh, which resulted in its reduction. This be- 
came the first settlement west of the main ridge of the 
Alleghanies, and away from the seaboard, and he re- 
mained in the infant town as an Indian trader. In 1763 
he was captured by the Indians, and was adopted by an 
Indian squaw whose son he had slain in battle. With 
them he had an opportunity to Jearn their customs, and 
to acquire several languages, which afterwards became 
of great utility to him, both as a trader and as a gov- 
ernment official. He was released, after some time spent 
in captivity, and resumed his business at Pittsburgh. 
Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, organized an expedi- 
tion against the Indians in 1774, and he rendered the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


13 


officers important services in the negotiation of their 
treaties with the savages. The speech of Logan on 
this occasion, which was cited by Jefferson as one of 
the masterpieces of eloquence of all times, owes its 
English version to the skill of Colonel Gibson. 
made colonel of a Virginia regiment on the breaking 
out of the Revolutionary War, remaining in command 
till the close, when he again went to Pittsburgh. That 
district elected him a member of the Pennsylvania Con- 


He was 


stitutional Convention ; he became_also a major-general 
of the militia, and an associate judge. In 1800 he was 
appointed secretary of the territory of Indiana, then 
newly created, and held the office for many years, until 
1816. At the breaking-out of the second war against 
Great Britain, he was left in charge of affairs as acting 
Governor, while General Harrison was engaged at the 
front. In his old age he became afflicted with an in- 
curable cataract, which compelled his retirement from 
his office, and he ended his days with his son-in-law, 
George Wallace, at Braddock’s Fields, near Vincennes. 
He died in May, 1822. 


—>- FEC — 


: i'RAMELSPACHER, ALOIS, postmaster of Jasper, 
*]| Dubois County, was born in that town, June Io, 
a 1850. He is the son of Joseph and Sophia 

(Friedman) Gramelspacher, both from Germany, 
who came to this country when young. Joseph is a 
merchant at Jasper. Alois, after receiving a common 
school education in his native place, attended the St. 
Meinard College, in Spencer County, for two years, grad- 
uating in 1870. On leaving college he went as a clerk 
into a drug-store for the purpose of learning that busi- 
ness. After five years, having made himself thoroughly 
acquainted with its details, he engaged in the business 
on his own account, and in it has been highly success- 
ful. May 27, 1877, he was, through the influence of 
Governor Morton, appointed postmaster of Jasper, by 
Postmaster-general Key, a position which he still holds, 
and which he is well qualified to occupy. 


ae 


A large por- 
tion of the people of the town and surrounding county 
are German; and his descent, and the fact that he speaks 
both the English and German languages with ease and 
fluency, have peculiarly fitted him for the place. He also 
has in connection a foreign and domestic money-order de- 
partment, corresponding with all the European countries, 
which has proved a great advantage to the whole county. 
He fills his position to the entire satisfaction of the com- 
munity, with whom he is most justly popular, being 
very thorough in all his official business. He has gained 
for himself much honor, and the thanks of the people, 
not only for the admirable manner in which he conducts 
his office, but also from his having so considerably in- 
creased the mail facilities to and from this point. It is 
due to his influence that the town now receives its Eastern 


14 


mail nearly twenty-four hours in advance of what 
it did when he took charge of the office. : October 25, 
1875, he became an Odd-fellow, in which order he has 
taken five degrees. November 14, 1875, he joined the 
Masonic body, and has since taken three degrees. He 
is a Republican in politics, and is a worker in the in- 
terests of the party, exerting considerable influence not 
only among the German but also among the American 
citizens. In religious views he is liberal. He was mar- 
ried, June 8, 1874, to Caroline Burger, daughter of 
Jacob Burger, a jeweler, of Ohio. They have three chil- 
dren, one boy and two girls. He is a man of good per- 
sonal appearance, and in the enjoyment of excellent 
health. He possesses fine social and domestic qualities, 
and is honored and respected by the community, and 
beloved by his family. Mr. Gramelspacher is an edu- 
cated, pleasant, and courteous gentleman, and already, 
though young in life, is one of the leading men of his 
town. 
$006 

5 

(NRAY, JOHN W., physician, Bloomfield, Greene 
17 County, Indiana, was born November 28, 1839, 
C near the town of Springville, Lawrence County, 
rele Indiana. He is the son of Ephraim and Phebe 
Gray, the former of English and the latter of Irish ex- 
traction. He entered the Indiana State University at 
Bloomington, Indiana, where he remained two terms, 
taking a literary course. In 1858 he returned to Spring- 
ville, and began reading medicine with Doctor W. B. 
Woodward, continuing until September of the same 
year, when he entered the Medical Department of the 
University of Michigan, where he attended two courses 
of lectures. Locating at Jonesboro, Greene County, 
Indiana, he practiced his profession until the fall of 
1863, when, desirous of still greater instruction than he 
had yet received, he entered Jefferson Medical College, 
Philadelphia, where he graduated in March, 1864. He 
then returned to Jonesboro and resumed his rounds as 
a physician. Here he remained until the autumn of 
1866, when he went to New York and entered the 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College, where he graduated 
with honors in the spring of 1867. Returning to Greene 
County he located at Bloomfield, where he still resides. 
On the steamship ‘‘San Francisco,” in which he made 
a voyage to Central America in 1867, he held the rank 
of surgeon. Doctor Gray has always been liberal and 
generous in his life and actions; he has always given 
largely and freely to public enterprises, and assisted 
with his purse and influence the building of churches, 
schools, and other public edifices. He became a mem- 
ber of Springville Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, 
in the summer of 1861, and was a charter member of 
Bloomfield Lodge, No. 457, Independent Order of Odd- 
fellows; has held the office of Worshipful Master in 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[2d Dist. 


the Blue Lodge, and High-priest in the Chapter. In 
religious belief Doctor Gray has no particular creed, 
but is liberal in his views. He is a Democrat of the 
most pronounced order, casting his first vote for President 
for George B. McClellan, in 1864. January 18, 1860, 
he was married to Miss Elizabeth Gainey, daughter of 
John P. Gainey, of Springville, Indiana. They have 
had eight children, seven of whom are yet living. In 
his profession Doctor Gray ranks among the best of the 
state, and his skill and success in practice have been 
almost marvelous; he is genial and social in his inter- 
course with his fellow-men, and is justly considered an 
excellent gentleman in the community in which he 
lives. 
—+-at-o— 


ARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY, first Governor 
of the territory of Indiana, and ninth President 

of the United States, was born in Berkeley, 
u) Charles City County, Virginia. He was the third 
and youngest son of Governor Benjamin Harrison, one 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
and a man of great weight of character. William 
Henry was originally intended for the profession of med- 
icine, and had pursued his studies for some time at 
Richmond, having received a classical education at 
Hampden Sidney College, and at academies in his na- 
tive state. He left home in 1791 to still further con- 
tinue his course in Philadelphia, when the intelligence 
of the death of his father reached him. Although left 
with a modest competence, he did not regard the amount 
as sufficient to support him in leisure, and he had a strong 
predilection for the pursuit of arms. His father’s wishes 
had been the occasion of his studying the healing art, 
and he considered himself then at liberty to follow his 
own desires. Robert Morris, the distinguished financier, 
who was made his guardian, was opposed to his new 
step; but Harrison, who had strong family connections, 
found no difficulty in obtaining from General Washing- 
ton the desired commission of ensign, and he was or- 
dered to report to General St. Clair, then in command 
of the North-western army. The settlement of the 
North-west Territory had begun only three years before 
at Marietta, and the scattered population were exposed 
to attacks and depredations from Indians, covertly sup- 
ported by agents of the british government, which had 
planted forts upon our soil, in contravention of her 
treaty obligations. General St. Clair and the other mil- 
itary commanders had been defeated and harassed by 
the Miamis and other tribes, and there was very little 
confidence felt by any of the settlers in the support of 
the army. To it, however, a commander of another 
kind, well experienced in border warfare, General An- 
thony Wayne, was sent the subsequent year; and on 
the 20th of August, 1792, Lieutenant Harrison showed 


2d Dist. 


his good qualities in a sanguinary conflict, and was pub- 
licly thanked by the general. In 1795 he was intrusted 
with the command of Fort Washington, with the rank 
of captain, and the same season wooed and won the 
youngest daughter of John Cleves Symmes, the original 
owner of the ground on which the site of Cincinnati 
now stands. It is related that when Mr. Symmes 
wished to inquire about the means of the young man to 
support a wife, Captain Harrison placed his hand upon 
the hilt of his sword and replied, with coolness and as- 
surance, ‘* This is my means of support.” In 1798 he re- 
signed his commission and retired to his farm at South 
Bend, from which, however, he was almost immediately 
called by President Adams, who offered him the posi- 
tion of secretary of the North-west Territory. By vir- 
tue of this he was ex officzo Lieutenant-governor, and, 
in the absence of Governor St. Clair, the duties of that 
office devolved upon him. The year after this he was 
elected a delegate to Congress, and when there distin- 
guished himself by the introduction of measures to fa- 
cilitate the easier acquirement of lands by actual settle- 
ment. During his term in Congress the North-west 
Territory was divided into Ohio and Indiana Territories. 
The latter comprised what are now the states of Indi- 
ana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, with an 
area greater than France, but with a white population 
scarcely exceeding five thousand. It was exposed to 
great danger from the natives; then there were no 
roads, and no houses except log structures. Mills had 
not yet been constructed, the land was unsurveyed 
and almost unknown. To the position of Governor of 
this domain Mr. Harrison was appointed—a deserved 
compliment to his energy and ability—and he immedi- 
ately removed to Vincennes, which was the seat of gov- 
ernment. He held the office sixteen years, having been 
twice reappointed by Jefferson and once by Madison, 
and during the whole term rendered the most valuable 
services to the people of his territory. Among the du- 
ties of his place was that of Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs. In his relations with these tribes his powers 
were most completely shown. 
treaties with them. It was impossible, however, to 
keep peace continually. . The acquisition of lands by 
the whites rankled in the bosoms of the Indians; their 
game diminished, and there was a probability that 
within a few years they would be completely deprived 
of the soil. This discontent was fomented by officers of 
the British government in Canada and on the borders. 
Tecumseh, the renowned warrior, declared that no 
tribes had the power to divest themselves of their lands, 
as the ground belonged in common to all the Indians; 
but this sophistry was soon disproved by Governor 
Harrison, in a few pungent sentences. Although 
worsted in the argument, Tecumseh, with extraordinary 
ability, prepared the way for a forcible resistance to the 


He negotiated many 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


15 


United States by all the tribes north of the Ohio, re- 
ceiving for this purpose the strongest assistance from 
his brother, commonly known as the Prophet, a mystic 
who, under other circumstances, might have founded a 
new religion, as did Mohammed. The warrior affected 
to pay the highest respect to his brother, whose voice 
was accepted by the savages as that of an oracle. Te- 
cumseh visited nation after nation; he pointed out the 
injuries they had received from the white men, and 
those which would most likely be inflicted upon them in 
the future. The hunting grounds were theirs; if they 
were men they would strike and recover them. Upon 
the weakness of each tribe he played with a masterly 
hand. Governor Harrison determined to break up the 
conspiracy, and to this end was furnished with troops 
by Kentucky and Ohio. Among the former was the 
gallant Jo Daviess, soon to die on the battle-field, but 
never to be forgotten. The troops marched up the 
Wabash till they reached the prophet’s town, encamp- 
ing a little short of it. Before daybreak the In- 
dians attacked, and a bloody and murderous battle 
followed. Governor Harrison’s precautions were so 
well taken that, although his pickets were seized with 
a panic, the advance was repulsed, and the day finally 
remained with the men of Indiana and Kentucky. 
By the Legislatures of both of these he was publicly 
thanked. This destroyed the power of the Indians tem- 
porarily; but Tecumseh soon succeeded in arousing their 
feelings again, and they fought during the War of 1812 
with the British through the entire campaign. In the 
victory of the Thames, and the defense of Fort Meigs, 
Harrison, who had been appointed to the command of 
the North-west army by President Monroe, with the rank 
of major-general, highly distinguished himself, but he 
resigned before the close of the war, in consequence of 
differences with General Armstrong, Secretary of War. 
In 1816 he was elected from the Cincinnati District as 
a member of Congress, in 1824 United States Senator 
from Ohio, and in 1828 was appointed Minister to the 
Republic of Columbia by Mr. Adams, but was almost 
immediately recalled by General Jackson. After ceasing 
to be Governor of Indiana he had taken up his residence 
in Ohio, and was for twelve years clerk of a County 
Court. In 1836 he was nominated for President of the 
United States in opposition to Martin Van Buren, and 
was defeated. The financial panic which followed Gen- 
eral Jackson’s onslaught upon the United States Bank 
took place in Mr. Van Buren’s term, and made him very 
unpopular. This was the condition of the Whigs when 
Harrison was renominated in 1840, 
exceedingly animated. 


The contest was 
General Harrison, although of 
good family, lived very simply, and was accessible to 
every one. His opponents originated a story that he 
lived in. a log-cabin, and drank nothing but hard cider. 


His friends adopted the narrative, as showing that he 


16 


was a man of the people; log-cabins were built in every 
tuwn of the United States, as emblems of General Har- 
rison, and hard cider was inscribed upon the banners 
of the Whig party. Verse lent him its aid, and he was 
triumphantly elected. The excitement of the campaign, 
however, proved too much for him. His nerves were 
continually in tension, and on his inauguration his ex- 
ertions to keep pace with the public business and to 
please his friends were redoubled. A month after that 
event, before any distinctive features of his administra- 
tion could be seen, a*cold brought on a violent fit of 
sickness, and he died eight days after, on the 4th of 
April, 1841. He was an honest and patriotic man, and 
rendered his party great services. It has always been 
regretted that he did not live to display his abilities as 
President. Mrs. Harrison long survived him, and he 
left one son and three daughters. 


—<-4006-— 


AYNES, ROBERT PATTERSON, was born De- 
cember 9, 1821, Harper’s Ferry, Jefferson 
County, Virginia, in the shadow of Jefferson rock, 
near the confluence of the Potomac and Shenan- 
doah Rivers. It is mentioned by Thomas Jefferson in 
his Notes on Virginia. The scene was later added to 
history as commemorating the exploits and capture of 

John Brown. Mr. Haynes is the son of Jacob J. and 
Mary (Patterson) Haynes, both of Pennsylvania, his 
father being of German and his mother of Irish descent. 
His father was employed by the United States govern- 

ment for a period of twenty-seven years in the manu- 
facture of fire-arms at the arsenal, which was captured 
and partially destroyed by the secessionists during the 

He was a soldier in the War of 1812. In 
1837 he removed with his family, consisting of four chil- 
dren whose mother had died in 1828, three sons and 

one daughter, and a second wife and her daughter, to 

Greene County, Ohio, where he engaged in agricultural 

pursuits. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-eight 
years, retaining to his last moment full possession of his 
mental faculties. When the dread hour approached he 
called his children to his bedside in the order of their 
ages and bade them an affectionate farewell. THis last 
words were, ‘‘ My work is finished,” and then his spirit 
passed peacefully away. The subject of this sketch at- 
tended the schools of Harper’s Ferry until the age of 
sixteen years. Upon the removal of his father to Ohio, 

he was sent to the academy in Dayton, spending a 
year at that institution of learning He then returned 
to Greene County, remaining with his father and 
assisting in the cultivation of the soil until he arrived 
at years of maturity. In 1843 he was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Darst, of Greene County, the daughter of 
Jacob Darst, one of the pioneers and active citizens of 


at 


late war. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[2d Dist. 


Greene County, who afterwards retired from business and 
removed to Dayton, where he died. Six children were 
the result of his marriage, five sons and one daughter, 
all of whom are grown. Mr, Haynes and his young 
wife with the aid of their parents purchased a farm in 
Greene County, and were thus early installed as house- 
holders. Here for nearly a quarter of a century he was 
engaged in stock-growing and agricultural pursuits, 
meeting with great success. In his twenty-third year 
he was elected a Justice of the Peace in a strong Repub- 
lican district, while he affiliated with the Democratic 
party. After his election he declined to serve, turning the 
office over to his opponent, who was an old man, and had 
taken his defeat very much to heart. In 1867 Mr. 
Haynes, being greatly influenced by the difference of 
prices in lands in the Miami and White River Valleys, 
removed to Daviess County, Indiana, where he purchased 
a large farm, engaging in stock-growing and in the 
growth of cereals, continuing this pursuit until the pres- 
ent time. He now owns the model farm of that section 
of the country, and is known as one of the leading 
agriculturists of the state. Mr. Haynes not only takes 
interest in the production cf the largest crops, but in 
procuring and propagating the greatest variety of farm 
products, using the best methods and adopting the new- 
est improvements in implements or buildings for farm 
purposes; thus he is looked up to by his neighbors as a 
leader and innovator. In the year 1871 Mr. Haynes 
was elected to represent Daviess County in the state Leg- 
islature, which he did with credit to himself and honor 
to his constituents. He was, shortly after the expira- 
tion of his term, elected a member of the State Board 
of Agriculture, which position he has held ever since, 
working actively and efficiently for its interests. In 
1878 Mr. Haynes was elected clerk of the state-house 
commissioners, but resigned his position some few 
months later, when the board, in acknowledgment of 
his integrity, passed a resolution to that effect, commend- 
ing him highly for faithful and honest services. The 
clerical work is brought up to date. All letters are filed 
away; correspondence in regard to stone, architecture, 
proposals of contractors, and all the different subjects 
demanding official attention, is so kept, and arranged 
in such an orderly manner, as to be forthcoming at a mo- 
ment’s notice. Mr. Haynes has been solicited by resi- 
dents of Greene and Daviess Counties to accept the Dem- 
ocratic nomination for state Senator. No better man for 
the position could be selected. He has by his gentle- 
manly bearing won many friends. In 1874 Mr. Haynes 
was elected a trustee of Purdue University, since devot- 
ing much time and attention to this great public enter- 
prise. He is interestéd heart and soul in its success. 
In connection with Hon. John Sutherland, of Laporte, 
and Colonel John E. Williams, as a committee of that 
board, Mr. Haynes has direction of the state fund ap- 


2d Dist. | 


propriated for Purdue, and the superintending of the 
farm. Since 1853 Mr. Haynes has belonged to the Or- 
der of Odd-fellows, and since 1839 has been an exem- 
plary and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, of which his wife is also a member. He has 
always been a Democrat. Appreciating the benefit of 
knowledge, Mr. Haynes has educated his children. The 
eldest son, J. M. Haynes, was a graduate from Cleveland 
College, Ohio, and is now a master machinist, foreman 
of a large establishment at Washington, Indiana. The 
second son, John, is a scientific agriculturist, and has 
charge of the Purdue University farm. The third son, 
Samuel, spent four years at Asbury College, Greencastle. 
The fourth son, Joseph, was educated at Washington, 
and taught school for a time, but is now, with his next 
older brother, engaged in the purchase and sale of live 
stock. Robert E., the youngest, is pursuing a college 
course at Purdue. Mollie, the daughter, spent two years 
at the female school at Xenia, Ohio, and is now at home 
with her parents. 
—_+-3906-<—_ 


ORRALL, ALBION, postmaster of Washington, 
Daviess County, was born in Daviess County, In- 
diana, February 24, 1854. He is the son of Spil- 
lard F. and Jane (Crabb) Horrall. His father is 

an editor, who served through the war, and after its ter- 
mination returned to journalism, and now edits the 

Vincennes Commercial, at Vincennes, the leading Repub- 

lican paper of the county. His ancestors, for generations 
back, were Americans. After receiving instruction in 
the public schools of Daviess County, he went to Evans- 

ville, for the purpose of completing his education, on 
account of its greater advantages, as he desired to be 
fully equipped for the active duties of life. Having 
completed his schooling at the age of seventeen, he was 
for a year engaged as mailing clerk on the Evansville 

Courter. His father then removed to Terre Haute with 
his family, and young Albion obtained a similar position 
on the Lvening Gazette, at Terre Haute, holding the 
position for about a year, when he and his parents re- 
moved to Washington, where his father published the 
Washington Gazette. He then worked at case and did 
general newspaper work until the age of twenty-one, 
when he became a partner with his father, and so con- 
tinued until he was appointed postmaster of Washing- 
ton. He received his appointment from the President 
in May, 1877, and entered upon his duties June 11 
of the same year. This appointment was confirmed 

October 31,1877, during the extra session of the Senate, 

and he still occupies the position. He has been a mem- 

ber of the Order of Odd-fellows for about four years, 
and has taken all the degrees up to and in the Grand 

Lodge. His family are all Methodists, and he has been 

a constant attendant of the Methodist Church all his 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


17 


life. He was married, February 22, 1878, to Mamie 
Harris, the most estimable daughter of William P. Harris, 
hotel proprietor, of Washington. They have one infant 
daughter. Mr. Horrall is one of the prominent and in- 
fluential Republican politicians of Washington, and one 
who exerts considerable influence. His Republican and 
Whig faith is hereditary. Mr. Horrall is a man of ster- 
ling integrity, honor, and uprightness, and is assiduous, 
methodical, and scrupulously correct in the discharge 
of his official duties. The manner of regulating and 
maintaining his office is characteristic of the man. 
Every thing is in its place, and every thing is in order; 
all his business is attended to with promptness and dis- 
patch. He is a man of fine capacity and punctuality. 
No complaints are ever heard of his office, it being con- 
ducted in so admirable a manner as not to permit of 
any; and hence he is in his official capacity, as well as 
in his private life, admired by men of both political 
parties. He is a man of good personal appearance, 
above the medium height, a bright, clear eye, and an 
intelligent countenance. He is highly qualified in every 
way for the position he occupies. Though compara- 
tively young in years, he is ripe in experience, his pre- 
vious connection with the newspaper business having 
afforded him an admirable schooling in the business and 
political world. He is an active worker in the Repub- 
lican party in, we may add, a strongly Democratic dis- 
trict. Such is the man whose character we have thus 
briefly attempted to portray. He is one of the ‘‘ repre- 
sentative men” of Daviess County. 


—+-40tb-o— 


UFF, THOMPSON D., merchant, of Bloomfield, 
qi ]) Greene County, Indiana, was born in Washington 
Gr County, Indiana, on the 14th of March, 1837. He 
“SQ is the son of Stephen and Elizabeth Huff. His 
father was a native of West Virginia, and his mother 
a Kentuckian. Mr. Huff received a common 
school education while working on his father’s farm, 
and spent the early portion of his life in agricultural 
pursuits until his twentieth year, when he taught a 
district school in his home neighborhood, and after- 
ward was engaged in teaching in the village of Pal- 
myra. In 1859, in his twenty-second year, Mr. Huff 
began mercantile life in the town of Martinsburg, 
Washington County, Indiana, selling goods for five con- 
secutive years in that town, and closing in 1864. Feb- 
ruary 26, 1864, he located in Bloomfield, his present 
home; here Mr. Huff again engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits, in which business he yet continues, having the 
largest and finest dry-goods establishment in the county 
seat of Greene County. Mr. Huff has never been a 
candidate or office-seeker during the whole of his busy 
life, and never held an office of trust and profit during 


was 


18 


all that time. He is public-spirited, liberal, and gener- 
ous in all things; his hand and heart have ‘always been 
open to the demands and appeals of charity, and his 
purse has contributed largely and freely to the build- 
ing of churches, school-houses, and public edifices. 
Mr. Huff has never been a member of any secret soci- 
ety or organization of like character, but has been an 
honored and respected member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church since the year 1866, at which time he 
made a profession of religion, and ever since has been 
prominent and active in the affairs of his Church. In 
politics he is a stalwart Republican, being one of the 
charter members of the party and casting his first vote 
for President for Abraham Lincoln, in 1860. On the 
22d of September, 1859, he was married to Miss Caroline 
Andrews, daughter of W. K. Andrews, Esq., of Freder- 
icksburg, Indiana. ‘To this happy union were born four 
children, three boys and one girl—Miss Ada, a young 
lady of many accomplishments. Mr. Huff is justly con- 
sidered one of the foremost men of the county ; his well- 
known integrity and business ability have won him an 
enviable place in the affections and minds of those who 
know him best; his business house if a model of system 
and neatness; and his whole life is an exemplification 
of what honesty, goodness, and perseverance will give 
to those who follow those paths of life which always 
lead upward. 
+4006 — 


YATT, ELISHA, capitalist and farmer, of Wash- 
ington, Indiana, was born in Mason County, Ken- 
tucky, in the year 1809, and is a son of Thomas 
and Margaret (McTerren) Hyatt. She was of 

Trish descent, while his father was of German origin, 


and was known as an energetic, thrifty, and indus- 


trious farmer, and served as a volunteer in the War of 
1812. He was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, and 
with his parents settled near May’s Lick, in Kentucky, 
when quite a small boy. Upon his return from the War 
of 1812, after the ratification of peace, Mr. Hyatt re- 
mained in Kentucky, farming on rented ground, not 
being able to purchase. In 1823 he removed with his 
family, and settled in or near Washington, Daviess 
County, Indiana, and bought one hundred acres of im- 
proved land, for one thousand dollars, and forty acres 
of unimproved land adjoining, raising a sufficient quan- 
tity of grain the first season to carry them through the 
coming year. The father cut wood, and Elisha hauled 
it to town, receiving fifty cents per four-horse load. 
The family at this time consisted of seven children, four 
boys and three girls, who are all living with the excep- 
tion of one sister, who died in 1841. She had married 
Mr. Veale, and had two sons, one of whom, John, re- 
moved to California, while James is an extensive farmer 


and stock-raiser in Daviess County. When a young 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[2d Dist. 


man, Elisha Hyatt was very backward in his manner, 
lacking self-confidence; and he remained at home until 
he had attained the age of twenty-four years, devoting 
all his energy to the assistance of his father. He then 
hired as a flat-boat hand, at thirty dollars per month, to 
go to New Orleans, and on his return home had saved 
twelve dollars. This he lent to a neighbor at six per 
cent, and made another trip in the same capacity, being 
careful to save his earnings. This small beginning 
formed the corner-stone upon which he has built, adding 
little by little, until to-day he is reputed to be the 
wealthiest man in Daviess County, and, in fact, in that 
portion of the state. His father induced him to kill a 
few hogs he had to spare, and purchase a few more, and 
try his fortune as a trader. With seventy hogs loaded 
in a boat which was waiting for part of a load, he pro- 
ceeded down the river, and coasted along the Missis- 
sippi; but, finding this slow work, he proceeded to Bayou 
Lafourche, seventy miles above New Orleans, and at 
Tebedoreville sold out at a small profit. The next sea- 
son they packed about two hundred hogs and loaded 
a boat, adding corn and barrels of flour to fill out. 
Having made this trip with some profit, he helped 
his father to buy some more land adjoining the first pur- 
chase. The next spring they made another venture at a 
considerable profit, and, having now a capital of four hun- 
dred dollars, concluded to start a grocery-store in Wash- 
ington, the principal stock of which consisted in liquors. 
The following winter he made up a small boat load and 
went South, where he sold out. While there he pur- 
chased the remnant of a boat-load of bacon and hams 
of Thomas B, Graham, selling part of them at Port 
Gibson and the remainder at New Orleans, at a loss 
of all the profit realized on his own venture. He then 
returned to Washington, and, after paying expenses, 
having five hundred dollars left, purchased, in conjunc- 
tion with Mr. Graham, an old stock of dry-goods. They 
bought boots, shoes, hats, etc., at Louisville, running in 
debt fourteen thousand dollars, and opened a general 
store. They carried on an immense credit business, re- 
ceiving in exchange for goods all kinds of produce, 
which, as fast as they procured a boat-load, they shipped 
South. The credit of the firm was unlimited, and they 
continued in business until 1842, making a considerable 
amount of money and acquiring a vast amount of prop- 
erty. Upon the dissolution of the partnership, Mr. 
Hyatt carried on business on his own account for a year, 
and then took in a partner named Helphistone, under 
the firm name of Hyatt & Helphistone. This partner- 
ship continued for six years, after which Mr. Hyatt 
conducted the business alone. He was married, in 
December, 1839, to Mrs. Martha McJunkin, widow 
of Doctor Marion McJunkin, to whom seven children 
have been born. Four are now living. The oldest son, 
Thomas, and the second son, Theodore, volunteered in 


\ 
i 


a 
Ni 


te 


LIBRARY 
OR TRE gy 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


2d Dist.) 


the army of 1861. Thomas was wounded in the battle 
of Pittsburgh Landing, and died after reaching Evans- 
ville on his way back. Theodore returned home near 
the close of the war, and while gumming a saw was 
fatally injured by the bursting of an emery-wheel. 
Hiram Hyait, the third son, is a banker in Washing- 
ton, and a member of the firm of Hyatt, Levings & Co. 
Ile was born in Washington, Indiana, June 6, 1847, 
attended school at that place, and also at Vincennes and 
Louisville, and has always remained with his father. 
He was married, February 11, 1873, to Miss Emma Van 
Trees, a native of Washington, and daughter of Colonel 
Van Trees, one of the pioneers of Daviess County. In 
politics he sympathizes with the Republican party. He 
is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He is highly 
respected and esteemed, and is known all over this coun- 
try as an upright, honorable, and courteous gentleman. 
Richard, the fourth, and Elisha, the fifth son, are engaged 
in farming in the country. Of the daughters, Elizabeth 
is the wife of Isaac Parsons, of Vincennes; and Lydia is 
the wife of Mr. Rogers, the leading hardware merchant 
of Washington. Mr. Hyatt says that a great measure 
of his success in life must be attributed to his beloved 
wife, who was economical and industrious, always watch- 
ing her husband’s interests with jealous care, and one of 
his chief advisers. He has owned and built many steam- 
mills, steam and canal boats and barges, and has traded 
largely in land. He will this season plant and cultivate 
four thousand acres of corn, and has eight hundred 
acres of growing wheat. On White River, near Wash- 
ington, he has constructed an elevator for the handling 
of grain in large quantities, which is connected by a 
switch with the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. In 
Washington, and all over Daviess and adjoining counties, 
Mr. Hyatt is justly regarded as the man who has done 
more than any other towards developing the various in- 
dustries of the country. He is beloved and respected 
by every person in the community, as a gentleman of 
strict integrity; and his character stands above reproach. 


—<-g00@-<— 


ONES, CHARLES W., city treasurer of Vincennes, 
Indiana, was born October 18, 1842, being the son 
x, of Edwin M. and Susan (McCall) Jones. His 
‘<4) father was a Virginian. He removed to Knox 
County, Indiana, when young, and was there married. 
Ilis great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Christopher 


Wyant, was a very prominent man in the early days of 
Vincennes. He built the first jail in the county, and 
was the first county sheriff. He held many other prom- 
inent positions, and was also a large land-owner. Charles 
W. attended the common schools of the city, afterwards 
the Vincennes University, and finally entered the Flu- 


vanna Institute, in Fluvanna County, East Virginia. 
A—7 ; 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


I9 


During his last year at this school the institute was 
given up on account of the breaking out of the Rebell- 
ion, and he returned to Knox County, Indiana, going 
to work on his father’s farm. There he remained until 
1871, when he went to the city of Vincennes and en- 
gaged in the coal trade, which he is still carrying on. 
Subsequently, he added wood and ice interests to his 
business, and he is also operating in the grain trade. 
In 1873 he was appointed city clerk, and served the 
term. Upon the death of the city treasurer, in 1875, he 
was appointed to fill the vacancy. In the spring of the 
same year he was elected to the office, and was re- 
elected in 1877. In political matters Mr. Jones has al- 
ways acted with the Democracy, and he is regarded as 
one of the leading Democrats of the city. He was 
brought up a Methodist, but in early manhood became 
a Baptist, and is now a member of the First Baptist 
Church of Vincennes. He was married, October 18, 
1870, at Oakland, Nelson County, Virginia, to Mary C. 
Thomas, daughter of Captain George T. Thomas, a 
wealthy tobacco planter of Virginia. He is the father 
of two children, one boy and one girl. Although com- 
paratively a young man, he is regarded as one of the 
most useful in the city, and is noted for his genial man- 
ners. No young man in the city can count more true 
friends than Mr. Jones. 


—>-gote~<-—_—_ 


UDAH, SAMUEL, deceased, of Vincennes, Indi- 
ana, was born in New York City in 1798. He is 


father was a merchant, and was one of those who 
furnished General Washington with supplies during the 
terrible winter at Valley Forge. On account of his 
sympathy for the colonists the British, on their occupa- 
tion of New York City, ruined him in a financial point 
of view. The Judah family were among the warmest 
friends of the army, and did every thing in their power 
to make the Revolution a success. Mr. Judah’s mother 
was the daughter of the Mr. Hart who was an officer 
on the staff of Governor Allemand, of Canada, the 
Hart family having settled in Canada in very early 
days. Mr. Judah fitted for college in the schools of 
New York, and entered Rutgers College, New Bruns- 
wick, New Jersey, graduating in the summer of 1816, 
and immediately commenced the study of law. He was 
admitted to the bar in New Jersey, and in 1818 emigrated 
to the West, and located at Vincennes, Indiana, and 
July 15, 1819, was admitted to practice in the Supreme 
Court of the state, being one of the first attorneys 
whose names were enrolled by that court. Upon his 
arrival in Vincennes he began the labors of his profes- 
sion, which he followed all of his life. January 30, 
1840, he was admitted as a counselor in the Supreme 


20 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Court of Louisiana, and was at this time engaged with 
the Hon. Henry Clay in an important land case. He 
also was admitted to plead in many other states, and on 
January 13, 1851, became a member of the bar of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, then sitting at 
Washington, District of Columbia. He was at first a 
Democrat and afterwards a Whig. He was appointed 
United States attorney for the state of Indiana, was a 
member of the Legislature, and was also speaker of the 
Indiana House of Representatives He was married to 
Harriet Brandon, of Corydon, Indiana, daughter of A. 
Brandon, Indiana state printer, and postmaster at 
Corydon, by whom he had eleven children, of whom 
three sons and one daughter are now living. John M. 
is a practicing attorney of Indianapolis, and is fast win- 
ning his way to prominence; Noble B. is a practicing 
attorney of Chicago, and is a member of the law firm of 
Hitchcock, Dupee & Judah, and is fast acquiring dis- 
tinction in the profession, as the firm of which he is a 
member is the leading one of the city; Caroline mar- 
ried Doctor Mantle, of Vincennes; Catharine married 
General Lazarus Noble; and Alice married Frank Clark, 
Samuel B., the oldest son, 
is farming at Vincennes. Mr. Judah died April 24, 
1869; and in his death the city of Vincennes and the 
state of Indiana suffered an irreparable loss, as he was 
regarded as the most eminent jurist in the state. Asa 
citizen of Vincennes he was greatly beloved and ad- 
mired by the entire community. His home was noted 
as one of wealth, culture, refinement, and hospitality. 
His wife still survives him, and her old age is rendered 
pleasant by the great love of her children. 


’ manufacturer at Vincennes. 


—_~+>-9076 <-—_ 


4, Edwardsport, Knox County, Indiana, was born 
fl yin the same county, May 15, 1825. 


Ck 


4 EITH, BENJAMIN F., physician and surgeon, 
He is a son 


Kentucky to Knox County in 1814. His maternal 
grandfather was for some time a soldier in the war with 
the Indians, serving under General Wayne, known in 
history as ‘*Mad Anthony.” The early life of Doctor 
Keith was spent on his father’s farm, performing the 
severest manual labor of his time, clearing the forests 
and tilling the soil in summer and autumn, and attend- 
ing school for a few weeks in winter in a log-cabin. 
He very early in life determined to adopt the ‘healing 
art”? as his profession; and so, in 1849, he left the farm 
and went to Edwardsport, entering the office of Doctor 
J. T. Freeland, where he began a course of reading, 
which he continued with close application for two 
years, after which time he removed to the town of 
Jonesboro, Greene County, Indiana, and commenced the 
practice of medicine in partnership with Doctor Cul- 


GSt of John and Delilah Keith, who moved from | 


[2d Dist. 


bertson. The partnership continued for only a few 
months; but he still remained at Jonesboro until 1854, 
when he again moved to Robinson, Illinois, where, in 
partnership with Doctor William Watts, he practiced 
his profession for three years. He then entered Rush 
Medical College, where he graduated in 1858. 
diately after this he located at Edwardsport, where he has 
ever since lived. Doctor Keith has always avoided polit- 
ical incumbrances, never holding any office except trus- 
tee of his township for two terms.. He prefers to devote 
his time and attention to the requirements of his pro- 
fession and to the general search for knowledge. And 
that his investigations have been profitable, all can at- 
test who know him. Doctor Keith had little or no early 
intellectual training, yet at present he is one of the best- 
informed men on general topics to be found in the 
state, while in medical literature he stands far in ad- 
vance of the average practitioner. He is still devoted 
to his books, journals, magazines, and newspapers, and 
so keeps himself well up with the times in the knowl- 
edge of his art and in the current news of the day. In 
his profession none stand higher, and the counsels of 
few are sought more eagerly. Doctor Keith has always 
been a steadfast advocate of all moral, religious, and 
material growth and development, aiding in building 
churches and school-houses. He was long a member 
of the Baptist Church, and still clings to that faith. 
He joined the Independent Order of Odd-fellows in 
1854, but never belonged to any other secret organiza- 
zation. He was a Whig in the days of that party, 
casting his first presidential vote for Zachary Taylor 
in 1848. 
since the organization of the party. 
was to Miss Emily Culbertson, on the 6th of November, 
1849. He was soon deprived of this companion, and, on 
the 23d of August, 1860, was married to Mrs. Koons, 
his estimable and esteemed companion. Doctor Keith 
is the father of six children, five of whom are living, 
and are honored and respected for their intelligence 
and moral worth. Considering the inauspicious begin- 
ning of the life of Doctor Keith, it is proper to say 
that few men have equaled him in his achievements 


Imme- 


He is now and has always been a Republican 
His first marriage 


and successes. 
—-400-o — 


€(7 ERCHEVAL, SAMUEL EDWARD, attorney-at- 

‘\\ law, Washington, Daviess County, Indiana, was 
© A » born in Campbell County, Kentucky, December 

c 31, 1847. He is a son of Robert T. and Maria 
A. Kercheval, the former a native of Kentucky and the 
latter of Virginia. At an early age his parents moved 
to Grandview, Indiana, where his time was occupied in 
the common schools of the place and as a newsboy, 
selling papers, and in working in a tobacco factory. His 


father, Robert T. Kercheval, began life as a blacksmith, 
a - 


sy 


2d Dist.) 


pursuing that calling zealously for many years, and after- 
wards filled many official positions in Spencer County, 
Indiana. He was treasurer of his county two terms, 
from 1864 to 1868, and in October, 1868, he was elected 
to the General Assembly of the state of Indiana, as 
Representative, being a member of that body at the 
time of the ratification of the fifteenth amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States, and casting his vote 
in favor of such ratification. In 1870 he and a few 
other gentlemen, Samuel E. Kercheval being one, or- 
ganized the Rockport Banking Company, of which he 
was elected the cashier, a position he still holds. In 
1864 the subject of this sketch was employed as mail 
messenger on an Ohio River packet plying between 
Evansville and Cairo. When Samuel E. Kercheval was 
eighteen years of age his father removed from Grandview 
to Rockport, the county seat of Spencer County, where 
he still resides. At the age of seventeen Mr. Kercheval 
entered the county treasurer’s office as deputy treasurer, 
holding that situation four years, and at the same time 
was deputy auditor under Captain Samuel Laird. From 
December 26, 1868, to October 20, 1869, he was deputy 
sheriff under Clement A. Damerman. December 1, 1860, 
he returned to Grandview, and until September 1, 1871, 
he was engaged in manufacturing wagons, buggies, 
plows, and many other farm implements. This proved 
to be a prosperous and successful enterprise, and at the 
time was the chief business of the place, he having sey- 
eral men in his employment. Soon after the close of 
this business he again removed to Rockport, and until 
July, 1872, was engaged with the Rockport Banking 
Company as assistant cashier. On the 24th of July, 
1872, Mr. Kercheval began the publication of the Rock- 
port Republican Journal, of which he was the editor and 
proprietor. His natural fondness for politics found here 
an ample field for cultivation, and well did he improve 
the opportunity. His paper soon took rank among the 
leading weeklies of the state, as a faithful, true, and 
fearless advocate of the principles of the Republican 
party; and it was ‘the only paper in Southern Indiana 
which, in the years 1874, 1875, and 1876, boldly advo- 
cated the resumption of specie payments and the adop- 
tion of a hard-money currency as a standard of values. 
His fearless and outspoken course in these years won for 
him a high place in the counsels of his party, and this, 
with his known skill as an organizer and manager of cam- 
paigns, induced them to call him into service as the 
chairman of the county central committee during the 
campaigns of 1874 and 1876. He continued in charge 
of his paper till April, 1877, when he sold the office in 
order to enter the legal profession. Although young 
and inexperienced in the newspaper field, he was suc- 
cessful beyond the most sanguine expectations of him- 
self or his friends. As an imaginative, versatile, and 
witty writer he had few, if any, equals in the local 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


| Lee. 


21 


press of the state, and as a business manager he was 
From April 4, 1877, to January 1, 
1878, Mr. Kercheval was engaged settling up his busi- 
ness affairs preparatory to removing from Rockport. 
February 7, 1878, he removed to Washington, Indiana, 
his present home, and immediately thereafter formed a 
copartnership with William Armstrong for the practice 
of law, and is now junior member of the firm of Arm- 
In the campaign of 1878 he stood 


a decided success. 


strong & Kercheval. 
at the head of his party in Daviess County as leader 
and organizer, and, as an evidence of his skill and tact 
in this respect, it is only necessary to state that nearly 
the entire Republican ticket was elected by majorities 
ranging from one hundred and fifty-one to six hundred 
and ninety, and this, too, in a county which generally 
gives a Democratic majority of about three hundred. 
Mr. Kercheval joined the Independent Order of Odd- 
fellows, May 1, 1869. He is now, and ever has been, a 
steadfast member of the Republican party, being can- 
did, frank, and always outspoken, but never permitting 
his political affiliations to be a barrier to personal friend- 
ships. He is esteemed even by his most inveterate 
political opponents. October 20, 1869, he was married 
to Miss Cornelia Brown, his present estimable and intel- 
ligent lady, daughter of Samuel G. Brown, of Rockport, 
Indiana. He is the father of two children, both of 
whom are living. Mr. Kercheval is a gentleman of 
fine physical appearance, and has many warm personal 
friends. He has often been solicited to accept nomina- 
tions from his party for various offices, but has so far 
declined. Few men in Indiana stand higher in the 
counsels of his party than he, and none have better 
records for honesty and sterling integrity. His unfal- 
tering devotion to the principles of the Republican 
party is certainly destined to bring him into a position 
of prominence commensurate with his skill and judg- 
ment as a politician. 
—-o-§906-— 


C(G EE, CLEMENT, Washington, Daviess County, one 
Al? of the largest millers in that section of the state, 
So and one of Washington’s most successful business 
er men, was born in Lawrence County, Indiana, 
October 8, 1822. His parents were Joseph and Minnie 
He is a man who, without any peculiar or extraor- 
dinary advantages in early life, has, by his own energy, 
industry, and pluck, pushed himself to the front rank of 
men of his town and county, demonstrating the fact 
that steady industry, honor, and integrity bring their 
own reward. His education consisted of the ordinary 
schooling, which he made the most of, as he possessed 
an aptness for study. On leaving school at the age of 
seventeen he served an apprenticeship to the blacksmith’s 
trade, in which he continued, together with farming, for 


some fifteen years. In 1856 he added to his business 


22 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


that of a miller, and is still in that occupation. He 
has already accumulated a fair competence, and enjoys 
as a result of his labors a luxurious and happy home, 
where he is surrounded by his family, to whom he is much 
attached, being a man of domestic virtues. In religious 
views he is liberal. He is a Democrat in politics. 
May 22, 1880, he was nominated by the Democratic 
party for Representative to the House from Daviess 
County, a position that he is well qualified to fill. Mr. 
Lee is a man of good personal appearance, is pleasing 
in manner and address, and is an educated and courteous 
gentleman, honored and respected by all who know him. 
Ile was married, January 2, 1842, to Sarah Wells, 
daughter of C. Wells, Esq., a large farmer of Daviess 
County. They have a charming family, consisting of 
five daughters and one son. Mr. Lee is looked upon 


as one of the leading men of Daviess County. 


—+-$006-<— 
Ne 
Wy ASS, CAPTAIN ISAAC, proprietor of the Union 
| Depot Hotel, at Vincennes, Indiana, was born in 
Baltimore, Maryland, September 20, 1810, and 


was a son of John and Mary (Essies) Mass. His 


father was a master cedar cooper. 
est of nine children, and is the only one now living. 
Ilis oldest brother, Samuel, was, in 1833, president of the 
Maryland state Senate, and for many years was a member 


Isaac was the young- 


of the city council of Baltimore. He was a prominent 
Mason, and also served in the War of 1812, and was 
wounded at the battle of North Point, Baltimore. When 
Isaac was nine years of age he lost his mother. At the 
age of twelve he began the trade of coach trimmer, 
serving seven and a half years, and, after he had com- 
pleted. his time, was employed for six months in Balti- 
more and Newark, New Jersey. While at Newark he 
saw an advertisement in the papers for workmen to go 
to the City of Mexico, and in February, 1832, he sailed 
from New York in the ship ‘* Congress,” commanded by 
Captain Miner. He landed at Vera Cruz after a voyage 
of twenty-one days, and left for Mexico the day after 
the battle between Santa Anna and Bustamente, making 
the journey on horseback, after procuring a pass from 
Santa Anna through the lines of Bustamente. He 
worked at his trade for Don Manuel Escandon, who had 
a line of stages from Mexico to Vera Cruz. In Decem- 
ber, 1833, he returned to the United States, and, after 
visiting New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia, he 
spent a few months at his old home in Baltimore, when 
he again concluded to return to Mexico, Going over- 
land through the Western States, he stopped one night 
at Vincennes, Indiana, at the hotel of Colonel ohne Ge 
Clark, who also had a line of stages carrying the United 
States mail to Louisville, Kentucky. The colonel, learn- 
ing that he was a coach finisher, and having shops of 


[2d Dest. 


his own, prevailed upon him to stop over and finish two 
coaches he had on hand. 
Mass soon made many acquaintances, and at a ball given 
by Colonel Clark he became acquainted with Miss Em- 
eline McCutchen, whom he married October 14, 1835. 
Previous to this time he purchased the shops of Colonel 
Clark. 
was burned out. He was then appointed deputy sheriff 
of Knox County. In 1844 he was elected sheriff, and 
in 1846 was re-elected. Upon retiring from the office, 
in 1848, he opened a general store and also a pork- 
packing establishment, and sold out in 1852, having lost 
all he had on produce shipped to New Orleans. He 
built the first eleven miles of the Ohio and Mississippi 
Railroad from Vincennes east, and in 1854 erected the 


Being a Freemason, Captain 


He carried on the business until 1843, when he 


Star Flour-mills, at Vincennes, which he operated until 
they were burned out, in 1856. He then opened a gen- 
eral auction house, and continued in that business until 
the late war, when, in July, 1862, he recruited a com- 
pany for the 65th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Mounted 
Infantry, and was commissioned lieutenant. 
elected captain of the company in the same month. 
After serving one year in Kentucky on detached service, 
he became a part of General Schofield’s army corps, 
July 12, 1863, and participated in many engagements, 
notable among which was the taking of Knoxville, Ten- 
nessee. He resigned April 30, 1864, on account of ill- 
health, and was elected sutler of the 65th” Regiment 
Indiana Volunteers, but before he could get his goods 
to the regiment General Sherman had moved the army 
south, forbidding all sutlers to follow. General James 
B. Stedman, commanding at Chattanooga, granted him 
the privilege of disposing of his goods at wholesale. 
He then took charge of the government mess houses, 


He was 


and remained in charge until the military railroads were 
turned over, in December, 1865. January 1, 1866, he 
left Chattanooga and returned to Vincennes, and pur- 
chased the New York dry-goods and grocery store, 
which he sold out in a few months at a profit. He then 
bought the railroad eating-house at the crossing of the 
Ohio and Mississippi and Erie and Chicago Railroads, 
and was burned out in 1870. At that time, in company 
with his present partner, L. L. Watson, he built the 
Union Depot Hotel. He also assisted in putting up the 
new gas works, of which, having bought out the old 
gas company, he is president. Captain Mass did not 
have school advantages in his young days, but has, by 
his own energy, acquired a fair English education. He 
has furnished many contributions for the papers on the 
early history of Knox County, and also written several able 
articles on political economy, of which he is an earnest 
student. By his first wife he was the father of five 
children, one of whom, the wife of William S. Sterne, of 
Sedalia, Missouri, is now living. He was married to his 
present wife, Mary A. Thorn Raper, daughter of Hon. 


a 


2d Dist.] 


William Raper, of Vincennes, October 7, 1847. They 
have had seven children, of whom two sons and two 
daughters are now living. Samuel is a farmer, and 
Lewis B. lives in Vincennes. Mary E. is the wife of 
Eugene Johnson, who is bookkeeper for his father-in- 
law. Carrie is at home with her parents. Captain 
Mass was educated an* Episcopalian, but now attends 
the Presbyterian Church, of which his wife is a member. 
In politics he was a Whig, then a Know-Nothing, and 
then a Republican, but has become disgusted with par- 
ties, and now votes for the man best qualified to fill the 
position. Captain Mass isa whole-souled, genial gentle- 
man, and it is said by his friends, who are legion, that 
he is one of the most honorable and useful citizens of 
Vincennes. 
a epte-<— = 


EACHAM, ALFRED B., ex-commissioner of 
Indian affairs, was born in Orange County, In- 
diana, April 29, 1826. In 1841 his family emi- 
grated to Iowa, settling near Iowa City, where 
his father, Anderson Meacham, a substantial farmer, 
still resides. In 1845, Alfred aided in removing the Sac 
and Fox Indians to the reservation assigned them after 
the Black Hawk War. In 1850 he went to California in 
search of gold, returning in 1852 for the girl he left be- 
hind him, Miss Orpha Ferree, of Brighton, Iowa. For 
some years he followed mining with varying success, 
being sometimes on the revolving wheel of fortune, and 
again down low on its rim, but ever maintaining those 
elements of integrity, courage, and enterprise, inherited 
from a long line of Quaker and Methodist ancestors, 
which had taken vigorous root in his nature during the 
years of his youth, fostered by good counsel, virtuous 
example, and the admirable conditions incident to the 
life of a pioneer farmer’s son. He subsequently, in com- 
pany with his brother Harvey, located a ranche in the 
Blue Mountain region, erected a hotel, and built a toll 
road on the trail from Idaho to Oregon, which for years 
was the principal thoroughfare for stages, pack trains, 
and emigrants. This place is still known as Meacham’s 
Station, and it escaped pillage and destruction by the 
Bannock Indians during the war of 1877, through the 
respect those Indians had for its founder. He was a 
temperance man of the total abstinence type from boy- 
hood, and achieved fame as a temperance orator, mak- 

ing his first speech from the head of a whisky barrel in 
"a saloon in San Francisco, in 1850 or 1851. He took a 
ieading part in the organization of temperance societies 
and Sabbath-schools in that state. In politics he was 
first Whig, and then Republican, and always earnest and 
active. In 1868, and again in 1872, he was selected by 
his party to represent it as state elector, and in both 
those campaigns he made a thorough and able canvass, 
and in 1872 a successful one, achieving the honor and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


8 


having the pleasure of representing Oregon in the Elec- 
toral College, and casting the vote of that state for U.S. 
Grant. In 1869 he was appointed to the responsible 
office of superintendent of Indian affairs for the state of 
Oregon, which position he filled for almost four years, 
with characteristic ability, and with an earnest devotion 
to the best interests of both the Indians and the gov- 
ernment. During this time he prevented war with Cap- 
tain Jack by visiting him at the peril of his own life. 
He remained in council with him for three days, and 
finally secured his confidence and made a treaty, which 
was afterwards broken by the government through its 
agents, the result of which was the Modoc War of 
1872-73. At the earnest solicitation of Secretary Delano 
and President Grant, he accepted the chairmanship of a 
commission to the Modocs in the early part of 1873, and 
under instructions met General Canby at his headquar- 
ters, at Fairchild’s Ranche, twenty-five miles from the 
Modoc camp in the Lava Beds. His efforts to secure a 
treaty of peace were constantly rendered abortive by the 
action and movements of the army; and at the final 
council, the Indians, having lost all faith in the honor- 
able intentions of the government, and all patience 
under the wrongs they had suffered, and-were still suffer- 
ing, fired upon the commission, killing General Canby 
and Doctor Thomas, and lodging seven balls in Colonel 
Meacham’s body. They supposed him dead, as he was 
unconscious, and, as they claim, pulseless, but he sur- 
vived to write a history of the affair, and to spend the 
remainder of his providentially preserved life in expos- 
ing the wrongs, defending the rights, and pleading the 
claims, of the race at whose hands he suffered so much, 
When his death was reported, his political enemies said 
of him, ‘‘ Meacham was a man of strong will and posi- 
tive character.”” He made warm friends and bitter ene- 
mies. He has not fully recovered from his wounds, nor 
evercan. He has not had since, nor will he probably dur- 
ing his life have, an hour of perfect respile from pain. 
Yet he has since written a book, ‘*Wigwam and War- 
path,” another, ‘‘ Wi-ne-ma and Her People,” and a 
pamphlet, ‘‘Tragedy of the Lava Beds,” and is still at 
work. After two years of almost hopeless despair and 
physical and mental prostration, Providence, whose 
ways are past finding out, raised up for Colonel Meacham 
friends who were fitted by nature, education, and expe- 
rience to again cheat the grave and restore him to health 
and labor, in the persons of Doctors T. A. and M. 
Cora Bland. Of these noble-hearted Samaritans, Colonel 
Meacham says: 

“They have found me walking on the crumbling 
verge of the grave, half paralyzed, with brain congested, 
spirit. broken, helpless, hopeless, and friendless in a 
great city. They have fought death away from me, and 
by their united skill restored me to comparative health 


and hope, always declaring that I had a work to do, 
and that it was theirs to be co-workers. For two years 


24 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


these friends gave undivided time and professional skill, 
traveling, lecturing, and writing upon the Indian ques- 
tion, in order to restore me to manhood; never faltering 
in the belief that they were working for the Master in 
saving me to labor for God’s poor, despised children. If 
the seven hundred speeches I have made, and twenty 
numbers of the Couscal Five I have issued, have ac- 
complished any thing for the Indian, the Indian owes a 
great debt of gratitude to the doctors who saved me 
from death, and have stood by me through good and ill. 
But for them no Councel Fire would have ever been 
kindled in behalf of justice to a despised race.” 

This worthy tribute he pays them in the pages of his 
publication, the Council Fire, a paper issued to mcet the 
demand for a journal devoted to the Indian cause. And 
the Council Fire blazes to a good purpose in the capital 
of the nation, lighting up the dark phases of the Indian 
question, and warming the hearts of the oppressed red men 
in the wigwams of the far West. He is a member of the 
United States commission to the Utes. Their duties 
consist chiefly in selecting a home for those people, di- 
viding their lands in severalty, providing schools, etc. 
His appointment met with unanimous approval by the 
press. 

—>-$006-— 


OORE, DOCTOR JACKSON L., physician and 
surgeon, of Washington, Indiana, was born in 
Laurel County, Kentucky, January 16, 1833, and 
‘SY’ is a son of Uriah and Amanda (Sellers) Moore. 
His father, who was a farmer, emigrated from Kentucky 
to Indiana, and settled in Bedford in 1836. He is still 
living in that city, having retired from the active life 
of the farm. Jackson L. attended the common schools 
of the country, and acquired his medical education at 
the Louisville and the Evansville medical colleges. Grad- 
uating from the latter in the year 1866, he immediately 
began the labors of his profession at Elliotsville, Indiana, 
where he remained one year. He then removed to Da- 
viess County, where he has been in continual practice 
for the last twenty-two years. The Doctor is a member, 
and is at this time one of the censors, of the Daviess 
County Medical Society. He is also a member of the 
State and of the Tri-state Medical Societies, the latter 
of which has honored him with the position of one of 
its vice-presidents. He was married, May 12, 1853, to 
Jane S. Dye, daughter of a farmer of Lawrence County, 
Five children have been born to them. He 
was brought up in the Methodist Episcopal faith, and 
is now a member of a Church of that denomination. 
On the breaking out of the Rebellion, Doctor Moore 
raised a company, which was attached to the 27th Reg- 
iment Indiana Volunteers, and received a commission 
from Governor Morton as a captain. He proceeded with 
the regiment to Washington City, but in March, 1862, 
was compelled to resign, on account of ill-health. Re- 
turning to Washington, Indiana, he resumed his prac- 


Indiana. 


[2d Dist. 


tice, which has become large, he being considered one 
of the leading physicians of Daviess County. He has 
been closely identified with the growth and prosperity 
of the city of his adoption, and is highly respected and 
esteemed as one of its useful citizens. In political mat- 
ters he has always been an active Republican. 


—+>- $00@-+-—_ 


QQ cINTIRE, DOCTOR ELIHU S., editor and pro- 
J prietor of the Mitchell Commercial, of Mitchell, 
SEAN Indiana, was born at Marietta, Ohio, January 9, 
GR 1832, being a son of Charles and Isabelle (Daily) 
McIntire. The McIntire family were refugees from 
Treland, and, emigrating to the United States during tlre 
Revolution of 1798, settled in Pennsylvania. The Dailys 
were one of the old families of Virginia. Doctor Mc- 
Intire’s father, who is still living, was a farmer, and on 
leaving Pennsylvania settled at Marietta, Ohio. In the 
year 1816 he purchased and brought into the state the 
first steam-engine ever used in Indiana. It was oper- 
ated in a corn-mill at New Harmony. Elihu S. was 
reared on the farm, assisting his father, and attending 
the schools of Spencer County whenever possible, his 
father having removed te that county in 1839. At the 
age of nineteen he taught school, having, by close at- 
tention to study, fitted himself for that occupation. The 
money earned in this way he expended in advancing 
his medical studies, which he began in 1853 with Doc- 
tor De Bruler, of Rockport, Indiana. In 1855 he 
entered the Iowa State University, and graduated from 
the medical department in 1857, immediately com. 
mencing practice at Dallas City, Illinois. Remaining 
here until 1862, he was appointed first assistant sur- 
geon of the 78th Illinois Regiment Volunteer Infantry, 
which position, together with an appointment in hos- 
pital service as contract surgeon, he retained until 
1863, when, owing to ill-health, he was compelled to 
resign. On leaving his place in the army, he im- 
mediately began his labors in the county of Craw- 
ford, Indiana, and, in the year 1865, removed to 
Mitchell, where he has ever since resided, and where 
he continued discharging the duties of his profession 
until 1872, Having a suitable opportunity, he then 
purchased the Mitchell Commerczal, editing and pub- 
lishing that newspaper ever since in the interests of 
the Republican party, to which he is warmly attached. 
It is an able and progressive newspaper. He was 
united in marriage, on the twelfth day of November, 
1856, to Miss Margaret Bowers, the daughter of a 
farmer, of Spencer County, Indiana. Six children 
have been born to them. Doctor McIntire has been 
solicitous to do every thing that was possible for 
him to do to promote the best interests of the 
place of his residence, and has been closely identified 


2d Dist.) 


with the growth and prosperity of the town of Mitchell 
and of Lawrence County, having done all in his power, 
by the liberal use of his paper, to forward her many. 
He is regarded as a useful citizen, and es- 
He is a member 


interests. 
teemed as a clever, genial gentleman. 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 


—>-Fote-— 


EWLAND, DOCTOR BENJAMIN, of Bedford, 
(Gi Indiana, was born in Jackson County, Indiana, 
ail July 19, 1821. He is a son of William and Susan 
OQ C. (Harrell) Newland. His father, who was a 
farmer, emigrated to Indiana from North Carolina in 
1816. Until arriving at the age of twelve the lad Ben- 
jamin remained at home, going to school during the win- 
ter months. At that age he was appointed mail-carrier 
between Orleans and Indianapolis, and Bedford and 
Versailles. “For three years, both winter and summer, 
he followed this occupation on horseback. In the win- 
ter of 1839-40 he cut and split ten thousand rails, and 
in the winter of 1840-41 taught school. In January 1, 
1842, he entered the office of Doctor Elijah Newland, 
and began the study of medicine. In 1844-45, he at- 
tended lectures in the Medical Department of the Univer- 
sity of Louisville. April 7, 1845, he opened an office in 
Bedford, Indiana, and practiced his profession during 
1845-46, when he returned to Louisville, where he grad- 
uated in 1847. He then returned to Bedford, where he 
has continued his practice ever since. In 1849 he was 
commissioned captain of cavalry in the state militia, and 
in 1852 was appointed brigadier-general of militia. In 
the same year he was elected to the state Senate to rep- 
resent Lawrence County. During 1854-55 he was pres- 
ident of the Bedford branch of the Bank of the state, 
and in 1856 was a delegate to the National Democratic 
Convention at Cincinnati which nominated James Bu- 
chanan. Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion the 
Doctor tendered his services to. Governor Morton, and 
was commissioned surgeon of the 22d Regiment Indiana 
Volunteers, and with the regiment was ordered to Mis- 
souri. September 6, 1861, he was appointed medical 
director of the central district of Missouri, with head- 
quarters at Jefferson City, where he established a hos- 
pital of four thousand beds. On General Fremont’s 
removal he was assigned to duty with the division of 
. General Jefferson C. Davis, in the Army of the South, 
Curtis’s army corps, and one week before the battle of 
Pea Ridge was assigned as medical director of his divis- 
ion, and had charge during that memorable battle. At 
Iuka, Mississippi, the Doctor also established a hospital 
of five thousand beds, and, when the division was or- 
dered to Kentucky, asked to be relieved, and came 
north with it to Louisville. He was present at the 
battle of Perryville, Kentucky, and remained on the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


25 


field one week after the fight, directing the care of the 
wounded. On November 4, 1862, the Doctor resigned 
his commission, and returned to Bedford, where he re- 
sumed his practice. In 1876 he was a delegate to the 
National Democratic Convention at St. Louis, which 
nominated Tilden for the presidency. The Doctor has 
been chairman of the county central committee many 
times, and has been a delegate in many of the party 
conventions in county and state. He was made a Mason 
in 1849, filling many prominent positions, and taking all 
the degrees to Knight Templar. For twenty years he 
has been a member of the American Medical Society, 
and for twenty-seven years a member of the State Med- 
ical Society, a member of the Lawrence County Medical 
Society, and also a member of the Mitchell District 
Medical Society. In 1879 he was president of the State 
Medical Society, and at the close of the session deliv- 
ered the annual address, which was highly commended 
by the press, and received with unbounded satisfaction 
by the society. The Doctor was married, December 
28, 1846, to Louisa A. Curry, of Salem, Indiana, to 
whom four daughters have been born—Helen, Laura, 
Mary, and Kate—the youngest the wife of Hon. James 
Willard. The Doctor has, by close attention to the 
wants of the public, and by hard study, succeeded in 
becoming the leading physician and surgeon of the 
county, and enjoys the most lucrative practice of any 
of the physicians in this section. He is a genial, court- 
eous gentleman, a respected and useful citizen, and is 
closely identified with the growth and prosperity of 
Bedford and Lawrence County. 


> G00 


ORVELL, HORACE V., M. D., of Bloomfield, 
Greene County, Indiana, was born in Lawrence 
County, Indiana, July 20, 1839. He is the son 
of Ralph G. Norvell, M. D., and Amanda H. 
Norvell. He attended the common school of Spring- 
ville, Lawrence County, until his eighteenth year, when 
he went to Bloomfield and entered the dry-goods store 
of E. West as clerk. He remained in that capacity a 
few months and then engaged in the stove and tin- 
ware business, which he continued some eight months. 
In 1860 he sold out and entered the county treasurer’s 
office as a deputy under John B. Stropes, then treasurer 
of Greene County. He was engaged in the drug-store 
of John B. Stropes as a partner from 1861 to 1866, 
when he took a course of lectures at the Ohio Medical 
College, at Cincinnati. He then returned to Bloomfield 
and commenced the practice of medicine as a partner 
with Doctor J. W. Gray. At the expiration of a year 
the partnership was dissolved and Doctor Norvell con- 
tinued to practice his profession alone. In 1869 he was 
appointed United States examining surgeon for Greene 


™) 
Af 


26 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


County, and in the same year was elected chairman of 
the Democratic central committee of Greene County. 
He held the office of county physician for a number of 
years. In 1874 he received the Democratic nomination 
for county treasurer, and after a hotly contested canvass 
received his election by a flattering majority. In 1876 
he was re-elected to the same office by the largest ma- 
jority ever received by any man in the county, holding 
the office from September 7, 1875, to September 7, 
1879, and making the most popular officer ever hold- 
ing official position in the county. In 1878 he was 
elected a member of the Democratic state central com- 
mittee, an office which he still holds. Doctor Norvell 
has always been a prominent and public-spirited citizen, 
lending his aid to every progressive enterprise. He is 
genial and popular with all classes, and is well and 
favorably known all over the entire state. He is a mem- 
ber of the Free and Accepted Masons, Independent 
Order of Odd-fellows, Knights of Pythias, and a Royal 
Arch Mason. He is not a member of any Church, but 
is orthodox in his belief. He has always been a Demo- 
crat, having occupied a prominent position in the de- 
liberations of his party. He was married to Miss 
Emma Smydth, daughter of Doctor W. C. Smydth, of 
Worthington, Indiana, October 25, 1871. He is the 
father of two sons—Ralph N. and Max Norvell. Doc- 
tor Norvell possesses an imposing personal appearance, 
and is justly considered one of Greene County’s first 
citizens. 
—+-6906-o— 


ff 
re. 


|\GDON, JAMES W., attorney-at-law, of Washing- 
+f ton, Indiana, was born October 6, 1846, at Mil- 
ford, Kentucky, his parents being John and Fran- 
ces (Threlkeld) Ogdon. His father was a merchant 
and tobacco dealer. His ancestry on his grandmother 
Ogdon’s side were men of prominence in political af- 
fairs in Kentucky, one of them having been the Gov- 
ernor of the state and a Representative in Congress. 
The family were originally from Virginia, and emigrated 
to Kentucky when it was a vast wilderness. James W. 
attended the common schools in Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
also assisted his father. In 1866 he entered the Agricul- 
tural and Mechanical College at Lexington, Kentucky. 
Leaving it in 1869, he spent the summer of that year 
in handling tobacco at Milford, Kentucky. In the fall 
he entered the Law Department of the Michigan Uni- 
versity at Ann Arbor, from which he graduated in the 
spring of 1871. He then went to Little Rock, Arkan- 
sas, and remained a short time looking over the coun- 
try, with the view of practicing law at that point, but 
in June of that year he returned east and settled in 
Washington, Indiana. There he began the practice of 
his profession, forming a partnership with Judge Jesse 
W. Burton. After this had been continued three years 


[2d Dist. 


it was dissolved by Judge Burton’s removal from Wash- 
ington, and since that time Mr. Ogdon has practiced 
alone. He is engaged in nearly all the prominent cases 
in the county, and is to-day acknowledged to be the 
leading criminal lawyer at the Daviess County bar. In 
the fall of 1878 he defended Peter L. Stevenson, of Da- 
viess County, for the murder of Newton Dodd, near 
Flora, Illinois, and succeeded, by his skill and an elo- 
quent appeal to the jury, in securing his acquittal. In 
political matters he is an active Democrat, and is at this 
time the nominee of that party for mayor of Washing- 
ton. He was married, November 30, 1876, to Miss 
Emma Wilson, daughter of William Wilson, of Wash- 
ington, Indiana, but was so unfortunate as to lose his 
wife in the April following—four months and twenty- 
one days after marriage. Although quite a young man, 
he is fast winning his way to a position of prominence 
as a lawyer. As a citizen he is highly respected and 
esteemed. He is known all over the country as an hon- 
orable, courteous, genial gentleman. 


—>- $0060 — 


NEAL, JOHN H., attorney-at-law, Washington, 
‘/ Indiana, was born in Newberry District, South 
Carolina, October 30, 1838, being the son of 
Henry M. and Elizabeth (Edmundson) O’Neal. 
The O’Neal family were among the early settlers of that 
state, having gone there in the year 1730, and they 
have been represented in Congress. The Hon. John 
O’Neal, of Columbus, Ohio, is a member of the family. 
The Edmundsons were wealthy planters in the same 
state. His father and mother died of fever when he 
was but five years of age, and during the same summer 
his grandfather, a resident of Indiana, visited South 
Carolina and took him to live with him in Indiana. 
There he lived and worked on the farm until arriving 
at the age of eighteen, at which time he entered the 
State University at Bloomington, Indiana. Graduating 
in 1862, he immediately entered the law office of Hon, 
William Mock, Terre Haute, and began the study of 
law. In the fall of the same year he entered Michigan 
University, and graduated in the law department in the 
spring of 1864. In June he opened an office in Wash- 
ington and began the practice of his profession. Previ- 
ous to this, in the fall of 1866, he was elected to repre- 
sent Daviess County in the Legislature, serving one 
term, and refusing a renomination. In 1873 he was ap- 
pointed prosecuting attorney, and elected to that po- 
sition in 1874. In 1876 he resigned, and has since been 
wholly engaged in law. He is regarded among the 
legal fraternity of Daviess County as a lawyer of 
marked ability, and one who is fast winning his way to 
a prominent position in the state. In political matters 
he is a thorough, active, and earnest Democrat, and a 


2d Dist.) 


man who can be relied upon by the Democracy of the 
county. He was brought up in the Methodist Episco- 
pal faith. July 5, 1866, he married Miss Alice A. Bar- 
ton, daughter of Doctor Barton, one of the leading 
physicians of Washington. They have had six children, 
all of whom are living. Mr. O’Neal is closely identified 
with the growth and prosperity of Washington, and is 
regarded as one of her most useful and trustworthy 
citizens. 
—~<-400%-o— 


‘ \IERCE, JUDGE J. T., attorney-at-law, of Wash- 
ington, Indiana, was born in Russell County, 
Kentucky, October 30, 1835, and is a son of Doc- 

GC’ tor J. S. and Eveline (Moore) Pierce. THis father, 
a graduate of the Philadelphia Medical College, was 
one of the most prominent physicians of Kentucky. He 
represented Wayne and Russell Counties in the Ken- 
tucky Legislature when Henry Clay was a member of 
that body, and in 1854 was the Sixth District nominee 
of the Whig party for Congress, in opposition to Judge 

Elliott. The contest was a spirited and memorable one, 

but the doctor was defeated, owing chiefly to the known 

fact of his entertaining views favorable to a gradual 
emancipation of slaves. J. T. Pierce graduated at 

Center College in the class of 1856, and entered the 

office of Major Tanner, of Richmond, Kentucky, as a 

law student, where a fellow-student Governor 

McCreery, of Kentucky. In.1859 he was admitted to 

practice, and in the spring of 1860 removed to Indiana, 

settling at Washington, where he entered upon the 
duties of his profession. In October, 1864, he was 
elected prosecuting attorney of Knox, Daviess, Pike, 
and Martin Counties, and was re-elected in 1866. In 

October, 1867, he was elected to complete the unexpired 

term of Judge Clements for the second judicial Court 

of Common Pleas. In October, 1868, he was chosen 
for a full term, and again in 1872. William P. Pierce, 

a younger brother, was commissioned captain of Com- 

pany A, 11th Kentucky Cavalry, and during the fight 

between Burnside and Longstreet, near Knoxville, 
while in the advance in charge of five men, he sur- 
prised and captured a Georgia major with sixteen men, 
and turned them over to his superior officers as prison- 
ers of war. On the very next day he was himself cap- 
tured and sent as a prisoner to Libby, where he 
remained six months, and, being released on a special 
exchange, was with General Stoneman when that officer 
and his command were captured. He induced his col- 
onel (Adams) to obtain permission of the general to cut 
their way out, which they did successfully. The cap- 
tain was with General Sherman in his raids around At- 

Janta and on the march to the sea. He was also pres- 

ent at the capture of Morgan’s command in Ohio, and 

was honorably mentioned in the official reports. He is 


was 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


27 


now a resident of the state of Georgia, and is a 
clerk in the appointment bureau of the Postmaster- 
general at Washington City. Captain Pierce, in his 
first race for Congress, in October, 1868, attempted 
to make an address in Camilla, Georgia, but was 
there met by an armed band of men, who, vowing 
that no Republican should ever speak there, fired 
upon him and his party. Several of the balls pen- 
etrated his clothing, and he escaped only by rare 
coolness and courage. Fifty persons were there killed 
and many more wounded of both sexes. The ‘Ca- 
milla Massacre” inflamed the whole country, and es- 
pecially South-western Georgia. Immediately on the 
receipt of the news, his brother, J. P. Pierce, hastened 
to the spot, and, by his timely presence and efforts, es- 
pecially in a speech made from the balcony of the hotel, 
where he was serenaded by the Democracy, succeeded, 
in a great degree, in allaying the excitement and deadly 
animosity existing between the parties and races. 
Governor Bramlette, of Kentucky, nobly volunteered a 
letter to the executive of Georgia, saying: ‘‘I have 
known Captain Pierce from his infancy, and no young 
man bears a better character than he. His father, Doc- 
tor Pierce, was, during many years of his life, my inti- 
mate personal friend, an eminent physician, and one of 
our first-class citizens.” Judge Pierce is now residing 
with his mother, in Washington, Indiana, and is still 
engaged in the practice of his profession. 
the leading attorneys at the Daviess County bar, and, 
during his judgeship, filled the position acceptably, 
being known as a moral, honest, and upright judge, 
whose integrity was beyond question. He is to-day an 
honored citizen. In 1858 he was selected by his college 
to deliver to the graduates their society diplomas, and 
to address them, in conjunction with Ton. John C. 
Breckinridge, on Commencement. 


He is one of 


+ $40 


\EARSON, JUDGE E. D., of Bedford, Indiana, 
was born in Springville, Lawrence County, Indi- 
ana, December 18, 1829. He is a son of Eliph- 
alet and Amelia (Lemon) Pearson. His father 
was a native of Massachusetts, emigrating to Indiana in 
1819, and locating at Jeffersonville. He was the owner 
of the ferry between Jeffersonville and Louisville, which 
in 1828 he exchanged for a stock of merchandise, and, 
removing to Lawrence County, began mercantile life. 
He was one of the well known and respected citizens 
of Lawrence County. He died in 1863. The Judge, 
his son, attended the common schools of the country, 
and at the age of seventeen entered the State University 


at Bloomington, Indiana, where he graduated in the law 
department in 1850. In the same year he was admitted 
to the bar, under Judges Otto and McDonald, and im- 


28 


mediately began the practice of his profession at the 
town of Bedford, in Lawrence County, and at the same 
time was editing the White River Standard, an enter- 
prise which he continued for three years. He was 
then elected prosecuting attorney of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, and served one term, with credit to himself 
and to the entire satisfaction of the bar and the citizens. 
In 1873 he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court, and 
is at this time occupying that position. As a dispenser 
of justice Judge Pearson is widely and favorably known; 
and it is a noted fact that the affairs of minor heirs are 
guarded with jealous care, no gap being left open by 
which an entrance could be made to impair their inter- 
ests or impoverish them, and in all his rulings and 
charges to the jury he is conspicuous as an honest, 
upright, and impartial man. He was married, Oc- 
tober, 1853, to Miss Caroline T. Parker, daughter of 
Woodbridge Parker, of Salem, Indiana, to whom ten 
children have been born. The Judge is regarded as 
one of the leading Republicans of Lawrence County, 
and has often been chairman of the county central com- 
mittee. He is a member of no religious denomination, 
but is one of the most highly respected and best known 
of the citizens of Lawrence County. He possesses a 
genial and courteous disposition. 


gato — 
Ae 
peg DOCTOR JAMES C., physician and 
45 surgeon, of Mitchell, Indiana, was born at Paoli, 
om Orange County, Indiana, February 27, 1824, and 
6G is'a son of James and Margaret Ann (True- 
blood) Pearson. His father, a native of Virginia, was 
a merchant, and his mother was from North Carolina. 
Ilis means of education were limited, as he was com- 
pelled to leave school when he was fourteen. At that 
time he bound himself for two years to a cabinet-maker, 
and at the expiration of this period worked for his em- 
ployer at journeyman’s wages, supporting himself and 
his mother out of his earnings. At the age of seven- 
teen years, through the persuasion of Doctor Tolbert 
and other physicians of Louisville, Kentucky, he was 
induced to study medicine with his brother, Doctor 
Charles D. Pearson; and during the winter of 1845 and 
1846 he attended a course of lectures at the University of 
Louisville. 


Pearson is a member of the American Medical, Tri-state 
Medical, State Medical, and Mitchell District Medical As- 
sociations. He first began the practice of medicine with 


his brother, at Livonia, Washington County, Indiana, | 


and afterwards settled at Orleans, in Orange County, 
where he remained many years, being constantly en- 
gaged in the labors of his profession. In 1874 he re- 
moved to Mitchell, Indiana, where he has since re- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


In March, 1853, he graduated at the Central | 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Indianapolis. Doctor , 


[2d Dist. 


sided. In 1853 he was married to Miss Elizabeth M. 
Thornton, daughter of Major Henry P. Thornton, 
| of Bedford, Indiana, to whom six children have been 
born. All are still living. The oldest daughter is mar- 
| ried to Doctor M. P. Tolliver, a practicing physician of 
Louisville, Illinois. Doctor Pearson was brought up in 
the Presbyterian faith, to which he still adheres, and 
was for a long time a deacon in the Church. In pol- 
itics he is a Republican. By strict attention to business, 
Doctor Pearson has built up an extensive practice, and 
is regarded as one of the leading physicians of the . 
county. He is highly respected and beloved as a citizen. 


—-4006-— 
° 

\WURCELL, ROYAL E., editor and proprietor of 
the Vincennes daily and weekly Western Sun, was 
born at Purcell Station, Knox County, Indiana, 
July 26, 1849, and was a son of William and So- 
phia (Beckes) Purcell. His father, a farmer, died when 
the subject of this sketch was only one year old. The 
uncles of Mr. Purcell’s mother were prominent men in 
the early history of this part of the state, one of them 
having been a captain in the Black Hawk War; his 
grandfather Purcell was a soldier in the Revolution. 


His means of education during his early years were 
confined to the common schools, which he attended, 
spending the summer months in working on the farm. 
The loss of his father compelled him early to make his 
In the spring of 1870 he entered Hanover 
College, from which he graduated in 1874, having pro- 
cured means necessary to defray his expenses by teach- 
ing country schools, whenever and wherever he could 
obtain them. In 1874 he removed to Vincennes, and 
began the study of law; and, in October, 1876, pur- 
chased the Western Sun office, of Vincennes, Indiana. 
He is still publishing this paper, having established in 
connection with the weekly edition the daily Vincennes 
Sun. In politics he isa Democrat. He is now chair- 
man of the central committee, and is regarded as one 
of the leaders of the Democracy of the county. He 
has never been a candidate for political preferment, and 
has no aspirations for it. Mr. Purcell is liked in the 
city of his adoption as a genial and upright gentleman, 
and has the esteem of the entire community. He was 
reared a Presbyterian, and is now a member of that de- 
nomination, 


own way. 


+400 — 


ch 


G 

&{) OSE, CAPTAIN ELIHU E., attorney and coun- 
i selor at law, Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana, 

Fal was born in Washington County, East Tennessee, 

433° on May 25, 1825. He isason of John and Mary 

Rose, of Scotch lineage, his father being a native of 

| North Carolina, and his mother of Tennessee. For 


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ad Dist.) 


many years his father was engaged in the Embree Iron 
Works, of Tennessee, but in 1832 removed to Indiana 
and settled on a farm in Clay County, near the town 
of Bowling Green. Elihu received an academic educa- 
tion in the schools at Bowling Green, at the same time 
performing severe labor on a farm during the summer 
season, and in autumn working in a brick-yard, or team- 
ing with oxen, in the management of which he took great 
pride, far excelling the average teamster. His especial 
amusement when a boy consisted in catching the salmon 
and perch from the waters of the classic Eel River, 
which ran near by the old homestead of the Rose 
family. Aside from this interesting pastime, Captain 
Rose took little part in the sports of the period. His 
love for home and good books was a characteristic trait, 
and was the beginning of a course of self-culture which 
continued through life. At the age of twenty years he 
entered the law office of his brother, Allen T. Rose, and 
began a course of lawreading. This, however, continued 
but a few months, when he left the office and went to 
Grand Prairie, Illinois, where he was employed for a 
time in buying and herding cattle. In the winter of 
1846 he returned to Bowling Green, and began reading 
medicine with Doctor William Shields. This continued 
until May of the following year. In 1848 Mr. Rose was 
admitted to the Clay County bar, at Bowling Green. In 
the same year he became a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and at once began studying for the 
ministry, at the same time engaging in teaching school. 
In 1850 he entered the ministry, and began preaching 
in his Church. Subsequently, he preached frequently at 
the following places in Indiana, viz.: Bloomfield, Sulli- 
van, Carlisle, Paoli, and Worthington. In 1860 he 
located at Bloomfield, his present home, and entered for 
the second time upon the practice of law. At the same 
time he edited and published the Greene County Z2mes, 
the Democratic organ of the county, in which he strongly 
advocated the election of Stephen A. Douglas for the 
presidency. He continued in this capacity until the be- 
ginning of the Civil War, when, in June, 1861, he en- 
tered the Union army as captain of Battery C, Ist Indiana 
Heavy Artillery, enlisting for three years. He then re- 
turned to Bloomfield and resumed the practice of law. 
The principal erigagements in which Captain Rose partic- 
ipated were those of Teche, Louisiana; Donaldsonville, 
siege at Port Hudson, and numerous other smaller en- 
gagements and skirmishes. Inj 1868 Captain Rose was 
‘chosen presidential elector in his congressional district, 
and was subsequently a member of the Electoral College 
which elected General Grant President of the United 
States. He joined the Freeand Accepted Masons in 1851, 
and Independent Order of Odd-fellows in 1854, and has 
been a faithful member of nearly all the temperance so- 
cieties which have been organized in the state. Captain 
Rose was brought up a Calvinist, but joined the Method- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


29 


ist Episcopal Church, as before stated, and has ever 
since been a steadfast member of that organization. After 
the beginning of the Civil War, and up to the candidacy 
of Horace Greeley for the presidency, he was a consistent 
member of the Republican party, but at that time he 
united with the Liberals who nominated Mr. Greeley, 
and subsequently held no further allegiance to the Re- 
publican party. He is now a member of the National 
Greenback party. He believes in the abolishment of 
the national banks, and the substitution of treasury 
notes, and the unlimited coinage of silver money. Cap- 
tain Rose was married, August 19, 1847, to Ellen Elliott, 
daughter of William Elliott, of Bloomington, Indiana, 
who is at present his interesting and amiable companion. 
He is the father of seven children, five of whom are 
living. Captain Rose is now the senior member of the 
law firm of Rose & Short, his partner, Mr. Emerson 
Short, being his son-in-law, a talented and promising 
young lawyer. Asa lawyer, Captain Rose has a repu- 
tation equaled by few attorneys in the state. He has 
the largest criminal practice of any man in his county. 
In the manipulation of his cases he is adroit and skilled, 
always on the alert for mistakes or blunders of the op- 
posing counsel. He has both application and wit, and 
is remarkably successful wherever employed. He is 
full of fun and humor, and always has a pleasant word 
for every body. These qualities, and his high sense of 
honor, have endeared him to a large circle of friends, 
in whose esteem he holds a high place. 


—+-40%%<— 


| 


CHREEDER, CHARLES C., postmaster, Hunting- 
sf\) burg, Dubois County, one of the most prominent, 
Bs active, and zealous Republican politicians of the 
% county, was born in the city of Berlin, Germany, 
January 19, 1847. His parents were Charles Frederick 
and Mary (Arensmann) Schreeder. His father, by trade 
a machinist, was one of those who took part in the 
famous German revolution of 1848, headed by Robert 
Blum and Carl Schurz, and was in one of those terrible 
street fights when the Crown Prince of Prussia (now 
Emperor of Germany) opened on them with grape and 
canister, causing ninety-one of the revolutionists to fall. 
He died, August 6, 1849, of cholera, which was then 
epidemic, leaving his wife and one child, the subject 
of our sketch, who was then an infant. In 1852 Mrs. 
Schreeder, with her infant boy, emigrated to the United 
States, leaving Germany April 3d, on the sailing vessel 
*¢Adolphena.”? She arrived at Baltimore August 16, 
after a long and tedious voyage, during which she was 
dangerously ill, her life being almost despaired of at one 
time. To make such a.voyage with her infant, after 
the loss of her husband, and without a friend, was most 
trying. Having relatives at Huntingburg, Indiana, she 


30 


immediately went to them, reaching this place on the Ist 
of September, after another most tedious: journey by 
boat and rail. She took up her residence with her 
sister, the wife of Gerhart Niehaus, one of the earliest 
settlers of the county, and one of its prominent men. 
Mrs. Schreeder, on September 7, 1853, was married 
to the Rev. Frederick Wiethaup, a well-known minister 
of the German Evangelical Church, and the family re- 
moved to Evansville, where Mr. Wiethaup had charge 
of a congregation, and continued there until 1855, when 
they removed to Newville, Wells County. The early 
educational advantages of Charles C. Schreeder were 
exceedingly meager, the country at the time being but 
sparsely settled. The only schools were small log build- 
ings, and the year’s term consisted of about six weeks. 
His step-father being a minister, they were constantly 
removing from one place to another. He, however, 
embraced all the opportunities within his reach. In 
1861, his step-father being appointed to a Church at 
Dayton, Ohio, he was there afforded a much better op- 
portunity, and attended a term at the public school. 
From 1853, the time of his going to Evansville, Indiana, 
till 1860, when he located at Dayton, Ohio, they were 
at the following places: Evansville, till the spring of 
1855; Newville, Wells County, until the fall of 1857; 
near Fulton, Fulton County, fall of 1858, when® they 
removed to Bremen, Marshall County. In the fall of 
1859 he left his parents, and returned for one year to 
Huntingburg. In the fall of 1860 he rejoined his parents 
at East Germantown, Wayne County, and in the fall of 
1861 they were at Dayton, Ohio. During these eight 
years he worked on various farms during the summer, but 
spending his winters at home, and making the best use 
of his time and such books as were within his reach. 
At Dayton, in the spring of 1863, at the age of sixteen, 
he enlisted in Company D, of the 2d Ohio Infantry, 
and was shortly after engaged with his regiment in 
chasing Morgan and quelling the noted Vallandigham 
riot at Dayton. After six months’ service, he was dis- 
charged, and returned to Evansville, where he endeav- 
ored to learn the saddler’s trade, but his health did not 
permit. He left Evansville in the spring of 1864, and 
returned to Huntingburg. January 25 he again en- 
listed, this time at Huntingburg, in Company E, 143d 
Indiana Volunteers, under command of the late gallant 
Colonel J. F. Grill. While in the service he at different 
times performed various officers’ duty, though never 
holding a commission. When they reached Tullahoma, 
Tennessee, he was detached from his company, and, 
upon the special selection of General M. A. M. Dudley, 
placed on his body-guard in the capacity of an orderly, 
a position he occupied until the division was ordered to 
Clarksville, Tennessee, where the company was mounted, 
and engaged in scouting, and ridding that section of 
guerrillas. While thus engaged, on the 17th of August, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[2d Dest. 


he was severely wounded, disabling him for life, although 
the wound was not at the time considered very serious. 
It afterward developed into a life-long disability. He 
remained with his regiment, however, and did train- 
guard duty between Clarksville and Bowling Green. 
October 17 he, with the regiment, was mustered out, 
and proceeded to Indianapolis, where on the 26th of 
October, they were discharged. He then returned home 
to Huntingburg, arriving on the 2d of November, where 
he continued through the winter to recruit his health, 
In the spring of 1866 
he went to learn the wagon-maker’s trade, and remained 
with his employer until he retired from business, a year 
after, when he removed to Evansville, and was employed 
in the wagon and carriage factory of C. Decker & Sons. 
April 12, 1868, he was married to Miss Louisa C. Beh- 
rens, daughter of Herman Behrens, one of the first set- 
tlers, and, the first merchant in Huntingburg. They 
have one little daughter. During the summer of 1868, 
in the Grant and Seymour political campaign, there be- 
ing a battalion of veterans formed at Evansville, he 
was elected lieutenant-colonel, a just honor, he being at 
the time only twenty-one years of age. In the winter of 
1868 his wound became so troublesome as to unfit him for 
manual Jabor, and he was consequently forced to aban- 
don his occupation. Through the influence and interest 
of his former employers he secured a position in January, 
1869, as deputy real estate appraiser of Vanderburg 
County, and served in that capacity with credit to him- 
self and profit to the county. While thus engaged his 
wound became so bad that he was obliged to abandon 
his position, and was confined to his bed for several 
months. January 1, 1870, he was appointed deputy 
assessor by the late William Warren, senior, then as- 
sessor of Pigeon Township. In April, 1870, he received 
the Republican nomination for city assessor of Evans- 
ville, and was elected by a large majority. In October, 
1870, he was chosen township assessor, holding that office 
until April 1872, when he was elected to the office of 
city clerk, at the age of twenty-five, being the young- 
est man who ever held that important place. It is the 
second official position in a city of some forty thousand 
inhabitants. This is a conclusive evidence of the trust 
and confidence reposed in him for ability, capacity, and 
honesty. He had become one of the prominent politi- 
cians of Evansville, but his health again failing cut 
short, for the time being, all his political aspirations. 
In politics he is an ardent Republican, and has always 
taken an active and earnest part in the interests of his 
party. Tle was occupied during the remainder of his 
residence in Evansville as assignee of various estates. 
In the fall of 1876, on account of his aged parents, he 
being their only child, he returned to Iluntingburg, 
where he exerted considerable political influence, the 
county being the strongest proportionate Democratic 


which was very much broken. 


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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


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2d Dist.) 
county in the state, and he being a Republican. Since 
then the party has been gaining in strength and num- 
bers, and it now includes many of the best and most 
prominent citizens. May 28, 1877, he was commissioned 
by the President postmaster of Huntingburg, which po- 
sition he most ably fills. In taking charge of the office 
he thoroughly revolutionized the system, and has in his 
short term of service doubled the amount of mail, and 
considerably increased and extended mail facilities, hav- 
ing one of the best arranged and ordered offices in the 
state, thereby winning for himself many friends, re- 
gardless of differences in political faith. He is chair- 
man of the county central committee and delegate to 
the Republican state convention, and is recognized as 
one of. the leaders of the Republican party in his sec- 
tion of the state. Few men of his age have attained 
so much prominence or exert as much influence. Al- 
though a stanch party man, yet he never allows his 
political opinions to run to bitterness, and hence is pop- 
ular with both sides. The physical disabilities from 
which he suffers, which have compelled him to aban- 
don manual labor, have caused him to give considerable 
time and attention to his education, which had been 
much neglected in his earlier life, and his industry has 
enabled him to gain much that he needed. He is most 
truly what may be termed a ‘‘self-made” as well as 
‘¢representative man.’? He has a good personal appear- 
ance, and is an intelligent and courteous gentleman. 


—>- FOE 


HERROD, JAMES H., M. D., of Paoli, Indiana, 
was born near Lexington, Virginia, June 18, 1816, 
5 and is the eldest son of Robert W. and Jane 
(Holden) Sherrod. His father was a farmer and 
school-teacher, and served as a soldier in the War of 
1812; and his grandfathers, on both sides, were soldiers 
in the Revolutionary War. His early life was spent on 
the farm and in attending school at Lexington. In 1835 
he entered the state university at Charlottesville, Vir- 
ginia, and graduated in the spring of 1845 from the 
medical department. During this time he spent several 
years in practice in Rockbridge County, Virginia. In 
1849 he moved to the West, stopping at Paoli, Orange 
County, Indiana, to visit his brother. He was induced 
to remain all winter with his sister, while his brother 
attended a session of the Legislature, and in the spring 
had built up so good a practice that he decided to make 
that place his home. He continued to practice his pro- 
fession until 1870, when he opened a drug-store, and 
partially retired, having at this time the most extensive 
practice of any physician in the county. He was mar- 
ried, February 29, 1854, to Elizabeth Rigmy, daughter 
of a wealthy farmer of Orange County. They had one 
son living, William F., who, having begun the study of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF (NDIANA. 


31 


medicine, is now a clerk in his father’s store. Mrs. 
Sherrod died May 1, 1867; and the Doctor was married 
to his present wife, Miss Maggie Scott, daughter of an 
Orange County farmer, October 26, 1870. By her he had 
one daughter; Maud I. He was reared in the Method- 
ist Episcopal faith, and in political matters is a stanch 
and trustworthy Democrat. Doctor Sherrod is well and 
favorably known in Southern Indiana, and his home is 
noted for its elegance and refinement. His hospitality 
is unbounded, and he is regarded truly as a gentleman 
of the old Virginia school. He has, in various ways, 
done much to develop the farming interests of the 
county, and towards the building up of the town of 
Paoli, and no man stands higher in the esteem of her 
citizens than Doctor Sherrod. 


_ 0H 


IMONSON, ALFRED, merchant, Edwardsport, 

Knox County, Indiana, was born in that county 
and state, October 1, 1815. His early life was one 
%? of continued privation and hardship. He worked 
unceasingly at various kinds of manual labor, but was 
more especially employed in spinning cotton, under the 
direction and for the benefit of his mother. When 
about the age of sixteen he was employed by the neigh- 
bors during harvest, at a compensation of seven or eight 
dollars per month, returning to the spinning-wheel in 
unfavorable weather. It will naturally be inferred that 
under such circumstances as the above’ there was little 
or no opportunity for attending school. In fact, young 
Simonson enjoyed but two or three weeks of schooling, 
which was in a rude log school-house. By the strictest 
economy he was daily saving from his meager wages, 
and at the age of twenty-two was enabled to purchase a 
team. Soon afterward he rented a farm from Nathan 
Bascum, in Daviess County, and began life’s battle for 
himself. This was the initial step to a prosperous and 
successful career. At the close of the first season he 
traded his team for lumber, with which he built a flat- 
boat for the transportation of grain to New Orleans. 
After loading his boat he succeeded in effecting a prof- 
itable sale to parties at Washington, Indiana. Imme- 
diately after this transaction he purchased a tract of 
land in Daviess County, to which he removed with his 
newly-made wife. Mr. Simonson cultivated this land 
with great industry and economy for four years, being 
also interested in boat-building on White River, during 
the winter and spring, Early in 1846 he removed to 
Edwardsport and engaged in mercantile pursuits, at 
first occupying as a salesroom a very unpretentious one- 
story frame building, whose dimensious were sixteen by 
eighteen feet. As a merchant he has since continued, 
and until 1860 carried on in addition boat-building and 
pork-packing. He was also engaged in loading flat- 


32 


boats for the markets of the sunny South. He made 
many profitable trips to the lower Mississippi River 
towns. His first experience on the stream was as a 
hand at low wages in the employ of John Cawood. In 
1848 he formed a partnership with Francis P. Bradley, 
which continued for two years. Since 1870 he has 
been associated with his son, Jefferson G. Simonson. 
Mr. Simonson never held a public office excepting that 
of trustee of Steel Township, Daviess County, during 
one term, although often strongly solicited to do so. 
He joined Charity Lodge, No. 30, Free and Accepted 
Masons, at Washington, Indiana, in 1848, and is still an 
honored member of that benevolent fraternity. He 
is the treasurer of Edwardsport Lodge, No. 427, and 
was one of its charter members. He has always been 
a steadfast member of the Democratic party. In mat- 
ters of religion he holds to the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian faith, though he is not a member of any Church. 
He contributes liberally to all alike. He is a man of 
great public spirit, always taking a prominent part in 


every movement calculated to advance the moral, relig- 


jous, or material prosperity of his town and county. He 
was the prime mover in organizing and building the 
His sympathy for the 
poor and lowly is great, and his acts of charity are 
innumerable. In matters of business he maintains the 
most rigid standard of honor; his word being univer- 
sally regarded as equivalent to his bond. As a result 
of his industry and perseverance, he is now the pos- 
sessor of a large landed estate, free from incumbrance, 
and a handsome brick store containing a large stock of 
goods. November 11, 1841, he was married-to Miss 
Sarah Perkins, daughter of Reuben Perkins, who still 
He is the father of ten children, eight of 
whom are living. 


graded school of Edwardsport. 


survives. 
—>-400-<— 


(% MITH, DOCTOR HUBBARD M., physician and 
) surgeon, of Vincennes, Indiana, was born in Win- 
; chester, Kentucky, September 6, 1820. His father, 
Willis R. Smith, was appointed a lieutenant in the 
army, and settled at Winchester, Kentucky, where he 
became acquainted with and married Elizabeth W. Tay- 
lor, daughter of Hubbard Taylor, senior, who came out 
to Kentucky from Virginia with General Knox. They 
were on a surveying expedition, and settled in Clark 
County, then a wilderness, about the year 1780. His 
father and mother are descended from some of the best 
families of Virginia and Kentucky, numbering among 
them the following named presidents: Washington, Mad- 
ison, and Taylor. His father, after resigning his po- 
sition as lieutenant, settled in Winchester and engaged 
in mercantile pursuits; and when, at the close of the 
War of 1812, the great monetary crash came on, he 
had a large stock of goods on hand and three stores. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[2d Dest. 


Owing to the sudden and great fall in prices, he became 
financially ruined. Following this disaster’ his health 
became impaired, and he remained an invalid up to his 
death. In 1850 he removed to Missouri, where he died, 
his consort surviving him until 1868. The subject of 
this sketch, owing to the misfortunes of his father, was 
unable to attend college. He received the rudiments 
of his education in the country schools of his neighbor- 
hood, which he attended in winter, laboring on the farm 
during the summer months. When he arrived at the 
age of fourteen, seeing the struggles of his father to 
support a family of ten children, he voluntarily left his 
home to seek a maintenance by his own exertion. He 
apprenticed himself to James Woodward, in Winchester, 
who was engaged in the saddlery business, remaining 
with him until he sold out his establishment. He after- 
wards worked at his trade until about the age of twenty, 
using such spare time as he had in study and reading, 
when his fondness for learning and the necessity for 
maintenance induced him to engage in teaching, and 
finally in the study of medicine. After reading a year 
or two he attended the Medical Department of Transyl- 
vania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, after which 
he engaged in the practice of medicine at Warsaw, 
Kentucky, for eighteen months. During this time he 
was married to Miss Nannie W. Pendleton, youngest 
daughter of the late General Edmund Pendleton, of 
Clark County, Kentucky. At this time the Doctor, 
feeling the want of greater proficiency in his profession, 
attended the Starling Medical College, at Columbus, 
Ohio, where he took his degree early in 1848. In May, 
1849, he removed to Vincennes, Indiana, where he has 
been engaged in the practice of medicine almost con- 
tinually ever since. Ip 1858 he purchased the Vin- 
cennes Gazette, and conducted it as a daily for about 
six months; but, finding it unremunerative, he dis- 
continued the daily issue, continuing the weekly 
and until 1861, when he was ap- 
pointed postmaster at Vincennes, Indiana, by Presi- 
dent Lincoln. At the expiration of his term he re- 
ceived a reappointment, which he held until May, 
1869, when, upon the accession of the administration of 
General Grant, he was rotated out of office. A vast 
majority of the citizens desired his retention, but he 
had already held the office two terms, and, the soldier 
element becoming clamorous, the President yielded to 
the pressure, and the Doctor failed in a reappointment. 
He had for the preceding eight years given little atten- 
tion to his profession, but he now resumed its practice, 
and has steadily gained upon his competitors until to-day 
he enjoys the largest business of any physician in Knox 
County. Having a literary taste, Doctor Smith found 
time amid his arduous duties to cultivate his love for 
poetry, and for many years contributed articles to the 
leading magazines and newspapers of the East and West. 


semi-weekly 


2d Dist.) 


At one time he was a regular contributor to the Ladzes’ 
Louisville Journal, Philadelphia 
etc. His earlier productions 


National Magazine, 
Saturday Courier, etc., 
were given to the press under the om de plume of Ulric, 


but his later communications appear in his own name. - 


Doctor Smith holds the honorable position of member 
of the board of trustees of Vincennes University, and 
trustee of the Presbyterian Church of Vincennes. He 
is also a member of the State Medical Society, the Tri- 
state Medical Society of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, 
and of the American Medical Association. 
tributed various articles to medical journals of the West. 
He is the father of six children, four sons and two 
daughters. The eldest son for the last five years has 
been a clerk in the War Department, and has just re- 
ceived an appointment as consul and commercial agent 
for the United States at Carthagena, Columbia, South 
America. The second son is a clerk in the War De- 
partment; the third is a student at Hanover College, 
in Indiana; the fourth, a boy of eighteen, is a member 
His eldest 
daughter attended school at the Vincennes University, 
and at College Hill, Ohio, and the younger is a grad- 
uate of the Vincennes University. For the last three 
years Doctor Smith has been the surgeon and pension 
officer at this point. He is regarded as one of the 
most intelligent gentlemen of the city, and, although 
he came to Vincennes an entire stranger and almost 
penniless, yet, by gentlemanly bearing and strict atten- 
tion to business, he has acquired an enviable reputation 
in the city of his adoption, and no man stands higher 
in the estimation of the community. 


Tle has con- 


of the senior class at Vincennes University. 


+490 — 


MITH, DOCTOR WILLIAM Z., physician and 


> burg, Washington County, Indiana, January 11, 
1838, his parents having been William .H. and 
Margaret M. (Elliott) Smith. He assisted his father on 
the farm until he was eighteen, being unable at that age 
to read or write. Upon leaving home he began to study, 
and entered the Hardingsburg school, working for his 
board, clothing, and tuition. After remaining two years 
he taught for a time, and in 1857 entered the Asbury 
University, at Greencastle, where he spent a portion of 
three years, keeping up with his classes by private study 
‘while he was away teaching. During this time, in the 
winter and spring of 1857 and 1858, he also attended 
the course of lectures at the Eclectic Medical Institute 
of Cincinnati. In 1860 he returned to Greencastle and 
made a special study of Latin; and when the war broke 
out he enlisted, November 16, 1861, as a private in the 
49th Infantry. He was afterwards appointed hospital 
steward, was soon commissioned assistant surgeon, and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


surgeon, of Shoals, Indiana, was born at Hardings-. 


5) 


finally rose to the rank of surgeon of the regiment, serv, 
ing until June, 1864. He then resigned, returned home, 
and commenced the practice of his profession at Shoals, 
where he has since resided. In 1870 and 1871 he at- 
tended the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, and 
graduated in the spring of the latter year. He was 
married, August 28, 1864, to Charlotte M. Sholtz, 
daughter of a wealthy farmer of Martin County, by 
whom he has had two children. His daughter, twelve 
years of age, is her father’s pride, standing at the head of 
her classes at school, and being also a natural musician. 
In political matters Doctor Smith is a stanch and active 
Republican. He was reared in the Baptist faith. He 
is highly respected as a citizen, and regarded as one of 
the leading physicians of Martin County, where he is 
well known as a clever, genial gentleman. 
holding the position of United States pension surgeon, 
and is also a frequent contributor to the different med- 
ical journals of the country. 


He is now 


—-2-900-2— 


C MITH, CAPTAIN SAMUEL M., merchant, of 
of) Washington, Indiana, was born January 30, 1836, 
@ five miles east of Washington, Daviess County, 
» Indiana, and is a son of John and Rebecca (Cahill) 
Smith. His father was a farmer, and came to this 
county in 1815, being one of the early settlers. When 
Samuel was four years of age he lost his mother, and 
three years after his father died. From that time he 
was brought up by his grandfather, at Maysville, Daviess 
County. -His means for obtaining an education were 
limited, having been confined to a few years’ attendance 
at a winter school. At the age of fifteen he went to 
learn the blacksmith’s trade with his uncle, Wilson Wy- 
koff, intending to remain until he was twenty-one. 
Finding him a hard task-master, however, he left at the 
expiration of two years. He then engaged to work for 
William Trantor at twelve dollars a month; but before 
he reached his twentieth year his wages were increased 
to fifty dollars a month, and at the age of twenty-one 
he had accumulated six hundred dollars in cash. He 
then began business for himself, and continued it until 
the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he raised a 
company and was elected second lieutenant. Being too 
late for the three months’ service, the company was at- 
tached to the 24th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and 
soon after he was promoted to first lieutenant. The fol- 
lowing letter, written by his old colonel, gives a good 
idea of his military service: 
‘OrvEANS, INDIANA, February 26, 1877. 

“Hon. O. P. Morton, Washington, D. C. 

‘‘FTonored Strv-—Permit me to trespass upon your valu- 
able time for a few moments in order to call your atten- 


tion to our common friend, Captain Samuel M. Smith, 
who is now presénting himself to your favorable notice 


34 


for the first time, and asking for the appointment as 
postmaster at Washington. Captain Smith was an of- 
ficer in Company D, 24th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, 
during the entire service of three years. He re-enlisted 
with the veterans, and when the 24th and 67th were 
consolidated he was still retained in the service as one 
of the most valued officers of his regiment. During the 
entire service he suffered no man or officer to go before 
or beyond him in the strict performance of duty, and 
kept his company during the whole time up to the 
work, both in drill, discipline, and efficiency. He was 
severely wounded at the battle of Shiloh, and in the 
memorable battle of Champion Hills, where the 24th 
lost so heavily, he bore himself like a brave officer and 
soldier, and in this engagement was again wounded. I 
can say that in all the important marches, battles, and 
skirmishes he was always with his command doing his 
duty. In fact I do not know of any line officer of my 
regiment that contributed more time and labor in our 
cause than Captain Smith. When the last roll was 
called dissolving the organization of that grand old reg- 
iment, Captain Smith was still retained as one of her 
best officers. and was mustered into the battalion of vet- 
erans and recruits, and served with the same until mili- 
tary service was no longer required. As a good and 
skillful officer he received his discharge and returned to 
his home. Since then he has evinced and maintained 
upon all occasions his.loyalty to the government, never 
flinching, never faltering upon any occasion when his 
services were demanded or sacrifices required in order 
that the true interests of our country might be sustained. 
Since the close of the war he has occupied a prominence 
among the Republicans that is hardly ever awarded to 
those of the do-nothing kind. He has spent his money 
and time freely. He was appointed a delegate to the 
Cincinnati Convention, and there showed, as he has at 
all times, that he is a man fit to be trusted. It is not 
often I thrust myself into your presence, and seldom ask 
for favors, but in this instance I beg that you will give 
the Captain’s claims your favorable consideration. He 
is honest, capable, and well qualified, and as a Union 
man he is as true as steel, and will not compromise his 
fellows or friends in any way. I know him as a soldier, 
officer, and citizen, and can cheerfully recommend him 
for the position to which he now aspires. We live in 
the benighted Blue Jeans district, and we had in the 
last campaign to contend with fearful odds, but this did 
not deter us from doing a good and faithful work. 
Captain Smith worked night and day for success in the 
late gubernatorial campaign, and on this account de- 
serves something at the hands of those for whom he so 
faithfully labored. Pardon me for thus writing so long 
a letter, and ever keep in mind that I am still, as ever, 
with you and all others in upholding the right and con- 
demning the wrong. 
«Yours respectfully, Wiel ao Pion ivan 


At the battle of Grand Prairie, Arkansas, Captain 
Smith led the advance, and was complimented in the off- 
cial reports for gallantry. At the storming of Fort Blakely, 
he, in command of two companies, led the advance, and 
was the second man inside the fort. On another occa- 
sion, when the regiment was going down the Mississippi 
on Admiral Porter’s flag-ship, General Grant being 
aboard, a rebel scout was seen watching the movement 
of the vessel. The general requested Colonel .Spicely 
to detail a man to seize the spy, and Captain Smith, be- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[2d Dist. 


ing selected, succeeded in effecting his capture and 
bringing him aboard. While lying at Helena, the Cap- 
tain was detailed to carry dispatches to General Sher- 
man, and participated in the engagement at Chickasaw 
Bluff. He was present at the surrender of Kirby Smith, 
at Galveston. He was appointed provost-marshal, and 
organized the custom-house, post-office, and Freedmen’s 
Bureau at that place. General Kent, upon relieving him 
of this position, to be mustered out with his regiment, 
says: 

‘It affords me great pleasure to commend you for 
the prompt, industrious, and faithful manner that has 
characterized your official course while on duty here. 
It has given me full satisfaction.” 

The regiment was mustered out December Io, 1865, 
and January 17, following, he formed a partnership in 
the hardware trade with William Trantor. January I, 
1878, he bought out his partner’s interest, and entered 
into a business alliance with an old war comrade, the 
firm name being Smith & Carnahan. He was married, 
February 15, 1864, to Miss Sarah J. Solomon, who died 
February 17, 1868. On the thirtieth day of November, 
1876, he married Miss Dora Trantor, a niece of his for- 
mer partner. Captain Smith is noted for his energy and 
industry. In his early youth he started out with the de- 
termination of making life a success, and his position in 
society and standing among the mercantile community 
are proof that he has not failed) He has been closely 
identified with the growth and prosperity of Washing- 
ton, has done much to advance her interests, and is re- 
garded as an upright, honorable citizen. Ile is known 
far and near as a genial, courteous gentleman. Captain 
Smith is a leader in the Republican party. He has often 
presided over county conventions, and has been chair- 
man of the central committee of that party. 


—2-0th-o— 


yD 


> PINK, JAMES C., insurance agent, of Washington, 
i) Indiana, was born in Daviess County, Indiana, De- 
& cember 24, 1824. He is the second son of Francis 

?) X. and Susan (Cooper) Spink. His father was a 
farmer, and one of the pioneers of the county, having 
emigrated from Kentucky in 1822. He attended the 
common schools in the winter months and assisted his 
father on the farm during the summer months until 
1849, when he was employed as a civil engineer on the 
Wabash and Erie Canal, having acquired his knowledge 
of engineering by studying at night and on rainy days 
while at home. After remaining in this position until 
1852, he was employed by the Evansville and Craw- 
fordsville Railroad Company in the same capacity. In 
1855 he built a flour-mill on the Wabash and Erie Ca- 
nal, near Washington. Shortly after, he sold out, and, 
in connection with Stephen D. Wright, built a steam 


2d Dist.) 


flour-mill in Washington. They added a foundry and 
machine shop, and a general store, and also built a 
woolen factory, all of which they carried on from 1860 
until 1876, at which time Mr. Spink retired from the 
business. In 1876 he opened an insurance office, and is 
still engaged in that business. In political matters he 
sympathizes with the Democratic party, and in religion 
is an adherent of the Church of Rome. In October, 
1862, he was married to Elizabeth Wright, a native of 
Pennsylvania, by whom he has one son, now living. 
Washington, Indiana, is greatly indebted to the untir- 
ing industry and energy of Mr. Spink, who is the 
founder of the many industries of the city. He was one 
of the originators of the now extensive coal operations 
which have made the place known all over the state. 
He is a gentleman of manners and ability. 


—>-4006-<— 


TUCKER, JAMES F., proprietor of the Paoli 
sf) Flour and Woolen Mills, was born in Harrison 
x County, Indiana, March 20, 1831, and is the second 
son of David W. and Anne Stucker. His father 
is a minister of the Methodist Church, and is the oldest 
living minister of that denomination in the state of In- 
diana, having occupied the pulpit for more than sixty 
years. His means of education were very limited in his 
early years, but after he was grown he acquired, by his 
own energy and industry, an education sufficient to en- 
able him to teach; and the money obtained this way was 
spent in attending the seminary at Corydon, Indiana, 
where he remained nearly two years. Previous to this 
period he had served his time at the carpenter’s trade. 
In 1858 he purchased a farm in Harrison County, and 


carried it on until the breaking out of the Rebellion, in. 


1861, when he enlisted as a private in Company K, 
23d Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was 
promoted time after time, until he became orderly-ser- 
geant of the company, and, at the fall of Vicksburg, 
was promoted to the captaincy over the lieutenants, be- 
ing mustered in as such in August, 1863. He remained 
in active service, participating in all the battles of the 
Seventeenth Army Corps, until July, 1865, when the army 
was disbanded. On returning. home he sold his farm, 
and purchased an interest with Frank King in the Blue 
River Mills, in Washington County, Indiana, and has 
ever since been in business with Mr. King, under the 
firm name of King & Stucker. In 1866 they purchased 
the Paoli Mills, which they have since operated. Mr. 
Stucker is also engaged in farming. In 1870 he was 
elected sheriff of Orange County, and in the fall of 1878 
was chosen to represent Orange and Crawford Counties 
in the Legislature, being elected by a large majority, 
while the rest of the ticket was defeated. He was a mem- 


ber of the Committee on County and Township Business, | 


A—8 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


35 


chairman of the Committee on Roads, and a member of 
several special committees, one of which was on the in- 
vestigation of the attorney-general’s office. March 19, 
1870, he was married to Jane Jordan, daughter of a 
farmer. They have had four children, none of whom 
are living. He holds to the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in faith, and in politics is an uncompromising Democrat, 
and a party leader in this portion of the country. He 
employs a large number of hands in his business, 
and has assisted very materially in developing the in- 
dustries of the county. He is utfiversally respected as 
an honorable, upright citizen and a gentleman. 


—~-400-<— 

Kc TUCKER, DAVID F., auditor of Orange County, 
of) was born in Harrison County, Indiana, January 8, 
D5 1848, and was the youngest son of David W. and 
©) Anne (Lister) Stucker. His father was born in Frank- 
lin County, Kentucky, in 1802. He moved to Harrison 
County, Indiana, in 1810, joined the Church of the 
United Brethren in 1819, and in 1824 was licensed to 
preach. He traveled on the Washington circuit, in 
Ohio, until 1825; on the Cincinnati circuit in 1825 and 
1826; in 1827 on the Corydon circuit, in Indiana; in 
1828 on the Flat Rock circuit. In 1829 he joined the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1833 he entered its 
ministry, being assigned to the Corydon circuit; in 
1834 the Bradford circuit, in 1835 Paoli and Orleans, 
in 1836 Roan mission, and in 1837 Boonsyville circuit. 
In 1838 he ceased to travel, and purchased a farm in 
Harrison County, where he resided until 1844. He 
then removed to a farm on the Blue River, near Freder- 
icksburg, and in 1860 went to New Albany. His grand- 
father was born in North Carolina, near the Yadkin 
River, March 15, 1773, and was killed by the Indians 
in their attack upon Bryant’s Station, Kentucky. David 
F. in his early youth lost his mother, and, when he 
was twelve years of age, his father married again. He 
then TIeft home, and from this period until he was 
twenty-one his life was a very checkered one. He 
spent a portion of his time on farms as a common hand, 
and worked at all the odd jobs he could pick up. For 
nearly three years he lived in the city of Louisville, where 
he learned the carpenter’s trade. In the winter of 1870 
and the fall of 1871 he attended a select school—Or- 
leans Academy—near Paoli, and the next winter him- 
self gave instruction. From that time until 1876 he 
went to a school in the spring, taught during the win- 
ter, and worked in the Paoli Woolen Mills during the 
summer months; also, attending the Paoli normal 
school and high school. In the fall of 1876 he was 
elected auditor of Orange County, for a term of four 
years, which position he filled with credit to himself 
and to the satisfaction of the citizens of the county. 


36 


He was married on the seventeenth day of October, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


1878, to Miss Nancy B. Walker, of Flora, Illinois, : 
daughter of William S. Walker, a merchant of that | 


place. 
Episcopal Church. His death occurred in August, 
1879. He was much esteemed and respected as an 
honest, upright, genial gentleman. 


—-4a0@-o— 
@ TROPES, WILIMAM POSTON, editor and attor- 
Gil \) ney-at-law, was born in Montezuma, Parke County, 
3 Indiana, March 21, 1832. He is the son of Adam 
and Penelope Stropes. 
French descent, was a native of East Tennessee ; and his 
mother, of English extraction, was born in the state of 
New York. Mr. Stropes received the benefit of a com- 
mon school education, but his early habits and tastes 
were always of a literary character, and all the leisure 
moments of his youth were employed in reading instruc- 
tive books and papers. In his fifteenth year he entered 
the United States army, then serving in Mexico, as 
waiter-boy to his father, who was first lieutenant in 
Company E, of the 2d Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. 
He remained in this service until September, 1846, when 
he returned home, and in 1849 began a mercantile life 
as a clerk in the store of Mason & Stropes, which place 
he held until 1856, when he began business for himself. 
In 1857 he formed a partnership with his brother, which 
continued for six years, when Mr. Stropes retired, after 
thirteen years’ continuous service as a merchant. In 
1860 he became the proprietor of a hotel, in which ca- 
pacity he continued until 1867, when, having received 
the Democratic nomination for county auditor, he ac- 
cepted the candidacy, but was defeated by forty-two 
He returned to his former business after this 


votes. 
brief experience in politics, and catered to the public in 
the capacity of a landlord until the year 1873, when he 
purchased the office and good-will of the Bloomfield 
Democrat, and began a successful editorial career, which 
yet continues. In 1874 he again received the Demo- 
cratic nomination for county auditor, and after a hotly 
contested canvass was elected by a majority of one hun- 
dred and fifteen votes. He held this office from No- 
vember, 1875, to November, 1879. In 1878, being a 
candidate for re-election, he suffered defeat by a small 
Mr. Stropes joined the Bloomfield Lodge, 
No. 84, Free and Accepted Masons, in 1853, in which 
society he held the office of secretary several terms. He 
has no particular religious belief. He was brought up 
under the influence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
but is inclined to a liberal view in such matters. Mr. 
Stropes has always been a Democrat, casting his first 
presidential vote for James Buchanan, in 1856, and has 
been prominent and foremost in the councils of his 


majority. 


Mrs. Stucker is a member of the Methodist | 


' party. 


[2d Dist. 


His position as an editor, and his experience in 
politics, give him a perfect knowledge of the inner 
On the tenth day of June, 
1856, Mr. Stropes was married to Miss Sarah E. Talbott, 


affairs of a political canvass. 


the oldest daughter of James Talbott, junior, of Green- 


His father, of German and | 


castle, Indiana. They have had eight children, six of 
Mr. 
Stropes has always been liberal and public-spirited in 
his life, giving generously to every thing tending to im- 
prove and build up the country and community. His 
life has been a busy one, and the different enterprises in 
which he has been engaged have all received the stamp 
of his energy and progressive spirit. 
holds a high place in the community in which he lives, 


whom are yet living, four sons and two daughters. 


As a citizen he 


| and is well and favorably known throughout the state. 


G02 — 


f (AVLOR, SAMUEL H., attorney-at-law, of Wash- 
ington, Indiana, was born at Cumberland, Mary- 
land, January 25, 1837,.and is the second son of 
William and Lavinia (Hill) Taylor. His father 

was engaged in various business pursuits, and was at 

one time Judge of the Orphan’s Court. His oldest 
brother, William A. Taylor, was a colonel in the Con- 
federate army, and is now one of the leading men of 

Texas, having done much to advance the interests of 

that state, where he is largely engaged in railroad enter- 

prises. He attended private schools, and then entered 
the Alleghany Institute, at Cumberland, Maryland, from 
which he graduated in 1855. He immediately entered 
the office of Hon. J. H. Gordon, of Cumberland, and 
in due time was admitted to the bar. In 1857 he was 
appointed postmaster at Cumberland, by President Bu- 
chanan, retaining the place until 1861. In 1864 he re- 
moved to Washington, Indiana, and began the practice 
of his profession. He was twice elected common pleas 
prosecutor for the Vincennes district, and in 1872 repre- 
sented the Second District in the National Democratic 

Convention at Baltimore. In 1876 he represented the 

same district in the National Democratic Convention at 

St. Louis, Missouri. In 1872 Mr. Taylor was elected 

prosecutor of the Circuit Court. He resigned in 1873, 

to take charge of the Washington National Bank—of 

which he was one of the founders—as vice-president and 

In 1876 he retired from the bank and resumed 

legal practice. In 1878 he was elected to represent Da- 

viess County in the state Legislature, and was appointed 

chairman of the Committee on Corporations, and also a 

member of the Committees on Judiciary, Prison Affairs, 

Mines and Mining, and the Redistricting of the State 

for congressional and legislative purposes. In politics 

he is a Democrat; he is regarded as one of the party 
leaders in this portion of the state, and was for some 

Mr. Taylor 


cashier. 


time chairman of the central committee. 


2d Dist.] 


is Presbyterian in his religious views. He was married, 
April 7, 1857, to Josette E. Johnson, of Cumberland, 
Maryland, daughter of Joshua Johnson, one of the lead- 
ing business men of that city. Edith, Mr. Johnson’s eld- 
est daughter, is the wife of Thomas F. Candler, attor- 
ney-at-law, of Washington, Indiana, formerly a resident 
at Cumberland, Maryland. Mr. Taylor’s ancestors, on 
both sides, date back many generations, to the oldest 
families in Maryland. He is fast winning his way to a 
prominent position at the Indiana bar, and is regarded 
as one of the useful citizens of Washington, being 
closely identified with her growth and prosperity. He 
is highly respected by all classes of the community as a 
thoroughly honorable gentleman. 


4006-2 — 
oy 
AYLOR, WALLER, a Senator in Congress, was a 
native of Lunenburg County, Virginia, where he 
was born, August 26, 1826. He held offices of 
trust in the territory of Indiana, such as territorial 
judge, in 1806; served as aide-de-camp to General Harri- 
son at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was a man of high 
literary attainments. 
—-400@-o— 


\s 
\] EALE, JAMES C., farmer, of Washington, Indi- 
ana, was born in Daviess County, December 25, 
1828, and is a son of John T. and Lucinda (Ilyatt) 
Veale. His father was a farmer, and his grand- 
father was the third white settler in Daviess County, 
having emigrated from South Carolina and settled here 
as early as 1807. He attended the common schools 
during the winter months, and through the summer 
season assisted his father on the farm, remaining at 
home until he was twenty-two years of age. He then 
was employed on the Wabash and Erie Canal at ninety 
cents a day. After working a year he returned, and 
drove a team for John Hyatt to Louisville, and soon 
after was appointed his clerk. In less than a year he 
was taken in as a partner, under the firm name of Hyatt 
& Veale, in keeping a store, pork-packing, boating, 
grain dealing, and general trading through Southern 
Indiana and the South. The firm dissolved in 1861, 
Mr. Veale forming a partnership with James C. Spink, 
under the firm name of Spink & Veale. They pur- 
chased the Washington Mills, and soon after built the 
* woolen mills. They also built and operated a large 
foundry, opened a bank of deposit, and added to their 
business a large and general store. During this time 
Mr. Veale was extensively engaged in farming and stock- 
raising, having been the first importer of blooded stock 
to this county. To-day he has the finest selection of 
fine stock in this portion of the state. Mr. Veale’s 
credit during his mercantile life was unlimited among 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


37 


the merchants of New Orleans, Memphis, and other 
Southern cities, and the utmost reliance was placed 
upon his business integrity by all classes of people with 
In 1875, owing to the floods 
of that summer, in which they lost sixty thousand dol- 
lars’ worth of stock and grain, he became embarrassed 
and suffered many reverses; but, with an amount of en- 
ergy and industry truly remarkable, he engaged exten- 
sively in farming, and expects to retrieve his shattered 
fortunes. The coming season he will plant over eight 
hundred acres of corn, besides being extensively en- 
gaged in raising blooded stock. He was married, No- 
vember 22, 1858, to Nancy Wilkins, daughter of a mer- 
chant of Washington, Indiana. November 18, 1868, he 
married his present wife, Mary E. Ragsdale, daughter 
of a wealthy farmer of the county. They have three 
children. In political matters he sympathizes with the 
Greenback party. Mr. Veale has been closely identified 
with the growth and prosperity of Daviess County, 
having done as much as any other man in developing 
many and various institutions. He is a gentleman and 
a. useful citizen. 


whom he came in contact. 


$00 — 


\{ ATSON, LEWIS L., proprietor of the Union 
Ne Depot Hotel, at Vincennes, Indiana, was born . 
ey April 13, 1809, in Vincennes, and is a son of 

Robert G. and Genevieve (Cornoyer) Watson. 
His father, of Scotch descent, was a merchant and fur- 
trader; his ancestors on his mother’s side were among 
the earliest settlers in this country, having emigrated 
here in 1704. His means of education were very lim- 
ited, as school terms were few and far between. He 
spent six months in school at St. Louis, and since attain- 
ing the age of manhood has acquired a fair English 
education by his own efforts. In 1826 his father’s fam- 
ily removed to St. Louis, where he learned the tailor’s 
trade, at which he served five years. In 1832 he returned 
to Vincennes and opened a tailor’s shop. In less than a 
year, however, he went back to St. Louis and again 
worked at his trade. In 1834 he removed to Vincennes, 
where he has since resided. Immediately on his arrival 
he opened a tailoring establishment, and after carrying 
it on three years sold out, and purchased a grocery 
store. This he carried on for four years, when he re- 
turned to his trade, working at it until 1849. He was 
then appointed postmaster by General Taylor, and, be- 
ing confirmed under Fillmore’s administration, held the 
position until the spring of 1853. At that time he was 
appointed receiver of toll at the lock and dam at Grand 
Rapids, on the Wabash River, and remained two years. 
In the spring of 1855 he resigned, and accepted a posi- 
tion as passenger conductor on the Evansville and Craw- 
fordsville Railroad, holding it for one year, being then 
appointed agent for the road at Vincennes. He also at 


35 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


the time opened a lumber yard in partnership with | 


Charles Daws, which he continued for four years. He 
sold out this interest and resigned his position as agent, 
and in the fall of 1859 was appointed paymaster and 
supply agent for the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, 
which position he filled to the satisfaction of the com- 
pany until 1871. He then resigned, and took an active 
part in the management of the Union Depot Hotel, in 
conjunction with Captain Mass, which business they 
still continue. He was married, November 6, 1832, to 
Lydia E. Fellows, daughter of Willis Fellows, a prom- 
inent wheelwright and builder, well known in Southern 
Indiana and St. Louis, where he built several mills. 
They have had twelve children, of whom four boys and 
three girls are now living. Samuel W. is cashier of the 
Harrison Bank, at Indianapolis; Edward is manager of 


the Union Depot Hotel; Willis H., at the age of nine- | 


teen, was a captain in the 80th Indiana Volunteer In- 
fantry, and now resides in Aurora, Illinois, where he 
carries on a book-store; and Robert G. is a partner in 
the National Hotel, at Terre Haute. Jane E. married 
James Reynolds, a farmer and ex-county treasurer; Ruth 
Q’Boyle is the widow of a boot and shoe merchant, of 
Terre Haute; and Ida M. is still single. Mr. Watson 
is an active member of the Church of Rome. In pol- 
itics he was reared a Whig, and remained with that 
party until 1856, when it indorsed Know-Nothingism, 
at which time he joined the Democracy, and is still a 
strong, active Democrat. Mr. Watson has been more 
closely identified in the building up of the city of Vin- 
cennes than almost any other of her citizens, having 
erected many houses and aided materially in the con- 
struction of the bridge over the Wabash River, and the 
city is largely indebted to him for the numerous railroads 
Mr. Watson is well known all 
over this section of the country as a gentleman of energy 
and force, and is regarded as one of the leading citizens 
of his city and county. 


crossing at this point. 


—>-300e-< — 


EX 

\ eine HIRAM E., treasurer of Orange County, 
p Indiana, was born in that county, February 7, 
CS 1840, and is the eldest son of Stephen and Sarah 
ee (Dark) Wells. His father was a farmer in lim- 
ited circumstances. At the age of seventeen he: left 
home without a cent, and began his struggle for a live- 
lihood. He had attended school but very little, being 
barely able to read, and, though he has received no 
further instruction, he has acquired a fair English edu- 
cation by his own energy and perseverance. On leaving 
home he engaged as a farm hand at thirteen dollars per 
month, and after three months’ work purchased a colt 
with his earnings. After holding it a few days he sold it 
for one hundred dollars, this transaction being the be- 


| 


[2d Dist. 


ginning of his trading. Until 1861 he continued work- 
ing and trading whenever occasion offered. In July, 
1861, he enlisted as a private in the 25th Regiment In- 
diana Volunteer Infantry, and when discharged in the 
summer of 1865 had risen to the rank of sergeant. 
During this time he was constantly in active service, 
and was on General Sherman’s grand march down to 
the sea. At Fort Donelson and also at Wolf River he 
was slightly wounded. On his return home he settled 
in Paoli, Indiana, and resumed the business of stock- 
trader. He also dealt in real estate and carried on farm- 
ing, and, by close attention to business and fair and 
honorable dealing, he to-day is possessed of over one 
thousand acres of land. By his untiring and judicious 
speculations he has steadily ascended the ladder of fame 
and wealth, until to-day he stands out prominent among 
the business men of Orange County. In 1876 he was 
elected county treasurer, and was re-elected in 1878, 
which position he is filling to the satisfaction of the cit- 
izens. November 18, 1869, he was married to Mary J. 
Hill, of his county, by whom he has three children. In 
political matters he is an active member of the Repub- 
lican party. 
—~<- FOCH- —_ 


ILLARD, JAMES HAZLETON, of Bedford, 


3 \ was born in New Albany, April 1, 1848. His 
ae father was Governor Ashbel P. Willard. (See 


sketch.) Losing both his parents at an early age, 
he attended the preparatory school known as Colton’s 
Institute, at Middletown, Connecticut, where he also, in 


1864, was admitted to Wesleyan University, taking the - 


entrance prize for the finest examination. In his sopho- 
more year he entered Hamilton College, in accordance 
with his-father’s dying directions. Here his scholarship 
was of the highest order, and he took more and higher 
honors in rhetoric and elocution than any other person 
in his class, graduating with a high rank. He next 
fitted himself for the bar at Columbia College Law 
School; thence he went on a foreign tour, taking his 
degrees in 1870 from the college of France and the law 
school of Paris. In 1871 he graduated from the School 
of Law at Vienna, obtaining the prize medal for his 
disquisition on the Roman law. He next went on a 
tour through the Holy Land and into the center of 
Persia, going thence across the desert to Suez, and from 
there nine hundred miles up the Nile, on a tour of ad- 
Returning to New Albany at the 
close of 1871, he entered into the practice of the law. 
From his earliest infancy he had been habituated to look 
forward to politics as the future field of his. usefulness, 
and in 1872, although his eligibility was doubtful, he 
was elected to the Legislature from Floyd County. In 
the House, though the youngest member, he was among 
the leaders of his party, but, as the Democracy were in 


venturous travel. 


2d Dist.] REPRESENTATIVE 
the minority, his hands were in a measure tied. He de- 
clined re-election, devoting himself to his profession and 
to a profound study of political economy, but making a 
thorough canvass before each general election. Decem- 
ber 31, 1877, he was married to Miss Kate L. Newland, 
at Bedford. In 1878, when the contest in Floyd County 
seemed almost hopeless, he entered the fight for Repre- 
sentative, and, after a desperate campaign, was elected | 
by nearly two hundred above the state ticket. He was 
second choice of his party for speaker of the House, but 
withdrew his name for the sake of harmony. Personal | 
enmity took from him the position of chairman of the | 
Committee of Ways and Means, to which parliamentary 
usage would have entitled him. But, in spite of his | 
youth, he rose at once to the leadership of his party on | 
the floor, and his record in the session showed him to be 
one of the strongest men in Indiana. His presentation of 
Daniel W. Voorhees for United States Senator established 
his reputation for eloquence throughout the state. In 
the Democratic state convention of 1880 he was the lead- 
ing candidate for Lieutenant-governor, but, when the 
name of the unsuccessful candidate for Governor was pre- 
sented for the second place, Willard, with that rapid de- 
cision which is his marked characteristic, seconded the 
nomination, determined that no personal ambition should 
imperil the harmony and success of his party. Thor- 
oughly skilled in parliamentary customs, conversing flu- 
ently in several languages, with a resistless power of 
oratory, firm and decisive in character, genial in tem- 
perament, and even now recognized as the leader of the 
young Democracy of Indiana, Mr. Willard has before 
him a brilliant future, which his deep studies have ren- 
dered him well qualified to realize. In May, 1879, he 
removed to Bedford, and is numbered among the fore- 
most legal minds in that portion of the state. 


400 


C 


ILLARD, ASHBEL PARSONS (deceased), Gov- 

ernor of Indiana, so named from his maternal ; 
) grandfather, was born October 31, 1820, at Ver- 

non, Oneida County, New York. His father was | 
Colonel Erastus Willard, sheriff of the county. The 
maiden name of his mother, whose memory he revered 
as long as he lived, was Sarah Parsons. She died when | 
he was fourteen, but she had already detected the dawn- 
ing brilliancy of his mind, and, calling him to her dying 
bed, counseled him to obtain a liberal education, and to 
enter the profession of the law. In accordance with her 
dying wishes, he pursued his preparatory studies at the 
Oneida Liberal Institute, and, when eighteen, he entered 
Hamilton College, in the class of 1842. He became first in 
scholarship in the institution, and bore off its highest hon- 
After graduating, Willard, depart- 


ors, as valedictorian. 


ing from the home of his youth, followed two brothers, ' 


MEN OF INDIANA. 39 
who had preceded him, to Marshall, Michigan; and 
there, at the age of twenty-two, in the fall of 1842, 
with feeble health but full of ‘‘the mental exhilarations 
of youth, hope, and glory,” he embarked upon the 
stormy sea of life. He remained at Marshall with, of 
course, a limited legal practice for about a year, when, 
his health not becoming established, he determined to 
seek a milder clime. He purchased a horse, and rode 
south-westwardly into Texas, and back again to Ken- 
tucky, where, his funds being exhausted but his health 
exceedingly improved, he stopped and obtained employ- 
ment as a school-teacher. This was the year of the 
presidential contest between Polk and Clay. Willard 
from his boyhood had been an earnest, working political 
partisan. He left the school-room for the political 
New Albany, Indiana, fell within his circle, and 
there, stranger as he was, he addressed the people. 
The impression made by the tall, slender young orator 
was so favorable to him, personally, that it induced an 
invitation to him to make that city his home. It was 
in the spring of 1845, before he had reached the age of 
twenty-five, that Ashbel P. Willard, without pecuniary 
resources, in the absence of relatives and only with 
friends of an hour’s acquaintance, become a resident of 
Indiana. For a little over fifteen years he was a resi- 
dent of this state. In that period what did he accom- 
plish? Entering upon the practice of the law at New 
Albany, he was compelled to encounter an able and 
learned bar; such lawyers as Crawford, Otto, Davis, 
Bicknell, and others ranking inferior to none in the state. 
This competition only stimulated him to greater exer- 
tion. He became the partner of Mr. 
Crawford, but did not, however, pursue the legal pro- 
fession long enough to reach its greatest honors. Politics, 
as we shall soon see, engaged his thoughts and energies, 
and became the field of Jabor in which he won his fame. 
In narrating, however, the events of his life it is proper 


arena. 


afterwards 


| here to turn aside to mention one of a domestic character. 


On the 31st of May, 1847, he was married to Miss Car- 
oline C. Cook, of Haddam, Connecticut. Of the off- 
spring of that marriage the first and the third, James 
H. and Caroline C. Willard, survive. By the side of the 
second, Ashbel P. Willard, junior, the dust of the father 
sleeps, and there rest also the remains of his cherished 
wife. In May, 1849, Mr. Willard was elected a member 
of the city council of New Albany, and labored steadily 
in that capacity for the improvement of the finances of 
the city. In 1850 he was elected to the Legislature 
from Floyd County by an unusual majority. He served 
in the capacity of Representative but a single session ; 
but it is conclusive evidence of the reputation he had 
already acquired for talents and efficiency that, young 
as he was, and new member as he was, he was placed 
at the head of the Committee on Ways and Means, 
aud assigned the leadership of the Democratic party 


40 


in the House. In 1852 he was nominated by the 
Democratic party of Indiana for Lieutenant-governor, 
and elected. 
he was called by the suffrages of the people of the 
state, after a most desperate political contest, to the 
executive chair, the highest office in their gift. He 
was inaugurated Governor of Indiana January 10, 1857. 
And here let the reader pause a moment to observe the 
spectacle presented. A young man, who, eleven years 
before, had entered upon his career of life in Indiana 
poor and friendless, had, by his own persistent efforts, 
without aid from the accidents of fortune, risen with an 
unfaltering step through a gradation of honorable and 
responsible offices, till at the early age of thirty-six he 
ascended to the highest position in the government of a 
state composed of over a million of people. But few 
parallel oases can be found. In 1860 his strength failed 
him. He went to Minnesota in the hope of recuperat- 
ing; but there, in a ride from White Bear Lake to St 
Paul, he took a sudden cold, and on October 4 of that 
year he expired from an attack of pneumonia. At the 
meridian of life, far up toward the source of the Father 
of Waters, whose swelling and majestic flow was no 
unfit emblem of the bold and overpowering stream of 
the eloquence of the ‘silver-tongued orator of Indiana,” 
did Willard, yielding to the only enemy he could not 
conquer, descend into the region of the dead—but there 
not to dwell. Amid public evidences of a sorrowing 
people his remains were borne to the city of New Al- 
bany, where they rest in the midst of the friends he 
loved so well. The most marked features of Willard’s 
intellectual powers were intuition and will—the faculties 
of all others most sure to produce the man of action, 
the successful leader; and, united with these, he had a 
gift of eloquence which makes his name a fireside 
recollection in the homes of Indiana. He saw at a 
glance the true relations of things, the exact bearing 
of current events; what was proper to be done, and 
how to do it; and the force, the energy, of his will 
bore him forward in its immediate and successful execu- 
tion. He had great decision of character. Once en- 
tered upon a course which intuition had opened to him 
as the right, he thought only of following it success- 
fully through, and his conviction of its correctness, and 
the force of his determination to succeed, always inspired 
him with confidence in the result. He never stopped 
to speculate or doubt, and no leader ever should while 
he continues the contest; for uncertainty and hesitancy 
palsy the arm in its attempt to execute. As a general 
truth, it may be asserted that none but the sincere, be- 
lieving, earnest man will efficiently or can successfully 
struggle with difficulties. It was the possession in so 
high a degree of the qualities above mentioned that 
drew upon Willard, by common consent, the leader- 
ship among those with whom he might be; for the 


He filled this office until 1856, when | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[2d Dist. 


| wavering and timid always follow the decided and 


brave. And it was those qualities also that gave him 
such distinguished success as a presiding officer—quick- 
ness of apprehension, promptness, and energy in action. 


—+-$0t<— 
ILLIAMS, JAMES DOUGLAS, Governor of In- 
diana, is a type of the Western pioneer, now 
seldom seen east of the Mississippi River. Born 
in Pickaway County, Ohio, January 16, 1808, he 


€C 


¢ 


-moved with his father’s family to Indiana in 1818, and 


settled in Knox County, near the historic city of Vin- 
cennes. He grew to manhood there, and there remained 
until January, 1877, when he came to the capital of 
Indiana to take the reins of the state government, at 
the command of over two hundred thousand American 
freemen. . When Governor Williams arrived in Indiana, 
and for many years afterwards, the state was sparsely 
populated. In many parts of it there were no white 
men or women, and where there were white settlements 
dwelling-houses were far apart, and communication with 
the outside world difficult and unfrequent. Therefore it 
was hard to establish and maintain schools and Churches, 
and the newspaper was an unusual visitor at the fireside 
of the pioneer. It was under such circumstances as 
these that Governor Williams grew to manhood and en- 
tered upon the duties of life. The little schooling he 
received was obtained in the log school-house, at times 
when his services could be spared from the farm. But, 
if the advantages of the school-room were measurably 
denied him, he was somewhat compensated for their loss 
by mingling with the best people in his settlement, and 
learning from them something of the outside world. 
Therefore when he reached his majority he was unusu- 
ally well versed, for one in his circumstances, in the news 
of that day and the history of the past. Added to this, 
he had a well-knit, hardy frame, was supple and agile 
in his movements, and, taken all in all, was the most 
promising young man in the settlement. He could 
make a full hand at the plow, in the harvest field, or at 
the log-rolling, and was known throughout the neigh- 
borhood as a young man of industrious habits and of 
more than ordinary culture. When Governor Williams 
was twenty years of age his father died. Being the oldest 
of six children, the care of the family devolved on him. 
He accepted this responsibility and acquitted himself 
well, as he has always done when charged with impor- 
tant duties. Three years afterwards—at the age of 
twenty-three—he married -Nancy Huffman, who lived 
until this year to bless and comfort him in his declining 
By her he has had seven children, two of whom 
only are living. His wife, like the mistress of the Her- 
mitage, was wedded to her country home, and through- 
out his long life, most of which has been spent in the 


years. 


CL Ls 


b 


UNIVERSITY QF ILHINAIS 


2d Dist.] 


public service, has remained on his farm and participated 
in its management. Her death occurred June 27, 1880. 
Governor Williams entered public life in 1839 as a Jus- 
tice of the Peace. For four years he held this office 
and decided the controversies and adjusted. the difficul- 
ties of his neighbors with great judicial fairness. His 
decisions were sometimes dissented from, but in no case 
were corrupt motives imputed to him. His neighbors 
knew his integrity, and while they sometimes criticised 
his conclusions they never impugned the means by 
which he reached them. In 1843 he resigned his office 
of Justice of the Peace, and the same year was elected 
to the lower branch of the state Legislature. From 
that time until 1874, when he was elected to the 
national Congress, he was almost continuously in the 
legislative service of the state. Sometimes in the House 
of Representatives and then in the Senate, a history of 
his legislative work would be a history of the legislation 
of Indiana from 1843 to 1874. No man in the state 
has been so long in public life as he, and no one has 
more faithfully served the people. He is identified with 
most of the important measures of legislation dur- 
ing this time, and is the author of many of them. It 
is to him that the widows of Indiana are indebted for 
the law which allows them to hold, without administra- 
tion, the estates of their deceased husbands when they 
do not exceed three hundred dollars in value. He is 
the author of the law which distributed the sinking fund 
among the counties of the state; and to him more than 
to any other man, with probably the exception of the 
late Governor Wright, are the people indebted for the 
establishment of the State Board of Agriculture, an in- 
stitution that has done so much to foster and develop the 
agricultural interests of Indiana. He was for sixteen years 
a member of this board, and for four of them was its 
president. During his management of its affairs it was 
a self-supporting institution, and, besides, it accumulated 
an extensive and valuable property during the time he 
was at its head. It has been since he ceased to con- 
trol its direction that its finances have become so dis- 
ordered that to preserve its existence the Legislature of 
the state has been compelled to take from the public 
treasury large sums of money and bestow them upon 
the society. It is safe to say that had he continued 
at its head no such necessity would have arisen. In 
1872 Governor Williams was the nominee of the Demo- 
cratic members of the Legislature for United States Sen- 
ator, but, his party being in the minority, he was de- 
feated for the office by the late Senator Morton. In 
1874 Governor Williams was elected to Congress from 
the Vincennes district, and took his seat the ensuing 
fall. He was made chairman of the Committee on Ac- 
counts of the House. Abuses had crept into this branch 
of the public service. Officers and employés acted upon 
the theory that ‘‘Uncle Sam” was a rich goose, from 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


AI 


which every one had the right to pluck a quill. He 
soon taught them that public property was as sacred as 
private property, and that no one had a right to its use 
without rendering an equivalent. This brought upon 
him the maledictions of those who hover about the cap- 
ital to fatten upon the rich pickings there to be found; 
but it endeared him to those whose money supplies 
them. It was while at his post at Washington, attend- 
ing to his public duties, that a telegram was handed 
him announcing his nomination for Governor of Indiana, 
by the Democratic convention of that state. He had 
not been a candidate for the place, and was as much 
surprised as any one when informed that the nomination 
had been made. The campaign of 1876 in Indiana was 
a memorable one. It never had its counterpart in this 
country, except in 1858, when Douglas and Lincoln in 
Illinois contested for the presidential stakes in 1860. 
Senator Morton announced early in the canvass, in a 
speech he delivered in the Academy of Music in In- 
dianapolis, that the election of Williams as Governor 
meant the election of Tilden as President. Events proved 
the truth of the Senator’s declaration; for neither the 
decision of the Electoral Commission nor the legerde- 
main practiced by the returning boards can obscure the 
fact that the United States voted in November as Indi- 
ana did in October. Hendricks and McDonald, Landers 
and Gooding, Voorhees and Williams, and many other 
able men, entered the fight as champions of the De- 
mocracy; while Morton and Harrison, Cumback and But- 
ler, Gordon and Nelson, and other men of prominence 
and ability, marshaled the forces of the Republicans. 
The conflict was so fierce that it shook the whole coun- 
try. The Republican speakers and journals ridiculed 
the Democratic candidate for Governor, and made sport 
of his homespun clothes and plain appearance; but 
the Democracy seized upon his peculiarities and made 
them watchwords of victory. Blue Jeans clubs were 
formed throughout the state, and the name the Repub- 
licans had given the Democratic candidate in derision 
was accepted by his friends and made to do service in his 
behalf. When the campaign was ended, and the bal- 
lots were cast and counted, it was ascertained that the 
plain and honest old farmer of Knox had beaten his op- 
ponent—General Benjamin Harrison—over five thousand 
votes. The result was as gratifying to his friends 
as it could have been to him, for they knew he had 
never been found wanting in any place he had been 
called upon to fill; and they felt entire confidence 
that his legislative and congressional laurels would 
not turn to gubernatorial willows. The predecessors 
of Governor Williams for more than two decades have 
been eminent men. The three immediate ones were 
Morton, Baker, and Hendricks, the former and the 
While 
the organizing ability and aggressive- 


latter of whom have national reputations. 
he has not 


42 REPRESENTATIVE 


ness of Morton, the reading and legal erudition 
of Baker, nor the elegance and symmetrical devel- 
opment of Hendricks, he has other qualities as an ex- 
ecutive officer as valuable as those possessed by any of 
them. He is careful and painstaking, and enters into 
the minutest details of his office; and he performs no 
official act without thoroughly understanding its import 
and effect. He is self-willed and self-reliant, and prob- 
ably consults fewer persons about his official duties than 
did any of his predecessors for a generation. During 
his canvass for Governor, it was charged by his political 
opponents that his selection would place in the exec- 
utive chair one who would be influenced and controlled 
by others, but experience has proved the falsity of the 
charge. If any just criticism can be made upon him in 
this regard, it is that he has not sufficiently given his 
confidence to his friends. Instead of being swayed to 
and fro by others, he goes perhaps to the other extreme, 
and refuses to be influenced by any. Better, however, 
' be stubborn than fickle, for the first insures stability and 
fixedness of purpose, while the latter always results in 
uncertainty and doubt. Governor Williams is econom- 
ical and simple in his tastes and habits. By industry 
and care he has accumulated a handsome competency, 
which, no doubt, will increase each succeeding year of 
his life. The necessities of his youth caused him to be 
careful and saving of his earnings, and he has clung to the 
habits then formed to the present day. He is fond of 
amusements, and is an adept in social games and pastimes. 
He frequently visits the theater, and it is as pleasant as 
it is common to see him enter a place of public amusement 
accompanied by his grand-children or some of his coun- 
try neighbors. He is courteous in his intercourse with 
others, is a good conversationalist, and is never at a loss 
for words to express his thoughts. He stands six feet 
four inches in his boots; is remarkably straight and 
erect for one of his years; has large hands and feet; has 
high cheek-bones; a long, sharp nose; twinkling, gray 
eyes; a clean shaven face, skirted with whiskers upon 
his throat; and a head covered profusely with black 
hair, in which scarcely a gray filament is to be seen. 
His physiognomy denotes industry and shrewdness, and 
does not belie the man. He dresses plainly, but with 
scrupulous neatness. He is a good judge of human 
nature, and he who attempts to deceive. or overreach 
him will have his labor for his pains. Such is James 
D. Williams, the centennial Governor of Indiana. Gov- 
ernor Williams will retire from his office in January, 
1881. His age is such that it is probable that his pub- 
lic life—forty-two years in the service of the people— 
will then be ended. That he has acquitted himself 
well-in all the positions he filled; that he has made 
the world better by having lived in it; and that he is 
entitled to honorable mention in the history of his 
adopted state, will be the verdict of the people, when, 


MEN OF INDIANA. [2d Dist. 


like Cincinnatus of old, he lays aside the robes of office 
and retires to his farm, there to spend the evening of 


his life in quietude and rest. 


—<-S00-o— 


| ILSON, ELBRIDGE G., attorney-at-law, of Paoli, 
/, Indiana, was born in Seymour, Jackson County, 
cA) Indiana, June 13, 1852, and was the son of Will- 
GZ jam and Sarah F, (Hosea) Wilson. His father, 
a teacher, left his home for California in 1856, and the 
family did not hear from him for sixteen years. His 
mother, being in limited circumstances, was compelled to 
bind out her children. Elbridge went to live with his 
grandfather, Mr. Hosea, to learn the shoemaker’s trade. 
He never attended school until sixteen, when he ran 
away, finding another place, where he managed to attend 
school, working at night and on Saturdays for his board, 
until he fitted himself for a teacher, a position he assumed 
when twenty. After teaching five months, he attended 
the Blue River Academy each successive spring and sum- 
mer until he began the study of law, in 1875, with 
Judge Coffee, of Nashville, Indiana. In 1876 he entered 
the State University at Bloomington, Indiana, and grad- 
uated from the law department in the spring of 1877. 
He immediately settled at Paoli, and commenced prac- 
ticing, having been admitted to the bar in 1876. Since 
his residence in Paoli, he has devoted his entire time to 
the study of his profession, and is fast winning his way 
to prominence at the Orange County bar, having now a 
business second to none. He was married to Elizabeth 
Shoulders, daughter of a farmer in Orange County, and 
granddaughter of a state Senator. Mr. Wilson is a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics 
is an active Democrat, having canvassed the county for 
his party last fall. He is a man of excellent habits, 
pleasant in demeanor, and thoroughly well bred. 


—+- Foto — 


ILSON, FRANCIS, was born February 19, 1836, 
> in Lexington, Scott County, Indiana. Soon after 
2 his birth his parents moved to a farm two miles 
G distant from Lexington, and here the first dozen 
years of his life were passed. They subsequently re- 
moved to the village of New Frankfort, in the same 
county. At the age of sixteen,-Frank, as he has always 
been familiarly called, had so far mastered the common 
branches of education as to be able to obtain from the 
county examiner a certificate to teach a district school. 
From this period until he was twenty years of age his 
time was spent in giving instruction, and in attending 
college at Hanover College, Indiana. When twenty 
years old he left college and went to Illinois, where, for 
the next two years, he was engaged in teaching school 


ay ee eee 


2d Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
and in land surveying, then returning to his native state 
and settling at Paoli, the county seat of Orange County. 
Here he resumed the occupation of teaching, and at 
the same time began the study of law. After two years 
thus passed he was admitted to practice. In 1860 he 
was elected Justice of the Peace for Paoli Township, 
and continued to hold the office for about a year, when 
he resigned, that he might give his entire time to his 
profession. This term of office won for him the title 
of *’Squire’”’ Wilson, which he continued to bear for 
a number of years. His advancement in his calling 
was not very marked for two or three years, but by in- 
dustry, close attention to his business, and honesty, in 
four or five years he came to be known as one of the 
best and most trustworthy lawyers of his section, and 
from that time he-controlled a leading practice in the 
courts in Paoli and in the adjoining counties. As he 
was neither bold nor aggressive in character, he won his 
way by dint of real merit. In 1861 he married Mary, 
daughter of Doctor Cornelius White, a leading phy- 
sician of Paoli. She is a woman of fine personal ap- 
pearance and great force of character, and has made 
him a most excellent wife. He continued to practice 
his profession, living at Paoli until 1868, when he re- 
- moved to Bedford, Indiana, where he has ever since re- 
sided. 
gaged with great success, his reputation as a lawyer 
causing his services to be sought after in the most im- 
portant cases in his part of the state. In 1873 he -was 
appointed by Governor Thomas A. Hendricks to supply 
a vacancy in the office of Circuit Judge of the Tenth 
Circuit. This place he filled with credit and ability, 
and he was nominated by his party for election for the 
next term, but failed of securing it on account of an inde- 
pendent candidate, who was of the same politics, and 
who took off enough votes to elect the nominee on the 


At this last place he has for ten years been en- | 


MEN OF INDIANA. 43 


other side. At the next contest for Circuit Judge in his 
circuit, his party again nominated him, and he was 
chosen, although his party was in the minority. He 
is now serving his term as Judge of the Tenth Judicial 
Circuit of the state, composed of the counties of Mon- 
roe, Lawrence, Orange, and Martin. The ability and 
honesty with which he has discharged the duties of his 
office have more than met the expectations of his warmest 
friends and admirers. Judge Wilson is under the aver- 
age stature. He is in dress inclined to be neat and 
tidy beyond that of lawyers in general. He is scrupu- 
lous about having things in order, and is methodical 
and systematic in business. In his profession he is dis- 
tinguished for untiring industry, zeal, and ambition to 
excel. He wants the physical vigor and vocal power to 
make a great advocate, but he has made many jury 
speeches that will be long remembered by those who 
have heard him, and he has the rare faculty of being 
able to argue a law question so as to enlist the attention 
and interest of even the unprofessional hearer. His 
style of speaking is deliberate, clear, logical, and ear- 
nest, using the best of language, and sometimes warm- 
ing up to the highest pitch of forensic eloquence. In 
speaking it is not his habit to appeal to the passions or 
prejudice of his hearers. In his conduct toward his 
adversaries he is noted for courtesy and fairness, and he 
has never allowed his zeal to induce him to seek success 
by disreputable practices. In politics Judge Wilson 
started out in life a Republican, and continued to act 
with that party until 1872, when he joined the liberal 
Republicans, and supported Greeley. Since that time 
he has acted with the Democratic party. He has always 
been a zealous partisan, but has few of the qualifications 
for a successful politician. Whatever success in life he 
attains will most likely be in his profession, in which he 
is thoroughly versed. 


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THE 


THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 


00 - 


a AIN, WILLIAM C. A., physician and surgeon, 
: of Brownstown, was born December 5, 1819, in 
Trimble County, Kentucky, and is a son of Leroy 

and Elizabeth (Baker) Bain. His father served in 

the War of 1812, attaining the rank of captain, and his 
grandfathers on both sides belonged to the Revolution- 
ary army. He acquired the rudiments of his education 
at the common schools in Trimble County, and at the 
age of twenty-two years left home and went to Scott 
County, Indiana, where he commenced the study of 
medicine under Doctor McClure. After a year’s study 
he spent one term in the Medical College at St. Louis. 
He then settled in Jackson County, Indiana, and prac- 
ticed medicine until the fall of 1849, when he entered 
the Evansville Medical College, from which he graduated 
the following March. Returning to Jackson County he 
resumed the duties of his profession in the southern part 
of the county, and had an extensive practice. In 1863, 
during the siege of Vicksburg, Doctor Bain was com- 
missioned as a volunteer surgeon by Governor Morton; 
and at the close of the siege returned to Jackson 
County and settled in Brownstown, where he has since 
resided. He married Sarah Ann Barnes, the daughter 
of a wealthy farmer of Jefferson County. Six children 
have been born to them, five of whom are now living. 
William M. Bain, a respected merchant of Seymour, In- 
diana, died in his thirty-first year. Thomas J., now rail- 
road agent at Columbus, married Ella Davison, of 
Seymour; she bore him three children, who, with their 
mother, are dead. Mary E. Bain married a farmer of 
Seymour; Frances A. is the wife of Aaron Salsisch, 
freight agent at Terre Haute; Eunitia V. married J. 
Brannaman, a farmer of Brownstown; Laura, the young- 
est daughter, is at home. Doctor Bain’s wife departed 
this life on the 26th of April, 1861. October 19, 1862, 
he married Mary M. Morelands; they have had two 
children, one of whom is now living. Dr. Bain was 
brought up a Methodist, but is not a member of any 


“Ss 


religious denomination. He believes in a man’s think- 
ing for himself, and his wife is of the same opinion. 
From his earliest recollection he has sympathized with 
the Democratic party, but now believes that there is 
no honesty in politics, and supports the man he deems 
best qualified for the position. By close attention to his 
professional duties he has won the hearts of the com- 
munity, and many citizens feel that they owe their lives 
to his skill. THe is to all intents and purposes a self- 
made man, having taught school and chopped wood 
to defray his expenses at college. 


BOC 


, ARMORE, DAVID 6&., ship-builder, of Jefferson- 
Cy ville, is the only surviving son of David and 

f, Phcebe Barmore, who emigrated in 1817 from 
eg Penn Yan, Yates County, New York, to Cincin- 
nati. There David Barmore was born, on the roth of 
August, 1833. His mother died when he was six years 
old, and his father five years later, leaving five children, 
one son and four daughters. 
his childhood by his oldest sister, who, about the time 
of her father’s death, married Mr. James Howard, a 
ship-builder. Though his educational advantages were 
limited, he was fond of useful books, and, being a nat- 
urally intelligent boy, mastered, with but little assist- 
ance, engineering and drafting. At the age of twelve he 
was apprenticed to his brother-in-law to learn the ship- 
building trade. When but eighteen, being practically 
and theoretically master of his craft, he engaged to 
work for his brother-in-law, and before he was nineteen 
had charge of over two hundred workmen. He re- 
mained here until 1855, when, with a Mr. King, he 
engaged in ship-building at Jeffersonville, Indiana, un- 
der the firm name of King & Barmore. Two years later 
the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Barmore took charge of 
Mr. Howard's yard in Jeffersonville until 1864, when he 


& 


He was cared for during 


2 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


formed a partnership with a Mr. Stuart, the firm name 
being Stuart & Barmore. They were very successful, 
and built some of the finest steamboats on the Ohio 
River. In 1869 Mr. Barmore purchased Mr. Stuart’s 
interest, and he has since continued the business alone. 
In 1877 his mills and nearly every thing connected with 
his business, including models and drafting depart- 
ment, were destroyed by fire, his loss exceeding fifty 
thousand dollars. At this time he had seven steamboats 
under contract, and succeeded in rebuilding his mills 
and completing them on time. He has one of the 
largest ship-building yards on the Ohio River, and em- 
ploys over two hundred workmen the greater part of the 
year. He has built over one hundred and twenty-five 
steamboats, and several light-draft steamers for the gov- 
ernment coast survey service, at an average of thirty 
thousand dollars each, making a total of three million 
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Barmore 
married, December 31, 1856, Miss Elizabeth Cash, 
daughter of Samuel and Margaret Cash, of Jefferson- 
ville, Indiana, and has had two children, one of whom 
is living. Mrs. Barmore is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, which Mr. Barmore also attends, 


—+-$086-— 


ENZ, JOHN, state Senator, one of the prominent 
merchants and leading politicians of Leavenworth, 
Crawford County, was born in Germany, March 
9, 1834. He is the son of Jacob and Mary Benz. 
After receiving a thorough and complete education, at 
the early age of sixteen he came to America to seek his 

fortune, landing at New Orleans, March 25, 1850. He 
speedily acquired a knowledge of our language, and 
identified himself with American interests, customs, and 


institutions. He proceeded to Louisville, where he 
worked at his trade, that of a tailor. After remaining 
there five years he removed to St. Louis, where, how- 
ever, he only remained some nine months, when he re- 
turned to Louisville. Not, however, feeling perfectly 
satisfied, he shortly after removed to Hawesville, Ken- 
tucky, and from there to Cannelton, Indiana, where he 
was employed for sume four years. Having by that 
time, through the exercise of care and economy, accu- 
mulated a fair amount of money, he resolved to go into 
business on his own account, and decided upon Leaven- 
worth as the point, it being a young and rising town. 
He there embarked in business as a general merchant, 
and such has been his success, through his own energy 
and perseverance, that he is now one of the largest and 
most successful merchants of the town. He is a man of 
enterprise, tact, and energy, and is one who enjoys in a 
high sense the honor and respect of his fellow-citizens 
wherever he has become known. Successful in his busi- 
ness career, he now enjoys a competence. Early in life 


[sd Dest. 


he associated himself with the Democratic party, and has 
served most efficiently as chairman of the Democratic 
central committee of Crawford County for about four 
years. In 1864 he was elected county coroner for Craw- 
ford County, in 1874 school trustee of Leavenworth, in 
1876 to the state Legislature from Crawford and Orange 
Counties, in 1878 state Senator for Crawford and Harri- 
son Counties. Fle was educated as a Lutheran, and 
now attends that Church. 
1856, to Caroline Nybower, daughter of Karl Nybower, 
of Germany. They have had six children—three girls 
(one of whom is dead) and three boys. The two eldest 
sons are now employed in their father’s store. Such is 
the record of one of Crawford County’s most prominent 
citizens, and one upon whom honors haye been be- 
stowed for his worth alone. 


—- Ft 


6) 
() LISH, JOIIN H., merchant, of Seymour, was born 
Hy) in Woodstock, Windsor County, Vermont, April 
‘fo, 25, 1822. His parents were John and Mareb 
é@ (Wales) Blish. His father was a hardware mer- 
chant at Woodstock. He attended school at the acad- 
emy at Newbury, Vermont, graduated a civil engineer 
in 1845, and immediately commenced the practice of his 
profession on the Rutland and Burlington Railway. In 
September, 1849, he started for California, but was in- 
duced to stop at Jeffersonville, Indiana, where he was ap- 
pointed assistant engineer of the Madison, Jeffersonville 
and Indianapolis Railroad, :the second railroad in the 
state—just being constructed—and located and built the 
road from Jeffersonville to Indianapolis. In 1853 he ac- 
cepted the same position on the Chicago and Cincinnati 
Air-line Railroad. He was married, in September, 
1856, to Sarah S. Shiclds, daughter of Hon. Medey W. 
Shields, of Seymour, Indiana. In the fall of 1857 he 
resigned his position on the railroad and removed to 
Council Bluffs, Iowa. There he engaged in the real 
estate business, and was made city engineer. The fol- 
lowing spring he removed to Seymour, Indiana, and, 
purchasing the Crescent Flour-mills of that city, man- 
aged them very successfully until the spring of 1869. 
He was then appointed chief engineer of the Evansville 
and Lake Erie Railroad, securing and locating the line 
of that road until work on it was suspended in 1873, 
owing to the financial troubles of the country. He then 
returned to Seymour, where he gave his attention to 
dealing in grain, and in 1877 he re-purchased the Cres- 
cent City Mills. Mr. Blish is the father of seven chil- 
dren, five of whom, three sons and two daughters are 
now living. The oldest son, Medey Shields Blish, is a 
partner with his father in the milling and grain business; 
John Ball Blish, the second son, is a midshipman in the 
United States Navy; Tipton S., Emma M., and Lucy S., 


He was married, July 4,_ 


3d Dist. 


are at home with their parents. The family of Mr. 
Blish is one of the wealthiest and most refined in the 
county. Although his parents were devout Methodists 
he has never joined any religious denomination, but at- 
tends the Presbyterian Church, of which his wife is an 
Being a prominent Republican, he 
has often been solicited to become a candidate for va- 
rious positions, but has invariably declined. He is vice- 
president of the First National Bank, 


exemplary member. 


$00 


RAZELTON, REV. JOHN, of North Vernon, 
was born near Danville, Kentucky, May 26, 1822. 
C’&, He has no recollection of his father, who died 
ég when Mr. Brazelton was about three years of age. 


His mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth League, 
removed to Jefferson County, Indiana, about a year 
after her husband’s death. Here she married Mr. 
Fitch, a gentleman much older than herself, who had a 
large family by a previous marriage. The boyhood of 
Mr. Brazelton was spent, until his thirteenth year, on 
a farm, attending school a few months during the fall 
and winter, and performing, while yet a child, a man’s 
labor the remainder of the year. Mr. Fitch was a kind 
step-father, but still the boy’s life was far from being 
happy. When he was thirteen years old he bade a 
final adieu to home, attended school some months, 
and began teaching while yet but fifteen. He taught 
and attended school alternately for three years, com- 
pleting his school course at the Spring Valley High 
School, in Graham Township, Jefferson County, Indi- 
ana, then conducted by a celebrated teacher, Mr. Ben- 
jamin Mayhew. At the age of eighteen he entered 
the law office of. Hon. J. G. Marshall, of Madison, as 
a student, and after remaining three years was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1843. In 1845 he accepted the 
nomination for member of the Legislature, but was 
defeated by a majority of thirteen. His failing health 
compelled him to relinquish his chosen profession, and 
removing to Kent, Jefferson County, 
store. 


he opened a 
In 1848, still seeking to regain his health, he 
removed upon a farm, and for three or four years 
devoted his time to agriculture in the summer and to 
teaching during the winter. The taste for farming thus 
acquired he has never lost, and he still owns, and to 
In 1852 he united 
with the Christian Church, and in the fall of the same 
year, at the urgent call of his denomination, he entered 
the home missionary field in Southern Indiana. In 
1854 he was, without an effort on his part, nominated 
for the Legislature from Jefferson County, and was 
elected without making a pledge or a speech during 
the entire canvass. In 1863 he removed to Columbus, 
where he was pastor of the Columbus Church for one 


some extent manages, his farm. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 3 


year, and then went to Queensville, Jennings County, 
For the 
following thirteen years he preached at Hartsville, 
although changing his residence, in 1872, to North 
Vernon. In 1877 he resigned this charge, and since 
that time has been preaching at Vernon, Mount Auburn, 


and purchased the farm which he now owns, 


and North Vernon, and laboring as an evangelist. In 
politics Mr. Brazelton has been a Republican ever since 
the formation of that party in 1856. In 1868 he was 
nominated for the state Senate, but, declining to stump 
the district, another was nominated in his stead and 
elected. He was married, September 7, 1841, to 
America Hyter, of Kent, Indiana, by whom he had 
seven daughters. All but one of these became the 
wives of well known and respected citizens of their na- 
tive state. Marietta married Marshall Grinstead, who 
died in January, 1877; Jennie married Doctor King, 
of North Vernon, and, later, T. J. Houchen, a farmer of 
Illinois; the third daughter, Josephine, married James 
King, of North Vernon, a dairyman; the fourth, 
Florence, married Charles Curtis, a farmer, of Jennings 
County; Fanny married R. Scott, a teacher; Annie 
married Ernest Tripp, a merchant, of North Vernon; 
and Nettie is still living at her father’s home. Mr. 
Brazelton’s wife died in 1871, and he married his present 
wife, Mrs. Nannie (Miller) Frost, of Columbus, February 
17, 1875. Mr. Brazelton has always been one of the 
leading men in his Church, and is regarded as one of 
the best speakers in Southern Indiana. With a strong, 
logical mind, and deep convictions, his earnest labors 
have been the means of great and lasting benefit to the 
He is still in the prime 
of life, and has undoubtedly many years of usefulness 
before him. 


cause of religion and humanity. 


—~- Foto — 


se. 
ef xanre AUGUSTUS, of New Albany, was 

»}) born in Edgecomb (now Wilson) County, North 
ia Carolina, October 14, 1821, and came to New 
GE Albany with his parents in 1830. Richard Brad- 
ley, his father, was at one time possessed of a good pat- 
rimony, and was one of the substantial farmers in the old 
North State, but by indorsing for friends he became 
insolvent, and, at the suggestion of his wife, removed 
with his family across the mountains to New Albany, 


with the hope of regaining his fortune in the free atmos-: 
phere of Indiana. There he died in 1833. Augustus 
Bradley’s mother, Obedience Bradley, then apprenticed 
her son to learn the printer’s trade. After serving his 
apprenticeship, by rigid economy he and his elder 
brother enabled their mother to maintain and educate 
her family. He remained in the printing-office six or 
seven years, employing. all his spare time in study, 
hoping in this manner to prepare himself for practical 
business life. At about the age of nineteen he was ap- 


4 


pointed deputy postmaster at New Albany, by General 
Burnett—who was. then postmaster of that city—and 
served in that capacity for about three years. Desiring 
to obtain a more thorough education, he resigned his 
position and entered Greencastle College, where he made 
very rapid progress. After spending about a year in 
college, he was nominated by the Democratic party for 
county auditor, to which office he was elected in 1845, 
at the age of twenty-three years. He was afterward 
re-elected, and served his constituents acceptably for 
nine and a half years. He did all the work of the office 
himself, and so perfectly was it done that he was never 
called upon to make a single explanation. On retiring 
from the auditor’s office, Mr. Bradley entered upon the 
mercantile business, in some branch of which he has been 
engaged ever since. In 1861 he was again called into 
public life and elected state Senator, to fill the place 
made vacant by the resignation of Colonel D. C. An- 
thony. After serving the remainder of this term, Mr, 
Bradley was re-nominated and elected, receiving five 
hundred and nine votes more than any man on the state 
ticket. While a member of the Senate he showed him- 
self possessed of excellent legislative ability. One of 
the important measures in which he was interested 
was the erection of an asylum for the incurable insane, 
for which he succeeded in getting an appropriation of 
thirty-five thousand dollars. 
nearly completed, is of equal capacity with the old one, 
near which it stands. Mr. Bradley was strongly in favor 
of meeting the public debt of Indiana as it became due, 


The new building, now 


and accordingly introduced a bill for that purpose, the 
main features of which were adopted and made the 
law under which the state debt was settled in 1866. He 
was also urgent in behalf of many important measures, 
representing Floyd County as ably as it has ever been 
represented by any one. He was a war Democrat, be- 
lieving that much wrong had been done to the South, 
but that such wrongs did not justify a war upon the old 
flag. About the expiration of his term as state Senator, 
he was appointed by Governor Baker a commissioner 
on the part of the state to examine the accounts of the 
Fund Commissioners of Indiana, but declined. In 1872 
he was a delegate from to the National 
Democratic Convention, at Baltimore, which nominated 
Horace Greeley for the presidency. He has filled 
many places of trust, always discharging his duties in 
the most acceptable manner. His character as a private 
citizen and a public officer has never been assailed. Mr. 
Bradley served the people of his ward thirteen consecu- 
tive years in the New Albany city council, and had 
much to do with the city’s interest and prosperity. 
During all this time he watched carefully the interests 
of the tax-payers, doing all in his power to place the 
city on a good financial basis. In 1869 Mr. Bradley was 
elected to the presidency of the Louisville, New Albany 


Indiana 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| 


[sd Dost. 


and St. Louis Airline Railroad Company. This was 
thought to be an enterprise that would be of great ben- 
efit to New Albany, and therefore required competent 
and trusty men. He entered upon the discharge of his 
duties in this important position with that earnestness 
and determination to succeed which have characterized 
his whole life. Ie procured a subscription of one mill- 
ion seven hundred thousand dollars, which he expended 
on the line, fitting almost the entire road for the cross- 
ties, and making nine tunnels, one of which is three- 
fourths of a mile through solid rock. Some thirty miles 
of this road are completely equipped and ‘in operation; 
and had it not been for the panic of 1873, which drove 
all great enterprises, both public and private, to the 
wall, the Air-line Road would have been entirely com- 
pleted, and one of the best paying in this country, be- 
sides being of great national importance. Mr. Bradley 
took the presidency of the road without a dollar, and 
succeeded in grading, bridging, trestling, and almost 
finishing the greater part of it. He severed his connec- 
tion with the road as president in 1875, but his ambition 
still is. to see the line completed. For twenty-five years 
past Mr. Bradley has been secretary and treasurer of the 
New Albany and Vincennes turnpike, an evidence of the 
confidence placed by the directors in his ability and in- 
tegrity. He has always been an unflinching Democrat, 
fighting gallantly for his convictions. In 1846, while 
yet in the auditor’s office, he and Mr. Oliver Lucas pur- 
chased the Western Union Democrat, of New Albany, 
which they conducted very successfully, making it a 
sterling Democratic paper. This was afterwards sold to 
John B. Norman. It became the New Albany Ledger, 
and later the Ledger-~Standard, which is to-day the most 
substantial and the leading Democratic paper in the 
state. Mr. Bradley’s early training made such lasting 
impressions on his mind that, although not a professed 
politician, his ardor for the success of his party has 
never abated, and he is ever ready to give his influence 
and make personal sacrifices for principle. While he has 
never pretended to be a public speaker, he makes a 
good, logical speech, and writes with great ease and 
fluency on most subjects. Mr. Bradley is a Methodist, 
and has been an active worker in the interest of the 
Church ever since his connection with it. For many 
years he has been a teacher in one of the classes 
of the Centenary Sabbath-school, and never fails to 
be at his post, giving the Sabbath mornings to the 
youth and children of the Church. Some time since, in 
reviewing with a friend the past, he remarked: “If 
there is one feature in the history of my life to which I 
can turn with pleasure, it is to my connection with the 
Sabbath-school.” Having been taught in his youth the 
principles of truth so necessary to real manhood, he has 
ever met friends ready to stand by him. In business and 
social relations he has always been straightforward and 


ja Dist.] 


upright, his word being regarded as good as a written 
contract. Hon. M. C. Kerr, speaker of the House of 
Representatives, in a letter to a friend, said of Mr. 
Bradley: ‘‘He is one of the best of men, and a citizen 
of high personal, social, and Christian character, worthy 
of the respect and confidence of all. I have known him 
well over twenty years, in most of the relations of life 
and business, and I can safely say he has to this day 
maintained a character without blemish.” At the age of 
twenty-five Mr. Bradley married Miss Sarah A. Leyden, 
daughter of Patrick and Mary Leyden. Mrs, Bradley is 
a most estimable lady, an honored member of society, a 
devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and a leader in almost every enterprise to alleviate the 
sufferings of the human race. She is the honored presi- 
dent of the New Albany Orphans’ Home, and a zealous, 
energetic, and successful worker in whatever she under- 
takes. Her influence has been greatly felt in the tem- 
perance movement, working hand in hand with her hus- 
band, whose efforts have been united with hers in every 
undertaking. ‘They have lived in New Albany nearly all 
their lives, and have few, if any, enemies. Though 
long since having earned the right to withdraw from 
active business life, Mr. Bradley still believes in putting 
his shoulder to.the wheel, and is now as full of life and 
business energy as in his younger days. He is at pres- 
ent engaged in conducting a flour-mill, in connection 
with his brother-in-law, Mr. Isaac P. Leyden. They 
also do a large trade in general produce, and the firm 
is widely and favorably known throughout Southern 
indiana. 
+4006 


4 ROWN, CAPTAIN ALLEN W., treasurer of Jen- 
nings County, Vernon, Indiana, was born in Jen- 

C nings County, Indiana, November 27, 1827, and 
5 was the eldest son of John M. and Jane (McGill) 
Brown. His grandfather Brown served both in the 
Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. His uncle, 
John McGill, was in the War of 1812, and his grand- 
father McGill spent seven years in the Revolutionary 
army. Captain Brown was brought up on his father’s 
farm, and employed his time in agricultural labor and 
assisting his father in his saw-mill until he was twenty- 
one years of age, in this time having been only a part 
of three months at school. He has, however, since ob- 
_ tained a good English education. When a good-sized 
boy, he worked for some time at twelve and one-half 
cents per day. In 1848 he built a saw-mill, which he 
operated one year. He then sold it, and, after spending 
some time in the South, worked in the ship-yards at 
Madison. In 1850 he returned to Jennings County, re- 
purchased his mill, and carried it on for about four 
years. He also built a flour-mill at Scipio, in which he 
had a one-third interest, which he conducted for a year 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 5 


or two. He then sold his mill property, and for a short 
time was in no regular business. In 1856 he purchased 
another saw-mill, and operated it until August, 1862, 
when he sold out and enlisted as a private in Company 
B, 82d Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was soon after 
commissioned second lieutenant, and then rose to the 
rank of captain. | He was with his regiment during all 
its important actions, from the battle of Chattanooga to 
that of Atlanta, except the battle of Murfreesboro, when 
he was on sick leave in Indiana. Owing to ill-health he 
resigned in November, 1864, and returned home. He 
soon after purchased an interest in a store at Scipio, 
which he carried on two years; then, selling out, he 
returned to his farm, which he has since continued to 
manage. Tle was elected treasurer of Jennings County 
in 1876, and re-elected in 1878. In politics he is an 
earnest Republican, and has been an energetic worker, 
contributing much to the success of his party. He isa 
member of the Baptist Church. In July, 1853, he mar- 
ried Miss Euphemia Wilkins, daughter of a farmer of 
Jennings County. They have four children living, 
three sons and one daughter. Captain Brown is a 
genial and social gentleman, and is esteemed by all who 
know him. 


— +300 — 


C ROWN, JASON B., was born February 26, 1839, 
in Dearborn County, Indiana. His father, Robert 
D. Brown, a lawyer of ability, and at one time 


me 
acy state librarian, is still living; his mother, Mary 
(Hubbard) Brown, died when he was but nine months 
old. Both were devout Methodists. The subject of 
this sketch obtained the rudiments of his education at 
Wilmington, and, upon leaving school in 1857, spent 
one year in a dry-goods store at Maysville, Kentucky, 
and then went to Indianapolis, where he entered as a 
student the office of Hon. Cyrus L. Dunham, at that 
time Secretary of State. He was admitted to the bar in 
February, 1860, and immediately engaged in the prac- 
tice of his profession at Brownstown, Jackson County, 
Indiana. March 5, 1866, on motion of Hon. Jeremiah 
S. Black, of Pennsylvania, he was admitted to practice 
in the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1862 he 
was elected to the Legislature, and was re-elected in 
1864. In 1868 he was one of the Democratic electors 
for the state at large. In 1870 he represented his dis- 
trict in the state Senate. On the 26th of March, 1873, 
he was appointed secretary of the territory of Wyoming, 
which position he held until his resignation, May 1, 
1875. During that time he was elected to assist in the 
prosecution of Peter P. Wintermute, at Yankton, Dakota 
Territory, for the murder of General Edwin S. McCook ; 
and, for the masterly argument made in behalf of the 
people in this celebrated case, Mr. Brown received the 
encomiums of the entire legal fraternity, of the press, and 


6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


of the people. From that time he was acknowledged 
as one of the leading members of the bar in the West. 
On his return from Wyoming, Mr. Brown settled in 
Seymour, Indiana, in the year 1875, and married Anna 
E. Shiel. In 1862 he became known in Indiana poli- 
tics, and to-day is a prominent member of the Demo- 
cratic party of the state, and is widely known else- 
where. During the campaign in Ohio between Brough 
and Vallandigham he stumped that state in the interest 
of the Democratic party, but was not a supporter of 
Horace Greeley for the presidency, as he considered 
this nomination inconsistent with his views as a Demo- 
crat. Mr. Brown is well known all over the country, 
and as one of the leading members of the Indiana bar 
is constantly engaged on important cases. He is much 
esteemed by those who know him. 


+400 -<— 


))URRELL, BARTHOLOMEW H., attorney, of 
Al;)) Brownstown, was born in Jackson County, Indi- 
“°% ana, March 13, 1841, and is the second son of 
6g John H. and Mary (Findley) Burrell. His father, 
a well-known and highly respected farmer, has been for 


years commissioner of Jackson County. He was a sol- 
dier in the Black Hawk War, and also captain of Com- 
pany G, Fifth Indiana Regiment, in the late Civil War. 
The subject of this sketch remained on the farm till he 
was twenty-one years of age, when he entered the State 
University of Bloomington, Indiana, having borrowed the 
money to carry him through a collegiate course, which he 
promptly repaid from his first earnings after graduation, 
He graduated in the scientific department in 1864, and 
in the same year was drafted into the army. He furnished 
a substitute, however, and then taught school, employing 
his leisure time in the study of law with Judge Frank 
Emerson. Having thus paved the way for the comple- 
tion of his studies, he returned to the State University, 
where he graduated from the law department in 1866. 
Upon admission to the bar, he commenced practice in 
partnership with Judge Emerson. This partnership was 
dissolved in 1868, but was renewed in 1873, under the 
firm name of Burrell & Emerson, and still continues. 
In 1875 Mr. Burrell was elected one of the town trus- 
tees for the town of Brownstown, and, in 1876, state 
Senator for four years. In the Senate he at once assumed 
a prominent position, being appointed chairman of the 
Committee on Claims, also of that on Congressional 
Apportionment, and a member of the Committees on 
Elections and Judiciary. He has been an active mem- 
ber of the Democratic party from his youth, and is now 
chairman of the County Central Committee. He has 
been many times a delegate to the state conventions; 
and by reason of his ability and energy has come to be 
regarded as one of the leaders of the Democracy, and 


gd Dist. 


the rising man of his party in the county. Mr. Burrell 
is an active and useful member of the Presbyterian 
Church. He was married, in October, 1864, to Maggie 
F. Throop, of Bloomington, Indiana, by whom he has 
had three children, but only one daughter is now living. 
In social life, Mr. Burrell is noted for his courteous and 
agreeable manners, and is regarded as a man of strong 
character and marked individuality. As a politician he 
is a model organizer and a natural leader among his 
fellows; and as a lawyer he is a man of ability and 
power. 
—>-$ath-o— 


G UTLER, JOHN H., of New Albany, is a native 
y}) of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he was born, 
7. October 17, 1812. His father, Jonathan Butler, 
removed with his family to Indiana, and settled 
in Hanover, Jefferson County, in the year 1819. His 
mother, Nancy (Hopkins) Butler, was a daughter of 
John Hopkins, whose family were among the early set- 
tlers of the state of Maryland. John H. Butler was ed- 
ucated in the schools of his native village, and later at 
Hanover, Indiana, where he received a college training. 
He commenced the study of law at Hanover, in the 
office of Judge Eggleston, then the most prominent law- 
yer of that county, and Judge of the Circuit Court. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1839, and removed to 
Salem, the county seat of Washington County, where 
he opened an office and commenced the practice of his 
profession. Here he met with success from the begin- 
ning, and was soon known as a rising young lawyer. 
For nearly thirty years he pursued his professional career 
in the same place, achieving a brilliant reputation, and be- 
coming known not only in his county but throughout the 
state. In 1866 he removed to New Albany, and formed 
a partnership with W. Gresham, now United States Dis- 
trict Judge. In 1868 he was appointed, by Governor 
Baker, Judge of the Twenty-seventh Judicial District of 
Indiana. He was a delegate to represent his district in 
the Republican convention at Chicago which nominated 
Abraham Lincoln for the presidency, in 1860. He has 
always been a Republican, but never a professional poli- 
tician. On the 3d of January, 1843, he married Miss 
Mary Chase, daughter of Isaac and Ruth Chase, of Sa- 
lem. They have a family of two sons. The elder, No- 
ble C., studied law with his father, was admitted to the 
bar in 1867, and the following year was appointed regis- 
ter in bankruptcy, which position he still holds. The 
other son, Charles H., is a bank teller. Mrs. Butler is 
a member of the Presbyterian Church, of which her 
husband is an occasional attendant. Now, in his sixty- 
seventh year, the cares of life have left their marks 
upon his brow. But his silvery hairs have never been 
whitened by dishonor, and his life has been such as to 
commend him to the esteem of his fellow-men. 


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3@ Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
he ARESS, JAMES M., county superintendent of 
{ schools, of Salem, was born in Washington County, 
\{ January 3, 1848, and is the sixth son of Peter and 

>) Rachel (Worrall) Caress. 
mer, who died when James M. Caress was but a small 
child. The Worralls were very prominent in the Pres- 


His father was a far- 


byterian Church, one of them being at present pastor of 
the Eighth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. Mr. Caress 
remained on the farm until he was twenty, attending the 
common schools during the winter. He then attended 
May’s High School, at Salem, and during the winters 
of several following years taught school, working on the 
farm in summer. He devoted every moment of his spare 
time to his books, and by hard study acquired a fine En- 
glish education. In 1874 he entered the State University 
at Bloomington, and graduated from the law department 
in 1875. In the fall of that year he was elected county 
superintendent of schools, and still occupies the same 
position, to the entire satisfaction of the people. He 
married, November 11, 1874, Miss Laura Newland, 
daughter of Doctor B. Newland, of Bedford, by whom 
he has two children. Mr. Caress is a member of the 
Presbyterian Church. In political matters he is one of 
the active workers of the Democratic party, doing every 
thing in his power to increase their large majority in 
Washington County. 
teemed by all classes of citizens, and has filled the im- 
portant trust to which the people have elected him in 
an honest, impartial manner. He is widely and favora- 
bly known as a thorough gentleman. 


He is highly respected and es- 


—+- $00 


ANNON, GREENBERRY C., retired merchant, of 
New Albany, was born at Georgetown, Kentucky, 
October 28, 1820. He is the son of John and Lu- 

» rena Cannon, his mother’s family being among the 

early settlers of Maryland. His parents removed to 

Bloomington, Indiana, when he was still a child, but 

afterward returned to Kentucky, residing at Shelbyville, 

and again at Georgetown, where they remained until 
their son reached his twenty-first year. In 1840 Mr, 

Cannon came to New Albany and engaged in the whole- 

sale fancy dry-goods trade. 

ued to reside and do business, with the exception of ' 
about two years at Heltonville, Indiana. He has been 

eminently successful in all his undertakings. In 1852, 

after eleven years of business life in New Albany, his 

stock in trade was probably the largest and finest, in his 
line, of any in Southern Indiana. In 1875 he retired 
from active business, having accumulated a handsome 
fortune. During his long residence in New Albany, 
brought into the most intimate social and business rela- 
tions with his fellow-citizens, he won for himself a high 
place in their esteem, and has contributed in no small 
A—9 


Here he has since contin- 


MEN OF INDIANA. 7. 
degree to the prosperity of the place, being always 
ready to engage in any enterprise for its good. His do- 
mestic relations have always been of the pleasantest na- 
ture. He married, in 1851, Miss Mary Elizabeth Austin, 
of New Albany. They have had seven children, of whom 
five are still living. Although a believer in Christianity, 
he is not a member of any Church. His wife has been 
a Methodist from childhood, her father having been one 
of the founders of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Mr. Cannon is a member of the Masons. In 
politics he takes no active part, but is one of those men 
who believe in Democracy, and is a constant worker for 
his party. In 1868 he was chosen by the voters of his 
ward to represent them in the city council, filling that of- 
fice for two terms. Mr. Cannon was one of the founders 
of the Merchants’ and Mechanics’ Bank, and a director 
in it during its existence. He was also a director in the 
New Albany Insurance Company. For the last four 
years he has been a director in the New Albany Banking 
Company, and has held the same office in the Water- 
works Company since its organization. The Air-line 
Railroad found a most earnest advocate in him. He was 
elected by the directors of the road president of the 
company, an office he filled for some time, now holding 
that of vice-president. He was also one of the projectors 
of the Music Hall, in which he has been a director for 
fifteen years past. He has filled all these positions with 
the utmost satisfaction to the people; and now, sur- 
rounded by a happy family, and by all that makes life 
pleasant, he enjoys the legitimate fruits of a well-spent 
life. 
—-3006-— 


Pe 


‘fs; OLE, C. B., of Seymour, superintendent of the Cin- 
cinnati and Vincennes Division of the Ohio and 
2G) Mississippi Railroad, was born July 17, 1833, in 
ap) Caledonia County, Vermont, and is a son of Ziba 
and Rebecca (Ford) Cole. He acquired the rudiments 
of an English education at the common schools of his 
native county, and assisted his father on the farm until 
he reached the age of nineteen years, when he left his 
parents and started out in the world for himself. Upon 
leaving home he went to the northern part of New 
Hampshire, and engaged to drive an ox team during 
the construction of the Grand Trunk Railroad from 
Portland to Montreal. Upon the completion of this 
road he worked for the Northern New Hampshire Rail- 
road on repairs. In 1858 he came West, settled at Sey- 
mour, Indiana, and, beginning work on the Ohio and 
Mississippi Railroad as a bridge carpenter, was _pro- 
moted to the position of roadmaster, and appointed 
conductor of freight and passenger trains. He con- 
tinued working for that company ten years, and was 
then employed by the Union Pacific, running a passen- 
ger train from Rawley’s Springs to Wahsatch, on that 


8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


line. After eight months on this road, he was engaged 
by the Vandalia line as yardmaster and freight con- 
ductor, and remained one year. We next find him in 
the employment of the Missouri Pacific Road, as freight 
conductor, which position he held for one year and a 
half. He then resigned and returned to Seymour, In- 
diana, in 1872, and was appointed train-master of the 
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. Soon after, he was 
made superintendent of the two divisions of this road 
between Cincinnati and Vincennes, Indiana, which posi- 
tion he now holds. He has been twice married; first, 
in 1855, to Lydia Brooks, of Lebanon, New Hampshire. 
They had one child, a daughtér, who lived to the age 
of nineteen. In 1862 he married Fannic Yeatman, of 
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, to whom two children have 
been born, only one of them now living. Mr. Cole 
commenced life with no means and comparatively little 
education, and has worked his way to the prominent 
position he now holds by his own energy and industry. 
He is regarded by railroad men as an efficient and en- 
ergetic officer, and is highly respected by Is employeis 
all along the line. He has been identified with the in- 
terests of Seymour, where he now resides, and has done 


much towards advancing the interests of the city. 


—>-4926<—- 


Js ROWE, COLONEL SAMUEL G., attorney, Scotts- 
burg, Scott County, Indiana, was born at Shelby- 
ite ville, Kentucky, July 23, 1819, being the oldest son 
os of John F, and Esther (Alexander) Crowe. Mr. 
Crowe was a Presbyterian minister, and his father was a 
colonel in the Revolutionary War. John F. Crowe 
moved to Indiana in 1823, and soon after established 
the college at Hanover, remaining with it until his death, 
which occurred in January, 1860. He was a very promi- 
nent school man, and did much to further the educa- 
tional interests of the state. The Colonel attended col- 
lege at Hanover, and graduated there October, 1839, 
and for the next eleven years taught school ; the first place 
being at Carlisle, Sullivan County, where he had charge 
of the high school for two years.” He then was the 
teacher of the high school at New Washington, Clarke 
County, for two years, and afterwards gave instruction 
in the high school at Hanover, in connection with his 
father. During this time the college was removed from 
Hanover to Madison, and on its return to Hanover he 
left the school, going to Madison and studying law 
with the Hon. Wilberforce Lyle. He was with him 
about one year. He then moved to Lexington, Scott 
County, and had charge of the seminary, and also pur- 
sued the study of law with Hon. George A. Bicknell. 
In the spring of 1858 he became clerk in the land office 
at Washington, District of Columbia, and in 1859 was 
ippointed chief clerk of Ward B, Burnett, surveyor- 


* Led Dist. 


general of Nebraska and Kansas, where he spent over, 


one year in the city of Nebraska. He continued read- 
ing until 1860, when he was admitted to the bar, and 
immediately began the practice of his profession with 
judges?" H. Jewett, which he continued until August, 
1862, when he raised a company for the war, and was 
commissioned captain of Company B, of the 93d Indi- 
ana Volunteer Infantry. He was picket officer for the 
brigade on the staff of General Ralph Buckland, which 
he held for one year, when he was appointed major, 
and afterwards leutenant-colonel. We was in active 
service all of the time, and was always to be found at 
the front. In that position he was during the siege of 
Vicksburg, and was there also in the battle of Jackson, 
Mississippi. During the latter part of the war he was 
provost guard of Memphis, and was also in the battles 
of Nashville and of Gainesville, Alabama, at the close 
of the war, being mustered out of the service, August 
10, 1865. After his return home he resumed the prac- 
tice of law in Lexington, but in 1874 moved to Scotts- 
burg, where he now resides. In 1857 he was elected to 
the Legislature, and again in 1867. In politics he is a 
Democrat, and is one of the leaders of the party in the 
county. He attends the Presbyterian Church. He was 
married to his first wife, Mary B. Fouts, April, 1840, 
by whom he has two children, one boy and one girl. The 
son, John F., is an attorney in Giddings, Texas. The 
daughter, Susan E. A. Griffith, lives at . Jeffersonville, 
Indiana. Ife married his present wife, Amanda N., 
Warnell, February, 1849, by whom he has four sons and 
one daughter. His second son, Samuel S., is farming 
in Texas; Mary C. married Clarence L. Fouts, who is 
an architect in San Francisco, California; William C., 
Thomas O., and George A. are all at home. The 
Colonel is a genial gentleman of the old school, and has 
the respect of the entire community. 


—+ 400 


7) avisow, ALEXANDER A., merchant, of Sey- 
4) mour, Indiana, was born at Dupont’s Powder 
©i§ Mills, near Wilmington, Delaware, June 28, 1836, 
6 and is the oldest child of Ezekiel and Catherine 
(McFall) Davison. His father was a farmer, who, in 
the spring of 1844, removed to Jackson County, Indi- 
ana; there Alexander Davison attended the county and 
district schools in winter, and worked on the farm in 
summer, until he attained his majority. In 1856 he 
was employed for a short time as clerk in a store, and 
in 1857-58, attended the State University at Blooming- 
ton, Indiana. He then returned to the farm in Jen- 
nings County, Indiana, where his father had removed 
in 1854. In the spring of 1860 he became clerk in a 
general store in Seymour, holding the position until the 
summer of 1861. In this year his father died, and he 


gd Dist.| 


returned to the farm; but, at the end of twelve months, 
he resumed work in the same store in Seymour. In the 
fall of 1863 he was nominated by the. Democracy as 
clerk of Jennings County. Ile made a canvass of the 
county, but was defeated, and again went to the home 
farm. In the fall of 1864 he entered, for the third 
time, the store in Seymour and remained until 1868. 
During this period he held the offices of clerk, council- 
man, and mayor of the city of Seymour. In the fall of 
1868 he was elected treasurer of Jackson County, and, 
being re-elected in 1870, served the county four years. 
In 1873 he purchased an interest in a hardware store in 
Seymour, Indiana, and is now conducting the business 
under the firm name of Davison & Kessler. In 1872, 
while serving as treasurer of the county, he became sole 
proprietor and editor of the Seymour weekly Democrat, 
continuing to publish the paper until 1875, when he 
was elected to the Legislature to represent Jackson 
County. He was defeated in the convention for a re- 
nomination on account of his hard-money views. In 
politics he is a stanch Democrat, leading the party in 
many of its campaigns, ably editing its journal, and 
serving as chairman of the county central committee. 
He was reared a Presbyterian, but belongs to no Church. 
He married Louisa C. Wilkerson, daughter of a mer- 
chant of Scipio, Jennings County, Indiana. Three 
daughters have been born to them, two of whom died 
of scarlet fever in the fall of 1878. Mr. Davison has 
acquired an ample fortune by his own industry and 
energy; he has done much to advance the interests of 
Seymour, and is highly respected by his fellow-citizens. 


+400 — 


t AVIS, JOHN STEELE, of New Albany, was born 
in Dayton, Ohio, November 14, 1814. His father, 
©@i5 John Davis, was a merchant, and for many years 
*@% magistrate of the county in which he resided. He 
was one of the few strictly temperate men of his time. 
He married Elizabeth Calcier, daughter of a farmer near 
Princeton, New Jersey. They had six sons and five 
daughters, most of whom grew to maturity. Emigrat- 
ing westward, he settled in Montgomery County, Ohio. 
Ile took an active part with General Wayne in the 
Indian War, after the defeat of General St. Clair. He 
died aged sixty-six years. Judge Davis’s grandfather, 
Captain Joseph Davis, emigrated from Wales, and set- 
tled near Princeton, New Jersey. We participated in 
the struggle for independence, and was with General 
Washington at the battles of Monmouth and Princeton, 
at the latter of which he lost a leg. John Steele Davis, 
the subject of this ske*ch, early gave his attention to 
study, and entered Miami University at the age of six- 
teen. A short time afterwards his father failed in busi- 


ness, which necessitated his return home. Tle was now 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 9 


thrown upon his own resources for acquiring an educa 
tion, and was obliged to assist in the support of his 
Ile afterward read law with W. J. 
Thomas, of Troy, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar. 


father and family. 


Ie immediately came to Indiana, settled in New Albany, 
Floyd County, in the year 1836, where shortly after his 
arrival he commenced the practice of law. As a coun- 
selor and jurist few men can claim a higher record; he 
has been constantly engaged in the profession for a 
period of forty-two years, and has never prosecuted 
a man, nor allowed himself to be engaged to prosecute. 
He has probably defended more men for high crimes 
and misdemeanors than any other man in the state, 
and has been almost invariably successful. Ife was the 
first city clerk of New Albany, having been elected in 
1839, and was chosen city attorney in 1846. In 1841 he 
was elected to the state Legislature for the first time, 
and has since served his county repeatedly in both 
branches—about twenty years in all. Ile was elected, 
without opposition, in 1876, Judge of the Criminal and 
Civil Courts of Floyd and Clarke Counties, an office he 


did not seek, and only accepted at the earnest solicitation 
of friends. Judge Davis was an ardent Whig until that 
party ceased to exist. He was violently opposed to 
‘“*Know-Nothingism,” and for a long time stood aloof 
from parties, but finally united with the Democracy. 
In 1843 he was the Whig candidate for Congress against 
Thomas J. Henley, Democrat, and, in a district over- 
whelmingly Democratic, was defeated by only thirty- 
seven votes. He was presidential elector for General 
Taylor; and in 1852 was a member of the National 
Convention that nominated General Scott for Presi- 
dent. In 1860 Judge Davis was Independent candi- 
date for Congress against James A. Cravens, Democratic 
nominee; and, although at the previous election the 
Democrats had a majority of four thousand five hun- 
dred, Judge Davis was defeated by a very small major- 
ity. Ile was a warm supporter of the war for the 
Union, and had two sons m the army. The younger, 
John S. Davis, junior, rose to the rank of captain and 
assistant quartermaster by appointment of President 
Lincoln; he was with General Burnside in the Cumber- 
land Mountains in the severe campaign of 1863-64, 
and died of disease contracted at that time. The other 
son, William P. Davis, rose to the rank of leutenant- 
colonel in the 23d Indiana Volunteers; he took part in 
all the well-earned victories of Shiloh, Vicksburg, and 
the campaign in Georgia. Judge Davis has been twice 
married, first to Elizabeth Stone, a native of Virginia, 
by whom he had four sons and two daughters. Mrs. 
Davis died in 1852, and Judge Davis afterward married 
Annie S., daughter of George Davis, of Dayton, Ohio, 
by whom he has one son. Ife is a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd-fellows and of the Episcopal 
Church. 


REPRESENTATIVE 


AVIS, WILLIAM P., of New Albany, was born in 
Troy, Ohio, January 24, 1835, and is the son of 
John S. and Elizabeth (Stone) Davis. His father 
is at present Judge of the Circuit Court of the 
Twenty-seventh District. When William Davis was one 
year old the family moved to Indiana. He was edu- 
cated in the city of New Albany, and for a short time 
attended Wabash College. At the age of twenty-one 
he engaged in the manufacture of hydraulic cement, at the 
Falls of the Ohio, and of woolen goods for the Southern 
market, at the Indiana state-prison. Believing, in the 
fall of 1860, that civil war was imminent, and his business 
relations being entirely with the South, he thought best 
to sell his factories. A short time afterward the war 
broke out. He raised a company for the three years’ 
service, and just before being mustered in was appointed, 
by President Lincoln, agent for the Seminole Indians. 
He declined the appointment, however, and was mus- 
tered in with his company as captain, in the 23d Indi- 
ana Volunteers, but before leaving camp at New Albany 
He com- 


he was commissioned major of the regiment. 
manded the 23d during two of its three years’ service, 
and with it participated prominently in all the battles 
around Vicksburg, occupying, in the forty-seven days’ 
siege of that place, Fort Hill, the most important posi- 
tion in the line. He was also in the campaign in 
Georgia; and was mustered out of the service at At- 
lanta, having served already beyond the term of his en- 
listment. Just previous to his discharge he received a 
flattering written testimonial of his services and those 
of the regiment, signed by Generals McPherson, Logan, 
Blair, and Gresham. He was appointed by President 
Johnson assessor of internal revenue for the district in 
which he resides. For three years he was president of 
the board of education of the city of New Albany, was 
deputy auditor of Floyd County four years, and is now 
trustee of New Albany Township. He married, in Oc- 
tober, 1857, Lucy M. Hale, daughter of Wicome and 
Catherine A. (Moore) Hale. The Hale family were 
among the first settlers of Maine and Massachusetts. 
Colonel Davis belongs to the Masonic Fraternity, and is 
one of the Knights of Honor. His family are all mem- 
bers of the Episcopal Church, 


—+-§906-o— 


EPAUW, WASHINGTON CHARLES, of New 
;{| Albany, was born at Salem, Washington County, 
6 Indiana, on the 4th of January, 1822. As the name 
Ae indicates, Mr. DePauw is a descendant from a 
noble French family; his great-grandfather, Cornelius, 
having been private reader to Frederick II of Prussia, 
and author of several works of note. Charles DePauw, 
the grandfather of W. C. DePauw, was born at the city 
of Ghent, in French Flanders. When he arrived at a 


MEN OF INDIANA. Lod Dist. 
proper age he was sent to Paris to complete his educa- 
tion, and there became acquainted with Lafayette. At 
that time the struggle for American independence was 
just beginning. He became infatuated with the Ameri- 
can cause, joined his fortunes to those of Lafayette, and 
sailed with that renowned commander to this country. 
He served throughout the war, and by the close be- - 
came so thoroughly imbued with a love for America 
that he sought a wife in Virginia; thence he removed 
with the first tide of emigration to the blue-grass regions 
of Kentucky. In that state General John DePauw, the 
father of W. C. DePauw, was born. On arriving at 
man’s estate he moved from Kentucky to Washington 
County, Indiana. As agent for the county he surveyed, 
platted, and sold the lots in Salem, and purchased four 
acres of the high ground on the west side, upon which 
the family mansion was erected. He was by profession 
an attorney-at-law, and became a judge. He was also a 
general of militia. No man in his day enjoyed more of 
the confidence and good-will of his fellow-men than 
General John DePauw. His wife, whose maiden name 
was Elizabeth Batist (the mother of W. C. DePauw), 
was a woman of superior mind and a strong and vigorous 
constitution. She died in 1878, at the advanced age of 
ninety-two years. At the age of sixteen Mr. DePauw 
was thrown upon his own resources by the death of his 
father. He had only the meager education which that 
period and the surrounding circumstances would allow 
his parents to give; but, though young, he desired to 
be independent of friends and relatives, and accordingly 
set to work. He worked for two dollars a week, and 
when that was wanting he worked for nothing rather 
than be idle. That energy and industry allied with 
character and ability bring friends proved true in his 
case. Major Eli W. Malott, the leading merchant of 
Salem, became interested in the young man. At the 
age of nineteen he entered the office of the county 
clerk, and by his energy and faithfulness he gained con- 
fidence and soon had virtual control of the office. 
When he attained his majority he was elected clerk 
to this 
office was joined, by the action of the state Legislature, 
that of auditor. Mr. DePauw filled both of these 
positions until close application and the consequent severe 
mental strain impaired his health; after several prostra- 
tions and through fear of apoplexy, he acted on the ad- 
vice of his physicians and gave up his sedentary pursuits. 
His extraordinary memory, quick but accurate judgment, 
and clear mental faculties fitted him for a successful 
life. His early business career was like his political 
one; he was true and faithful, and constantly gained 
friends. 


of Washington County without opposition; 


His first investment was in a saw and grist 
mill, and this proving successful he added mill ‘after 
mill. With this business he combined farming, mer- 


chandising, and banking, at the same time investing 


W.C.DePAUW. 


LYBRARY 


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largely in the grain trade. It is hardly necessary to 
state that he was fortunate in cach investment, and his 
means rapidly increased until, at the breaking out of the 
war, he had a large mercantile interest and a well es- 
tablished bank. He was at the same time one of the 
largest grain dealers in the state of Indiana, and his 
knowledge of this trade and his command of means ren- 
dered him able to 
the with 


materially assist in furnishing 
government supplies. His patriotism and 
confidence in the success of the Union armies were such 
that he also invested a large amount in government 
securities. -Here again he was successful, and at the 
close of the war had materially augmented his already 
large fortune. Mr. DePauw has used his wealth freely 
to encourage manufactures and to build up the city of 
New Albany; he has made many improvements, and is 
largely interested in the rolling mills and iron foundries 
in that city. He is now proprietor of DePauw’s Ameri- 
can Plate-glass Works. This is a new and valuable in- 
dustry, and the interests of our country require that it 
should be carried to success; it is a matter of national 
concern that American glass should surpass in quality 
and take the place of the French article in the markets 
of the world. Mr. DePauw is now doing all in his 
power to promote this great end, and at present every 
thing points to the success of the undertaking. He has 
about two millions of dollars invested in manufacturing 
enterprises in the city of New Albany. Mr. DePauw 
has taken but a small part in state affairs for many 
years, having devoted his time to his business and home 
interests, to the advancement of education and religion. 
He has been often forced to decline positions which his 
party were ready to give him, and in 1872 he was as- 
sured by many prominent Democrats that the nomina- 
tion for Governor was at his disposal. In the convention 
he was nominated for Lieutenant-governor. 
to show the purposes and character of the man, let us 


In order 


quote a few words from his letter declining the nomina- 
tion: **My early business life was spent in an intensely 
earnest struggle for success as a manufacturer, grain 
dealer, and banker. Since then I have found full work 
in endeavoring to assist in promoting the religious, 
benevolent, and educational interests of Indiana, and in 
helping to extend those advantages to the South and 
West. Hence I have neither the time nor inclination 
for politics. In these chosen fields of labor I find con- 
genial spirits, whom I love and understand. 
experience gives me hope that I may accomplish some- 
thing, perhaps much, for religion and humanity.” These 
are noble words, and a true index of Mr. DePauw’s 
character. He has expended thousands of dollars in 


? 


building churches and endowing benevolent institutions 
throughout this and the neighboring states; he has as- 
sisted many worthy young men to obtain an education, 
and has founded and kept in operation DePauw College, 


My long 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. rel 


a seminary of a high order for young ladies, at New Al- 
bany. Mr. DePauw was for years a trustee of the State 
University at Bloomington, Indiana, and is at present a 
trustee of the Indiana Asbury University, the leading 
Methodist college of the West. 
Methodist Church, and has served as a delegate of the 
Indiana Conference at the General Conferences of that 
Church in 1872 and 1876. He isa member of the Ma- 
sonic and Odd-fellows’ Orders, and is beloved and re- 
spected by both. The part of his life most satisfactory 
to himself is that spent in his work for Christ in the 


He is a member of the 


Church, in the Sunday-school, in the prayer-meeting, 
and in the every-day walks of life. He has been through- 
out life a thorough business man, full of honesty and in- 
tegrity. 
it in an earnest will and vast industry. 


He sought a fortune within himself and found 
He is eminently 
a self-made man, and stands out prominent to-day as 
one who, amid the cares of business, has ever preserved 
his reputation for honesty, integrity, and morality; who 
has never neglected the cause of religion, but has val- 
ued it, and still values it, above all others. 


—>+ ste 


L 

* law, Corydon, Harrison County, was born at New- 

DE market, Shenandoah County, Virginia, July 22, 
2 1820. He is the son of Adam and Nancy (Penny- 

backer) Douglass. His ancestors on his father’s side 

were Scotch, from the north of Ireland. His grand- 


father was a captain in the Irish rebellion of 1798, and 


pyoueusss JUDGE BENJAMIN P., attorney-at- 
| 
5, 


on the quelling of the insurrection was compelled to 
flee to this country. On his mother’s side they came 
from Pennsylvania, her people having settled there at 
the time of William Penn. Isaac Pennybacker, his 
mother’s brother, was United States Senator from Vir- 
ginia, and also Judge of the Circuit Court. Benjamin 
P. attended the common school in Virginia when a 
small boy, and removed with his parents to Harrison 
County, Indiana, in 1834, where they settled on a farm. 
His father, being a fine classical scholar, himself un- 
dertook the education of his son, thereby affording him 
an excellent education, an advantage of which he availed 
himself to the fullest extent. He made rapid progress 
in his studies, and has derived much benefit from them 
in after life. On finishing his course he continued for a 
time with his father, working on the farm, studying 
law, and teaching school, for which his education had 
so thoroughly qualified him. He continued in these oc- 
cupations until 1849, when he was chosen county audi- 
tor. This election was somewhat remarkable, he being 
a Democrat, and the district at that time being strongly 
Whig, a convincing proof of the esteem in which he 
was personally held by those who knew him. He was 
then strongly solicited to become clerk of the county, 


12 


which, however, he declined. In 1857 he was elected 
as Representative to the state Legislature from Harrison 
County, where he served one session. 
barked in mercantile business, in which he continued 
until 1867, when he was appointed by a board of com- 
missioners to fill an unexpired term in the auditor’s 
office, for the purpose of placing its accounts in better 
order. In 1868 he was elected clerk of the Circuit 
Court. After the expiration of his term of office he en- 
tered regularly upon the profession of law at Corydon, 
where he still continues, in the enjoyment of a large 
and lucrative practice, his law partner being Captain S. 
M. Stockslager, this being the prominent law firm of 
Harrison County. He has several times’ served, by 
special appointment, on the bench. He was one of the 
directors and president of the pike road from Corydon 
to New Albany, of which he was one of the projectors. 
This was one of the finest and most useful turnpikes in 
the state. He also acted as the engineer during its 
construction. When the Air-line railroad from Louis- 
ville to St. Louis, now partly finished, was begun, he 
was appointed one of the directors, and assisted as en- 
gineer in the preliminary survey. In politics he is a 
Democrat, and is a most active worker in the party. . In 
fact he is one of the leaders of the Democracy in the 
county. He was brought up as a Baptist, but is an at- 
tendant of the Presbyterian Church, of which his wife 
isa member. He was married at Louisville, July, 1835, 
to Annie Pope, daughter of Edmund Pendleton Pope, a 
prominent lawyer of Louisville. They have had two 
children—one daughter, who is now dead; and one son, 
born July, 1859, now in Colorado. The death -of his 
mother occurred a few days after his birth. She was a 
granddaughter of Colonel Edward Johnson, a brother 
of Colonel R. M. Johnson, who fought at the battle of 
the Thames. The Judge married again, May, 1863, 
Victoria Boone, daughter of Colonel Hiram Boone, of 
Meade County, Kentucky. The result of that marriage 
has been three children, one of whom is dead, one son 
and one daughter living. The Judge himself is a man 
of commanding appearance. His habits are those of a 
scholar and a gentleman. 


—-40te-<— 


(VY ARLY, SAMUEL §S., non-practicing attorney, 
i Brownstown, Indiana, was born in Blount County, 
GT) East Tennessee, November 3, 1824. Ilis father 
oO wasa farmer, and was a minute-man in the War of 
1812. His maternal grandfather, being an Orangeman, 
was forced to leave Ireland. Samuel S. Early never 
attended school, but by diligent study acquired a fine 
English education. 


Tle was a great reader, and, after 
he had exhausted the books which he could find at 


home, he laid contributions on the stock of his neigh- | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


In 1858 he em- | 


Lod Disé. 


bors. This, with careful study of the various branches 


| of knowledge in later years, formed the basis of his in- 


struction. In 1836-7, in the panic of that time, a ca- 
lamity which was as widely extended as that of 1873, 
but to encounter which the people had less wealth, his 
father became deeply involved, sold out his business, 
and started for Missouri. Owing to sickness he stopped 
in Illinois, where he lost his wife and one son. He 
then sold out his. outfit, consisting of an interest in 
a boat and stock, wrote to his brother to 
come to him, and after the brother’s arrival, in the 
early part of 1840, removed, with the family, to Wal- 
nut Ridge, Washington County, Indiana. For seven 
years after the death of his mother, Samuel S. Early, 
being the oldest of the family of three boys, acted as 
cook and housekeeper for his father, who died in 1847. 
After that event the boys worked on the farm in the 
summer, and Mr. Samuel S. Early taught in the winter, 
while his brothers attended school. He married, March 
4, 1849, Bernette Beem, daughter of a wealthy farmer of 
Jackson County, Indiana. In April of the same year he 
settled in the southern part of Jackson County, contin- 
uing to farm in the summer and teach in the winter, 
until the fall of 1852. In that year he was elected 
sheriff of Jackson County, and, upon taking charge of 
the office, removed to Brownstown. In 1854 he was re- 
elected sheriff, which office he filled for four years. In 
the fall of 1856 he represented Jackson County in the 
Legislature, and in 1858 again served in the same position. 
In 1860 he became treasurer of Jackson County, and in 
1862 was re-elected. On the expiration of his term of 
office he entered the mercantile business, which he fol- 
lowed until the year 1866. He then retired; spent some 
time traveling in the interest of a life insurance com- 
pany; taught in the Brownstown high school; and assisted 
in the various county offices. In 1874 he again filled 
the office of sheriff, and again in 1876, thus completing 
four terms. In July, 1860, his wife died of puerperal 
fever, leaving four children, three sons and one daugh- 
ter. The oldest son, Sylvester N., is now deputy sheriff 
of the county. The second, Vincent L., is keeping a 
drug-store in Greenfield, Indiana. ‘The others are with 
their father. Mr. Early married, February 24, 1862, 
Mary E. Boyd, the daughter of a farmer and miller. 
They have had two children, neither of whom is living. 
Mr. Early was reared a Presbyterian, and is now an ac- 
tive member of that Church. Recollecting the difficul- 
ties he himself was obliged to meet in the pursuit of an 
education, he has been a warm friend of the common 
school, as well as of academies and colleges. He is a 
leading Democrat of Jackson County, and the citizens 
speak of him with great pride, as a man who has filled 
many important public positions with credit to himself 
and to the satisfaction of the people. His abilities have 
been equal to any test that has been given them. 


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Cjif7 KIN, GENERAL JAMES ADAMS, deputy quar- 
termaster-general, United States army, the subject 

7 of this brief sketch, was born August 31, 1819, at 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His ancestry were of 

the highest respectability. His father, James Ekin, was 
a native of the county of Tyrone, Ireland, but came to 
this country at an early age, and was for many years a 
successful merchant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His 
-mother was born in Elizabeth, Allegheny County, Penn- 
sylvania, and was a daughter of Colonel Stephen Bay- 
ard, of the Revolutionary army, and granddaughter of 
fEneas Mackay, colonel of the 8th Regiment Pennsy]- 
vania Continental forces. After having received a lib- 
eral education, first at the academy of the Rev. Joseph 
Stockton, D. D., in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, and 
subsequently under the enlightened instruction of Will- 
iam Moody, Esq., at Columbiana, Ohio, young Ekin, on 
reaching the years of manhood, entered into mercantile 
pursuits, and was afterward, for a long time, extensively 
engaged in steamboat and ship-building at Elizabeth. 
While in this business, he built some of the finest 
steamers on the Western waters, continually giving 
employment to a large number of skilled mechanics 
and other workmen, all of whom were deeply attached 
to him on account of the uniformly just and kind 
manner in which he treated them, and many of whom, 
yet living, cherish his name with profound esteem and 
gratitude. While a citizen of Elizabeth, and actively 
engaged in business, although personally very popular 
with the people among whom he lived, Mr. Ekin held 
but one public office, and that the honorable one of 
school director, the duties of which he performed, 
as he guarded other business interests confided to him, 
with signal ability and fidelity. In his earlier man- 
hood, Mr. Ekin was identified with the Democratic 
party, and continued to support its measures and pol- 
icy until the repeal, in 1846, of the tariff act of 1842. 
After that event he acted with the Whigs, and subse- 
quently with the Republicans. Of the latter party he 
has been an earnest and efficient supporter since its 
organization. He was a member of the Free-soil Na- 
tional Convention of 1848, and of the Republican Na- 
tional Conventions of 1856 and 1869. At the outbreak 
of the great rebellion, in 1861, Mr. Ekin was among the 
first to tender his services in defense of the imperiled 
Union of the states; and on the 25th of April of that 
year he was commissioned by the Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania as regimental quartermaster of the 12th Regiment 
of Pennsylvania Volunteers, and entered the service of 
the United States in that capacity at that date. In this 
regiment he served for three months (the term for which 
it was mustered), its duty being to guard the line of the 
Northern Central Railway from Baltimore to the Penn- 
sylvania border, a distance of forty-five miles. The reg- 
iment having been mustered out of service at the city 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


13 


of Pittsburgh on the 5th of August, 1861, Lieutenant 
Ekin was, on the 7th of the same month and year, 
appointed, by the President of the United States, captain 
and assistant quartermaster United States Volunteers, 
and assigned to duty at Pittsburgh, relieving Lieutenant 
B. F. Hutchins, Sixth United States Cavalry, acting 
assistant quartermaster and acting assistant commissary 
of subsistence. After rendering faithful and efficient 
service at this important center of military operations, 
Captain Ekin was, on the 16th of October, 1861, 
directed to proceed at once to Indianapolis, Indiana, 
and relieve Major A. Montgomery, quartermaster United 
States army. Indianapolis was at that time one of the 
great depots for the receipt and transfer of all kinds of 
military stores and munitions of war, as well as a large 
recruiting station for the gallant troops of the Western 
armies. The great ‘‘ War Governor’ of Indiana, Mor- 
ton, was then moving, guiding, and directing, with a 
masterly skill all his own, the masses of patriotic men 
who, at the call of his clarion voice, flocked around the 
standard of the Republic, and offered their lives in its 
defense. It was at this trying and perilous time in the 
history of the country that Captain Ekin was brought 
into intimate personal and official relations with Gov- - 
ernor Morton; and the close and cordial friendship then 
commenced was uninterruptedly continued until death 
closed the brilliant career of Indiana’s great and patri- 
otic statesman. On the 13th of March, 1863, Captain 
Ekin vacated his commission as captain and assistant 
quartermaster of volunteers, and was commissioned cap- 
tain and assistant quartermaster in the regular army, in 
recognition of the valuable and efficient services he had 
rendered in the quartermaster’s department. Having 
served for over two years, with marked distinction, at 
Indianapolis, he was, on the 2Ist of December, 1863, 
ordered to duty at Washington, District of Columbia, 
as chief quartermaster of the cavalry bureau, reliev- 
ing Lieutenant-colonel C. G. Sawtelle. In this impor- 
tant and enlarged sphere of duty the fine executive 
and administrative abilities of Captain Ekin were more 
fully called into requisition, and he conducted with con- 
summate skill and unswerving fidelity the great inter- 
ests confided to his care. His position in this impor- 
tant branch of the military service gave him control not 
only of the extensive purchases of cavalry and artillery 
horses and mules for large portions of the great armies 
then in the field, but also the personal direction and 
supervision of the immense cavalry depot located at 
Giesboro’, District of Columbia, on the northern bank 
of the Potomac, and within view of the Capitol at 
Washington. 
in the army as the model depot, and it was made so, in 
a great degree, by the remarkable administrative ability 
of Captain Ekin, and his keen sagacity in the selection 
of subordinate officers and agents to co-operate in the 


This was, indeed, during the war, known 


14 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


great work intrusted to him. In the discharge of these 
important duties he disbursed many millions of dollars, 
and to his undying honor be it recorded, not one dol- 
lar of deficiency was ever charged against him by the 
accounting officers of the treasury, after the most care- 
ful scrutiny of his accounts. This is, indeed, a fact of 
which the relatives and friends of General Ekin may 
well be proud, although he might not boast of it him- 
self; for, if his attention were called to it, he would 
probably say, ‘‘I only performed my duty in preserving 
untarnished my honor.” Nevertheless, an incident so 
praiseworthy should be recorded, not only because of its 
inherent merit in a time of war, when fraud and pecu- 
lation were so rife in the land, but because it will serve 
as a bright example in our own day for the imitation 
of many who are the custodians of public and private 
funds, and mayhap will impress more deeply upon their 
minds the truth, that, after all, ‘‘honesty is the best 
policy.” Soon after Captain Ekin’s arrival in Washing- 
ton, that is to say, on the 24th of February, 1864, he 
was appointed, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 
chief quartermaster of the cavalry corps of the Army 
of the Potomac, in addition to his charge of the cavalry 
bureau as chief quartermaster. On the 6th of August, 
1864, under the act of Congress of July 4th of that 
year, for the better organization of the quartermaster’s 
department, Lieutenant-colonel Ekin was, in recogni- 
tion of his faithful and meritorious services, assigned to 
duty,-with the temporary rank of colonel, in charge of 
the first division of the quartermaster-general’s office, to 
date from August 2, 1864. Here his duties were still 
more enlarged and his labors greatly increased; but, 
as in all other positions, he was found fully equal to the 
new and important tasks devolved upon him. In this 
branch of the office he was charged with the multifari- 
ous business pertaining to all regular supplies and miscel- 
laneous stcres required for the army, to the numberless 
animals needed, to the barracks and quarters to be pro- 
vided, and to the vast multitude of claims for property 
of various kinds taken for the use of the United States 
troops during the War of the Rebellion. Yet, under his 
intelligent administration, all the complex machinery 
of this important branch of the quartermaster-general’s 
office moved with the regularity and precision of clock- 
work. Indeed, so well known and conspicuous had be- 
come the fine administrative talent of Colonel Ekin, 
that it did not fail to attract the attention of the highest 
officers of the government; and on several occasions, by 
direction of Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant, he 
was assigned to duty, during the absence of General M. 
C. Meigs, quartermaster-general, as acting quartermas- 
ter-general of the army; and from the last-named, distin- 
guished officer he has also been the recipient of many 
complimentary acknowledgments. In view of these 
facts, it is no wonder that Colonel. Ekin’s promotions 


[3a Dist. 


| in the army were frequent and rapid, for he fully earned 


them all by able, faithful, and efficient service. Hence 
we find that on the 8th of March, 1865, just before the 
close of the war, he was appointed brevet brigadier-gen- 
eral United States volunteers, having in less than four 
years, by his own acknowledged merits, and through 
the recognition of faithful services by his superior offi- 
cers, risen from the rank of lieutenant to one of the 
highest and most honorable grades in the army. In 
order to preserve the chronological order of this narra- 
tive, it may here be stated that on the 19th of April, 
1865, General Ekin was detailed as a member of the 
guard of honor to accompany the remains of the late 
President Lincoln from Washington, District of Colum- 
bia, to Springfield, Illinois; and on the 9th of May, 
1865, he was detailed a member of the military com- 
mission appointed by Paragraph 4 of Special Orders 
War Department, No. 211, May 6, 1865, for the trial 
of the assassins of President Lincoln. It is known that, 
as a member of this historic military court, General Ekin 
favored a commutation of the death-sentence of the un- 
fortunate Mrs. Surratt; and it is a well-authenticated 
fact that the paper containing the recommendation of a 
majority of the commission for executive clemency in 
her case—which, it was claimed by Judge Holt, was 
attached to the proceedings and findings of the commis- 
sion, but which, it was alleged by President Johnson, 
was not thus appended to the papers, and, therefore, 
claimed by him not to have been seen—was in the clear, 
bold, and legible handwriting of General Ekin. This in- 
cident is here mentioned to show that the action of this 
distinguished officer in this serious and solemn matter, 
involving the question of the life or death of an accused 
woman, was governed by considerations of humanity 
and mercy. Resuming our narrative, the military record 
of General Ekin shows that on the 28th of June, 1865, 
he received three brevet appointments, as major, lieu- 
tenant-colonel, and colonel in the regular army, ‘for 
faithful and meritorious services during the war,’ to 
date from March 13, 1865. On the 17th of July, 1866, 
he was commissioned a brevet brigadier-general in the 
regular army, to rank as such from March 13, 1865. On 
the 1st of December, 1866, he was appointed deputy quar- 
termaster- general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 
United States army, under the act of Congress approved 
July 28, 1866, to rank as such from the 29th of July, 
1866. After nearly six years’ continuous service as chief 
of one of the largest and most important divisions in the 
quartermaster-general’s office, during which he acquired 
high distinction as an able, efficient, and upright officer, 
and won the well-merited encomiums of presidents, sec- 
retaries of war, and more immediate superiors, General 
Ekin was, on the Ist of April, 1870, relieved from 
duty in that office, and on the 23d of the same month 
assigned to duty as chief quartermaster of the Depart- 


ae). > e 


gd Dist.) 


ment of Texas. On the eve of his departure from 
Washington for this new field of duty, the most affec- 
tionate and touching demonstrations of respect were 
paid him, not only by the officers who had been associ- 
ated with, and the clerks and others who had served 
under him, but also by the citizens of the national me- 
tropolis generally, high and low, rich and poor, white 
and colored, to all of whom he had become endeared by 
his genial manners and generous friendships. 
multitude of friends and admirers gathered at the rail- 
road depot to bid him a heart-felt God-speed on his dis- 
tant journey, and many kind and grateful words were 
spoken, and fitly responded to, before the train moved 
off on that well-remembered night. During General 
Ekin’s two years’ service as chief quartermaster of. the 
Department of Texas, his administration was marked by 
the same high degree of intelligence, probity, and eff- 
ciency, which had signalized his supervision and control 
of previous important and responsible trusts. General 
Ekin was relieved from duty as chief quartermaster of 
the Department of Texas on the 29th of April, 1872, 
and on the 8th of May of the same year was assigned 
to duty at Louisville, Kentucky, as chief quartermaster 
of the Department of the South, succeeding the lamented 
General McFerran. On the 11th of December, 1872, he 
was announced as chief quartermaster of the Division 
of the South, on the staff of Major-general McDowell. 
Early in the fall of 1876 the headquarters of the Depart- 
ment of the South were transferred to Atlanta, Georgia; 
but General Ekin, being in charge of the Jeffersonville 
depot of the quartermaster’s department, found it expe- 
dient to remain at Louisville, in view of the large public 
interests at the depot which required his personal atten- 
tion. He continued, however, to act as chief quarter- 
master of the department for some weeks, and until a 
successor was appointed. In the mean time he continued 
in charge of the great supply depot at Jeffersonville, 
and was also appointed disbursing officer of the quarter- 
master’s department at Louisville, Kentucky, and off- 
cer in charge of national cemeteries in Kentucky and 
Tennessee. These threefold important duties he is now 
(May, "1880) performing with the same ability, zeal, and 
faithfulness that distinguished his career on other fields 
of service. As officer in charge of the Jeffersonville 
depot, which, besides being a great storehouse for all 
kinds of army supplies, has, through the efforts of Gen- 
eral Ekin, become also a large manufacturing depot, he 
has been enabled to give profitable employment to many 
hundreds of poor sewing women in Jeffersonville, New 
Albany, and the surrounding country. The materials 
for the manufacture of shirts, and other articles of ‘cloth- 
ing for the army, are taken by these worthy people to 
their homes, and made up in accordance with the require- 
ments of the service. Under the careful system of 
accountability and inspection in practice, nothing is ever 


A large 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


E5 


lost to the government, and the work is done with the 
utmost regularity and perfection. A ‘pay-day” at the 
Jeffersonville depot is always an interesting occasion; 
for then may be seen long lines of respectable sewing 
women awaiting their turn to hand in their pay certifi- 
cates to the cashier, and receive their well-earned wages, 
which range as high, in some cases, as forty-five dollars 
per month. These women, with, in many cases, helpless 
little ones dependent upon them, are made contented and 
happy by this just, liberal, and certain reward of their 
labor; and in the humble homes that are thus made bright 
and cheerful, the name of their benefactor, General Ekin, 
is held in loving and grateful remembrance. One of the 
most conspicuous, as it is one of the most commenda- 
ble, traits in the character of General Ekin is his strong, 
earnest, and practical religious conviction. He is, in 
the truest sense of the term, a sincere Christian gentle- 
man, and diffuses around him, at all times and under 
all circumstances, the light of moral and religious ex- 
ample. In the fall of 1842 he united with the Asso- 
ciate Reformed Presbyterian Congregation of Bethesda, 
in Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylva- 
nia, and was for several years a trustee of the Church. 
In the year 1858 the Associate Reformed Church and 
the Associate Church were united, forming the present 
United Presbyterian Church. Of this Church organiza- 
tion General Ekin is, and has been since its formation, 
one of the most active, zealous, and influential mem- 
bers. His name is as well known and as highly hon- 
ored in the Church as that of any layman connected 
with it. He has lost no opportunity to advance the 
interests of the organization. Many of his hours of 
retirement, when freed from the cares and responsibil- 
ities of official duty, have been devoted to this purpose. 
The columns of Zhe United Presbyterian, published at 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bear abundant evidence of his 
zealous labors in that direction. He has, especially of 
late years, contributed many instructive and interesting 
articles to that paper, illustrative of the rise, progress, 
condition, and needs of the Church. His recently pub- 
lished ‘‘ Memorials” of some of the most distinguished 
ministers of the United Presbyterian Church, written, 
as they were, in a graceful and vigorous style, are val- 
uable contributions to the literature of the Church, be- 
sides being of great historic interest. As may have 
been conjectured from what has already been writ- 
ten, the personal traits of character most notable in 
General Ekin are integrity, kindness, and firmness, 
blended with great suavity of manner. So affable is he 
in official and social intercourse that even one who might 
fail to receive some expected favor at his hands would 
go away rejoicing in the happy remembrances of the 
pleasant interview. 
heart that would, if it could, take the whole world 
to its embrace, General Ekin has never declined to 


But with a warm and sympathetic 


16 REPRESENTATIVE 
grant to a worthy person any reasonable request, if 
within the range of possibility to do so. No govern- 
ment officer of his time, with necessarily limited oppor- 
tunities, has been more instrumental than he in promot- 
ing the welfare and happiness of others. Many now in 
public office, and some of them in high position, are 
indebted to his generous influence for their elevation to 
honorable and lucrative trusts, and among all of them 
his name is cherished and revered. The fine personal 
appearance of General Ekin is indicative of his noble 
character. His figure is tall, well-proportioned, grace- 
ful, and commanding. His forehead is high and ex- 
pansive, and his mild but expressive eyes look out from 
a countenance beaming with all the well-developed 


marks of intelligence and goodness. His voice is clear 
and musical, and his conversational powers, combined 
with his genial manners, render him exceedingly capti- 
vating. As a public speaker he is very pleasing; but 
he rarely appears upon the platform, and then only in 
response to urgent calls to promote some good cause, 
Although his hair is silvered by the frosts of more than 
threescore winters, he walks erect, with all the vigor 
and elasticity of younger manhood. In any assemblage, 
however distinguished, his fine physique, and calm, 
dignified appearance, would attract attention, and indi- 
cate him as a man of mark. ‘The domestic life of Gen- 
eral Ekin has been one of great contentment and hap- 
piness. In early manhood (September 28, 1843) he was 
united in marriage to Miss Diana C. Walker. Since 
that bright and happy day they have journeyed hand in 
hand together, with more of sunshine than of shadow 
above their pathway. Theirs has always been a Chris- 
tian home, in which mutual love and forbearance have 
Five children have blessed this happy 
union, two of whom (a son and daughter) still survive, 
to cheer the declining years of their honored and affec- 
tionate parents, whose days it is fondly hoped may yet 
be long in the land, and continue bright and prosperous, 
until the golden sunset of their beautiful lives shall 
melt away into the perpetual sunshine of a glorious 
immortality. 


uniformly dwelt. 


-—>+900-o— 


MERSON, FRANK, of Brownstown, Indiana, was 
born in Haverhill, Grafton County, New Hamp- 
shire, and is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Stark) 

His father was a farmer: his mother 

was a niece of General Stark, of Revolutionary fame. 

In his early youth Mr. Emerson attended the common 

schools, and then studied for college at Peacham Acad- 

emy, Vermont. He entered the sophomore class at 

Dartmouth in 1836, graduated in July, 1838, and then 

studied law in the office of Wm. C. Clark, at Meredith, 

New Hampshire. In 1841, at Decatur, Illinois, he was 


By 


“ow Emerson. 


admitted to practice in the Circuit Courts, and in De- 


| seminary at Charlestown. 


MEN OF INDIANA. [3d Dist. 
cember of the same year, at Springfield, to practice in 
the Supreme Cowt. We then settled at Decatur, and 
continued. the practice of his profession there until 
1843, when he removed to Charlestown, Clarke County, 
Indiana. In September, 1845, he settled in Browns- 
town, Jackson County, where he carried on a successful 
law practice until the breaking out of the Mexican 
War, in 1846. He enlisted as a private in the 3d 
Regiment Dragoons, was promoted to the rank of 
second lieutenant, and took a prominent part in the 
siege of the City of Mexico. He returned home Au- 
gust, 1848, resumed his professional work, and in the 
fall of that year was elected assistant secretary of 
the state Senate. He was re-elected in 1849, and in 
1850 became secretary of the Senate. In 1851 he rep- 
resented Jackson and Scott Counties as state Senator, 
In 1852 and in 1854 he was 
elected treasurer of Jackson County. For the four 
years follogging October, 1856, he served as Judge of 
the Court of Common Pleas. In 1862 he was appointed 
commander of the military camp at Madison, Indiana, 
and in August, 1862, colonel of the 67th Regiment In- 
diana Volunteers, which rank he held until, on account 
of wounds, he tendered his resignation, September 30, 
1864. He was wounded at Arkansas Post in January, 
1863, and at Mansfield, Louisiana, in April, 1864. Upon 
returning to Brownstown he again resumed the practice 
of his profession, and in 1868 was elected Judge of the 
Common Pleas Court. Being re-elected in 1872, he served 
until March, 1873, when he was appointed Judge of the 
Circuit Court. In that position he served until the Oc- 
tober election, since which time he has given his atten- 
tion to the practice of law. He married, July 5, 1849, 
Adeline Redman, daughter of the county auditor. He 
is the father of ten children, of whom three boys and 
six girls are now living. He was reared a Congrega- 
tionalist, his parents being members of that Church, but 
is not a member of any religious sect. He 
the acknowledged leaders of the Democracy of his por- 


tion of the state. 

re ERRIER, WILLIAM 6S., editor and proprietor of 
tr the Clarke County Record, at Charlestown. Clarke 
(G aK County, was born at Newville, Pennsylvania, May 
‘29 17, 1825. His parents, David and Jane (Ryan) 
Ferrier, were both natives of Pennsylvania, and when 
he was two years old removed to Georgetown, Brown 
County, Ohio, where his father was recorder of the 
county and master commissioner in chancery. At the 
age of fourteen his parents removed to Greensburg, 
Indiana, and a year later to Charlestown. He received 
a common school education at Georgetown, Ohio, at 
the county seminary at Greensburg, Indiana, and at the 
On leaving school at fifteen, 


and served one year. 


Is one of 


Rosse 


oes 


Seas 
Bee 


gd Dist.] 


he engaged in the printixg business in Charlestown with 
Mr. Hucklebury, proprietor of the Southern Indzanian. 
Two years later he published the Clarke County J@rror, 
at Charlestown, and in 1843 he resuscitated the Sowth- 
ern Indianiew, which he continued to publish for some 
three years. In 1844 he received an appointment as 
cadet at West Point through Thomas J. Henley, Con- 
gressman for his district, but owing to death in the 
amily he did not report to the commandant. In 1846, 


being then in poor health, he sold out his interest in | 


the paper to Henry B. Wolds and removed to New 
Richmond, Ohio, where he held a clerkship, for a short 
time, under David G. Gibson, in a large mill. In 1847 
he returned to Charlestown and published the Western 
farmer, continuing in the newspaper business until 1864, 
when he again sold out. The spirit of journalism being 
strong in him, in March, 1869, he commenced the pub- 
lication of the Clarke County Record, the chief paper of 
the county, which enjoys a large circulation, and is well 
and ably edited. It is now, in 1880, in its twelfth vol- 
ume. Mr. Ferrier served four years as director of the 
Southern Prison, at Jeffersonville, from 1864 to 1868, 
and was president of the board. He has been a mem- 
ber of the Order of Odd-fellows for a number of years. 
During the early period of his journalistic life, he was 
a Democrat and published a Democratic paper, but the 
last Democratic President he voted for was James Bu- 
chanan, From the outbreak of the Rebellion he warmly 
sympathized with the government, and took strong grounds 
against the action of the Democratic party at that 
time. Frcem that time forward he has acted with thé 
Republican party, in which he is a zealous worker. He 
is a member of the Presbyterian Church, of which he 
has for some time been an elder, and for twenty years 
past superintendent of the Sabbath-school. Mr. Ferrier 
is a man whose record is without a blemish. His char- 
acter is pure and elevated. He is an honored and re- 
spected scholar and gentleman, and is now in the prime 
of life, enjoying most excellent health, the comforts and 
happiness of a pleasant home and loving family, and a 
fair share of this world’s goods. He was married, Octo- 
ber 10, 1844, to Martha E. Houston, of Charlestown, 
daughter of Littleton B. Houston, formerly of Dela- 
ware. Such is the brief record of one of Clarke County’s 
most representative men. 


eee oe 
y| VIELD, DOCTOR NATHANIEL, of Jeffersonville, 


one of the oldest physicians in the state of Indi- 
ana, isa graduate of Transylvania Medical School, 


founded at Lexington, Kentucky, in the early part 
of this century. He was born in Jefferson County, Ken- 
tucky, on the seventh day of November, 1805, and 
settled in Jeffersonville in the autumn of 1829, where 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


17 


he has since resided. He is, in some respects, a re- 
markable man, and is an original thinker, forming 
his opinions independent of popular sentiment or the 
authority of books. Whatever he believes to be right 
and just he advocates boldly, regardless of consequences 
to himself. Though born in a slave state and in a slave- 
holding family, at an early age he contracted a dislike 
to the institution of slavery, and wrote a tract against it, 
entitled ‘*Onesimus.”” He was one of the first vice- 
presidents of the American Anti-slavery Society, was 
president of the first anti-slavery convention ever held 
in Indiana, and president of the Free-soil Convention 
held at Indianapolis in 1850. As an illustration of his 
uncompromising devotion to the principles of right and 
justice, in June, 1834, he voted against the whole town- 
ship of Jeffersonville on, the question of enforcing one 
of the black laws of the state. At a township election 
in the month mentioned, the following question was pro- 
pounded to every voter: ‘‘Shall the law requiring free 
negroes now in the state, and such as may hereafter 
come into it, to give bond and security for their good 
behavior, and that they will never become a public 
charge, be enforced ?”” The law had been since its en- 
actment a dead letter on the statute-book, and this new- 
born zeal for its enforcement was prompted by hatred 
of the negro, and not any fear that he might become a 
At that time pro-slavery mobs 
were wreaking their vengeance on the Abolitionists in 
the Northern states, destroying their printing-presses 
and burning their property, their efforts culminating in 
the cowardly murder of Elijah Lovejoy, at Alton, IJlli- 
nois. The mob spirit was at that time epidemic, and 
was never at a loss for a pretext to make war on the 
poor negroes, After scanning the paper proposing the 
question, Doctor Field noticed that every voter in the 
township, saints and sinners, had signed the affirmative 
column, demanding the enforcement of the law. 


criminal or a pauper. 


It was 
just before the close of the polls that he was requested 
to vote. He was surrounded by a crowd of sinister- 
looking loafers and roughs, exasperated at the idea that 
the Abolitionists were trying to put the negroes on an 
equality with them. These worthless vagabonds were 
anxious to see if Doctor Field would take sides with 
the negroes, in opposition to the whole community. 
Knowing that hostility to the negroes would prevent 
them from giving the required bond, and that their ex- 
pulsion at that time in the year would be attended with 
the loss of their crops and great suffering, he under- 
took to reason with the excited mob, and pleaded for an 
extension of time, until they could make and gather 
their crops. But to no purpose. He might as well 
have asked for compassion of a herd of hyenas. After 
giving his reasons for delay, he put his name down 
in the negative, the only man in the township who 


voted for mercy. As might have been foreseen, the 


18 ' REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


negroes could not give security, and were driven from 
the town and neighborhood. For three weeks there 
was a perfect reign of terror. The negroes were 
shamefully abused, and fled in every direction. No 
magistrates or constables dared to interfere with the 
mob. Doctor Field was notified that he would have to 
share the fortunes of the negroes, whose cause he had 
espoused. Without a moment’s delay he prepared for 
defense, determined to sell his life dearly, and perish in 
the ruins of his house, rather than succumb to a lawless 
mob. He provided himself with plenty of fire-arms 
and ready-made cartridges, and fortified his house. He 
had one brave friend willing to occupy the fortress with 
him. After all the arrangements were made, the mob 
were notified to commence the siege whenever it suited 
their pleasure or convenience. But, fortunately for them, 
and perhaps for Doctor Field too, the invitation was 
declined. Notwithstanding the perils of those days that 
tried men’s souls, he has lived, with a few other pio- 
neers in the anti-slavery cause, to see the downfall of 
slavery and the enfranchisement of the African race in 
the United States. In 1854, by the death of his mother, 
he came into possession of several valuable slaves, whom 
he immediately emancipated, thereby proving the sin- 
cerity of his anti-slavery principles. In July, 1836, 
Doctor Field represented Jeffersonville in the great 
Southern Railroad Convention, which assembled at 
Knoxville, Tennessee, for the purpose of devising ways 
and means to make a railroad from Charleston, South 
Carolina, to Cincinnati, with a branch to Louisville from 
some point west of Cumberland Gap. He represented 
Clarke County in the state Legislature in 1838 and 1839. 
Doctor Field was chairman of the select committee to 
investigate charges against the president of the state 
university, the late Doctor Andrew Wylie, and made 
an able report, completely acquitting him. He was sur- 
geon of the 66th Regiment of Indiana Infantry, and 
rendered important services on several battle-fields, hay- 
ing charge of hospitals for the wounded for several con- 
secutive weeks, and performing with skill nearly all 
operations known to military surgery. In 1868 he was 
president of the Indiana State Medical Society, and has 
written quite a number of articles for its transactions 
and for the State Medical Journal. He has also written 
several lectures, among which are those entitled, ‘‘ Moses 
and Geology;” ‘‘The Spirit of the Age;” ‘Arts of Im- 
posture and Deception Peculiar to American Society ;” 
‘‘Financial Condition of the World;” ‘‘Hard Times;” 
and ‘Capital Punishment.” One of the most remark- 
able circumstances in the life of Doctor Field is that he 
has been a minister of the’ gospel for half a century, 
and all that time has been pastor of a Church in Jeffer- 
sonville without salary or earthly compensation for his 
services. He has immersed nearly a thousand people in 
the Qhio River, and his Church at the present time num- 


[3@ Dest. 


bers about one hundred and fifty members. He has 
held several debates on theological subjects, one of 
which was-published in 1854—an octavo work of three 
hundred and ten pages. He is now far advanced in 
years, but still possesses a remarkable degree of intel- 
lectual and physical vigor for one of his age. 


Be eee 
she 
F| YULLENLOVE, THOMAS J., of New Albany, ex- 
y sheriff and ex-auditor of Floyd County, was born 
€ ‘{ in Harrison County, Indiana, on the 30th of Au- 
2 gust, 1837. His parents were John Fullenlove, 
of Lexington, Kentucky, and Nancy (Gwin) Fullenlove, 
daughter of Thomas Gwin, of Harrison County. His 
grandfather and grandmother were natives of Virginia, 
and among the early settlers of that state. Mr. Fullen- 
love’s father died when the former was only ten years 
old, leaving him to make his own way in the world and 
assist his widowed mother in the care of his younger 
brothers and sisters. Being a bright, intelligent boy, 
and possessed of a business turn of mind, after alter- 
nately attending the country school and working upon 
the farm until he was fifteen years of age, he appren- 
ticed himself to his uncle, George H. Gwin, to learn 
the blacksmith’s trade. Here he continued two years, 
at the expiration of which time he had mastered his 
trade, and could shoe a horse and build a plow or wagon 
as well as those much older. He then rented a shop, 
purchased a set of tools, and commenced business for 
himself. His energy was met by the warm support of 
his friends. One of his first jobs was to make a large 
emigrant wagon for one Mr. George Smith, which he 
did readily and satisfactorily, and the owner used it em- 
igrating to Minnesota, He continued at his trade until 
1866, when he received the nomination of the Demo- 
cratic party for the office of sheriff of Floyd County, in 
which he lived. He accepted, and was elected by a good 
majority. At the expiration of the term of two years, 
he was re-elected by a majority of over fourteen hun- 
dred, and discharged the duties of the office to the entire 
satisfaction of his constituents. At the close of his 
second term, in 1870, he was unanimously nominated to 
the office of auditor of the county, and was elected by 
a large vote, holding the position four years, with credit 
to himself and honor to his friends and party. It was 
during his last term as sheriff that the Reno brothers, 
three notorious express robbers, were taken out of his 
charge by a band of about one hundred ‘ vigilants,” 
and hung to the beams in the jail; but not until Mr. 
Fullenlove had been severely wounded by a pistol shot 
in the right arm, and otherwise so injured as to render 
him unable to contend with the crowd. He still refused 
to surrender the keys, although informed that his life 
should pay the forfeit, and defiantly told his captors: 


ga Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
**T’ll surrender my life, but not my trust!” He was 
then pitched into a corner of the room, under guard, 
and a general search was commenced. They went to 
his wife’s room and threatened her with death, but the 
little woman was as plucky as her husband. They at 
last found the object of their search, and, having con- 
summated their purpose, quietly left on the special rail- 
way train with which they were provided. Mr. Fullen- 
love was married to Miss Emily Davis on the ninth 
day of April, 1857. She is the daughter of George and 
Margaret Davis, substantial farmers, of Harrison County, 
They have been blessed with five children, 
four of whom, two sons and two daughters, are still 
living. Their names are Lizzie A. Martin McClellan, 
Horatio S., Maggie D., and Charles Herschel (deceased). 
Mr. Fullenlove’s mother is now seventy-six years old, 
and enjoys in her old age the devoted care of her son. 
Mr. Fullenlove and his family are members of the 
Methodist Centenary Church of New Albany; he has 
many warm friends and is highly esteemed for his con- 
stant readiness to perform a kind act for the poor. He 
is largely engaged in stock-raising, and is proprietor of 
one of the best hotels, the Central, in Southern Indiana. 


Indiana. 


$00 — 


) 


ITCH, CHARLES H., of New Albany, was born 
at Holliston, Massachusetts, February 11, 1828, 
and is the son of Rev. Charles Fitch, a Presbyte- 
rian minister of that place. His grandfather, Rev. 


Ebenezer Fitch, who was born at Williamstown, the | 


same state, was the founder and for many years president 
of the Williamstown College. His mother was Sarah 
Hamilton, a member of one of the best families of 
Princeton, New Jersey. Her grandfather was a soldier 
in the Revolutionary army, and his mansion was a 
favorite resort of General Washington when passing 
through the state. The father of Charles H. Fitch re- 
moved to Columbus, Ohio, about the year 1838, and six 
years later to Rising Sun, Indiana. For many years he 
was agent for the American Bible Society, and also 
preached the gospel at the places above mentioned; 
afterwards he removed to Mt. Vernon, Indiana, where 
he engaged in farming, and also preached, making that 
place his permanent home. At the commencement of 
the Civil War he tendered his services to the Governor 
‘of the state, and was assigned to the chaplaincy of the 
24th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Colonel 
Hovey commanding. He died in the service at Evans- 
ville, Indiana, in June, 1863, and his wife survived him 
but two years. Charles H. Fitch had received a thorough 
Enslish education, and in 1846 went to New Albany, 
Indiana, where he served an apprenticeship to the ma- 
chinist’s trade. After acquiring a knowledge of his busi- 
ness he shipped on board one of the Ohio River steam- 


i 


of the East. 


MEN OF INDIANA. Ig 
boats as engineer, and went to Mobile, Alabama, where 
he remained in the employment of one steamboat com- 
pany for fourteen years. He also spent one year in 
California, putting up and superintending machinery. 
He is considered a most expert workman, and has been 
engaged in the capacity of master in his trade, princi- 
pally on river steamboats, since the close of his appren- 
ticeship. In 1876 he was elected engineer in chief of 
the New Albany water-works, which position he fills 
with credit and ability. He was married, November 
7, 1857, to Miss Eva L. Witman, daughter of Judge 
Charles Witman, of Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. They 
have had three children. 


—>- $006 


; |ERRISH, JAMES W. F., physician and surgeon, 
of Seymour, was born in Monmouth, Maine, Feb- 
ep) ruary 12, 1831. His father, Ansel Gerrish, was a 
GG general merchant and speculator. The Gerrish 
family were among the early settlers of the New Eng- 
land states, having emigrated there from England in 
1632, and become identified with the welfare and growth 
During the financial troubles of 1836 and 
1837 Doctor Gerrish’s father, like many others, became 


deeply involved; and, after spending two years in an 
unsuccessful effort to retrieve his fortunes, left his family 
and went to Elizabeth, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 
where he taught school for about two years. He then 
sent for his family, which consisted of his wife and two 
children, the eldest nine years of age, and in the fall 
of 1840 the family were again united. Doctor Gerrish, 
the subject of this sketch, has a distinct recollection 
of the long and tedious journey. He obtained the 
rudiments of his education in the school taught by his 
father. While teaching, his father completed the study 
of medicine, which he had begun in his youth, and ina 
few years removed to Paris, Jennings County, Indiana, 
where he commenced practice. In the early part of 
1850 James W. F. Gerrish followed his father to Paris, 
where, in the same year, they opened a drug-store. The 
son soon after commenced the study of medicine, in 
which he became so deeply interested that he resolved 
to become a physician. He graduated-in 1855, and 
immediately upon returning home commenced practice 
with his father in Paris. Their copartnership continued, 
with a large and lucrative practice, until the death of 
Doctor Ansel Gerrish, which occurred August 19, 1859, 
at Portland, Maine, while he was traveling for his health, 
accompanied by his son. Upon the breaking out of 
the Civil War, Doctor Gerrish was commissioned assist- 
ant surgeon, but soon rose to the rank of surgeon, and 
was assigned for duty with the 67th Regiment of Indi- 
ana Volunteers. During his army career he held sev- 
eral important positions, at one time having charge 


20 REPRESENTATIVE 
of the general hospitals of the Thirteenth Army Corps, 
at Vicksburg. In August, 1864, on account of failing 
health, he was compelled to resign, and soon after re- 
turning North settled in Seymour, Indiana. Here, by 
close attention to the wants of the community, he stead- 
ily rose in the estimation of the people, until he is now 
regarded as one of the leading physicians and citizens 
of this part of the state. He became a member of the 
Indiana State Medical Society, and a permanent mem- 
ber of the American Medical Association. In 1877 he 
was also chosen first vice-president of the Tri-state Med- 
ical Society of Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana, and 
was voted an honorary membership in the South-western 
Kentucky Medical Society. Doctor Gerrish was always 
a lover of ancient history, and in early life had his curi- 
osity aroused by the relics found in the mounds of the 
Mound Builders near Marietta, Ohio. He has been 
adding to his collections ever since, until at this time 
very few private citizens of the state have finer archee- 
ological specimens than can be found in his study. In 
Doctor Gerrish Indiana has one of the leading spirits in 
the temperance movement. In the early part of 1877 he 
espoused the cause, and was immediately chosen pres- 
ident of the Red Ribbon Reform Club, of Seymour, 
which position he now holds. Jackson County owes 
more to his energy and liberality for the grand success 
of the work than to any other man. He is not a mono- 
maniac upon the subject of temperance, but believes in 
moral suasion and in man’s ability to govern himself. 
His courtesy and kindness, and wonderful success in the 
management of the affairs of the Reform Club, have 
endeared him to the hearts of its members. In 1879 he 
was elected president of the Grand Temperance Council 
of Indiana, delegated from all the state temperance organ- 
izations, to a great extent the outgrowth of his own work. 
He was married to Miss Maria Robinson, of Elizabeth, 
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in September, 1849. 
They have hadsseven children, four of whom are now liv- 
ing. The eldest, a son, is attending the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania. Doctor Gerrish’s 
mother died January 7, 1877. Both parents were stanch 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and they en- 
deavored to rear their children according to its teachings. 
Doctor Gerrish is not a member of any religious denom- 
ination, however, but believes in a rational devotion, and 
in doing unto others that which he would they should 
do unto him. 
—-2-8ptg-o— 


AINS, JAMES M., merchant, manufacturer, and 
banker, of New Albany, was born in Harrison 
County, Indiana, July 31, 1818, and is one of 
eight children of Benjamin and Mary (Woodfield) 
Hains. His father, who was born in Dutchess County, 
New York, in the year made famous by the signing of 


MEN OF INDIANA. [sa Dist. 
the Declaration of Independence, was a farmer, and had 
settled in Harrison County in 1815. His estimable wife 
died when her son was only five years old. His moth- 
er’s death, and other circumstances peculiar to those 
primitive times, limited the educational advantages en- 
joyed by Mr. Hains in his youth. His father died when 
he was seventeen years old, and from that time the 
young man was compelled to depend entirely upon his 
own resources. A year previous to this he had deter- 
mined to secure a good education, and in order to pro- 
vide himself with the necessary means, he obtained 
employment out of school hours in a hotel. This en- 
abled him to acquire the rudiments of an English educa- 
tion. At the age of eighteen he apprenticed himself to 
a firm engaged in the hardware and queensware busi- 
ness, to learn the trade. He commenced in the capa- 
city of porter, and by degrees rose to the position of 
clerk and salesman in the establishment. At the end 
of his term of apprenticeship he re-engaged himself for 
four years longer at an increased salary. His wages 
while an apprentice had been seventy-five, one hun- 
dred, and one hundred and twenty dollars a year, and 
from this amount he had managed to defray his ex- 
penses and save a little besides. At the expiration of 
the time mentioned, determined to follow out his early 
aspirations for a higher education, he entered the Wa- 
bash College at Crawfordsville, intending to prepare 
himself for the ministry. He devoted himself assidu- 
ously to his studies for two years, but his health gave 
way under the unaccustomed strain, and he was com- 
pelled to abandon his cherished purpose. He returned 
to his former business with the firm whose apprentice 


| he had been, and remained with them two years longer. 
i He now decided to engage in business for himself; and 


commenced the manufacture of tin, sheet-iron, and cop- 
per-work, in which he continued about five years, with 
cuch success that at the end of that time he retired from 
business. But ‘‘inactive industry” did not suit a man 
of his peculiar temperament, and he was soon elected 
president, treasurer, and general business manager of 
the New Albany City Gas Company, which position he 
held for some twenty years. During part of this time 
he was president of the Paoli Bank, Orange County, 
Indiana; and since 1865 he has been president of the 
New Albany National Bank. In 1869 he was made 
secretary, treasurer, and business manager of the New 
Albany Woolen and Cotton Mills, and he still holds © 
this position. The foregoing gives some slight idea 
of the business capacity and untiring energy of Mr. 
Hains, as well as the prominent place which he oc- 
cupies in his community, representing as he does its 
material prosperity, and occupying positions that show 
the implicit confidence placed in his integrity. When 
he had reached thirty-seven years of age, he married 
Miss Mary E. Dickey, daughter of Rev. John M. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINGI< 


jd Dist.) 


Dickey, a Presbyterian preacher of note, and one of the 
oldest pioneer preachers of the state. Mrs. 
lady of the highest moral worth; her labors in behalf 
of every good cause have given her the warm esteem 
of the Christian community, and her husband has ever 
found in her an earnest helper in all his plans of beney- 
olence. They have had three children, two of whom 
are now living. James Brooks Hains, the eldest son 
and a promising young man, died soon after he had 
graduated, with marked honors, at Wabash College, and 
while yet a student at the law school at Cambridge. 
Mr. Hains connected himself with the Presbyterian 
Church when only twenty years of age. He has always 
been a warm and liberal supporter of the cause of relig- 
ion, and his heart and purse have ever been open to the 
deserving poor and needy. He has truly been a liberal 
steward of the wealth which has been committed to 
him, and his benevolence has become almost proverbial 
in his city. He is now over sixty years old, and has 
been identified with almost every enterprise for the ma- 
terial and moral benefit of the community. 
to occupying the positions already mentioned, he is 
now trustee of Wabash College, the oldest and best 
endowed classical college in the state of Indiana. He 
is justly entitled to be numbered among the foremost 
‘‘representative men” of the state. 


Hains is a 


In addition 


— ~>-gOte<-— 


Dryden, Tompkins County, New York, May 27, 
CoP\ 1831, and is the eldest son of Elijah and Julia A. 
°s¢ (Dunham) Heffren. His father was a farmer; his 
mother’s brother, Hon. Cyrus L. Dunham, was a very 
prominent man in state affairs, being one of the leading 
attorneys of Indiana, and also representing the state in 
Congress. Mr. Heffren spent his early life on the farm, 
attending school during the winter, and, at the age of 
seventeen, taught school three terms. In October, 1850, 
he emigrated to Brownstown, Jackson County, Indiana, 
and in the following spring began the study of law in the 
ofice of Hon. C. L. Dunham and J. M. Lord, at Sa- 
lem. He was admitted to the bar in 1852, and ad- 
mitted to practice in the Supreme Court, on motion of 
the Hon. William T. Otto, May 29, 1855. In 1852 he 
began the practice of law in Salem, Indiana, residing 
‘there ever since. In October, 1856, he was elected 
state Senator, and introduced a bill, which became a 
law, ‘‘to provide for transferring the certificates of the 
stock of the state, providing for a registry of the same, 
to prevent a fraudulent issue thereof, and providing a 
punishment for a violation of the provisions of this 
act.” In 1857, through the manipulations of the joint 
session in an attempt to defeat the election of United 
States Senators, a point of order being raised, Mr. Heff- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


21 


ren spoke against time, as per arrangement, and suc- 
ceeded in electing the United States Senator from his 
party. In 1861 he was elected joint Representative from 
the counties of Washington and Harrison, without op- 
position, and was the Democratic candidate for Speaker 
of the House, receiving the entire party vote. The 
same year he assisted in raising the 13th Regiment of 
Indiana Volunteer Infantry, of which he was commis- 
sioned major, and afterwards promoted to lieutenant- 
colonel. In October he was transferred to the so0th 
Regiment Indiana Volunteers, which he also assisted to 
recruit, and was sent to Tennessee with a portion of the 
regiment. In September, 1862, he was compelled to 
resign, owing to ill-health. Returning to Salem, he 
resumed the practice of his profession, to which ne has 
since devoted his whole attention. 
years he has been engaged in writing the history of 
Washington County, which has been published from 
in the Salem Democrat. Mr. Heffren 
has been a leading man in the Democratic party 
for thirty years, and it is greatly indebted to him 
for its thorough organization, and its success under 
many adverse and trying circumstances. 
October 23, 1855, Miss Mary Persise, daughter of a 
merchant of Washington County, Indiana. They have 
two children living. In religion he is a Liberal. Mr. 
Heffren was made a Freemason in 1852, has taken all 
the degrees through Knighthood, and has been a repre- 
sentative in the Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of the 
state. He has been closely identified with the growth 
and prosperity of Salem and of Washington County; 
he is regarded as standing at the head of the legal fra- 
ternity in his comrfiunity, and is highly respected as a 
citizen and gentleman. 


During the Jast four 


week to week 


He married, 


—+-$006-— 


OLMES, SAMUEL W., of Seymour, was born 
near Bethel, Clermont County, Ohio, April 13, 
1830. When he was fifteen years old his father, 


“6 William Holmes, and his mother, Anna (Wilson) 
Holmes, died, leaving him, without means of support, 


to make his way alone. He attended the common 
school of the neighborhood for about nine months only, 
and therefore secured a very limited education. He 
worked in the summer at farming, and during the win- 
ter months at chopping wood. In April, 1851, he came 
to Jackson County, Indiana, and settled near Cologne, 
four miles east of Seymour, where he engaged in farm- 
ing. The following winter he taught school, at 2leven 
dollars per month, and soon after became foreman for 
Ladd & Newcomb, contractors in building the Ohio and 
Mississippi Railroad. In the fall of 1853 he removed to 
Seymour, and for five years was e.aployed as mail agent 


on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. In 1858 he pur- 


22 


chased the Jackson County Democrat, and published that 


paper until the fall of 1859, when he was elected auditor 


of Jackson County for four years. In 1863 he was re- 
elected, and, after serving as auditor of the county eight 
years, he engaged in the mercantile trade in Seymour, 
but on account of ill-health was compelled to abandon 
He then turned his atten- 
tion to the insurance business. At the session of the 
Indiana Legislature in 1871, he was elected principal 
clerk of the House, and was re-elected to the same po- 
sition in 1875. In 1871 he was chosen a member of the 
common council of Seymour, and, after serving one 
year, resigned; and was elected mayor of the city for 
two years, which position he filled to the satisfaction of 
the people. In May, 1878, he was elected city attorney 
for two years. At the close of the session of the Legis- 
lature in 1875, he entered upon the practice of law in con- 
nection with his insurance business, and still continues 
the same. In December, 1860, he was married to Maria 
L. Smith, daughter of Samuel W. Smith, attorney-at- 
law, of Seymour. They have one son now living. Po- 
litically, Mr. Holmes is a stanch Democrat, having been 
several times chairman of the Democratic central com- 
mittee of Jackson County, and of the central committee 
of the congressional district, and is an acknowledged 
leader of the party in the county. He was raised in 
the faith of the Christian Church, but is now a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal denomination. 


this pursuit soon afterward. 


—> 006--— 


OWARD, DANIEL, of Jeffersonville, Clarke 
County, was born in Oldham® Parish, near Man- 
Sol chester, England, March 17, 1816. When he was 
ay but four years old his parents, John and Martha 
(Walker) Howard, emigrated to America. After six 
months spent in the city of New York they decided to 
travel westward, and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. The 
journey from New York was accomplished in wagons as 
far as Wheeling, Virginia, and thence in a covered flat- 
boat down the Ohio River to Cincinnati. Here the 
father found employment in a cotton mill, at his trade 
of wool-carder and weaver, and, later, in company with 
a Mr. Lytle, engaged in the operation of a woolen mill. 
Daniel Howard is one of three sons and three daughters 
surviving from a family of eight children. At the age 
of fourteen he was apprenticed to the ship-carpenter’s 
trade for five years. 


On the expiration of his appren- 
ticeship he engaged as carpenter on the Lower Missis- 
sippi River steamboats, and later as an engineer. In 
April, 1848, with his brother, James Howard, he com- 
menced the building of boats at Jeffersonville, Indiana, 
under the firm name of D. & J. Howard, and continued 
in that business until his retirement from active life in 
1864. The Howard brothers had to that date built over 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[3d Dist. 


two hundred steamboats, at an average value of thirty- 
five thousand dollars each, or a total of seven millions 
of dollars. They had probably the best arranged yard 
on the Ohio River, and had built some of the finest 
boats that navigate Western waters. December 2, 1849, 
Mr. Howard married Miss Mary Densford, daughter of 
James Densford, of Oldham County, Kentucky. Her 
father was for several years sheriff and magistrate of his 
county, and a prominent and worthy citizen. Two chil- 
dren born to them died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. 
Howard are both members of the First Presbyterian 
Church of Jeffersonville, which has been their home for 
so many years, and are widely known and highly es- 
teemed. 
3-400 


‘eens JONAS GEORGE, attorney-at-law, Jef- 

fersonville, was born in the county of Floyd, near 
Be) the then village of New Albany, May 22, 1825. 
Cc, His father, Jonas Howard, was a substantial far- 
mer of Clarke County, Indiana, whither he had emigra- 
ted from Champlain County, Vermont, in 1841. His 
mother, Margaret (Helmer) Howard, was a native of 
Herkimer County, New York, whence she removed. 
with her parents to Indiana early in the history of the 
state. In the common and select schools of his native 
village, Mr. Howard obtained his early education. In 
1846, at the age of twenty-one, he entered the Indiana 
University, at Greencastle, where, for three years, he 
pursued a scientific course. He then studied law with 

John F. Read at Jeffersonville, and in 1851 re- 
ceived his certificate of graduation in the Law Depart- 
ment of the Indiana State University, at Bloomington. 
The following year he was admitted to the bar, and 
since that time has devoted himself assiduously to the 
practice of his profession. His career as a lawyer has 
been marked with unqualified success; he ranks high as 
a counselor at the bar of his state, and is highly regarded 
by his associates in the profession. A sound reasoner 
and an able speaker, he enjoys the reputation of a 
thoroughly conscientious advocate. In numerous im- 
portant cases he has been honored by an appointment 
from the Judge of his district to render judgment, and 
his decisions have always commanded the highest re- 
spect. As a natural result of his prominence and popu- 
larity, he has been called upon to assume -the responsi- 
bilities of public life. In 1863, and two succeeding 
years, he was elected to represent his district in the 
state Legislature, on the Democratic ticket. In 1868 
he was chosen presidential elector, and bore an able 
and effective part in canvassing the state for the Demo- 
cratic candidates. In 1876 he was again called upon to 
take a place on the electoral ticket, and again his voice 
was heard in the field in support of his candidates and 
their principles. His addresses are well delivered, log- 


pay 


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gad Dist.) 


ical, clear, and to the point; and earnestness and sin- 
cerity mark all his oratorical efforts. He has always 
taken a lively interest in local politics, but has generally 
declined the cares of official position. November 23, 
1854, Mr. Howard married Miss Martha J. Roswell, 
daughter of James and Drusilla Roswell, of Clarke 
County, Indiana. She died February 19, 1872, leaving 
three children. September 8, 1873, Mr. Howard mar- 
ried Miss Elizabeth Roswell, sister of his former wife, 
by whom he has one child. He is particularly fortu- 
nate in his social and domestic relations, and enjoys the 
confidence and esteem of all who know him. 


—+-4006-2— 


ene GEORGE VAIL, of New Albany, waz born 
in Charlestown, Clarke County, Indiana, September 

G 21, 1824, and is the only surviving son of Isaac 
y Howk, one of the pioneer lawyers of the state. 
The Howk family are of German origin, but settled in 
Massachusetts early in the last century, and engaged 
chiefly in agriculture. Isaac Howk, the father of the 
subject of this sketch, was born on a farm in Berkshire 
County, Massachusetts, in July, 1793, and was educated 
at Williams College, in that county. In 1817 he settled 
in Charlestown, Indiana, and engaged in the practice of 
his profession. In 1820 he married Miss Elvira Vail, a 
daughter of Doctor Gamaliel Vail, who had emigrated 
from Vermont to Indiana Territory in 1806. Their son, 
George V. Howk, grew to manhood in Charlestown, In- 
diana. His father died in 1833, but his mother devoted 
the remainder of a long life to the education, comfort, 
and happiness of her children. She died in New AI- 
bany, Indiana, September 15, 1869. Judge Howk grad- 
uated from Indiana Asbury University in the class of 
1846, under the presidency of Matthew Simpson, widely 
known as one of the bishops of the Methodist Church. 
Some of his classmates were, Newton Booth, United 
States Senator from California; James P. Luce, James M. 
Reynolds, and Joseph Tingley, now one of the professors 
of the college. He studied law with Judge Charles 
Dewey, who was for ten years a Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Indiana, and one of the ablest jurists the state 
has produced. ‘He was admitted to the bar in 1847, 
and settled in New Albany. December 21, 1848, he mar- 
ried Miss Eleanor Dewey, the eldest daughter of Judge 
Charles Dewey, late of Charlestown. Mrs. Howk died 
"April 12, 1853, leaving two young children. September 
5, 1854, he married Miss Jane Simonson, eldest daughter 
of General John S. Simonson, United States army, who 
still survives. They have two children, John S. and 
George V. Howk, junior; and one daughter, Jane S., 
the child of Judge Howk’s first wife, is also living. In 
1852 and 1853 Judge Howk was city judge of New Al- 


bany; and from 1850 to 1864, during most of the time, 
L=—EO 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


23 


was a member of the city council. In 1857 he was 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Floyd County; 
in 1863 he represented that county in the House, and 
from 1866 to 1870 he represented Floyd and Clarke 
Counties in the Senate of Indiana. He was chosen one 
of the Supreme Judges of Indiana at the general state 
election in October, 1876. Soon after taking his posi- 
tion on the bench, he gave promise of the great ability 
he has since displayed. His decisions are clear, concise, 
and conclusive, taking rank with those of the ablest 
jurists of the state; and his suavity of manner toward all 
with whom he comes in contact officially makes him 
very popular with the attorneys practicing at the bar of 
the Supreme Court. In politics Judge Howk is a Dem- 
ocrat. His mother was a Methodist, and he was edu- 
cated in a Methodist college, but is not a member of 
any religious denomination. His wife and children are 
Presbyterians. 
—-903- 


AY, ANDREW J., M. D., Charlestown, Clarke 
County, was born in the place of his residence 
20 April 8, 1822. His father, Andrew P. Hay, who 
SG was also a physician, was a native of Harrisburg, 
Kentucky, studied medicine at Lexington and was surgeon 
in the Tippecanoe campaign, having been appointed by 
General Harrison. He settled in Indiana in 1815. His 
mother was a daughter of Doctor Isaac Gano, of Frank- 
fort, Kentucky. The Doctor himself comes from a line 
of physicians, a family noted for its number of great 
men in the medical profession. 


Gi 


He received his early 
education in the common schools of the county, then at 
Clarke County Seminary, Hanover College, and Charles- 
town Academy, where he went through a full course 
under Professor James A. Nelson. On leaving school 
he entered upon the study of medicine at Charlestown 
with his father, at that time the leading practitioner of 
the county, and a man whose practice extended through 
no less than five counties. After studying for three 
years he attended his first course of lectures at Louis- 
ville Medical College, and in 1844 he took his second 
course at the same college. He then formed a partner- 
ship with his ‘father at Charlestown, where he has re- 
mained ever since, and now enjoys the largest practice 
and is considered the leading physician of the county. 
While with Dr. Andrew P. Hay he spent at different times 
some three years in various places for the purpose of gain- 
ing information and experience, but since his father’s 
death he has been confined to his native town. 
the war he received a commission as first lieutenant of cav- 
alry in the provost-marshal’s office, and was appointed 
commissary. In the session of 1847-48 he was elected 
clerk of the House of Representatives of the Indiana 
Legislature. In 1850 he was chosen a member of the 
House of Representatives from Clarke County, and in 


During 


24 REPRESENTATIVE 
1860 he was elected county clerk. He is a man of much 
public spirit, and is active in working for the benefit of 
his town and county. He was one of the leading spirits 
in building the pike between Charlestown and Jefferson- 
ville, a road that has proved a great boon, and of which 
he is secretary. He is a member of the county medical 
society, and has been a delegate to the state association. 
He has been a member of the Masonic Order for twenty- 
five years, and has been Grand Master of the state; he 
has held all offices in the Grand Lodge, and has taken 
all degrees up to Knight Templar. He is a member of 
the Presbyterian Church, of which he has been an elder 
for several years. In politics he is an active Republi- 
can. Born and brought up a Whig, he joined the Re- 
publican ranks on the formation of the party, and has 
been a member of the state central committee several 
times, always taking an active interest in each canvass. 
In 1848 he married Rebecca C. Garnett, of Washington, 
Pennsylvania, who died in 1866, leaving two daughters 
and one son, who is now a lawyer practicing at Madi- 
son. In 1868 he married Virginia L. Naylor, daughter 
of Judge Naylor, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, who has 
now two young daughters attending school. Dr. Ilay 
is a man of splendid physique, in the enjoyment of fine 
mental and physical powers, and is an educated and 
courteous gentleman. 
gto 


lILL, JAMES WOODS, merchant, of Vernon, was 
| born in Jennings County November 26, 1820. 
CoP His father, Thomas, who emigrated from Ken- 
&S< tucky to Jennings County in 1817, was a Baptist 
minister, continuing his ministry until his death, which 
took place in 1877. He was a man widely known and 
highly esteemed and beloved, and was one of the pio- 
neer ministers of the southern part of the state. His 
mother, Susan Beester, a most worthy and estimable 
woman, who devoted her time to the careful training 
and education of her family, departed this life in 1870. 
James W. received an ordinary school education, such 
as the country at the time afforded, and as a boy made 
the most of his opportunities. On leaving school, at the 
age of nineteen, he for some six years occupied his win- 
ters in teaching school, and worked on a farm during the 
summer months. In 1850 he embarked in general mer- 
cantile business in the town of Paris, in the southern 
part of Jennings County, where he enjoyed a successful 
career until January, 1861, when he removed to Vernon, 
engaging in the same occupation, in which he long con- 
tinued, meeting with uniform success. Having gained 
for himself a competency, in January, 1880, he sold his 
stock and business interest to his son, who. succeeds 
him. When a young man he for some time held the 
rank of captain of militia, receiving his appointment 


from Governor Whitcomb. He has held office for many 


MEN OF INDIANA. [3@ Disi. 
years. He has been township trustee, a member of the 
board of county commissioners, and also served on the 
school board. 
tion of that party, with which he has ever since affiliated. 
Mr. Hill joined the Baptist Church in 1843, and has 
been its clerk for some years. He is superintendent of 
the Sunday-school, with which he has been connected 
some nineteen years, and is also president of the County 
Sunday-school Convention. He was married, in August, 
1841, to Sarah J. Brandon, the daughter of John Brandon, 
a farmer of Jennings County, now deceased. They have 
two sons living, both of whom are married. Mr. Hill 
is a man of good personal appearance, and is in the 
enjoyment of full health and vigor of mind and body. 
He is a man of honor, integrity, and uprightness, be- 
loved by his family, and respected by the community 
of which he has been so long a member. 


He became a Republican on the organiza- 


—<-40t6-o— 
4 

Eq ENNINGS, JONATHAN, Governor of Indiana, 
| was born near Hunterdon, New Jersey. He re- 
aK ceived an academic education, and removed to 


©) the North-west Territory late in the last century. 


When the territory was organized he became the first 
delegate, taking his seat after some opposition. He was 
three times elected, and when Indiana became a state he 
was the first Governor. In this office he served for six 
years, also acting as Indian commissioner in 1818, by 
appointment of President Monroe. At the conclusion of 
his term as Governor he was elected Representative in 
Congress, and was re-chosen for four terms in succession. 
He was nearly all his life in public office, and filled his 
places acceptably. He was a member of the Masonic 
Fraternity, and was elected Grand Master of the state in 
1824. He died near Charlestown, July 26, 1834. 


—+-$20@->— 


EWETT, CHARLES L., attorney, Scottsburg, was 
) born October 6, 1848, in Hanover, Indiana, being 
A the only son of Jonathan and Mary (Wells) Reid. 

His father died when the boy was an infant, and his 
mother married Judge P. H. Jewett, who adopted him as 
a son, and by legal process had his name changed to 
Jewett. At the age of fifteen he entered the State Uni- 
versity at Bloomington, where he remained until 1866, 
when he was admitted to the college at Hanover, and 
studied for one year. His health failing, he left school 
and removed to Montana Territory, where he was suc- 


cessively prospector, gold miner, and government sur- 
veyor. In the latter capacity he surveyed all the lands 
lying near the head waters of the Missouri River. 
These two years of pioneer life restored his health, and 
secured for him a physical stamina and development, as 


<n 


jd Dist.) 


well as a fund of experience, which will no doubt be of 
great benefit to him throughout his life. Returning to 
his native state in 1869, he prepared to enter upon the 
profession to which he had directed all his studies, and 
toward which all his efforts were now bent. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar at New Albany, October 6 of the 
Oc- 
tober 16, 1869, he was chosen Justice of the Peace, but 
he resigned within one year. 


same year, and immediately commenced practice. 


In 1871 he was appointed 
deputy prosecuting attorney of Scott County, and in 
1872 was elected district attorney for the district com- 
posed of Scott, Clarke, Floyd, Washington, and Harri- 
son Counties. In March, 1873, he was appointed by 
Governor Hendricks prosecutor for the Fifth Judicial 
Circuit, and in October of that year was elected to the 
same office for a full term. He was re-elected in 1874, 
and continued to hold the position until October 22, 
1877. In 1878 he was the Democratic candidate for 
Judge of the Fifth Circuit. Though a young man, Mr. 
Jewett is one of the acknowledged leaders of the Dem- 
ocratic party in his district, having been a member of 
the state central committee in 1876, and is at present 
chairman of the county central committee. He is an 
organizer of rare ability and tact, and an able lawyer. 
He is a member of the Episcopal Church, and is re- 
garded by all who know him as a gentleman of culture, 
enterprise, and influence. With youth and ability to aid 
him, he will no doubt make his mark in the world so 
plainly that those yet to come shall not fail to see the 
record. 
$00 
GYn 

ory, ERR, MICHAEL C., was born at Titusville, 

Pennsylvania, March 15, 1827. 
G ahs academic education, and graduated with the de- 
aS gree of Bachelor of Laws at the Louisville Uni- 
versity in 1851. 
student from an early age until the close of his life. 


He was an ardent and indefatigable 
attainments in the broad fields of general knowledge 


He received an 


His 


were more than ordinary, while in the branches more | 
directly allied to his public duties, such as political | 


economy, the science of government, parliamentary law, 
etc., his acquirements were extensive and duly acknowl- 
edged by his contemporaries. He taught school for some 
time in Kentucky, and settled in New Albany, Indiana, 
where he afterwards permanently resided. 
the practice of law in New Albany in 1852, was elected 
city attorney in 1854, and prosecuting attorney of Floyd 
County in 1855; was a member of the state Legislature 
in 1856 and 1857; was elected reporter of the Supreme 
Court of Indiana in 1862, and during his term of office 
edited five volumes of reports; was elected a Representa- 
tive to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first, and Forty- 
second Congresses; was the Democratic candidate at 
large for Representative to the Forty-third Congress, but 


He began 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 25 


was defeated by the small majority of one hundred and 
sixty-two votes; he was elected in 1874 to the Forty- 
fourth Congress by a majority of thirteen hundred and 
nine. But the crowning honor of his public career was 
his election to the speakership of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, at its organization in 1875. Mr. Kerr made 
an able and impartial presiding officer, and commanded 
the undivided respect of all parties. For some time pre- 
vious to his election to the speakership his health had 
begun to fail, from the insidious progress of a serious 
pulmonary affection, which was quickened to action by 
the arduous duties of his office, forcing him, before the 
close of the first session, to seek relief from his toils and 
sufferings bya sojourn among the mountains of Virginia. 
But the disease had gained too much headway, and his 
death took place on the 19th of August, 1876, at the 
Alum Springs, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. His 
noble qualities of heart and mind endeared him to a 
large circle of acquaintances and friends. His death 
was regretted by the whole country. 


—>-420-0— 

Cir a FOLLETTE, D. W., of New Albany, ex-Judge 
At of Floyd County Court of Common Pleas, is one 
(an of eleven children of Robert La Follette, who 
© emigrated to the then territory of Indiana No- 
vember 5, 1804. The preceding day he had married 
Miss Martha Sampson, and together they had crossed 
the Ohio River and pitched their tent about three- 
fourths of a mile east of Knob Creek, which loca- 
tion he had previously selected. Here, in the unbroken 
wilderness, surrounded by the dusky forms of the friendly 
Indians, they resolved to make their future home and 
commence the battle of life. They remained in camp 
until Mr. La Follette had made a clearing, cut logs, 
and built a cabin. This was the first house built in 
Floyd County, and the young wife was the first white 
woman who settled there. Their nearest white neigh- 
bors were ten miles below them, in Harrison County, 


and the next twelve miles above, in Clarsville, opposite 
the falls. The Shawnee Indians were their immediate 


| neighbors, and with them they lived on the most peace- 


able terms. When marauding tribes from other sections 
made their appearance in the vicinity, Mrs. La Follette 
was warned by her Indian friends, and sent across the 
river to her people, while her husband joined the expe- 
ditions to drive them back. They underwent all the 
hardships of pioneer life; a rude cabin, with a floor of 
split logs, sheltered them, and a table, bed, and other 
furniture, of split boards, were the household equip- 
ments of the young settlers. Game and fish were abun- 
dant, but they had besides only corn, either parched or 
ground, and broken into coarse meal. Mr. La Follette 


continued to reside where he first settled, and when the 


26 


division line between Clarke and Harrison Counties was 
drawn he was thrown into Clarke County, and paid his 
share towards building the first court-house, at Charles- 
town, the county seat. A few years afterward he moved 
into Harrison County, and helped to build, by special 
tax, the court-house at Corydon; and, later, when Floyd 
County was organized, he found himself in that county, 
levy to build the 

He remained on 


and paid his proportion of the 
first court-house at New Albany. 
the farm to which he had removed from the vicin- 
ity of Knob Creek, until his death, which occurred 
in January, 1867, when he was eighty-nine years 
old. He had resided in the limits of what is now 
Floyd County for sixty-two years, and his wife sixty-one 
She died a year before her husband, at seventy- 
nine years of age. Robert La Follette was, in all his re- 
lations, an eminently good man and a conscientious 
His house was, for many years, used for 


years, 


Christian. 
meetings by the regular 
preachers of all denominations were cordially welcomed, 
While he was conscientiously religious, he was also re- 
ligiously conscious of his duty to kill hostile Indians, 


3aptist minister, and pioneer 


and never missed an opportunity of joining in the chase. 
From the preceding short sketch of his father it will be 
seen that the early opportunities of D. W. La Follette 
must have been very limited; but the early instructions 
of a pioneer mother took root like seed fallen on good 
ground. He was born the thirteenth day of September, 
1825, and early in life learned that honest toil is the 
surest road to prosperity. By his own labor he acquired 
the means to defray his expenses at the state university, 
and graduated from the law department. He afterwards 
studied law with Hon. W. A. Porter, at Corydon, Indi- 
ana, was admitted to the bar in 1849, in the twenty- 
fourth year of his age, and immediately commenced the 
practice of his profession at Corydon. In 1852 he was 
elected prosecuting attorney for the Court of Common 
Pleas by a large majority. In 1855 he removed to New 
Albany and formed a partnership with Hon. James Col- 
In 1858 he was elected Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas of Floyd County. In 1872 he was ap- 
pointed Judge of the Criminal Circuit Court of Floyd 
and Clarke Counties, but declined, and became prosecut- 
ing attorney of the district. In 1873 he was appointed 
one of the law professors in the state university, and 
filled the chair one year, with credit to himself and the 
institution. Since then he has devoted his time to the 
practice of his profession, and is now city attorney of 
New Albany, Indiana. He has been twice married. 
His second wife is still living, and they have a family of 
three children, two sons and one daughter—Mattie M., 
Marian G., and Harry C. Judge La Follette is a mem- 
ber of the Christian Church, and takes an active part in 
all benevolent enterprises. He is an-active member of 
the Independent Order of Odd-fellows and Knights of 


lins. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7@ Dist. 


Pythias, having filled the highest official positions in 
both orders in the jurisdiction of Indiana. 
tirely a self-made man, and is a respected and influen- 
tial citizen. 


He is en- 


+400 


ii] ANN, JOHN, merchant, of New Albany, was 
born May 28, 1814, in Ontario County, New 
AX York. His parents, Peter and Sarah (Lyons) 
Sy Mann, emigrated to Indiana in 1817, and settled 
in Utica, Clarke County. They had twelve children, 
seven sons and five daughters, all of whom became hon- 
ored members of society. At this date (1879), six of the 
sons and one daughter are living. Mr. Mann’s paternal 


grandfather was descended from Protestant ancestors, 
and emigrated to this country from Ireland; his grand- 
mother, whose name was Chandler, was of 
German descent. His grand-parents on his mother’s side 
were both of English ancestry, and were among the 
earliest settlers in the colonies. Peter Mann was born 
in the state of New York in 1780, and died in 1847, in 
Clarke County, Indiana, aged sixty-eight. His wife, 
born in New Jersey in 1785, died in 1860. They both 
united with the religious denomination known as the 
New Light, under the preaching of Judge Clem Nantz, 
in Clarke County, and were zealous, pious, and consist- 
ent Christians. The early teachings of the mother 
afterward proved to have been seed sown in good ground. 
In 1832 John Mann engaged ona fleet of steamboats in the 
government service, to clear out the drift in the channel of 
the Red River, and was thus occupied five months. These 
were the first steamboats that ever penetrated as far as 
Shreveport, Louisiana, and it took them thirty days to 
make the trip from Red River to New Albany, now 
accomplished in from five to seven days. The next two 
years he assisted his brother Lewis, and then, procuring 
a team and outfit, worked in his own interest two years 
more. At the end of that time, being twenty-two years 
of age, and feeling that his education was insufficient, 
he studied one term under Mr. Brownlee, and another 
under Mr. Kennedy, at Mt. Tabor. The next four 
years he spent as traveling salesman; the first for Mr. 
E. R. Day; the second for Kellogg & Co., both book 
and stationery merchants; the third for Dr. Maginness, 
in the sale of drugs; and the fourth on his own ac- 
count, with a general assortment of light goods and 
notions. He then, in company with Mr. Louis Web- 
ber, fitted up a trading boat for the sale of dry-goods, 
groceries, and hardware, between New Albany and 
Memphis. He was clerk one year for Connor & Co., 
and for Connor & Reineking the same length of time, 
after which, in 1847, at the age of thirty-three—having 
accumulated a few hundred dollars—he engaged in an 
enterprise the success of which proved his good judg- 


maiden 


' ment. He opened a small retail grocery on Main Street, 


od Dist.) 


between Bank and Pearl Streets, in a room fourteen feet 
front by sixty deep. Here, with no help but a young 
boy, he continued seven years, his untiring devotion to 
business winning many friends. By degrees he increased 
his capital until, about 1860, he removed to State Street, 
renting a store, which he afterwards purchased. Upon 
this removal he restricted his business to the wholesale 
trade, thus dealing only with merchants, and the value 
of his four years’ experience and wide acquaintance as 
traveling salesman began to be realized. In 1874, hav- 
ing been in business alone for twenty-seven years, Mr. 


Mann admitted to partnership two young men who had | 


been in his store from boyhood, the firm name being J. 
Mann & Co. Five years later the name was changed to 
Mann & Faweette, the junior, Mr. Elwood Fawcette, 
having been also in the former partnership. In 1836, 
under the preaching of Rev. Samuel K. Sneed, of Mt. 
Tabor, Mr. Mann joined the Second Presbyterian Church, 
and has served as deacon for several years. He is a 
worthy citizen, and is highly honored by all. He has 
been married three times: first, on the 4th of January, 
1849, to Miss Amanda A. Graham, daughter of John K. 
and Elizabeth (Weach) Graham. She died April 14, 
1851. A year later he married Miss Angeline Graham, 
sister of his former wife, who died May 5, 1872. Both 
of these sisters left the memory of lives lovely for their 
domestic and Christian graces; and their many excel- 
lencies have exercised a lasting influence for good. June 
25, 1873, he married Miss Mary L. Very, daughter of 
Martin and Eliza Very, and granddaughter of John K. 
Graham. April 13, 1874, his first child, John Horace 
Mann, was born; Mary Angeline was born December 
27, 1876; Robert was born January 19, 1880. John K. 
Graham, whose daughters Mr. Mann married, was of 
Scotch-Irish descent. He came from Pennsylvania to 
New Albany when the latter contained but a few log 
houses,. becoming one of the earliest settlers of South- 
ern Indiana. 


the state in surveying and locating the Wabash Canal. 


He was one of the members of the Convention that | 


framed the old state Constitution at Corydon in 1816. 
He was several times elected to the state Legislature, 
and served with fidelity in every position to which he 
was called. He died in 1841. Martin Very, father of 
Mr. Mann’s third wife, was also one of the early set- 
tlers of Floyd County. His father, Francis Very, was 
of French descent; and his mother, whose maiden name 
was Rhoda Lawrence, was of English parentage. His 
parents died when he was quite young; and, though in 
a new country, he met life’s vicissitudes with an indom- 
itable will and a stout heart. At an early day, in part- 
nership with his brother, Lawson Very, he carried on 
a saw-mill on Silver Creek, about three miles from New 
Albany. They were among the first in the West to in- 


He surveyed and platted the city, in| 
the employ of the Scribners, and was employed by | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


- 27 


troduce the gang-saws for preparing lumber for steam- 
boat hulls—steamboat building being then extensively 
carried on in New Albany; up to this time lumber for 
such purposes having been cut by the hand or whip- 
They afterward engaged in running a flour-mill, 
Later, Martin 
Very purchased his brother’s interest in the mills, which 
were soon after destroyed by fire. He then built a 
steamboat, the ‘* Ruby,” which he ran in the southern 
trade, but it sank; and, as he had no insurance on either 
mills or boat, the loss was too great to be repaired. Yet 
his energy did not fail, but characterized his life to its 
latest hour. He was a member of the Third Presby- 
terian Church, of New Albany. In 1870, at the age 
of sixty-three years, he died. His daughter, Mrs. Mary 
L. Mann, is a lady of refined literary taste, and a thor- 
ough Bible student, Since her early youth she has been 
a member and an earnest worker in the Second Presby- 
terian Church, of her native city. 


saw. 
which proved a successful enterprise. 


—>-39te--— 
(I 


) “ANN, PETER, merchant, of New Albany, was 


|] born in Ontario County, New York, May 15, 
og A\ 1812, and is the brother of John Mann, a sketch 
COS of whose life appears in another part of this 
work. He left his home at seventeen years of age and 
came to New Albany, where he found employment at 
various pursuits until he was twenty years old. He then 
shipped on board the United States government engin- 
eering and surveying boat, on the Ohio River. After 
remaining there about six months he returned to New 


Albany, and, being soon enabled to purchase a team, en- 
gaged in the occupation of teamster until 1835, at which 
time he had succeeded in saving five hundred dollars. 
With this he went into the saw-mill and lumber busi- 
ness, which he conducted safely until 1848, when he 
purchased the plat of ground now occupied by the Star 
Glass Works, on which he built a saw-mill. In 1849 
Mr. John McCullough purchased a half interest in this 
mill, and they continued in partnership until 1855, when 
Mr. Mann sold to his partner and purchased the site of 
the present mill, on which he built a flour-mill with 
three runs of stone. This was destroyed by fire Decem- 
ber 4, 1870, and by the following August he had erected 
a mill of double the capacity of the former, complete in 
every department. He has always enjoyed a very large 
and profitable trade, and is one of the most successful 
business men of his city. He is a Republican, but is 
little interested in politics. On the 24th of September, 
1854, Mr. Mann married Miss Lydia Chew, of Floyd 
County. She died April 14, 1853, leaving two daugh- 
ters, who are both married to highly respectable farmers 
of Clarke County. March 15, 1858, Mr. Mann married 
Miss Elizabeth B. Lightner, daughter of Jacob Light- 


28 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


ner, of New Albany. Their three children are named, 
respectively, Eva B., James H., and Peter B. Mann. 
Mr. Mann is a member of the New Albany Third Pres- 
byterian Church. He is still hale and active, and gives 
close attention to his business. 


—~-40%-o— 


(WWARSHALL, WILLIAM K., attorney, of Sey- 
Ai} mour, was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, 
cor October 12, 1824, and is the eldest son of Thomas 
5) and Sarah (Cakinneai) Marshall. His father did 
valuable service in the American army during the War 
of 1812, after which he followed the occupation of a 
farmer. At the age of twenty, Willam Marshall en- 
tered the college at Hanover, Indiana, where he spent 
four years, and was then compelled to abandon his 
studies on account of impaired health. This was a 
great trial to the young student, who was always at the 
head of his classes, and who would have graduated the 
following year. After a year spent in recruiting his 
health he began the study of law, was admitted to the bar 
in March, 1851, and commenced the practice of his pro- 
fession in Lexington, Scott County, where he had pre- 
viously moved. In 1856 he was elected treasurer of 
Scott County, and was re-elected in 1858. In 1864 he 
removed to Seymour, Indiana, where he has since been 
engaged in the practice of his profession. Through his 
ability and close attention to business, he has established 


a fine practice, and 1s acknowledged to be the leading 
jurist in the county, if not in the district. Mr. Mar- 
shall has had many important railroad cases, having 
acted as the attorney of the Jeffersonville, Madison and 
Indianapolis Railroad, and carried to a successful termi- 
nation a most important case against the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi Railroad. He was married, November 1, 1854, 
to Fidelia Childs, daughter of a wealthy farmer of Jef- 
ferson County. They have a most interesting family of 
six children. Mr. Marshall is an active, earnest Repub- 
lican, he has been for years a member of the central 
committee of his county, and has represented his party 
in the state conventions. In religion he 1s a Presbyte- 
rian. He is highly respected as a lawyer and gentle- 
man, and commands in an eminent degree the esteem 
and confidence of the community in which he resides. 


> $08-o— 


\ | /AIN, REUBEN P., merchant, of New Albany, 
|| was born on a small farm at North Stonington, 
Connecticut, September 29, 1824. His father, 

Ge conn Main, and his mother, Sabra (Wells) 
waa daughter of Thomas and Phcebe Wells, were 
both natives of Stonington. 
from England, and were among the early settlers of the 


Their families emigrated 


[3@ Dist. 


colonies. His grandfather, Rufus Main, was a soldier 
in the Revolutionary War, and fought in the battle of 
Stonington.. Reuben Main is one of a family of twelve 
children, and received early instruction from a kind 
mother. He worked on the farm in summer and attended 
school in winter until he was fourteen years of age. 
He then went to New York City and was employed in 
the wholesale grocery and provision store of his two 
brothers for about six years, when, becoming convinced 
that a wider field was open to him in the West, he 
started, in 1847, for Cincinnati, Ohio. There he en- 
gaged in the grocery and provision trade one year, and 
then went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he continued 
the business until 1853. He then removed to New AI- 
bany, where he has carried on a successful wholesale 
grocery and produce trade, and has also dealt exten- 
sively in grain and flour and engaged in milling. He 
owns a considerable amount of bank stock, and also 
stock in glass and iron manufacturing companies. He 
has always given his personal attention to his business, 
and has built up a large and profitable trade. Mr. Main 
thinks much but talks little, and claims the right to 
vote for the best man regardless of party. In 1878 he 
was nominated by the National Greenback party as 
candidate for state Treasurer, and received a vote largely 
in excess of his ticket, which was in a minority in the 
state. Mr. Main has been twice married; first, to Mat- 
tie E. Neal, daughter of Charles and Maria Neal, of 
Louisville, Kentucky; she died in 1871, leaving three 
children—Laymond P., Reuben F., and Victoria E. 
Main. In February, 1872, he married Miss Hattie J. 
Knepfly, daughter of John and Margaret Knepfly, of 
New Albany. They have two children, John K. and 
William L. Main. With his family Mr. Main attends 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. He occupies a prom- 
inent position in social and business circles, and is a 
valuable and respected citizen. 


cCORD, ROBERT G., one of the most prominent 
citizens of New Albany, is a native of Winches- 
Gey ter, ee where he was born ir August, 

1828. His father was a dry-goods merchant, and 
his son was educated with a view to the same business. 
At the age of ten years he emigrated to Indiana with 
his uncle, and settled in Harrison County. Ten years 
later he removed to New Albany, and made a contract 
with Mr. W. S. Culbertson for three years’ service in 
his wholesale house, at one hundred dollars for the first 
year, one hundred and twenty-five for the second, and 
for the third one hundred and fifty. During the sec- 
ond year a situation was offered to Mr. McCord at six 
hundred dollars per annum, but he refused it on account 
of his contract with Mr. Culbertson. Some time after- 


Pere 


od Dist. | 


ward the latter asked him in regard to the matter, and 
upon a final settlement generously made his salary equal 
to what he had refused. At the expiration of the orig- 
inal agreement a new one was made, which existed for 
two years, when Mr. McCord entered into a copartner- 
ship with his employer, and for five years they carried 
on business together with gratifying success. Mr. Mc- 
Cord was one of the best salesmen in the city, and 
Tn 


December, 1861, his copartnership with Mr. Culbertson 


merchants eagerly sought to secure his services. 


was dissolved, and in the following January he entered 
into copartnership with Mr. Lawrence Bradley in the dry- 
goods business, under the firm name of McCord & Bradley. 
This partnership lasted ten years, and during that time a 
branch house was established in Louisville. During all 
Mr. McCord’s successful mercantile career, the trans- 
actions of the firms with which he has been connected 
have amounted to from five hundred thousand to eight 
hundred thousand dollars per annum, and not a note has 
been protested, a compromise made, ora payment refused. 
When the New Albany Woolen Mill Company was reor- 
ganized, in 1866, he became a stockholder, and upon the 
erection of the buildings they were called the McCord & 
Bradley Woolen Mills. This enterprise, like all others 
with which Mr. McCord has been connected, has proved 
eminently prosperous, and is to-day a source of revenue 
to the stockholders. In 1873 Mr. McCord, in conjunc- 
tion with other parties, opened a large wholesale hat 
establishment in Louisville, under the firm name of 
McCord, Boomer & Co., which has done a large trade, 
especially in the North. In all his business life Mr. 
McCord has been exceedingly fortunate, not a year hav- 
ing passed without adding to his wealth; and this suc- 
cess is deserved, since it has been reached by untiring 
devotion and energy. In November, 1856, he married 
Miss Stoy, sister of Mr. Peter Stoy, of New Albany. 
She is a lady of rare accomplishments, and has proved 
an admirable companion, promoting peace and harmony, 
and rendering their home an earthly paradise. Mr. 
McCord is held by his fellow-citizens and neighbors in 
the highest esteem, and by all classes is regarded as a 
gentleman of the strictest integrity. 


~~ $90 


TVERS, PETER, retired merchant, of Jefferson- 
ville, Clarke County, was born Herkimer 
-€A4N County, New York, March 29, 1812. 
TOY ents, Michael I. and Eveline (Deigert) Myers, 


in 
His par- 


were both of German descent, and their families were | 


among the earliest settlers in the Mohawk Valley. They 
were eye-witnesses of many of the stirring scenes in the 
War of the Revolution, and were sufferers from the 
Indian depredations of those unsettled times. In 1817 
the parents removed to Cincinnati, and thence to near 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 29 


Dayton, Ohio, from which place they emigrated to Jef- 
fersonville, Indiana, in the fall of 1819. The father 
was a contractor on the old Indiana Canal, and subse- 
quentiy on the Miami Canal. He died in Butler County, 
Ohio, in 1827, while engaged in the latter work. His 
devoted wife survived him several years, and died at 
the age of eighty-one. Peter Myers was the youngest 
of a family of nine children, and was enabled to ac- 
quire only such limited instruction as was afforded by 
the primitive schools of the day. After the death of 
his father he resided one year with a brother-in-law 
near Dayton, Ohio. In 1829 he commenced to rely 
upon his own resources, and became clerk in a store at 
a salary of fifty dollars a year. Two years later he as- 
sumed the charge of a small store owned by Mr. Keig- 
win, which he managed until the stock was sold out. 
Meanwhile, he had gained a reputation as a most useful 
and successful salesman, his services were eagerly sought, 
and he made many friends. He served as clerk for va- 
rious employers until 1835, when he obtained charge of 
the steam ferry-boat between Jeffersonville and Louis- 
ville, occupying this position for five years. He then 
went into the dry-goods business with Levi Sparks, 
afterwards mayor of Jeffersonville, then commencing on 
a small scale, but, by prudence, economy. and good 
management, built up a good business. After five years 
he sold his interest to Mr. Sparks, and went into partner- 
ship with Mr. French, who was known as one of the finest 
boat-builders on the Ohio River. This partnership con- 
tinued for five years, and the firm of French & Myers 
built some of the best boats of that time. In 1851, his 
health becoming impaired, he sold out his interest, and 
again opened a dry-goods store. After five years more 
he entered the lumber trade with his former partner, 
under the firm name of Myers & French. . This was in 
1861, just before the country was involved in civil war. 
After the outbreak of the war Mr. French became 
discouraged by the gloomy outlook; he made a 
proposition to sell out to Mr. Myers, which was ac- 
cepted, and the latter continued the business, with great 
success, during the whole period of the war, accumulat- 
ing considerable property. In 1872 he gave his lumber 
business to his sons, Peter F. and Charles H. Myers, 
who still continue it. During his business career Mr. 
Myers gained the enviable record of a strictly honorable 
and conscientious merchant. He was a persistent oppo- 
nent of the credit system, and always paid cash for his 
goods, so that he was enabled to keep entirely free from 
debt. 


entered 


He was never sued for an account, and never 
into a contract he failed to fulfill. 
His strict attention to business has kept him out of 


which 


politics. Residing in an overwhelmingly Democratic city 
and county, he has always been a strict Republican. In 
1879, against his expressed desire, he was nominated 
by his party for city treasurer, and cut down the usual 


30 


Democratic majority to an unprecedented degree. He 
has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
for over forty years; and has been a consistent temper- 
ance man—having been a member of the first American 
Temperance Society, the ‘* Washingtonians.” He is also 
a Good Templar and a Mason. Mr. Myers has married 
twice, and is blessed with a numerous family. April 5, 
1837, he married Miss Elizabeth Nurse, of Utica, New 
York, who died in 1849. In 1850 he married Rachel 


Jacobs, of Clarke County, member of one of the oldest | 
They 


and most extensive families in Utica Township. 
four surviving children of his first wife are William T., 
Charles H., Elizabeth H. (now Mrs. Edward Heller), 
and Peter F. Six children by his second wife are living, 


viz.: Fannie S., wife of Rev. J. W. Dashiell, Indiana | 
Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church; Martha E,; | 


Newton H., assistant secretary Ford Glass Company ; 
Basil E., Mary A., and Rachel E., the latter now twelve 
years old. Mr. Myers is one of the directors of the 
Ford Glass Company, one of the most prominent indus- 
tries in Jeffersonville; and has been more or less iden- 
tified with every public enterprise in that city. 
paid taxes in Jeffersonville since his eighteenth year, 
and has never cast a vote outside of the township. He 
is remarkably well-preserved in appearance, is straight- 
forward and unassuming in his manners, and inspires 
respect and confidence in all who approach him, 


—>-G050--— 


eae JAMES, Governor of the state of Indiana, 
was born at Battletown, Virginia. , He emigrated 
to the frontier when a youth, first settling in Ken- 
tucky, and afterwards in Indiana. When the state 
was admitted into the Union he was chosen a United 
States Senator, and held the position until his death, 
February 26, 1831, a period of fifteen years. His de- 
cease occurred in Washington City, during the session 
of Congress. 


—>-Gote--—_. 
g 
S[)Raruer, COLONEL HIRAM, late of North 
t Vernon, was born October 13, 1809, in Clarke 
L 


Gy County, Indiana. His father, one of the veterans 
GC” of the War of 1812, was William Prather, and his 
mother was Lettice McCarroll. 
tional advantages, but by his energy and industry he 
managed to obtain a good practical English education. 
In 1815 his father removed to Jennings County, and by 
sturdy pioneer labor father and son cleared a space in 
the wilderness and converted it into a farm. . Here Hi- 
ram Prather lived until 1852. He then sold his farm 
and removed to North Vernon, where he built one of 
the first houses erected in that place, residing there until 
his death, which occurred March 27, 1874. 


The son had no educa- 


During his 


He has | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[s@ Dest. 


life of sixty-five years, Mr. Prather was a leading man 
in his county and state, and held many positions of honor 
and trust. He was elected treasurer of Jennings County 
in 1838, and during 1847, 1848, and 1849 represented that 
county in the state Legislature. He was again elected in 
1857, and in 1867, and was also a member of the state 
Constitutional Convention in 1850. When the Civil War 
broke out he at once espoused the cause of the Union; 
and, having been largely instrumental in recruiting the 
6th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, he was commissioned its 
lieutenant-colonel. He served with his regiment in all 
its campaigns, until May, 1862, when he was compelled 
to resign on account of his health. During his army 
life he held many important trusts, being a portion of 
the time on the staff of General Morris, and at one time 
having charge of the post at Webster, Western Virginia 
He was noted in the army for his courage and valor, and 
was loyed by the men who served under him for his 
fatherly care and constant watchfulness of their interests. 
Upon his return from the field, he devoted a great por- 
tion of his time to the work of raising recruits, and in 
many material ways rendered valuable service to the 
great war governor, Mr. Morton—of whom he was a 
warm personal friend—in carrying the Union cause to 
victory. Few men gave as effective aid to the govern- 
ment as Mr. Prather, in the great struggle from 1861 to 
1865. He bore to his grave the honorable scars received 


| at Shiloh, while seven of his sons served at one time in 


the Union army. In politics Mr. Prather was a Whig, 
and afterwards a Republican. In religion he was a 
Methodist. He was married, in 1834, to Mary 4. Huck- 
elberry, of Charlestown, Indiana, the daughter of a 
wealthy farmer. Of this union were born fifteen chil- 
dren, eleven sons and four daughters, of whom eight 


| sons and four daughters are still living. The eldest son, 


Allen W. Prather, a captain in the 6th and afterwards 
colonel of the 120th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, is now 
a praticing lawyer in Indianapolis. The second son, 
Uriah C., captain in the 82d Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 
now lives in Mt. Auburn, Indiana, where he is a prac- 
ticing physician. The third son, Alonzo S., lieutenant 
in the 6th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, is an attorney in 
Harrison, Arkansas. The fourth son, William B., a ser- 
geant in the 54th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, is a civil 
engineer in Jennings County. The fifth, Leander H., 
was a lieutenant in the 140th Indiana Volunteer In- 
fantry, and is now an attorney in Harrison, Arkansas. 
The sixth son, Walter S., now postmaster at North Ver- 
non, was a private in the 137th Indiana Volunteer In- 
fantry. The seventh son, John Q., was a private in the 
137th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Andrew H. and 
Theodore are now living in North Vernon. Of the four 
daughters, Ara E. married a farmer, Mr. L. J. Jackson, 
of Shelby County, Indiana; Mary A. married Doctor A. 
B. Light; Eliza J. married John Keelar, a farmer of 


gd Dist. | 


Jennings County, Indiana; and Susan C. married Mi- 
chael Coryell, a farmer of the same county. The Prather 
family are closely identified with the growth and pros- 
perity of Jennings County, and point with a just pride 
to the record of Colonel Hiram Prather, their father, as 
their best inheritance. 

—+-4926-2— 


RATHER, WALTER 6&., of North Vernon, where 
he is at present postmaster, is the sixth son of 
Colonel Hiram Prather, for many years a promi- 
nent and respected citizen of that place. He has 
had fair educational advantages, which he has appre- 


ciated and improved. After receiving a good common 
school education, he attended Asbury University, at 
Greencastle, which he left to enter the army during the 
late Civil War. He enlisted as a private in the 137th 
Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served until honorably 
discharged in 1865. After leaving the army he engaged 
in the drug business for some time. In 1872 he was 
appoirted postmaster at North Vernon, which position 
he has since filled. He was married, August 16, 1870, 
to Miss Kate Kyle, daughter of Doctor J. W. Kyle, of 
North Vernon. They have two children. 
Mr. Prather is an earnest Republican. He is a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The family to 
which he belongs is one of the largest in Southern In- 
diana, and is widely and favorably known throughout 
the state. 


In politics 


3-40 — 


OSEY, THOMAS, Governor of the territory of In- 
diana, was a native of Virginia. He was born not 
G far from Alexandria, on the 9th of July, 1750. In 
CG’ 1774 he was engaged in the expedition originated 
by Dunmore, the last royal Governor of Virginia, against 
the Indians, being present at the battle of Point Pleas- 
ant. On the outbreak of the Revolution he was en- 
gaged on the patriot side, fought against Dunmore, his 
former commander, and afterwards joined Washington’s 
army. He was at the battle of Bemis Heights, as a cap- 
tain, under Colonel Morgan, and his men did excellent 
service as sharpshooters in that conflict. In 1779 he was 
colonel of the 11th Virginia Regiment, and afterwards 
commanded a battery under General Wayne. He was 
engaged in the storming of Stony Point, was at the 
capitulation of Cornwallis, and continued in the service 
until peace was declared. In 1793 he was appointed a 
brigadier-general of the Army of the North-west, and, 
being pleased with the appearance of the new country, 
settled in Kentucky not long after. In that state he 
was a member of the state Senate, being the president 
of that body from November 4, 1805, to November 3, 
1806, and, in addition, performing the duties of the 
Lieutenant-governor. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


He removed to Louisiana in 1812, ! 


al 

and was elected to the United States Senate from that 
state. He was appointed Gevernor of Indiana in 1813 
by President Madison, and served till 1816. He died in 
Shawneetown, Illinois, March 19, 1818. 


—>-9E OH — 

ee 
Gi) AMSEY, JUDGE SAMUEL, attorney-at-law, of 
() Corydon, Harrison County, was born in Kentucky, 
+ January 26, 1830. His parents, William and Mary 

Ramsey, who were farmers, removed to Indiana 
when he was an infant. He attended such common 
schools as the times afforded, and being of a studious 
nature, and making the most of his opportunities, suc- 
ceeded in acquiring a good plain education. On leay- 
ing school, he worked on his father’s farm until the 
age of eighteen, when he went into business, at which 
he continued for some five years, then commencing 
the study of law with Judge La Follette, of New Al- 
bany, remaining with him two years, when he began 
practice in Harrison County, where he has continued 
ever since in the enjoyment of an extensive and lucra- 
tive business. In 1874 he was elected to the House of 
Representatives from Harrison County, serving for two 
terms. October, 1878, he was elected Judge of. the 
Third Judicial Circuit, an office he now most ably fills. 
He has been a member of the society of Odd-tellows for 
about eight years, taking all the degrees. 
Knight of Pythias in December, 1879. 
views are liberal. 


He became a 
His religious 
He is a Democrat in politics. Judge 
Ramsey is the owner of considerable real estate in the 
county, in which business he and his son, Will. H., are 
also engaged. He was married, October 13, 1853, to 
Rebecca Arnold, daughter ot George Arnold, Esq., of 
Harrison County. 
three dead. 
district. 


They have four children living, and 
The Judge is a very popular man in his 
He is of a jovial, genial disposition, and is in 
He 
His law practice is 
considerable, and he is in affluent circumstances, being 
fairly endowed with this world’s goods. 


&) EISING, PAUL, brewer and merchant, of New 
A Albany, was born October 5, 1819, in the city of 
Colt Hoerstein, county of Alzenau, kingdom of Baya- 
‘9 ria. His father, Francis Reising, was for many 
years burgomaster in his native city, and possessor of a 
small landed estate. His mother, Mary Reising, bore 
her husband four children, to whom she was much de- 
voted. Paul Reising is the only one now living. He 
attended school, as is usual in his native land, from six 
to fourteen years of age. On October 5, 1842, he mar- 
ried Miss Susan Stadtmiller, of Hoerstein, who was then 


the enjoyment of good health and excellent spirits. 
is honored, respected, and beloved. 


—>F0ate-—£§ 


32 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


in her twenty-first year. She has borne him nine chil- 
dren, three of whom, Catharina, Mary A., and Emma 
R., are still living, the others having died in infancy. 
She is a tender mother and a good wife. Mr. Reising’s 
domestic relations are of the happiest kind. With his 
family he belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, of 
which he has been trustee and steward for many years. 
He emigrated with his wife to this country in 1854, 
spent two years in Louisville, Kentucky, and then re- 
moved to New Albany, where he rented the old place 
on Main Street, then known as Metcalf’s Brewery. At 
that time there was no lager-beer brewed in New Al- 
bany; and, after four years of industry at this brewery, 
Mr. Reising one day heard the call of the Floyd County 
sheriff, selling the last possessions of an unfortunate 
brewer, and offered the highest bid for the building he 
now occupies. On taking possession he found that the 
brewery was only twenty by sixty feet, with a ca- 
pacity of but fifteen hundred barrels per year, and in 
1866 he erected an addition to the building. He con- 
ceived the idea of manufacturing malt, and the venture 
proved successful. In 1876 he made further valuable 
improvements on his brewery, principally a new ice- 
house, constructed upon the most approved modern plan. 
This. fine structure measures forty by sixty-three feet, 
and is capable of holding one thousand tons of ice, 
Opposite the brewery stands a magnificent residence, 
built in the most finished style. Here Mr. Reising has 
shown a knowledge of architecture, and has made his 
dwelling an ornament to the city. The ventilation is par- 
ticularly fine throughout. Mr. Reising came to New Al- 
bany in moderate circumstances, and owes his success and 
present affluence to close application to business. No 
one stands higher in the community or is more generally 
respected. 
—+-300%-<— 

is, 

| ) EAD, JOHN F., counselor-at-law, etc., of Jeffer- 
¢ ny sonville, is a member of a family which has been 
Galt identified more or less with the history of the 
‘Ou state since it emerged from its territorial condi- 
tion. On both sides he is descended from Kentuckians 
who emigrated to Indiana at an early date. He was 
born on Indiana soit October+4, 1822, and is the eldest 
of four children of James G. and Mary (Mahan) Read. 
His father represented his district in the state Legislature 
In 1828 he received the Dem- 
ocratic nomination for Governor, against the Whig can- 
didate, and was defeated by a small majority. In 1834 
he was again the candidate of his party for the gover- 
norship, and again suffered a defeat at the hands of the 
then dominant party; but it could well be said by 
his opponents, ‘A few more such victories and we 
are lost.” He was the editor and proprietor of the 
first newspaper published at Vincennes, Indiana, which 


for over twenty years. 


[3@ Dist. 


naturally reflected his politics in an eminent degree. 
Uncompromisingly Democratic in his convictions, he 
conducted his paper with an eye single to the interests 
of his party, while dealing firmly but courteously with 
his opponents. He was well known as a ready writer 
and fluent and graceful speaker. He laid out the city 
of Washington, Daviess County, where he resided for 
many years. In early life he had been engaged in the 
mercantile business, and had succeeded in accumulating 
a competence. John F. Read was educated at Hanover 
College, Indiana, from which he graduated in the class 
of 1845, under the presidency of Professor McMasters. 
In 1846 he commenced the practice of law at Jefferson- 
ville, where he has been for more than thirty years 
actively engaged in his profession. His present law 
partner, Hon. Jonas G. Howard, is a former pupil of 
Mr. Read, and the firm enjoys the finest practice in 
Clarke County, while none in the state has a higher rep- 
utation for the ability and professional integrity as well 
as the personal popularity of the partners. Although 
burdened with the cares of professional and other busi- 
ness, Mr. Read has served one term in the state Legis- 
lature, and eight years in the land office of the state— 
four years under the administration of James K. Polk, 
and four under Franklin Pierce. These positions were 
filled with credit to himself and satisfaction to the pub- 
lic. But it is not alone in professional or public life 
that Mr. Read has influenced the development of his 
city and state. He has always been a truly public- 
spirited citizen, not given to the encouragement of 
visionary schemes, but aiding every thing that in his 
judgment had a tendency to enliven or improve the 
business interests of the community. He is now pres- 
ident of the Ford Plate-glass Company, of Jefferson- 
ville, and is vice-president of the Citizens’ National 
Bank, of that city. In 1846 Mr. Read married Miss 
Eliza Kegwin. She died in 1852, leaving a daughter, 
who is now the wife of Mr. Sage, secretary of the Ford 
Plate-glass Company. In 1855 Mr. Read married Miss 
Eliza Pratt, daughter of Joseph R. Pratt, of George- 
town, Kentucky. They have a family of eight children. 


—>-s0te<- — 


CHEFOLD, FRANK, civil and mechanical engi- 
) neer, New Albany, is a native of the little king- 
25 dom of Wurtemberg, Germany, where he was born 

April 23, 1846. His parents were Edward and 
Caroline Schefold. His father was an advocate of 
law before the king. Frank Schefold’s educational ad- 
vantages were good. At school he obtained a thorough 
knowledge of his own language, and had also made 
some progress in French and Latin, when he was ap- 
prenticed to one of the best mechanical schools of his 
country, at Biberach, where he remained until he had at- 


gd Dist.) 


tained his eighteenth year. He then entered the Poly- 
technic school at Stuttgart, where he spent three years in 
the study of chemistry, hydraulics, civil engineering, 
and the Greek and English languages. He reads and 
translates French and English with ease, as well as the 
classic tongues of Greece and Rome. In 1866 he emi- 
grated to this country, and was employed for about a 
year in the Philadelphia patent office as draughtsman. 
After two years more in that city he went to Cincinnati, and 
was assistant civil engineer of the Cincinnati water-works 
from 1870 to 1875, with the exception of some eight 
months spent in Europe; during which time he visited 
and inspected the great water-works of London, Vienna, 
Hamburg, Berlin, Leipsic, etc. In 1875 he was called 
to New Albany, Indiana, to superintend the drafting 
and construction of the water-works of that place. IIe 
is now superintendent and civil engineer of the water- 
works in that city, and also has charge of those at Bow- 
ling Green, Kentucky. He has « reputation as a civil 
engineer second to none in the state. In 1875 he married 
Miss Elizabeth Smith, daughter of William Smith, of 
Campbell County, Kentucky; they have one child. 
Mr. and Mrs. Schefold are both members of the Uni- 
versalist Church, of New Albany. 


400 — 


COTT, CAPTAIN JOHN, of Brownstown, was 
sf) born in Belmont County, Ohio, June 9, 1830, and 


(495 is a son of Adam and Harriet (McElfresh) Scott. 
His father was a farmer, and the son of a Scotch 
Highlander. John Scott acquired the rudiments of an 


education at the common school of the county; and in 
the spring of 1846, was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. 
Completing his apprenticeship in 1850, he continued 
working at his trade, and in 1851 he opened a shop in 
Belmont County. In November, 1855, he moved to 
Houston, Jackson County, Indiana, where he followed 
his trade, and succeeded in building up a good business. 
In the fall of 1861 he raised a company for the 5oth 
Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, from Jackson and 
Brown Counties. For a long time he was on detached 
service ; in 1863 he was with the Army of the Tennessee 
in its campaign until fall, and was then transferred to 
the department of Arkansas, where he did valuable 
service until the close of the war. During the summer of | 
1864 he served on the statf of Major-general Solomon, 
and in the fall of the same year, his time having ex- | 
pired, he was honorably discharged, and returned to 
Jackson County. Two years later he was elected sheriff 
of the county for the term of two years, and was re- 
elected in 1868. On first taking possession of the office, 
he moved to Brownstown. At that time it required a 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF (NDIANA., 


man of iron will to execute the duties of this position, 
as the notorious Renos were then in the height of their | 


33 


glory. In 1870 he was elected clerk of the Jackson 
Circuit Court, and was re-elected in 1874, having filled 
the office eight years, to the entire satisfaction of the 
citizens. On the 29th of April, 1851, he was married 
to Alcina Collins Smith, a native of Harper’s Ferry, 
Virginia, with whom he has lived happily. 
has not been blessed with children. Mr. Scott was 
brought up under the teachings of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, and 1s now an active member of that 
society at Brownstown. He has always been a member 
of the Democratic party, and is looked upon as one of 
its leaders in the county. He has been an enterprising 
business man, and Jackson County is greatly indebted 
to him for its growth and prosperity. 


Their union 


—~ Go0H->—_ 
ve CRIBNER, GENERAL: B. F., of New Albany, 
sf) was born September 20, 1825, in that city, which 
& his father, Abner Scribner, with two brothers, laid 
) out in the year 1813. General Scribner is by pro- 
fession a chemist and druggist, having been for many 
years proprietor of the largest drug house in the city. 
Early in life he manifested strong military tastes; and 
while still a mere youth became a member of the 
Spencer Grays, a military company composed of the 
young men of New Albany. By their superior drill 
and soldierly appearance, the Spencer Grays won an 
enviable reputation at home and abroad, and hore off 
the honors on all occasions of competition with other 
companies. At the military encampment near Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, in July, 1845, they were -awarded a 
gold-mounted sword. Upon the breaking out of the 
Mexican War, when, after the battle of Palo Alto, the 
country feared for the safety of General Taylor, they 
tendered their services to the Governor; and‘after the 
call was made on Indiana for troops they were accepted, 
and formed Company A, 2d Indiana Volunteers. A 
little volume, entitled, ‘“‘Camp Life of a Volunteer,” 
published by Gregg, Elliott & Co., of Philadelphia, 
contains extracts from General Scribner’s private jour- 
nal, giving a vivid description of the battle of Buena 
Vista and many incidents of the war. 
of service he was promoted to the rank of sergeant, 
which was the highest vacancy that occurred in his 
company. Having a decided taste for military life, his 
duties were perfurmed with alacrity and pleasure. He 
was never reprimanded by a superior officer, never 
missed drill or guard duty, and never failed to march 
with his company. General Lane publicly commended 
him on the field for his conduct at the battle of Buena 
Vista. Early on the morning of February 23d his reg- 
iment was thrown to the front, and was opposed by 
three thousand infantry and twelve hundred lancers, 
flanked on the left by a battery of five Mexican guns. 


During his year 


34 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Here they stubbornly maintained their position until 
they had fired twenty-one rounds, and were ordered to 
fall back. In the retreat, with others of the company, 
Mr. Scribner joined the Ist Mississippi—Colonel Jeff. 
Davis’s regiment—which, with General Taylor, was just 
arriving on the field from Saltillo. With this regiment 
they shared the varied fortunes of the day. Their gal- 
lantry was specially noted, and Colonel Jeff. Davis 
afterward sent to their company for the names of the 
few who had behaved so nobly; but they declined 
to give them, honorably refusing to gain a reputation 
at the expense of equally brave comrades, who had 
been placed in other positions. When the nation was 
awakened by the guns of Sumter, General Scribner’s 
patriotism aroused his military spirit, and military books 
and tactics occupied his attention during all his leisure 
moments. Fle entered a company enrolled for home 
defense, and, feeling himself bound by a large and com- 
plicated business to remain at home, tried to content 
himself with doing all that he could by forming and 
drilling companies. He was promoted from grade to 
grade until he was made colonel of the 7th Regiment 
Indiana organized militia. As the war progressed, 
however, he yielded to the conviction that his duty was 
in the field. He was offered commands by many officers 
in different parts of the state, but declined; and, hay- 
ing been authorized by the Governor, raised a regiment, 
and went into camp at New Albany, August 22, 1861 
In September General Buckner advanced on Louisville, 
and Rosecrans was ordered out to meet him. Colonel 
Scribner’s regiment, the 38th Indiana Volunteers, was 
then without arms or accouterments; but, on being 
asked by General Anderson if they could go to the 
rescue, Colonel Scribner promptly assented. They were 
partially armed and equipped September 21, 1861, 
and joined the gallant Rousseau, who, under Sher- 
man, was moving on Muldros Hill and Elizabeth- 
town. Without blankets or tents, and almost without 
food for four days, the brave fellows entered the service, 
inspired by the hope of meeting and crushing the en- 
emy. They were first assigned to Wood’s brigade, Mc- 
Cook’s division, but before crossing Green River were 
transferred to Negley’s brigade, in the same division. 
During the spring and summer the command was em- 
ployed to keep open the communication with Mitchell, 
at Huntsville, and Buell, at Corinth. In May, 1862, 
the 38th marched to Florence, Alabama, and back—a 
distance of two hundred miles—in ten days. Imme- 
diately after their return, Negley’s demonstration against 
Chattanooga was made, and Colonel Scribner com- 
manded the brigade. This expedition was a success as 
far as it went, and, had the advantage then gained been 
followed up by a sufficient force, important results would 
have ensued. The enemy’s artillery was silenced, and 
they were driven from their works on the river. They 


[3d Dist. 


would have capitulated, but the Union force was insuffi- 
cient to hold the place, and surrender was not de- 
manded. On the return march, Colonel Scribner was 
left with his brigade to bring up the rear, a task 
fraught with danger and difficulty. This he did with 
credit to himself and safety to his charge. On their 
return they encamped at Shelbyville, Kentucky, making 
the march of over three hundred miles in fifteen days. 
In July the regiment was ordered to Battle Creek, and re- 
mained until Buell abandoned the Tennessee River, when 
Colonel Scribner was ordered to advance and take com- 
mand of the post and fortifications at Ducherd. When 
the army came up he moved on with it to Louisville. 
The hardships of this terrible march from Alabama to 
Louisville, and the subsequent pursuit of Bragg in Ken- 
tucky, with the terrible struggle at Chaplain Hills, are 
vividly portrayed in the history of the 38th Regiment. 
The brunt of the battle fell upon Rousseau’s division, 
in which Colonel Scribner was placed at Battle Creek. 
Jackson’s and Terrill’s forces, being new levies, and 
unable to withstand the fearful odds against them, soon 
melted away before the flower of the Confederate army. 
Not so, however, with Rousseau’s veterans, who, in one 
thin line, fought with a determination hardly paralleled 
in the annals of the war. Here Colonel Scribner ex- 
hibited his fitness to command; cool and self-possessed, 
noticing every detail of the movements of his own regi- 
ment, he was ever on the alert to discover the move- 
ments of the enemy. The assistance rendered by his 
constant advice is acknowledged in the official reports. 


Here he began to reap the reward of his patient labors ° 


in instructing the officers and men in their duties under 
all contingencies, and here the importance of discipline 
and drill became apparent. These brave men, besides 
the 10th Wisconsin, for two hours and a half held their 
ground before the dense masses of the enemy, under the 
most destructive fire. Leaden hail from small arms, and 
grape, canister, and shell, cut up their ranks, but not a 
man was seen to falter. Their colors were riddled; the 
staff was shot in two places; six of the color guard were 
killed and two wounded, leaving only one unhurt. Out 
of four hundred men they lost one hundred and fifty- 
seven killed and wounded. Having exhausted their own 
ammunition, they used that of their killed and wounded 
comrades; and then, with fixed bayonets, resolved to die 
rather than retreat until the order was given. Their 
colonel had told them that the safety of the Seventeenth 
Brigade depended on their holding their position. 
When at last orders came, they fell back with a coolness 
not exceeded on battalion drill. While lying down 
waiting for ammunition, they were trampled upon by 
Hood’s new recruits, who in terror were flying from the 
field with the enemy at their heels. Without a round of 
ammunition, but with fixed bayonets, the noble 38th 
yielded not an inch, resolved to try the virtue of cold 


3¢ Dist] 
steel. A soldier’s bravery can be put to no severer test. 
In this engagement Colonel Scribner was wounded in 
the leg, and his horse was shot under him. Soon after 
the battle he was placed in command of the brigade— 
Colonel Harris, its former gallant commander, being 
forced by ill-health to resign. The First Brigade, for- 
merly the Ninth, composed of the 38th Indiana, 1oth 
Wisconsin, 2d, 33d, and 94th Ohio, under the command 
of Colonel Scribner, bore an important part in the 
battle of Stone River. With the rest of Rousseau’s di- 
vision, they were sent into the cedars to support Mc- 
Cook, who was being driven back by the enemy. Here, 
as usual, it fell to Scribner’s command to bear the brunt 
of the battle. Two of his regiments, the 2d and 33d 
Ohio, had been ordered to support the batteries on the 
pike, and bore a conspicuous part in the repulse of the 
Confederates as they charged upon these batteries. In 


the mean time, Colonel Scribner, with the three other | 


regiments, maneuvered through the cedars as the move- 
ments of the enemy made it necessary, and was or- 
dered back to the pike. His leading regiment, the 94th 
Ohio, had just emerged from the thicket into the field 
on the left of the Nashville Pike, when they came upon 
the enemy retreating after their repulse in the attack on 
the batteries, and pursued them into the cedars, com- 
pletely routing them. He soon after met a column of 
Union forces retiring before the enemy. Opening his 
line, Colonel Scribner permitted them to pass, when, 
elated by success, the Confederates came down in dense 
masses to within twenty-five paces of his line. Here 
they were checked by a galling fire; and here occurred 
the most desperate struggle of the day. Fcr a time 
Colonel Scribner appeared surrounded, but, by slightly 
retiring his left regiment, he obtained a cross-fire. For 
twenty minutes the command stood firm, although fear- 
fully diminished in numbers, and only retired reluctantly 
when ordered to fall back. Colonel Scribner com- 
manded the brigade through the Tennessee campaign 
and through Alabama, until they arrived at Chatta- 
nooga, when, by the reorganization of the army by 
General Grant, he again assumed command of his regi- 
ment, which was transferred to the First Brigade, First 
Division, and Fourteenth Army Corps, under Brigadier- 
general Carlin. In the battles around and upon Look- 
out Mountain, including the assault upon Mission 
Ridge, the regiment rendered gallant service. In De- 
cember, 1863, Colonel Scribner succeeded in re-enlisting 
the majority of his regiment as veterans, at Rossville, 
Georgia, and January 3, 1864, started with them for 
New Albany on furlough. With his officers he imme- 
diately commenced recruiting, and shortly afterward re- 
turned to the field with a number of new recruits. 
Prior to the summer campaign of 1864, the 38th Regi- 
ment was transferred from the First to the Third Bri- 
gade, same division, and the command of the brigade 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 35 


was assigned to Colonel Scribner. lle commanded in 
all skirmishes and engagements until after the battle 
of Kenesaw Mountain, when he became ill, and the 
command devolved upon Colonel Givin, of the 7th 
Ohio. This ended Colonel Scribner’s active and brill- 
iant military career. His name had been frequently 
sent to the Senate, for confirmation as a_brigadier- 
general, by the lamented President Lincoln, but failed 
from non-action by that body and from the assigned 
cause of no vacancy.. Whatever prevented a just 
recognition of his distinguished services, it can not 


i be said that he neglected his duties in the field to 


come home and ‘‘log roll” among politicians for 
his promotion. At length, on the 8th of August, 
1864, he was appointed and confirmed brevet briga- 
dier-general. On the 21st of August, 
health much impaired from continued exposure and 
over-exertion, he offered his resignation, which was 
accepted. Nothing but patriotic ardor sent him into 
the field. He took up his sword in vindication of his 
principles ; and now that the war is over, the Union pre- 


his 


finding 


served, he resumed his usual business, asking and expecting 
nothing at the hands of his countrymen but their respect 
and esteem. Heisno schemer, and used no undue means 
to compass his promotion, conscious of his own merit, 
and content with whatever position the government saw 
fit to grant him. He did his duty without faltering, and 
was always at the head of his regiment. No com- 
mander has won more esteem from his subordinates than 
General Scribner, or retired from military life with a 
brighter record. In’ January, 1865, General Scribner 
was appointed by President Lincoln collector of internal 
revenue for the Second Collecting District of Indiana, in 
which position he served six years, to the satisfac- 
tion of the government and the public. Notwithstand- 
ing the abuse and accusations made against officers in 
this difficult and responsible service, no charge was ever 
made against the integrity and efficiency of General Scrib- 
ner. He retained his interest in the drug business, which 
was conducted by his partner, until February, 1878, and 
then established in New York City a drug brokerage office. 
This he abandoned the following August to accept the 
appointment of United States treasury agent at Alaska. 
He was assigned to duty on the Island of St. Paul, a 
seal and whale fishing station of considerable importance 
in the North Pacific. General Scribner was married, 
December 20, 1849, to Miss Anna Martha Maginness, 
daughter of Doctor E. A. Maginness. She was born at 
West Chester, Pennsylvania. Having lost her mother 
in infancy, she found care and love with her mother’s 
sisters and brother, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The 
brother referred to was John Maginness, who for 
more than thirty years held an important position in 
the Treasury Department at Washington, District of 
Columbia, having been chief clerk and assistant secre- 


36 REPRESENTATIVE 


tary of the treasury. He took his little niece to Wash- 
ington at twelve years of age, and lavished upon her 
all that affection and money could give. The thorough- 
ness of her education, the mental discipline and the 
social advantages here received, have borne their legiti- 
mate fruit in her useful life. Her father married again, 
and removed to New Albany, Indiana, and it was 
while visiting him in 1849 that she met General Scrib- 
ner. They have had ten children, seven being now liv- 
ing—five sons and two daughters. One son and one 
daughter graduated from college with honor, and all 
are indebted to their mother for their success and pro- 
ficiency in school. She has preserved to an unusual 
degree the remembrance of her school exercises, de- 
lighting in mathematics and abstract subjects, and has 
consequently been able to render her children much as- 
sistance in their studies. The charms of her person 
and mind have endeared her not only to her own family, 
but to a large circle of friends. 


—>- 90 16->—_ 

(@ HIEL, JOHN J., merchant, of Seymour, was born 
\ June 25, 1826, in the county of Tipperary, Ireland. 
QS His parents were Michael and Mary (O’Ryan) 
) Shiel. Soon after the death of his wife, which oc- 
curred in 1829, Michael Shiel emigrated to America 
with his family, consisting of seven children, and settled 
in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. In 1833 he re- 
moved to Hamilton County, Indiana, then a wilderness, 


where John Shiel worked on his father’s farm until he | 


was nineteen years of age. 
were limited, but in after years he obtained a fair En- 
glish education by his own energy and application. In 
1845 he went to Cincinnati and learned the trade of 
currier, which he followed for some time in most of the 
Eastern cities. In September, 1847, he returned to Cin- 
cinnati and married Mary A. Phelan, an orphan. He 
worked in Indianapolis until 1855, when he went to Mar- 
tinsville, Morgan County, Indiana, and, purchasing a 
tannery, carried on business successfully until] 1865. Early 
in the next year he removed to Ewing, Jackson County, 
Indiana, and, in partnership with John W. Mullen, of 
Madison, purchased the tannery at this place. They 
conducted this very successfully for four years, opening 
branch houses and extending their sales all over the 
country. In 1871 Mr. Shiel bought the interest of his 
partner, and in 1872 was burned out, with no insur- 
ance. He immediately rebuilt, and again, in 1875, 
suffered total loss by fire, without insurance. The fol- 
lowing year he removed to Seymour, Indiana, and 
opened his present leather store. Mr. Shiel. is the 
father of six children, three sons and three daughters. 
The eldest son, Michael E. Shiel, is the editor and pro- 


THis early school privileges | 


prietor of the Temperance Monitor-Journal, published at 


MEN OF INDIANA. [3d Dest. 
Seymour, Indiana; his eldest daughter, Anna A., is the 
wife of Hon. Jason B. Brown, of Seymour. Mr. Shiel 
is a devout Catholic. Politically, his sympathies are 
with the Greenback party, in which he is an active 
worker, and a firm believer in its ultimate success. 
During the time he carried on the tannery, he employed 
a large number of men, and did much towards the de- 
velopment of Jackson County. 


—+-420<— 
ve HIELDS, MEEDEY WHITE, late of Seymour, 
or ” was born in Sevierville, Sevier County, ‘lennessee, 
@; July 8, 1805. He was the son of James and Pe- 
te nelope (White) Shields, and a grandson of Stockton 
Shields, of Virginia, a captain in the Revolutionary 
War. The subject of this sketch attended school only 
three months in his life, but by his own energy attained 
a thorough English education. He removed to Cory- 
don, Floyd County, in 1811, using pack-horses in mak- 
ing the journey. In 1816 the family went to Jackson 
County, and settled on a farm that is now part of the 
city of Seymour. At this time there were only six 
white families in the county. From 1820 to 1832 Mr. 
Shields was engaged in running a flat-boat from the 
White River to New Orleans, and in managing his 
farm. In the early part of 1832 he enlisted in the army, 
was made first lieutenant, and in the fall of that year 
was promoted to a captaincy. At the close of the Black 
Hawk War, in 1833, he returned to Jackson County, 
where he married Eliza P. Ewing, the daughter of a 
wealthy farmer of Brownstown, of the same county, 
IIe then engaged in farming on the old homestead. In 
the fall of 1846 he was elected a member of the Legis- 
lature, and was re-elected in 1848. In October, 1852, he 
was elected state Senator from the counties of Jackson 
and Scott. In November of that year he laid out the 
town (now the city) of Seymour, and in 1853 opened a 
general store, and also constructed eleven miles of the 
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. He was a lover of fine 
stock, and manifested a great interest in the improve- 
ment of the cattle of the county, making the first im- 
portation of fine stock in the neighborhood. It wasmainly 
through his efforts that the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad 
passed through the town of Seymour, as the road had 
been located two miles north—through the town of 
Rockford. In the fall of 1856 he was again elected to 
the state Senate from Jackson and Jennings Counties, 
and there introduced the bill compelling railroad com- 
panies to bring all trains to a stop at crossings of other 
railroads. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic 
Convention at Charleston which nominated Douglas for 
President. He was the father of eight children, two of 
whom, Lycurgus and Meedey W., died at the age of 
fourteen. Bruce T. and Wm. H. are now farming. 


eae 


jad Dist.) RERRE 
Sarah S. married John H. Blish in 1856, and Eliza S. 
married A. W. Dickinson in 1864. Mr. Shields was not 
a member of any religious denomination, but gave liber- 
ally to several Churches in their infancy, donating a lot 
whenever His wife was a member of the 
First Presbyterian Church, and not only was a liberal 
contributor to the Church at Seymour, but gave largely 
of her means to the support of Presbyterian Churches 
all over the state. The city of Seymour, in its rapid 
growth, its numerous railroad shops, its extensive manu- 
factories, and its high school, which bears Mr. Shields’s 
name, is greatly indebted to the energy, industry, per- 
severance, and influence of its founder. He died Feb- 
ruary 6, 1866, of inflammation of the stomach, and in 
his death the city suffered an irreparable loss. His wife 
departed this life November 14 of the same year. Mr, 
Shields left an estate worth three hundred and seventy- 
five thousand dollars, accumulated by his own energy, 
sagacity, and industry. His brother, Wm. Shields, in 
the year 1840, was a member of the Indiana Legislature, 
and died during his term of office. - He was dearly be- 
loved by the people, and was followed to the grave by 
an immense concourse of citizens. Appropriate resolu- 
tions in regard to his sterling worth were adopted by 
the House. 


necessary. 


—--400h-o— 


~ PARKS, GENERAL LEVI, late of Jeffersonville, 
was born at Church Hill, Queen Anne’s County, 
@ 5 Maryland, November 21, 1814. He came to Indi- 
8 ana in 1836 and settled in Washington, Daviess 
County, but, after remaining there one year, removed to 
Jeffersonville and entered the dry-goods house of W. 
D. Beach. In 1840 he engaged in the dry-goods trade 
in partnership with Peter Myers. This connection con- 
tinued for eight years, when Mr. Myers retired and Mr. 
Sparks continued in business for himself until his death, 
which occurred March 26, 1875. He.was an active 
Democrat, and was a prominent member of his party. 
From 1854 to 1869 he was a member of the city coun- 
cil of Jeffersonville, and proved himself one of the best 
public servants that the city has ever had; he served as 
chairman of the finance committee while a member of 
the council. In 1869 he was elected mayor of the city, 
and again in 1871. Few men in public or private life 
have been more devoted to the interests of the city than 
Mr. Sparks. 
' government arsenal at Jeffersonville, 
in no small degree to the prosperity of the place. Ile 
was for a number ofyears a member of the district 
and state Democratic central committee. Every duty 
which devolved upon him was performed with energy, 
sagacity, and fidelity. Ile was a member of every Na- 
tional Democratic Convention from 1852 until his death. 
In 1875 he was a candidate for state Treasurer, and, 


LSE AL LVL 


To him is largely due the location of the | 
which contributes | 


MEN OF INDIANA 37 
for a great part of his life, was an intimate and per- 
sonal friend of Governor Hendricks, McDon- 
ald, M. C. Kerr, etc. General Sparks’s wife died ten 
years before him, and his only surviving child is Mrs. 
E. E. Ennis, of Gentryville, Missouri. The business 
founded by him in 1840 is now conducted by his two 
half-brothers, under the firm name of T, & N Sparks. 
As he never saw any military service it is difficult to 
say where the title ‘‘ general,” by which he was long 
familiarly known, However bestowed, it 
became established so firmly in the minds of the people 


Senator 


originated. 


that for many years before his death he was known by 
no other title. His home in Jeffersonville was ever a 
center of genial hospitality. Kindly and sociable, with 
a nature overflowing with charity and good will to all 
men, he was universally beloved and respected; and he 
will long be remembered by the citizens of Jefferson- 
ville, as a man whose place it will be difficult to fill, and 
whose virtues made him an object of esteem alike in 
public and private life. 


—+-4006-0— 


Beealeiys Sdotember 30, 1845, and is the eldest 
son of Henderson and Catharine (Hayden) Ste- 
vens. His father was a farmer, and also filled several 
official positions in the county where he resided. The 
Haydens were one of the prominent families of Ken- 
tucky, and were among the early settlers of that state. 
When he was but one year old, his father removed 
to Indiana, and settled in Harrison County, where he 
spent his early years at work on the farm, attending the 
common school at Corydon during the winter. In the 
fall of 1864 he entered the State University at Blooming- 
ton, where he remained two years, and in the spring of 
1867 graduated from the law department. He imme- 
diately established himself at Salem, and began the 
practice of his profession in connection with James A, 
Ghormley. At the end of two years Mr. Ghormley 
died, and about that time Mr. Stevens was appointed 
county auditor. After serving one year he resumed the 
practice of law, forming a partnership with A. A. Cra- 
vens. In 1871 he was appointed prosecuting attorney, 
and served one year. In January, 1872, Mr. Stevens 
and his partner purchased the Salem Democrat, and he 
bought Mr. Cravens’s interest in 1874, since which time 
he has had entire control of the paper. fr. Stevens 
is an ardent Democrat, and is constantly laboring in the 
interests of the party, being acknowledged one of its 
leaders in this portion of the state. Ilis paper is the 
organ of the Democracy of Washington County, and 
its many able editorials from his pen have, in a great 
measure, brought about the increased Democratic ma- 


38 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. OF INDIANA. 


jority in the county, as, under his judicious manage- 
ment, it has an influence in political affairs second to no 
paper in Southern Indiana. His office is complete in 
all of its appointments, and is a model of neatness and 
system, being furnished with all the modern improve- 
ments necessary to facilitate business. It is noted for 
the promptness and dispatch by which orders for all 
descriptions of printed matter are filled. Mr. Stevens 
married, May 1, 1879, Miss Alice Caspar, of Salem, 
whose father was county auditor and a merchant of that 
place. Upon purchasing the Democrat he discontinued 
the practice of law, and now devotes his whole time and 
energy to improving the weekly issue of his newspaper. 
He is known and appreciated far and near as a good 
and honorable citizen, and as a genial, courteous gen- 
tleman. 
—<>- FOO —_ 

(@ TOCKSLAGER, STROTHER M.,, attorney-at-law, 
SSN) Corydon, Ilarrison County, was born at Mauck- 
j port, Harrison County, Indiana, May 7, 1842. Ilis 
» parents, Jacob and Jane W. Stockslager, Virgin- 
ians by birth, emigrated to Indiana in 1832. Jacob 
Stockslager was the sheriff of Harrison County from 
1856 to 1860, and up to the time of his death was a 
large farmer, and one of the most highly respected cit- 
Strother M. received his early 
instruction at the common schools of the county, and 


izens of the county. 


afterward at the academy at Corydon, under Professor 
W. W. May, closing at the State University at Bloom- 
He had a clear, bright intellect, and by close 
application to his studies acquired far more than an 
ordinary education. At the age of seventeen, before 
attending the academy, he for a few terms taught 
school, which proved of great benefit to him, as it thor- 
oughly impressed his recent studies on his own mind. 
On leaving the university he became imbued with the 
martial spirit which the war called forth in our young 
men, and entered the army as a private in the 13th In- 
diana Cavalry. On the final organization of the com- 
pany he was immediately appointed second leutenant. 
At the battle of Murfreesboro, during Hood’s campaign 
in Tennessee in 1864, for gallant service, he was pro- 
moted to be captain of Company F. During the cam- 
paign around Murfreesboro he had some hair-breadth 
escapes; the engagements being hotly contested, and 
he invariably in the thickest of the fight. He was 
mustered out at Vicksburg in October, 1865, when he 
returned home and commenced the study of law, at the 
same time acting as deputy auditor for two years. He 
was also deputy clerk for two years. He then read law 
for one year with the Hon. S. K. Wolfe, at the expira- 
tion of which they formed a partnership. He made 
rapid progress in his chosen profession and acquired 
a large practice. In two years their connection was 


ington. 


[5a Dist. 


dissolved on account of Mr. Wolfe’s removal to New 
Albany and election to Congress. Mr. Stockslager then 
formed a partnership with Judge Douglass, which has 
been highly successful. They now enjoy the largest and 
most important law practice in the county. In the sum- 
mer of 4866 he was appointed by the President assessor 
of internal revenue for the district. In 1874 he was 
elected to the Senate by a large majority, showing his 
immense popularity with the people, irrespective of 
party. The farmers’ movement was at its height and 
the Grangers and Republicans had combined, and yet 
his personal influence was so great that, although a 
Democrat, he was elected by an overwhelming major- 
ity, proving in his case the old adage, that ‘‘ the man 
was greater than the party.”” In 1877 he was a mem- 
ber of the Judiciary Committee, originating a road bill 
which brought him very prominently before the House, 
and called forth favorable comments from the leading 
press of the country. In 1878 he became a member 
of the Masonic Order, and one year later a Knight of 
Pythias. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church. 
July 10, 1873, he was married to Kate M. Miller, the 
estimable daughter of G. W. Miller, of Corydon. In 
October, 1878, he purchased the Corydon Democrat, of 
which he is editor. It is a paper having a large county 
circulation, and is well and ably conducted. Mr. Stock- 
slager is a man of fine personal appearance, pleasant in 
manners, a thorough lawyer and honorable gentleman, 
well read on all topics. He is a man of large public 
spirit, held in high esteem by his fellow-citizens, ‘‘one 
whom they delight to honor.” June 29, he was nomi- 
nated by the Democrats for Congress in the Third Dis- 
trict, defeating Judge George A. Bicknell and Judge Jep- 
tha D. New. 


@ TOY, PETER R., merchant and manufacturer, 
to ) New Albany. Few men in Indiana have attained 
ox more local prominence, socially and financially, 
» than the subject of this sketch. His history is 
much like that of others who by their own efforts have 
attained competence and position, and yet bears the stamp 


sete — 


of individuality. Commencing with no capital but an 
unblemished character, he has, by honesty and fair 
dealing, become known as one of Indiana’s successful 
business men. He was born February 25, 1825, in the 
village (now city) of New Albany, Indiana. His father, 
Peter Stoy, was a ship-cabin-builder, who was born 
and reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, 
Mary E. (Wicks) Stoy, was a native of Erie, in the 
same state. They were married at New Albany in 1818, 
in which year the father emigrated from his native state, 
his future wife having preceded him westward about 
Mr. Stoy attended school in his native vil- 
He entered the 


two years. 
lage until he was fifteen years of age. 


3d Dist.) 


hardware store of Charles Woodruff, January 1, 1841, 
and continued in this and the dry-goods business as clerk 
until 1846. At this time the death of his father occurred 
and he took charge of the estate, which was badly 
embarrassed. He succeeded in settling all liabilities, 
however, and saved a competence for his widowed 
mother. In the spring of 1847 he took the position of 
clerk on the Ohio River steamer, ‘‘ Atlantis;” but’ left 
this employment after one season, as the influence and 
early training of a pious father and mother maée the 
wild and boisterous life on a steamboat repugnant to 
him. He then engaged in the hardware trade in the 
store of his former employer—who had died in the mean 
time—accepting a share in the prospective profits of the 
business in lieu of salary. Here he remained until 1851, 
when he went into business on his own account. Pur- 


chasing his stock in the Eastern market, at first hand,. 


he was enabled to offer as good inducements to the 
trade as older houses, and became very successful. He 
has made numerous friends, and has passed through two 
severe financial crises with his credit unquestioned. In 
1866, with several others, he organized the Ohio Falls 
Tron Works. In 1873, after the great financial panic, 
he was elected vice-president of the company, and in 
January, 1876, he was chosen vice-president, treasurer, 
and general manager, which position he now holds. 
He also continues his hardware business at the old 
stand, in which he is ably assisted by his two oldest 
sons, Edward B. and Lewis R. Stoy. Mr. Stoy has 
been a member of the city council the greater part of 
the time since 1850, and was elected by a large majority 
to the important office of commissioner of Floyd County. 
He is not now, and never has been, a politician, His 
political principles are Republican, but he was elected 
to office by the aid of Democratic voters in a county 
which gives a large Democratic majority. In 1850 he 
married Miss Ellen Beeler, of New Albany, Indiana, 
daughter of William and Elizabeth Beeler, and a mem- 
ber of one of the best families of Floyd County. Of 
ten children born to them nine are living: Edward B., 
Minnie E., Lewis’R., William H., Frank M., Walter 
E., Raymond P., Julia, and Ellen. Mr. and Mrs. Stoy 
have been honored members of the Methodist Church 
since 1843. Socially and financially, Mr. Stoy stands 
among the most highly respected and influential citi- 
zens of New Albany. 
—+-40t-<— 


NAYLOR, JAMES M., of Salem, clerk of Washing- 
ton County Circuit Court, was born in Washington 
&\ County, Indiana, December 6, 1842, and is the 

AD, youngest son of Samuel and Mary (Turpin) Tay- 
lor. His father was a farmer and shoemaker. He 
spent his early life on the farm, assisting his parents, 


until he was twenty-one years of age. During this time, 
Aor : 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


39 


by close attention to his studies during the winter 
months, he acquired sufficient education to enable him 
to teach, and at the age of eighteen took charge of his 
first school. When he was twenty he attended the high 
school at Salem two terms. Deprived of further educa- 
tional advantages he became clerk in a clothing store, 
and afterwards was bookkeeper in the woolen mills for 
one year. In 1867 he was appointed deputy treasurer 
of his county, and spent eighteen months in this posi- 
tion. In August, 1868, he removed to Campbellsburg, 
and opened a general store, which he carried on for two 
years; he then taught school two years. In 1872 he 
removed to Memphis, Clarke County, Indiana, and 
taught the graded school until March, 1874, when he 
was appointed deputy clerk of the Washington County 
Circuit Court. This position he held until October, 
1878, when he was elected clerk of the same court for 
the term of four years. He married, May 5, 1864, Miss 
Mary E. McCoskey, daughter of a farmer of Washing- 
ton County. They have three daughters. Mr. Taylor 
was brought up in the faith of the United Brethren, 
but now attends the Methodist Church. In politics he 
is an active, zealous Democrat, and to his exertions, 
more than to those of any other man, is the Democratic 
party of Washington County indebted for the large in- 
crease in the Democratic vote. Mr. Taylor is a genial 
and courteous gentleman; he discharged his duties as 
clerk to the entire satisfaction of the court, and with 
credit to himself, and is justly regarded as one of the 
rising men of Washington County. 


FO 


i|RIPP, COLONEL HAGERMAN, North Vernon, 
was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, September 
16, 1812. His father, Gideon D. Tripp, served in 
the War of 1812, under General Harrison. His 
mother was Eva Hagerman. These families emigrated 
from Rhode Island to Ohio in 1807. ‘The Colonel’s ed- 
ucational advantages as a boy were small, the school- 
house being an old log building. But he made the most 
of his opportunities, being fond of reading. He applied 
himself diligently, and acquired by his own perseverance 
a good education. At the age of sixteen he was ena- 
bled not only to earn his own living, but also to con- 
tribute to the support of the family, by working as a 
carpenter, his father having died and left them in 
straitened circumstances. In 1830 he removed to Jen- 
nings County, and in 1837 went into the milling busi- 
ness in partnership with John Walker, in which he 
continued till 1841, when for four years he engaged in 
mercantile affairs. He then again became mterested in 
milling matters, in which he still holds an interest. In 
1848 he was elected one of the directors of the Ohio and 
Mississippi Railroad, holding that position seven years, 


40 


from its conception until after its completion, and look- 
ing after the interests of his county in that direction. 
In 1852, being owner of the land on which North Ver- 
non now stands, he surveyed it, divided 1t into lots, and 
laid out the town, which now, in 1880, has a popula- 
tion of three thousand. From that time until 1861 he 
occupied himself in looking after his large business in- 
terests, and the welfare of the place of which he was 
the founder. April 15, 1861, in thirty hours after Pres- 
ident Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand men, he 
raised a company, and reported for duty, by telegraph, 
on the following night. He and his company went into 
camp on the 19fh, and he immediately received his com- 
mission as captain, having enlisted in the company as a 
private, and being elected by his comrades as their cap- 
tain. They served in the three months’ campaign in 
West Virginia, returning August 3, and going into 
camp at Madison. The company reorganized August 
26. September 20 the regiment crossed the Ohio at 
Louisville, it being the first that entered Kentucky, and 
his the first company that went to the war from Jen- 
nings County. These troops became a part of the Army 
of the Ohio, and afterwards of the Army of the Cum- 
berland. He was in all the actions through West Vir- 
ginia, and was with Buell’s army at the battle of Shiloh, 
Tennessee, April 6 and 7, 1862, a few days after which 
he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. Ile was at the 
siege of Corinth, which ended in its evacuation, May 
29. During the summer of 1862 he was engaged in 
the protection of the railroads in Alabama. Hemarched 
to Louisville, arriving there September 27, 1862, and 
thence to Perryville, Kentucky, in which battle he took 
part, October 8. From that place he went to Crab 
Orchard, in pursuit of General Bragg, and from thence 
to Nashville, arriving on the battle-field of Stone River 
December 30, 1862, after having been in many skirmishes 
with the enemy, and with his regiment fought through 
that memorable battle. During the summer of 1863 he 
was in a great number of minor engagements, and on 
the 19th and 20th of September, 1863, he was at the 
battle of Chickamauga, skirmishing having begun on the 
18th. The last day of the battle Colonel Tripp had the 
misfortune to lose one leg, being struck by a minie- 
ball, which passed through the limb, completely shat- 
tering the bone. The next day he received his com- 
mission as colonel. His wound compelled him to remain 
in hospital until the January following, when he was 
removed to his home. Feeling that he was unfit for 
further service, in June he resigned his commission. In 
1867 he was appointed assessor of internal revenue for 
the Third Congressional District, a capacity in which he 
served for six years. In 1847 he became a member of 
the Order of Odd-fellows, and he is also a Master Ma- 
son, having joined that fraternity in 1856. Te took the 
temperance pledge some fifty years back, and has never 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[j@ Dust. 


broken it. In politics he is a Republican. He was 
formerly a Whig, but joined the new party on its organ- 
ization. In religion he is a Universalist. Colonel Tripp 
has been highly suecessful in his business career, having 
accumulated considerable wealth, and is now enjoying 
a luxurious home and the advantages derived from a 
well-spent and industrious life, respected by the com- 
munity and beloved by his family. He is a man of 
honor and integrity, and possesses a fine personal ap- 
pearance. His family are all grown up, and have located 
near him. They are actively engaged in business. 


OYLES, S. B., attorney-at-law, Salem, Washington 
County, Indiana, was born in that town, July 13, 
1843. His parents were natives of the same county. 
©) His grand-parents emigrated to Indiana from 

North Carolina, and his great-grandfather, Jacob Voyles, 

was in the battle of Camden during the American Rey- 

olution, under General Gates. S. B. Voyles, the subject 
of this sketch, enlisted in the 18th Indiana Volunteer 

Infantry during the late war, and, as a matter of choice, 

served as a private for three years and one month. He 

was in all the battles of the Vicksburg campaign, and 
was never wounded nor off duty. 


After being several 
times offered promotion, he finally accepted the posi- 
tion of sergeant of his company. Te returned home 
during the latter part of the war, and went from there 
to Missouri, where he commenced the study of law with 
Judge James W. Owens, of Franklin County, which 
he continued two years. He also attended law school 
in St. Louis, and, after being admitted to the bar, he 
began the practice of law, in 1868, in Salem, Indiana. 
He was successful, and was chosen, by popular vote, 
prosecuting attorney of the Third Judicial District of 
Indiana. Being re-elected, his second term expired 
October 22, 1877. In 1876 he was a delegate to the 
National Democratic Convention at St. Leuis, in which 
he took an active part. He is at this time a member 
of the Indiana State Central Committee of Democracy. 
Mr. Voyles is a ‘trial lawyer,” 
of law to political or any other business. 


and prefers the practice 
He bears the 
reputation of being a good citizen and a sound lawyer. 
November 13, 1873, he married Miss Maud Heuston, 
or Salem, Indiana. 

— FO — 


y\> city of Jeffersonville, was born near Flemings- 
QNg burg, Kentucky, December 2, 1840. He is the 
Ce son of Hiram K. and Mary (Wallingford) 
Warder, both natives of Kentucky, but descended from 
Mr. Warder received a common 


In 1861, 


old Virginian families. 
English education in the schools of Kentucky. 


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at the age of twenty, he was enrolled as a private in 
Company B, 16th Regiment Kentucky Volunteer In- 
fantry. He soon rose to the rank of first lieutenant, and 
took part with his regiment in the battle of Ivy Mount- 
ain, Eastern Kentucky, where he bore himself with so 
much credit and was soon made captain. He com- 
manded his company through the campaigns of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee until the latter part of 1863, when, 
on account of failing health, he was compelled to offer 
his resignation. It was accepted, and he returned home, 
not recovering sufficiently to resume active service be- 
fore the close of the war. In 1865 he married Miss 
Elizabeth A. Lewis, daughter of Felix R. Lewis, of 
Jeffersonville, Indiana, a member of an old and re- 
spected family of Clarke County. Her grandfather was 
for many years register of the land office in Jeffersonville, 
when Indiana was yet a territory. 
Mr. Warder settled at Flemingsburg, Kentucky, selling 
merchandise and raising stock until 1869. He then re- 
moved to Jeffersonville, where he soon ingratiated himself 
with the people. From 1870 to 1873 he was clerk of 
the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. 
In 1875 he was elected mayor of Jeffersonville, on the 
Democratic ticket, was re-elected at the expiration of 
his first term, and again im 1879 was elected for the 
third term to the same office, which he now holds. 


After his marriage, 


Previous to his election he had been for years a member 
of the city council He does not belong to any re- 
ligious denomination, but is an attendant upon and con- 
tributor to the Episcopal Church, of which his wife is 
a member. Mr. and Mrs. Warder have had eight chil- 
dren, four of whom survive. 
tleman of straightforward and unassuming manners. 
He is a forcible and fluent speaker, and has the reputa- 


Mayor Warder is a gen- 


tion of possessing a rare talent for organizing and con- 
ducting political campaigns. His energy is of that kind 
which encounters obstacles only to surmount them, and 
his personal popularity seems almost boundless. 


—~- $006 — 


EBSTER, ALEXANDER, master mechanic and 
machinist, of New Albany, was born February 
23, 1829, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. 
He 1s the only son of Andrew and Ann (Potter) 
Webster, who emigrated to that state with their par- 
ents Fifeshire, Scotland. When he was only 
about a year old his father died, leaving him to the 
care of his mother and grand-parents. He received 
early instruction in the English branches, and at the 


i 


Gg 


from 


age of eleven years was taken by his grandfather and 
his mother to Canada. There he attended school part 
of the time until he was fifteen. He early evinced a 
taste for machinery, and persuaded his mother to let 


him come to the United States and ‘learn a trade. Havy- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


4! 


ing friends in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, he was sent 
there, and apprenticed to Mr. John Snodon, a machinist. 
After remaining there three years, he went to Pittsburgh, 
where he worked for a time, and then found employ- 
ment at New Albany, Indiana. In 1860, in partnership 
with Josiah Johnson, he commenced building steam-en- 
gines and mill machinery at New Albany, which they 
continued until 1877. In August, 1867, their shop was 
destroyed by fire, but the loss re arded their business 
but a short time. In 1877 Mr. Webster and Mr. H. Pitt 
purchased Mr. Johnson’s interest, and have conducted 
the business under the firm name of Webster & Pitt to 
the present time. They have built some of the largest 
and best machinery in the city, and have shipped great 
quantities to nearly every state in the Union. They 
have now one of the best appointed shops in the state, 
and beautiful specimens of their work may be found at 
Mr. Webster has been 
married twice; first, in 1850, to Miss Amy Elizabeth 
Payne, who died about six years after. She left two 
children, John H. and Anna, the latter of whom died 
at the age of seven years. He afterward married Miss 
Sarah C. Smith, who has borne him five children— 
George T., Elizabeth M., Carrie B., Frank, and Ira G. 
Mr. Webster and his family are members of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church. 


the New Albany woolen mills. 


Few men are more happily situ- 
ated, or more highly esteemed in the community. 


—- FEE -<— 


\./ INSTANDLEY JOHN B., of New Albany, is 
‘> to-day one of the best known and most popular 
ONS) citizens of Southern Indiana, where his life from 
Oy early boyhood to the mature years of nearly three- 
score and ten has been spent. Starting in hfe without 
means, and without the aid of influential or wealthy 
friends, he is the architect of his own fortune; and his 
life furnishes a model worthy of imitation by the young 
men of the present day. It is particularly remarkable 
that with scarcely any school training he gained the 
prominent and responsible positions that he has occu- 
pied for the past half century. He is ot English de- 
scent; his grandfather, Henry Winstandley, having emi- 
grated to this country and settled near Baltimore, 
Maryland, about the close of the Revolutionary War, 
In that city John B. Winstandley was born, in 1812, 
and went with his father when six years old to New 
Albany, where he remained about four years. When 
only eight years old he worked in a cotton-factory in 
New Albany. In 1822 he removed to Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, where he attended school for a short time. Three 
years later he accepted the offer of a clerkship in the drug- 
store of Robert Downey in New Albany, his salary for 
the first two and a half years being three dollars and 
fifty cents a month and board. Upon attaining his ma- 


42 REPRESENTATIVE 


jority he formed a copartnership with his employer, and 
the business was continued, under the firm name of 
Downey & Winstandley, until 1843, when he purchased 
his partner’s interest. W. J. Newkirk was then associ- 
ated with him in the same business until 1854, and then 
bought the entire stock, Mr. Winstandley retiring from 
business altogether for a few years. On the Ist of 
January, 1857, he was elected assistant cashier of the 
Bank of Salem, and afterward cashier, which latter po- 
sition he held continuously until the expiration of the 
charter. In connection with others he then organized 
the New Albany Banking House, of which he is presi- 
dent, and his son, Isaac S. Winstandley, cashier. In 
the mean time, however, in the summer of 1847, Mr. 
Winstandley, who has always been a Democrat, was 
elected by that party to the Legislature from Floyd 
County, defeating William Underhill, a Whig, by two 
votes. He was re-elected, over Blaine Marshall, by a 
majority of one hundred and thirty-six votes the suc- 
ceeding year, and in 1849 was elected to the Senate by 
a majority of one hundred and twenty-two, over Doctor 
P. S. Shields, and served in that capacity three years. 
He was elected to the city council of New Albany in 
1856, 1868, 1870, and 1875, having had in all eight 
years’ experience in that body. As school trustee in 
1850 he purchased the Main Street property at a bargain, 
and was instrumental in having the present fine build- 
ing erected thereon. It is something remarkable to 
have lived in the same ward for fifty years; never to 
have been confined to the bed from sickness for a sin- 
gle day in sixty-five years; never to have had occasion 
to sue or be sued; and, rearing a family of four chil- 
dren, to have incurred a doctor’s bill not exceeding fifty 
dollars in a period of over forty years. Many interest- 
ing incidents of Mr. Winstandley’s life are related by 
old Democrats who associated with him over a quarter 
of a century ago, at his drug-store known as Tammany 
Hall, or Democratic headquarters, but the limits of a 
biographical sketch preclude our indulging in details. 
in October, 1834, to 
Miss Penina B. Stewart, daughter of the late Major 
Isaac Stewart, one of the first settlers in Southern In- 
diana. 


Mr. Winstandley was married, 


Mrs. Winstandley is still living and enjoying 
excellent health. They have had four children, two 
daughters and two sons. Isaac S. Winstandley has oc- 


cupied the position of teller and bookkeeper in the 
Bank of Salem for the past seventeen years, and is a 
member of the board of school trustees. William C., 
the other son,, was appointed cashier of the Bank 
of Salem when only eighteen years of age, and held 
the position until he was twenty-one, after. which he 
was engaged in the Branch Bank of the State at Bed- 
ford till it was closed. Then, with some others, he 
established the Bedford National Bank, and was ap- 


pointed cashier, which position he now holds. He has 


MEN OF INDIANA. [3d Dest. 
also been school trustee at Bedford for several years. 
One daughter is unmarried; the other is the wife of 
Doctor W..L. Breyfogle, well known in New Alkany 
and Louisville as a successful physician. In conversa- 
tion with a prominent citizen of New Albany, a few 
months ago, Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks stated that 
when he was a Representative from the county of ShelLy 
in the state Legislature, being a young man, he natu- 
rally cast, his mind about that body to discover a safe, 
sensible, and discreet Jeader. He watched the course 
of many, and in the person of John B. Winstandley 
found his ideal in point of dignity, habits, sound judg- 
ment, and the elements of a trusty leader. ‘‘From 
that day on,” said Mr. Hendricks, ‘‘he was my guiding 
star, and my future course was shaped from the im- 
pressions then received.” Mr. Winstandley is known 
for his firmness, his conscientious love of justice, duty, 
and real, not sham, morality. He is hopeful, and, with 
enough self-esteem to give him dignity and self-reliance, 
is not tremulous in view of responsibility. He has force 
of character sufficient to make his efforts effective, fine 
social qualities, and is deeply interested, not only in his 
own home, but in his neighborhood, his state, and his 
nation. Ie has an excellent memory, and such com: 
mand of language as to be an easy and effective speaker. 
His sharp perception and keen analytical power enable him 
to condense a great deal of truth into crisp sentences, and 
his style is terse and pointed and without ornamental 
verbiage. In politics, as in every thing else, he has 
maintained the reputation of an honest man; and, 
although never an office-seeker, has always taken a 
lively interest in political affairs. Now, in his mature 
years, Mr. Winstandley, after a long, busy, and eventfui 
life, passes his days as much as possible in the quiet re- 
treat of his suburban home, just beyond the city limits 
of New Albany. At a cost of about twenty thousand 
dollars, he has recently made the ‘*McDonald place” in 
fact and in truth what he now calls it, ‘*Sunnyside.” 
Upon the premises is a magnificent mansion, designed 
after the latest and most approved style of architecture. 
The place is provided with convenient out-buildings, and 
superbly set with fruit and shade trees, rich and rare 
plants, and is one of the most delightful residences in 
the state. His inclinations are towards the Methodist 
faith, in which he was reared, but Mr. Winstandley is 
not a member of any Church, bestowing his bounty 
alike upon all, 
—~-40te-— 


. 


OLFE, HARVEY S., M. D., physician and sur- 
!’ geon, of Corydon, Harrison County, was born in 
‘) Floyd County, Indiana, June 22, 1832. He is 
* the son of George I. Wolfe and Elizabeth Wolfe. 
His father followed the occupation of a shoemaker, and 
was a prominent political man of his day. He was twice 


ja Dist] 


elected to the state Legislature, overcoming great ob- 
stacles. In politics he was an ardent and thorough- 
going Whig, following the leadership of Henry Clay, 
the idol of the West; but the district in which he lived 
was overwhelmingly Democratic, and his success was a 
fine tribute to his character as a man. His children 
received the best education it was possible for him to 
afford, and all became professional men. Three of them 
became physicians, and one a lawyer. The latter, S. K. 
Wolfe, has represented his district in Congress. Harvey 
S. Wolfe attended school each winter until the age of 
twenty. In the summer he worked at his father’s busi- 
ness of shoemaker, and acquired in it a high degree of 
proficiency. In school he was always at the head of 
his class. His nature was diligent and studious. .He 
was prompt in his attendance, quick in comprehension, 
and never flinched from a difficulty. In the sports of 
the play-ground he was the foremost of the boys. 
None could play ball, run a race, jump ditches, or 
climb fences better than he. Among other things 
he learned at this time was to handle a gun, and he 
is now one of the crack shots of the county. His na- 
ture was ambitious, and when he left school he deter- 
mined to study medicine. He had already acquired a 
good English education, and he was admitted to the 
office of one of the leading physicians of that region, 
his brother, Dr. S. C. Wolfe, at Georgetown. There 
he continued studying and practicing until 1856, contin- 
uing the same course with another brother, Dr. H. 
Wolfe, at Washington, Indiana, until 1859, when he 
graduated at the Kentucky School of Medicine at. Lou- 
isville. He chose as a place of residence Corydon, in 
Harrison County, formerly the capital of Indiana Terri- 
tory, which retains many of the descendants of the res- 
idents of that period. There he still remains, enjoying 
a large and successful practice, while his reputation has 
been steadily growing. He is now regarded as the 
leading physician of the county. When the war broke 
out he did not fail to answer to the call of his country. 
In the summer of 1862 he was commissioned assistant 
surgeon to the 81st Indiana Regiment. On the 8th of 
October the battle of Perryville was fought, in which he 
bore a part. He took charge of the hospital after- 
wards, and for his valuable services was promoted to 
be surgeon of the regiment. He was also in charge 
of a hospital after the battle of Stone River, shortly 
after which his health failed, and he was compelled to 
resign, much against his own wish and that of his 
Returning to Corydon, he began practic- 
ing again. After being engaged in the medical pro- 
fession for a few years longer, in which he had ac- 
quired much knowledge of disease, he went back 
to the Medical University at Louisville, to gain a 
fuller and more scientific insight. There he gradu- 
ated with honors in the year 1867. In politics he has 


comrades. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


43 


taken an active part. He has not been chosen to office, 
for he has steadily refused to allow his name to be used 
in that way, but he attends all the political meetings 
of his party, the Democratic, and labors zealously in 
their councils. He is a ready and effective speaker. 
When younger, he was a member of the Sons of 
Temperance, and for the past two years has been ac- 
tively engaged in the temperance cause as a lecturer 
in the Blue Ribbon movement. In this he has met 
with the most flattering success. He shows the useless- 
ness and wickedness of the custom of drinking, its dim- 
inution of the public wealth, the wretchedness of the 
families in which the father is a partaker of the cup, 
the bad example set to others, the poverty and crime 
engendered, the cost to the community of the jails, 
poor-houses, and officers of the law, the destruction of 
the usefulness of men, and the sure retribution that will 
follow from divine justice. He is himself a living ex- 
ponent of the doctrine he advocates, being strictly tem- 
perate in all things, and enjoying most excellent health. 
He became a member of the Odd-fellows in 1853, 
taking all the degrees, and also belongs to the Har- 
rison County Medical Society, of which he is vice- 
president. The last seven years he has been a member 
of the Presbyterian Church, and for three years super- 
intendent of its Sunday-school. He displays, in the 
labors of the Church, the same earnestness that he does 
in his own affairs. He has recently bought a large 
farm, and is now devoting much of his leisure time to 
its cultivation. He has a natural love for the country, 
its fields, orchards, and woods, and is now gratify- 
ing a taste he has had since childhood. On his land 
he is raising some fine, choice stock. Doctor Wolfe 
married, September 30, 1858, Annie E. Bence, daugh- 
ter of John (and Elizabeth) Bence, a farmer of Harri- 
son County. They have had four children—two sons, 
whom they have lost, and two daughters, who remain 
to them. 
ance. He is a thorough physician, an educated, court- 
eous, and genial gentleman, and is highly respected by 
all who know him. 


The Doctor is a man of fine personal appear- 


“Bt 


A OLFE, SIMEON K., presidential elector, me- 
f chanic, farmer, lawyer, state Senator, editor, and 
¢ member of Congress, the subject of this biog- 

CS raphy, while eminently a self-made man, is no 
less remarkable for his versatility of talent than for his 
energy in the pursuit of his calling and profession. 
The use of biography is well exemplified in his case. 
His life may be regarded as a lesson for encouragement 
to the American youth, who, in starting in life’s race, 
has none, or but few, of what are called worldly advan- 
tages to aid him. While it is not true that his early 
life was passed in poverty, it is a truth of which he is 


rail REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


not ashamed that his boyhood and early manhood were 
alike free from the stifling influence of wealth and opu- 
lence. He was born in a log-cabin—a sample of the 
rude architecture of the early settler—on a farm about 
nine miles west of New Albany, Floyd County, Indiana, 
on the fourteenth day of February, 1824; and there his 
boyhood was spent at manual labor on his father’s farm 
and in his workshop, and at intervals of three months 
during the winter attending the common district schools 
ot that period, which were generally poorly conducted, 
anu yet affording the boys or girls of an apt literary 
bent of mind the opportunity of making themselves 
practical scholars in after life. And such was the 
result with the subject of this sketch, who, as in 
other matters, only required the rudiments to be im- 
parted by a teacher to enable him to master the whole 
subject. His education, though not classic, became 
thorough and practical in nearly all the departments of 
useful knowledge, in which he always regarded the 
better class of romance and fiction, as well as poetry, 
as not a non-essential; in all of which, amidst his diver- 
sified Jabors, he took time to embellish his well-gar- 
nered store of useful and scientific knowledge. His an- 
cestors were of the robust Pennsylvania German stock. 
George Wolfe, his grandfather, was a resident of North- 
umberland County, in that state, and for many years was 
a lumberman and raftsman on the Susquehanna River. 
He was a man of splendid physique, about six feet two 
inches tall, of full proportions, fair, ruddy face, with hair 
originally of a sandy or auburn color, but which, later 
in life, became white as wool, giving to the old gentle- 
man a marked appearance. He was a man of great 
strength, as were also his brothers, who, in the rude 
period of their younger days, might have been noted 
prize-fighters. A traditional anecdote is related of one 
of these brothers, whose reputation as a fighter became 
noted, illustrating the quality of these old-time men. 
At one time a stranger called at his house and informed 
him that he had traveled ninety miles to see him; 
“and,” said the stranger, ‘‘I have heard that you are a 
great fighter, and, if that is so, I came to whip you!” 
‘Very well,” said Wolfe, ‘*I am the man you are hunt- 
ing; come in and get a dram of whisky and I will 
satisfy you.” The stranger accepted the offer, and after 
passing a few rude compliments the combat commenced, 
and was not ended until the stranger was badly pun- 
ished for his pains, receiving, amongst other injuries, a 
broken jaw. After the combat, Wolfe took him in, and 
nursed and cared for him until he was able to travei, 
when he left with many praises for the kindness with 
which he was entertained. George Wolfe was the 
father of ten children, all of whom lived to an old age 
as good citizens, and most of whom had the marks of the 
blood of their ancestors pretty strongly in them, being 
of robust constitutions of body and mind. In 1795 


[3d Dist. 


he, with his family, emigrated to Kentucky, settling 
on the waters of Bear Grass Creek, ten miles above 
Louisville, where he resided until the year 1811, when 
he removed to Indiana and settled in the forest, and 
opened a farm about ten miles west of the present 
city of New Albany, but which at the time was 
a village of only a few huts. He died there January 
1, 1848, in the eighty-second year of his age, leaving a 
widow, who died several years after at the age of eighty- 
nine. George I. Wolfe was the eldest son of the latter, 
and the father of Simeon K. He was born near the 
town of Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pennsylva- 
nia, on the 6th of November, 1787, and died at George- 
town, Floyd County, Indiana, May, 1872, in the eighty- 
fifth year of his age. George I. was a boy eight or nine 
years old when he was brought by his father to Ken- 
tucky, where he was raised, and had instilled into him to 
a large degree the traits of independence and manhood 
and high principles of integrity and honor which distin- 
guished and marked the character of the old-time Ken- 
tuckian. He emigrated to Floyd County, to the forest 
nine miles west of New Albany, where he opened a 
farm and resided for over half a century. He was a 
man of fine proportions and build, over six feet high, 
and much above the average in intellect and information, 
which enabled him always to command a controlling 
influence in neighborhood and county affairs. By occu- 
pation he was a farmer, shoemaker, and tanner, which 
callings he taught to all of his boys, four of whom now 
are living, but none of whom continued to follow in the 
occupations that he taught them. Samuel C. Wolfe, 
the eldest, born January 15, 1815, resides at Elizabeth, 
Harrison County, Indiana, and is by occupation a phy- 
sician. Hamilton, the next eldest, born March 30, 18109, 
is also a physician, residing at Washington, Daviess 
County, Indiana. Harvey S., the youngest, also a phy- 
sician, born June 22, 1832, resides at Corydon, Harrison 
County, Indiana. These three have all become honored 
and useful members of society, but have not occupied 
their time in public affairs and become so well known 
as the subject of this memoir. George I. Wolfe in pol- 
itics was a Whig until 1854, when that party became 
extinct, and from that period to the day of his death 
he was a Democrat. He was twice elected as a Repre- 
sentative in the Indiana Legislature, serving in that 
body from 1843 to 1845. In religious faith he was a 
firm believer in the doctrines of Universalism, and in 
that faith he died, always averring that the older he 
became the more iirmly he believed in the truth of that 
doctrine. He was a man of noted neighborly kindness, 
liberality, and tolerance. The subject of this sketch, 
Simeon K., was married o1 the 24th of August, 1843, 
then in his twentieth year, to Penelope, daughter of 
John Bence, a well-to-do farmer of Harrison County, by 
whom he has had eight children, two of whom, Mrs. 


ja Dist.| 


Addie Stephens, wife of Alanson Stephens, Esq., and 
James H., are dead. Five sons and a daughter are 
still living. The names of the surviving children are: 
Albert G., Charles D., Robert P., Ella, Edward W., 
and Thomas F. After his marriage he began life as a 
shoemaker, at Corydon, the county seat of Harrison 
County, Indiana, with a capital of forty-two dollars. 
This was in 1844, April 10. Times then were hard 
for a poor man who had nothing but his hands with 
which to earn a living; but with industry and econ- 
omy he succeeded in two years in amassing a fortune 
of two hundred and fifty dollars. This he invested 
in a stock of dry-goods and groceries, and carried on 
that business two years, when he commanded his first 
thousand dollars, which to him seemed a great fortune. 
In 1846 he was elected to the office of Justice of the 
Peace, and while in that position he felt compelled 
to learn a little law to enable him to discharge: its 
duties. This was the beginning of his career as 
a lawyer. He soon fell in love with the profession, 
and in the interims of his labor he became master 
of Blackstone’s Commentaries. 
which belongs to every working man to change his 
vocation whenever it suits his inclination or interest, 
he at this time conceived the idea that he would adopt 
the law as his profession. He thereupon, in the month 
of January, 1849, entered the law office of Judge Will- 
iam A. Porter, then one of the foremost lawyers in 
Southern Indiana, as a student, with a determination, 
not unlike his old fighting great-uncle in Pennsylvania, 
to fight for victory in that hardly and hotly contested 
field, where failure is the rule and success the exception. 
How well he carried his determination into effect, the 
judicial records of the various courts in which he prac- 
ticed can well attest. After remaining in Judge Porter’s 
law office ten months, he entered the Law Department 
of the University of Indiana, then under the joint pro- 
fessorship of Judges David McDonald, afterwards Judge 
of the United States District Court of Indiana, and 
William T. Otto, since Assistant Secretary of the Inte- 
rior, and now reporter of the United States Supreme 


Believing in the right 


Court decisions. 
of that institution at the same time (November, 1849), 
he succeeded in graduating, contrary to the general 
practice, at the end of the first session, in March, 1850, 
and had conferred on him the degree of Bachelor of 
After that he entered with vigor into the prac- 
tice, and almost from the beginning has commanded a 
large and remunerative business. He remained at Cory- 
don until September 10, 1870, when he removed to New 
The public events in 


Entering both junior and senior classes 


Laws. 


Albany, his present residence. 
Mr. Wolfe’s life began in 1851, when he became a can- 
didate for the office of state Senator for Harrison County. 
In politics he began life as a Whig, and then still ad- 
hered nominally to the Whig party; but, having given 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


45 


the question of the Mexican War his warm support, he 
did not stand well with all the members of that party, 
who said he had Democratic proclivities; and being op- 
posed by the eccentric William M. Saffer, a Democrat, 
who was a farmer, and a man of great popularity with 
that class, the young Whig lawyer, with such proclivities, 
was defeated by a majority of seventeen votes. At the 
election of 1852 Mr. Wolfe supported General Franklin 
Pierce for President. In 1854 he was the first in his 
county to take the stump against Know-Nothingism, 
which he did with so much vigor, and so acceptably to 
the Democratic party, that the Democratic State Con- 
vention in 1856 placed him on the ticket as a candidate 
for district elector for Buchanan; and in that capacity 
he canvassed the entire Second Indiana District, in dis- 
cussion with David T. Laird, the Fillmore elector—the 
Fremont elector declining to accompany them. In De- 
cember following, Mr. Wolfe was a member of the Elec- 
toral College which cast the vote of Indiana for James 
Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge. On the tenth day 
of February, 1857, Mr. Wolfe began the publication of 
the Corydon weekly Democrat, of which he was sole 
owner and editor, and which, with great labor and by 
the burning of much midnight oil, he succeeded in at- 
tending to, in connection with his large legal practice, 
for nearly nine years, and until August 29, 1865, when 
he sold the paper to A. W. Brewster, the present pro- 
prietor. Mr. Wolfe made his paper a rare exception of 
success, as he has, in fact, every thing he has ever un- 
dertaken, which, if nothing else, would be sufficient to 
mark him as an exceptional personage. The Indiana 
State Democratic Convention met on the 8th 
of January, 1860, showed its confidence in Mr. Wolfe 
by appointing him as one of the delegates for the 
Second District to the Charleston National Convention. 
The other delegate, his colleague, was the lamented 
John B. Norman, at that time chief editor of the 
New Albany Ledger newspaper. Mr. 
one of the ablest of the editorial corps of Indiana, 
and one of the purest and best men of his times. To 
be associated with such a man was itself a great honor. 
While attending that convention, Mr. Wolfe became 
fully impressed with the fearful condition of the country. 


which 


Norman was 


It was perfectly apparent that the desire of the controll- 
ing element in that body was for disunion, and not for 
Democratic success; and when Mr. Wolfe returned home 
and reported that as a fact, his friends could not doubt 
the correctness of the statement. At the adjourned 
meeting of the convention at Baltimore, Mr. Wolfe, in 
connection with his friend, Mr. Norman, conceived and 
set on foot a scheme which, if it had succeeded, would 
most probably have prevented the final disruption of that 
body, and averted all the terrible consequences which 
followed that result in 1861. The scheme was to get 
the Indiana delegation to sign a paper requesting the IIli- 


46 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


nois delegation to withdraw the name of Judge Douglas. 
When the extreme men of the South ascertained that 
such a move was on. foot, they, to avoid its success, 
withdrew from the convention, which left the scheme 
wholly impracticable. While he was absent at Balti- 
more, in 1860, the Democratic parties of Harrison and 
Washington Counties gave Mr. Wolfe a unanimous nom- 
ination for state Senator, to which office he was elected 
the following October, by a majority of nearly six hun- 
dred. Asstate Senator Mr. Wolfe served with ability and 
distinction four years, covering the stormy and important 
period of the war. In that body he gave the war policy 
his support, but endeavored to have measures adopted 
that in his judgment would lead to a speedy and hon- 
orable conclusion of bloodshed and to the preservation of 
the Union; but always contended that while the war 
lasted it should be vigorously prosecuted and supported. 
In 1864 Mr. Wolfe was selected a& a candidate for 
presidential elector for the state at large, on the McClel- 
lan ticket. In 1872 Mr. Wolfe received the nomination 
of his party for a seat in the Forty-third Congress. He 
was elected by a majority of nearly six thousand over 
his Republican opponent. In May, 1873, he wasa mem- 
ber of the Commercial Congress, which assembled at 
St. Louis, in the interest of improvements in inter-state 
He took great interest in that subject when 
in Congress; and, being a member of the Committee on 
Railroads and Canals, had the opportunity of making 
himself familiar with the subject of inter-state commerce, 
as well as the facilities that were needed to open up the 
avenues and outlets to foreign commerce. And in that 
connection he took an active and prominent part in ma- 
turing, perfecting, and passing the bill known as the 
‘‘Eads Jetty Bill,” for the improvement of the south 
pass of the mouth of the Mississippi River. And since 
that time he has watched with great interest the evi- 
dences of triumph of that great scheme. He is satisfied 
that the success of that work will add many millions 
annually to the productive industry of the West, whose 
natural and cheapest outlet to foreign ports is through 
the mouth of that great highway. Another subject to 
which Mr. Wolfe gave his untiring attention while a 
member of Congress was that of the finances and cur- 
rency. In the controversies, both in Congress and since 
his retirement, in regard to the hard and soft money the- 
ories, he has always been an open and bold advocate of 
the policy of maintaining the volume of the currency 
in the same condition as to quantity that it was when 
the debts of the country were contracted. On the 28th 
of February, 1874, he made an elaborate speech in the 
Ilouse of Representatives, in which occurs the following 
extract, and which is here given as a sample of his style 
of argument on that subject: 


commerce. 


“‘The value of money is measured by its purchasing 
power, and, assuming that the supply and demand for 


[od Dest. 


labor and the productions of labor remain the same, 
then the value of a given sum of money as a medium 
of exchange is regulated by its proportion to the whole 
amount in circulation. This rule is demonstrated by a 
simple illustration. Suppose the whole amount of money 
in circulation, of all kinds, is $800,000,o00o—and that is 
not far from the amount with which this country is now 
carrying on business, though a part of that is not actu- 
ally employed. Then suppose that any one individual 
is the owner of $1,000,000 in cash. In such case he 
would be the owner of one eight-hundredth of all the 
money in the country. But then, again, suppose the 
amount of the circulating medium should be reduced to 
$400,000,000. Now, the individual with his million 
would own one four-hundredth part of the whole, which 
would be practically doubling the value of each one of 
his dollars. So, if the amount of the circulating me- 
dium should be increased to $1,600,000,000, the man 
with his million would own only one sixteen-hundredth 
part of the whole, and by the same rule his wealth 
would be depreciated one-half in value. The result 
follows clearly, that as you diminish the amount of 
money in circulation, you in the same ratio increase the 
relative value of the money owned by the capitalists; 
and, on the other hand, as you increase the amount of 
money in circulation, you practically diminish the value 
of that which is owned by them. If these deductions 
are true—and IJ think they can not be successfully over- 
thrown—we ought to be at no loss in understanding 
why the capitalists are opposed to what they are pleased 
to term ‘inflation.’ But it must be remembered that a 
proper increase is not inflation, any more than to eat a 
sufficient quantity to satisfy the demands of the body is 
gluttony, or any more than zwei lager, to a German, is 
drunkenness. And from the same deductions it will 
appear equally clear why the capital classes—those who 
have their coffers filled, or have stiff bank accounts 
standing to their credit—are in favor of a reduction in 
the amount in circulation, or at least to be let alone 
under the present decreased condition of the currency. 
In each case it is simply a question of self-interest.” 


The writer of this sketch inquired of Mr. Wolfe why 
it was that he was not elected for a second term to 
Congress, and he received the following answer: ‘‘ Well, 
I had no special desire to be elected, for the reason that 
I had plenty of business of my own to attend to; be- 
sides, 1 knew I could not get a nomination without 
much labor and large expenditures of money. So cor- 
rupt has politics become, that I had no inclination to 
to engage in such a contest. The thing wasn’t, in my 
estimation, worth what it would cost.’? Since his re- 
tirement from Congress he has devoted his time to his 
private affairs. Having by close attention to business 
amassed a competence of this world’s goods to make 
him comfortable, he has been dividing his time between 
the practice of the law and horticultural and agricul- 
cultural pursuits. He has lately erected a fine residence 
on a high eminence in the suburbs of New Albany, 
which has a commanding view of as fine scenery as can 
be found anywhere on the American continent, taking 


; in the three cities, Louisville, New Albany, and Jeffer- 


sonville, the falls of the Ohio River, and the great 
bridge, which is the longest on the continent, except 


Pee Me 


3d Dist.) 


only the Victoria Bridge, over the St. Lawrence, at 
Montreal. At this beautiful country seat he intends to 
spend a part of his time, as he expresses it, in ‘industri- 
ous idleness.” In personal appearance and tempera- 
ment, Mr. Wolfe has many of the marked peculiarities 
of his ancestors. Nearly six feet in height; neither 
heavily nor slightly built; in weight about one hundred 
and sixty pounds; eyes bright yellowish brown; nose 
very slightly aquiline; hair and beard a silvery gray; 
complexion fair, in which the ruddy hues of health and 
active life are plainly marked; of a sociable disposition, 
and in conversation impressing the hearer with the fact 
that he has read and traveled much, and is thoroughly 
versed in all the practical affairs of life. From his 
youth up, he has been a student and lover of books, 
and especially the great book of nature, which he wor- 
ships with a poetic devotion. In fact, he is one of 
those rare individuals who have a keen relish for the 
good and the beautiful things of this world, and seem 
to know how to obtain and enjoy them. 


— +900 


ORK, WILLIAM FOUTS, M. D., was born in 
Clarke County, Indiana, in the year 1851. Will- 
iam Henry Work, his father, was a busy and 
prosperous farmer in the eastern part of the 
county. Mary Fouts, his wife, was the daughter of 
Jacob Fouts, who came to this county in 1806 from 
North Carolina, settling on the head waters of Fourteen- 
mile Creek when there were but few settlers in that 
part of the country. The mother sought by every means 


in her power to educate her children, and, being a | 


great reader herself, soon impressed their minds with 
the necessity of close application to good books which 
she placed in their hands. There were three children. 
Henry Francis, the eldest, is living with the parents on 
the old homestead. He is a notary public, and is an 
assistant census supervisor this year. He is much re- 
spected in the county. Mary Elizabeth, the sister, mar- 
ried a gentleman from Henry County, Kentucky, Will- 
iam H. Mcllvain, who belongs to one of the oldest and 
most respected families of that great commonwealth. 
The history of the Work family dates back for more 
than three centuries.- John Work, the great-great-grand- 
father of William F., was the son of Andrew Work, for 
many years the sheriff of Lancaster County, Pennsylva- 
nia. Ife with two brothers, Joseph and Alexander, em- 
igrated from the north of Treland about the year 1720. 
They were not native Irish, but” Scotch Presbyterians, 
their ancestors having been driven from Scotland by re- 
ligious persecutions. These three brothers were gentle- 
men of property, who wore cocked hats and carried 
swords, as befitted people of good birth in the reign of 
George 1. Joseph, the eldest, chartered a vessel and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| ridge, and getting a fall of twenty-seven feet. 


47 


loaded it with his personal property, having with him a 
number of servants or retainers. The ship. was captured 
by pirates, who robbed him of every thing except his 
hat full of English shillings, which he had in a water- 
cask. After a very dangerous and difficult voyage he 
landed on the coast of Maine, at that time a part of the 
province of Massachusetts. ‘These brothers were the 
sons of Andrew, who was the son of Joseph, the son of 
Henry, the first of whom we have any knowledge. 
John R. Work came to this county in 1804 from Fay- 
ette County, Pennsylvania, and settled on Fourteen- 
mile Creek, where, finding a head suitable to his 
purpose, he perforated the solid limestone rock three 
hundred and fourteen feet, making the first tunnel west 
of the Alleghanies, giving a horizontal race six feat high, 
five feet wide, ninety-four feet below the summit of the 
This 
work was performed by five men in two years and a 
half, in which they consumed six hundred and fifty 
pounds of gunpowder, which they themselves manu- 
factured; digging the saltpeter from the caves in the 
neighborhood, and burning the charcoal; the ingredients 
were mixed by machinery made by Mr. Work himself. 
The whole expense was about thirty-three hundred dol- 
lars. On-this mill seat, besides a fine saw-mill, there 
were erected a marble saw-mill and a merchant mill, 
capable of manufacturing one hundred barrels of flour 
per day. Besides these structures Mr. Work built a 
stone block-house, which was used as a fort during the 
Indian troubles, and at the time of the Pigeon Roost 
massacre, which occurred within twelve miles of his set- 
tlement. Samuel Work, the grandfather of the subject 
of our sketch, with his brother Henry and their father, 
came to Clarke County at an early period of its history. 


_ They started from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 


the year 1804, and, after a dangerous voyage down the 
Ohio, they reached the falls in the autumn of the same 
year. There they remained until the year 1806, when 
the father died of malignant remittent fever. Ow- 
ing to the malarious condition of the country, they 
moved to the high bluff sixteen miles above the falls. 
Louisville at that time contained a few log houses. 
Henry Work never married; he died a few years ago at 
the home of his nephew, Samuel M. Work, M. D. 
Samuel Work, the brother of Henry, married the daugh- 
ter of Jesse Henley, and a sister of the Ifon. Thomas 
J. llenley, of Clarke County, who for many years repre- 
sented the county in the state Senate and House. He 
was also a member of Congress for many years from his 
district, was appointed postmaster at San Francisco in 
1850, and also Indian agent for California and the terri- 
tories. Ile was contractor for the western section of the 
Union Pacific Railroad. He died but a few years ago. 
Ilis sons, Thomas J. and Barclay, were Representatives 
from California in 1874. The sons of Samuel and Eliz- 


48 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


abeth are William H., Andrew, Jesse R., Alexander 
C., and Samuel M., who was a prominent physician 
in this county for many years, located at Hot Spring. 
William Fouts Work, M. D., attended a common school 
until arriving at the age of fifteen, when his father sent 
him to Hanover College, where he remained three years, 
although not graduating at that institution, The 
classics were his peculiar delight at college. He mas- 
tered Latin and Greek with ease, but had an abhorrence 
Books of fiction, poetry, history, and 
biography were an especial delight. After leaving col- 
lege he entered the office of his uncle, Samuel M. Work, 
M. D., and after three years of reading and three courses 
of lectures at the Eclectic Medical Institute he graduated 
from that school, January 26, 1875. In 1876 he pur- 
chased the house and office from his uncle and engaged 
actively in the practice of medicine and surgery. On 
the 27th of September, 1876, he was married to Ella 
Dedrich, of Jeffersonville, Clarke County; and on their 
wedding tour they visited the Centennial Exposition and 
Rube Dedrich, Mrs. 
Work’s father, was a resident of Jeffersonville, engaged 


for mathematics. 


all the principal cities of the East. 


in the mercantile business, in which he had been very 
successful, amassing a handsome fortune. Her mother 
was a daughter of David Lutz, who belongs to one of 
the largest and most influential families in ‘the county. 
Mr. Lutz was born in Clarke County in 1808, near the 
place where he now resides, his father moving into this 
county from North Carolina in 1802, Mr. Dedrich died 
in 1869 of malignant sore throat. His wife, Mary E., 
and two children sleep beside him in the beautiful 
Western Cemetery, near the city of Jeffersonville. In 
1876 Doctor Work assisted in organizing a lodge of 
the Knights of Honor, in which he was dictator for two 
terms. He represented it at Indianapolis at the opening 
of the third grand lodge of the state, in 1878. He was 
raised. to the degree of Master Mason, 1879; elected 
secretary January, 1880, a position he now fills; assisted 
in organizing the lodge of Foresters at Charlestown, 
1878; helped to organize their Grand Encampment at 
Jeffersonville, 1879, and was appointed deputy high 
state ranger. The Work family have been Democrats 


at 


name was assumed by a political organization. Andrew 
Work, son of Samuel, was elected sheriff of Clarke 


[s@ Dast. 


County in 1852, serving four years. Doctor Work still 
adheres to the belief of his father; being a delegate to 
the Democratic state convention held June 9, 1880. 
Doctor Work’s religious opinions have always been lib- 
eral. In 1876 he joined the so-called Christian Church, 


but, being convinced of the error under which he con-. 


cluded the Churches were laboring, he withdrew his 
membership. He has declared himself an infidel ac- 
cording to Webster’s definition of the term. Although 
taking the position he does, he is willing to accord to 
each individual the right to worship God according to the 
dictates of his own conscience. His personal appearance 
indicates strength of will and body. He is about five 
feet nine and a half inches high, weighing about one 
hundred and eighty pounds; black hair, smooth face, 
high forehead, and Roman nose. 


$00 


2XARING, JOHN A., attorney-at-law, Salem, was 
{ born in Scott County, Indiana, October 30, 1848, 
$5) and is the eldest son of James W., and Sarah 
oa (Carlyle) Zaring. He assisted his father in carry- 
ing on the farm, attending school during the winter, 
until, by his diligence in his studies, he was enabled, at 
the age of eighteen, to pass an examination for a 
teacher’s certificate. From that time until he was 
twenty-two, he worked on the farm during the summer 
and taught school in winter. In the spring of 1870 he 
entered the State University at Bloomington, Indiana, 
where he spent three years, graduating from the law 
department in the spring of 1874. After teaching 
school one term he settled in Salem, Indiana, and com- 
menced the practice of law, in which he has since con- 
tinued. He is now associated in practice with Hon. 
Horace Heffren, and, by his close attention to business 
and his upright and gentlemanly bearing, is fast win- 
ning a way to prominence at the Washington County 
bar. His father and mother were members of the 
Methodist Church, and reared their children in that 
faith. Mr. Zaring is associated with the Republican 
party, and is an active worker in its interest, having 
done much to keep the party in a thoroughly organized 
condition in this, the hot-bed of Democracy. He has 
not been an aspirant for office. 


THE 


FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 


$$ es. 


DAIR, JOHN G., of Brookville, a prominent 
capitalist of that place, was born on the 6th of 
March, 1821, in the town in which he resides 
é and has always lived. All through his early life 

‘he was delicate in health, but it gradually improved 

until he is now hale and hearty for one of so many 

years. His father, John Adair, removed from South 
Carolina to Brookville at an early day, and opened what 
"was always known as the ‘‘ Adair Hotel.” This house 
is still standing, and is probably the oldest frame build- 
ing in the town. It was kept by him until his death, 
which occurred in 1831. During these years Mr. Adair 
also traded largely in stock, buying and selling cattle, 
hogs, and horses; he also carried on two stores, trading 
in produce, groceries, etc. The Adair Tavern was 
widely known to shippers and drovers, who went that 
way from many points north to Cincinnati, and made 
this place a stopping point over night. In those days, 
when there were no railroads, hogs and cattle were 
driven on foot from different parts of the state to the 
city, and in such numbers that at times Mr. Adair 
would have two and three thousand in his pens in one 
single night. In 1812 he served in the war as a soldier. 

In 1817 he was married to Miss Trusler, of Virginia, a 

remarkable woman for energy and strength of charac- 

ter. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal 

Church for many years. After the death of her hus- 

band Mrs, Adair herself conducted the tavern for a few 

years. She waseborn in 1782 and died at the ripe old 

-age of. ninety years. John G. Adair remained with his 

father in the tavern until his death, and with his mother 

as long as she had it. In 1850 he took charge of it 
himself, in connection with a brother-in-law, and carried 
it on for many years. His early life was one of toil 
and hard work, while his school advantages were defect- 
ive, owing to the cares and responsibilities devolving 
upon him, and his ill-health. He has, however, made 
a success of his life, having accumulated a fortune in 


his time, and having lived, according to the testimony 
of his neighbors, as a straightforward, honest man. He 
has held no office, but holds definite views on political 
questions. During the war he was a stanch supporter 
of the government, and remains to-day a radical Repub- 
lican. From the first he has been connected with the 
Brookville National Bank, first as a director, but for 
some years past as its president. At one time he had 
an interest in a large flouring-mill. He owns a part of 
the Brookville Machine Shops, and besides has much 
other property. He is a quiet, unobtrusive, and peace- 
able citizen, and is a pleasant, genial gentleman to 
meet. In 1853 he was married to Miss Ellen G. John, 
daughter of Robert John, a very old settler and prom- 
inent man of Brookville. The family of Johns are re- 
markable in many respects. They were long-lived, held 
prominent positions of trust under the government, and 
were strictly representative people. Mr. John was clerk 
of the court fourteen years. One son when quite a 
youth was a company officer at the outbreak of the war, 
and was killed in the skirmish at Middle Fork Bridge, 
Virginia, in 1861. He was one of the first to volunteer, 
and was the first one killed from Ohio or Indiana. John 
P..D. John is a man of fine education, and of great 
ability. He was for seven years president of Brookville 
College, and a while president of Moore’s Hill College. 
He is now in Europe. 


—+-got6-<—_ 

{3 ‘ ’ 
i LLISON, JAMES YOUNG, of Madison, Judge of 
nt the Fifth Judicial District Circuit Court of In- 

< diana, was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, 

C August 20, 1823. 

Sarah (Cox) Allison. His father practiced at the Madi- 

son bar for several years, but subsequently abandoned 


He is the son of James and 


the law and engaged in milling and mercantile pursuits. 
He died in 1845, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. 


2 a 


The Allison family in America are of Scotch descent, 
and trace their lineage to five brothers—James, John, 
Robert, George, and Thomas—who left their Highland 
home and emigrated to this county. They served in 
the War of the Revolution, fighting for their adopted 
country; John attaining to the rank of colonel, and 
another of the brothers to that of lieutenant. They 
were with General Washington in his famous march 
through New Jersey, and after the war settled in differ- 
ent parts of the country—James and John in Pennsyl- 
vania, while Thomas chose New York, and Robert and 
George North Carolina. Thomas Allison lived and 
died a bachelor, and from the other four brothers spring 
the numerous branches of the family in the United 
States. James Allison, the great-grandfather of Judge 
Allison, resided near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and was 
for many years an elder in the old Donegal Presbyterian 
Church at that place, where his name may yet be seen 
engraved on a marble slab in the church edifice. True 
to their descent, the Allisons are usually found among 
the pillars of the Presbyterian Church, and Judge 
Allison is no exception to this rule. John Allison, 
whose name adorns the United States Treasury notes, 
is his second cousin, and belongs to the Pennsylvania 
branch of the family. James Y. Allison was left moth- 
erless at the age of thirteen months, and his childhood 
was spent among strangers. From his boyhood he was 
obliged to labor hard for his support, at sawing wood 
or any other kind of work he could find to do. He 
finally learned the trade of wagon-making, and while 
thus engaged utilized every spare moment, night and 
day, in study. He made such rapid progress that he 
was urged by his friends to enter college, which at last 
he did, working at his trade to procure the necessary 
He attended Hanover 
College several terms, and began the study of law un- 
der the Hon. Joseph G. Marshall. Walking from Han- 
over to Madison twice a week, reciting his law lessons, 
and keeping up with his class in college, taxed his en- 
ergies to the utmost. 


means to defray his expenses. 


He was an apt student, however, 
and soon attained such proficiency that he was admitted 
to practice, after a rigid examination. He early distin- 
guished himself as an advocate, and was selected as 
prosecuting attorney of the circuit composed of the 
counties of Ohio, Switzerland, Jefferson, Jennings, Rip- 
This position he filled 
with signal ability, and at the expiration of his official 
term he secured a fine practice, contending most gal- 
lantly with such men as Marshall, Bright, Sullivan, and 
Stevens, then the leading members of the Madison bar. 
In 1873 he was elected Judge of the Fifth Judicial Cir- 
cuit, and in 1878 he was re-elected for a second term, 
after a very hotly contested canvass. Judge Allison 
also served a term as state Senator in 1865. 

as a judge have given general satisfaction. 


ley, Bartholomew, and Brown. 


His rulings 
Very few 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gh Dist. 


cases have heen appealed to the Supreme Court, and a 
majority of those appealed have been affirmed. As a 
judge he is industrious, painstaking, impartial, clear- 
headed, and prompt. Having practiced law contin- 


-uously for twenty-six years before going on the bench, 


and having now six years’ experience as judge—making 
in all thirty-two years of judicial life—he undoubtedly 
possesses all the qualifications for the high position, and 
his personal popularity is beyond all question. In poli- 
tics Judge Allison is a Republican. He has been twice 
married. His present wife, Rachel Antoinette (Mc- 
Intyre) Allison, is a member of one of the oldest 
families in the state; her father was one of the pioneers 
of the city of Madison, being identified with the plat- 
ting and laying out of the town. 


90 — 


\ RMINGTON, WILLIAM, physician and surgeon, 
t\ of Greensburg, was born in Saratoga County, New 
C York, August 27, 1808. His father, a native of 


New York, was of English descent; his mother - 


was of Swiss extraction. Doctor Armington received a 
good education ; and, after having attended the Medical 
College at New York, removed to Switzerland County, 
Indiana, where he soon acquired a very large practice. 
In 1840, he removed to Greensburg, and there became 
very successful as a physician, and eminent in his pro- 
fession. Possessing a clear and comprehensive intellect, 
he was enabled to apply rational and phuosophical 
methods to the treatment of disease. Few physicians 
earned and retained the confidence and patronage of so 
large a portion of the community. To relieve suffering, 
wherever found, was the leading object of his life; and 
the rich and poor alike received his sympathy and 
prompt attention. He never sought prominent posi- 
tions, but occupied miany. His intercourse with the 
members of his profession was agreeable and sincere. 
He was a safe counselor, and his advice and opinions 
were always respected. He was eminently a practical 
man, and very successful in all his undertakings. We 
may state, as evidence of the public confidence in his 
business ability, that he was elected by a large majority, 
contrary to his wishes, as county commissioner, at a 
time when the county required the best financial 
ability. His services in this position were highly satis- 
factory. 
ism of the country for aid to suppress the Rebellion, 
Doctor Armington was one of the first to respond with 
his means and influence; and the same spirit inspired 
his four sons, all of whom entered the Federal army. 
Doctor Armington was married, October 10, 1833, 
to Miss Clarissa L. Golay, of Switzerland County, 
Indiana. She died in 1844, leaving four children: 
A. B. Armington, who is interested in the Greensburg 


When the government appealed to the patriot- | 


Bh ma.4 


gth Dist] 


stone quarries; Doctor A. A. Armington, a physician 
of prominence and fine acquirements in his profes- 
sion; Lieutenant A. G. Armington, who died in 1864, 
from disease contracted in the army; and A. N. Arm- 
ington, a law student, who died in 1865. On the 22d 
of January, 1846, Doctor Armington married Miss Ger- 
trude J. McHargh, of Greensburg, a lady of*great cul- 
ture. She died in 1867, leaving two daughters—Clarissa 
L, and Mary M. Armington, both remarkable for intel- 
ligence and refinement. The survivors of Doctor 
Armington’s family all reside in the city of Greensburg, 
and are greatly esteemed by the entire community. 
Doctor Armington was a kind and indulgent husband 
and father, a sincere friend, an eminent physician, and 
an honest man. He was a member of Lodge No. 36 
of the Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, and 
was a worthy example of the Masonic principles. He 
died February 24, 1862. His funeral was attended by 
the members of his lodge and a large number of rela- 
tives and friends. 
+400 


a ARWICK, R. P. C., of Brookville, was born in 
Caroline County, Maryland, in the year 1807. 
Elijah, his father, was a farmer, and a local 
preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
during his life reared up a family of eleven children. 
Those were pioneer days in Maryland, and the family 


were subjected to hard labor and many inconveniences 
in consequence. The children attended school three 
months, probably, in the winter time, by going three or 
four miles to some log-cabin used for that purpose. In 
1826 the family removed to Brookville, Indiana. Two 
years previous to this Mrs. Barwick died, but in 1830 the 
father married again. The subject of this sketch, upon 
his arrival here with his father, went to work in earnest 
to help support the family. At first he went to learn 
the wagon-maker’s trade, and then lived with General 
Noble, Senator from Indiana, but, inducements being 


offered by Mr. John Adair, the tavern-keeper, he stayed | 


there for two years and six months, receiving his 
board and one hundred dollars a year. Out of this 
but little could be saved. But he struggled along, 
making for himself an honest living and a good 
reputation for character. After leaving Mr. Noble’s 
he lived for a time at the Adair Hotel, and, after 
Mr. Adair’s death, conducted that place of enter- 
tainment. In this business he made some money, but 
soon after he bought a hotel, which burned down as 
soon as it was completely furnished, inflicting a loss on 
him of several thousand dollars. He also engaged in 
the pork-packing business, losing in that several thou- 
sand dollars; but in other pursuits he was very success- 
ful, having made for himself, in his old days, a hand- 
some competence. In 1833 he was married to Miss 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


4 


Mary Cole Scott, of Brookville, formerly of Maryland. 
They had one child only, now dead, but have since 
taken several orphan children and established them in 
life. In 1835 and 1836 he formed a copartnership with 
Mr. Butler in the dry-goods business. He was engaged 
in a tannery during the war, and for several years 
made money very fast, but he has now retired from all 
active employment. Mr. Barwick and wife are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and are people 
much admired and respected by their neighbors. 


— 30th — 


4 ) EAGLE, REV. T. WARN, of Vevay, was born at 
)) Flagg Spring, Campbell County, Kentucky, Feb- 
ruary 16, 1836. He received an academic educa- 
tion at Aspen Grove, Kentucky, and at Mount 
Hygiene Academy, Ohio. He taught school for more 
than three years. In 1858 he married Miss M. K. 
Demoss, in Kentucky. He commenced preaching in 
1859, his first pastorate being the Baptist Church at 
Pleasant Ridge, in his native county. In 1863 he re- 
moved to Rising Sun, Indiana, and lived there about 
four years. The first year he preached half of the time 
there and half at Grant’s Creek, five miles distant. 
During three years he preached for the Rising Sun 
Church every Sunday. The Church at Rising Sun, 
when Mr. Beagle first went there, was small and di- 
vided. The patronage of the Baptist State Convention 
was secured, and finally, by hard labor on the part of 
the pastor, the Church became self-sustaining and pros- 
In Rising Sun Mr. Beagle has many friends, 


perous. 
of all classes and denominations, as is the case wherever 
he has lived. After resigning the care of the Church, 
much against the will of the membership, he went to 
Moore’s Hill, where he remained eighteen months. 
After twice tendering his resignation as pastor of that 
Church, having received repeated calls to the pastorate 
of the Switzerland Baptist Church, of Vevay, Indiana, 
he removed to the latter place in 1870, where he is at 
present residing, having nearly completed his ninth 
pastoral year with the Church there. During his pas- 


| torate at Vevay the Baptists have erected a church- 


edifice, at a cost of more than twenty thousand dollars. 
Great harmony has at all times existed between the 
pastor and membership. As a worker in every good 
cause, he is earnest and faithful; as a minister, his walk 
is circumspect and upright, as becomes a man of God; 
as a speaker, he is fluent and earnest, and all who hear 
him are impressed with the belief that he means and 
feels what he says. His social qualities are unsur- 
passed, and his conversational powers are superior. He 
is especially faithful in visiting the sick and the poor, 
and in looking after and supplying their wants. He is 
frequently called upon to deliver addresses at public 


4 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


gatherings, at Sunday-school conventions, Fourth of 
July celebrations, temperance organizations, etc. He is 
thoroughly identified with all the moral and educational 
interests of the community in which he lives. Now, in 
the prime of life, he is in excellent health, and bids 
fair to do even more good work in the cause of religion 


and morality in the future than he has done in the past. 


+400 — 


of Madison, was born in Switzerland County In- 

, diana, and is the son of Jesse P. and Nancy J. 
(Hart) Bellamy, who were farmers in moderate 
ores but industrious, pious, and intelligent, 
and have since become comparatively wealthy. They 
had nine children, five sons and four daughters, nearly 
all of whom are possessed of more than ordinary mental 
ability. One of them was the late Flavius J. Bellamy, 
who represented the counties of Switzerland and Ohio 
in the Indiana: Senate from 1866 to 1870, and acquired 
considerable reputation as an orator before his untimely 
death, in 1874. John F. Bellamy, the subject of this 
sketch, from his earliest years manifested a remarkable 
fondness for books. Prior to his fifteenth year, though 
laboring industriously upon his father’s farm, he devoted 
to reading and study nearly all his hours of leisure, in- 
stead of wasting them in boyish sports. After toiling 
all day in the field, he would often, when permitted by 
his parents, sit up to read till a late hour at night. Flis 
Sundays, his evenings and mornings, and the intervals of 
rest at noon, were all so diligently improved by him, that 
he had read the entire Bible through three times, be- 
sides reading Milton’s ‘‘ Paradise Lost,” Rollin’s ‘* An- 
cient History,” and various other books of history, 
poetry, and biography, before he was thirteen years old. 
During the next two years, in addition to other books, 
he read one hundred volumes of ‘‘Harper’s Family 
Library,” which his father had united with some of his 
neighbors in purchasing for the benefit of their children. 
He was not, however, sent to school until he was ten 
years old, his parents preferring to instruct their children 
while of tender years at home, rather than subject them 
to the danger of contracting evil habits from wicked asso- 
ciates at school. Asa result of their care and training, it 
is said of Mr. Bellamy, that he was never known to swear, 
to play at cards, to drink any intoxicating liquor, or 
even to use tobacco in any form. At the age of ten he 
entered the common school of his neighborhood, which 
he attended about three months during the winter of 
each year, and there made rapid progress in the study 
of the common branches, being a favorite with his 
teachers, and regarded as the best and brightest scholar 
in the school. Though his parents at that time were 
poor, encumbered with the care of a large and increasing 


{ ELLAMY, JOHN FRANKLIN, A. M., lawyer, 


[4th Dist. 


family, and could ill afford to dispense with the services 
of their oldest son, yet, seeing his desire for a good edu- 
cation, they yielded to his entreaties, and sent him, at 
the age of fifteen, to the Indiana Asbury University, at 
Greencastle, where he pursued the regular classical course 
of study, and graduated with the highest honors of his 
class. A$ a student he was quiet and gentlemanly in 
his deportment, correct and studious in his habits, and 
was not only a diligent student of the text-books, but 
was also an inveterate reader of general literature, 
as well as an active and conspicuous member of the 
‘‘Platonean Literary Society,” connected with the insti- 
tution. While at college he was much addicted to 
essay writing and verse making; and was noted for his 
literary and poetic taste as well as for his general schol- 
arship. Though so young, and of small and compara- 
tively feeble frame, he at the beginning took the first 
rank in his class, and held it to the close of the course. 
Indeed, so high did he stand in all the several depart- 
ments of study that he made the remarkable average of 
ninety-nine and a half—one hundred denoted perfec 
tion—for the entire college course. Prudent and econom- 
ical in disposition, and desirous of lightening the bur- 
dens of his parents as much as possible, he rented a 
room and boarded himself (or ‘‘bached,”’ as it was 
called), sometimes alone and sometimes with a chum 
or companion, all the time he was at the college except 
his last year; and not unfrequently he eked out his 
scanty supply of pocket money by sawing wood on Sat- 
urdays, at ten cents per hour, for citizens or other stu- 
dents. At the beginning of his senior year, Mr. George 
Ames, a brother of Bishop Ames, was so delighted with 
a public address delivered by Mr. Bellamy at a college 
performance that, on learning of his superior character 
and scholarship, he employed him as a tutor in his family 
for the instruction of his three daughters. By instruct- 
ing the latter one hour per day, he paid for his board 
and lodging during the last college year. After gradu- 
ating he engaged in teaching for several years; was two 
years principal of the Wilmington Academy, Indiana; 
one year principal of the union high school, at Mt. 
Carmel, Illinois; and one year principal of the Spring 
Street school, at New Albany, Indiana. As a teacher 
he was industrious and zealous, a good disciplinarian, a 
successful instructor, and much attached to his vocation. 
But failing health at length compelled him to abandon 
it, and, after a year or two of rest and travel in quest 
of health, in 1870 he engaged with his usual industry 
and zeal in the study of the law. In due time he was 
admitted to the bar at Oswego, Kansas, to which state 
he had emigrated, and entered upon the practice of his 
profession. But owing to the loss of a child, the ill- 
health of his wife, and her consequent dissatisfaction 
with a residence in Kansas, he in 1873 returned to his 
native state, and settled in Madison, Indiana, where he 


gth Dist.| 


has since resided, engaged in the active and success- 
ful practice of law. In 1876 he was nominated by ac- 
clamation as the Republican candidate for prosecuting 
attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, con- 
sisting of the counties of Jefferson and Scott. The cir- 
cuit was Democratic by a small majority; but Mr. Bel- 
lamy displayed so much prudence and ability in the 
canvass that he received not only the vote of his own 
party but also many Democratic votes, and was elected 
by a majority of forty. One of the incidents of the 
election most gratifying to him was the high com- 
pliment he received from the Democratic town- 
ship of Milton, in Jefferson County, whose people, 
living adjacent to the place of his birth, had 
known him from his childhood. That township gave 
Williams, Democratic candidate for Governor, a major- 
ity of twenty-two votes, but complimented Mr. Bellamy 
with a majority of sixty, and thereby virtually deter- 
mined the election in his favor. In November, 1877, 
he entered upon the discharge of his official duties, and 
has performed them so faithfully and successfully as to 
make a record surpassed by none. Within less than a 
year he has prosecuted sixteen men for felonies in Jeffer- 
son County, and succeeded in having convicted fifteen 
of that number, of whom one (John W. Beavers) was 
hanged, and fourteen were sent to the penitentiary, His 
official services have been so satisfactory to the people 
that, in 1878, he was complimented with a re-election 
to the same office by an increased majority, having car- 
ried the county of his residence by a majority of six 
hundred and seventy-five, and the circuit by a majority 
of two hundred and eighty-nine votes. By his natural 
talents and professional acquirements, Mr. Bellamy ap- 
pears admirably qualified for the office he holds. He is 
said by those who know him to be a man of the purest 
morals and strictest integrity, a consistent Christian, an 
accomplished scholar, and an excellent lawyer; and is 
conceded, even by his political opponents, to be an im- 
partial and conscientious as well as a successful officer. 
The diligence and ingenuity with which he worked up 
the evidence in the celebrated murder case of the State 
vs. John W. Beavers, for the murder of John W. Sew- 
ell; the fairness and signal ability with which he con- 
ducted the prosecution in court; his able argument to 
the jury, in whick he so skillfully arranged and com- 
bined the various facts and circumstances of the case as 
to make them all point to the defendant’s guilt, ‘‘as the 
spokes of the wagon-wheel point to the hub,” thereby 
succeeding in having the defendant convicted and 
hanged on purely circumstantial evidence; and also his 
success in other difficult cases depending on circum- 
stantial evidence, have won for him an enviable reputa- 
tion as a criminal lawyer, and give an earnest of greater 
achievements in the future. In 1870, Mr. Bellamy mar- 
ried Miss Jennie Snyder, daughter of Rev. W. W. 


{ 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 5 


Snyder, of the South-eastern Indiana Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, at Rising Sun, Indiana. 
Their union has been blessed by two children, a son 
and daughter. He and his wife are both members of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. ‘Though a Republi- 
can from his boyhood, and a man of decided convic- 
tions, he is not an extremist in politics, but is regarded 
as liberal and conservative in his views. Unassuming 
in his manners and diffident in disposition, he never re- 
sorts to the artifices of the demagogue to win popular- 
ity; yet, on account of his sterling qualities of head and 
heart, he enjoys in a high degree the esteem ard con- 
fidence of the people in his judicial circuit; and, being 
comparatively a young man, he has bright prospects for 
attaining to still higher honors and greater usefulness. 


i ERRY, HENRY, a native of Rockingham County, 
8) Virginia, where he was born the 2oth of June, 

1783, was a descendant of the first colonists that 

settled at Amboy, New Jersey. His whole at- 
tendance at school lasted but three months, but his 
study at home enabled him to acquire as much knowl- 
edge as was necessary for business. He began life for 
himself at an early age. He had only attained his 
twelfth year when he went up to the county seat and 
engaged himself with Mr. Sullivan, a tailor of that 
place, to learn the sartorial art. But his stay with that 
good-natured Irishman did not last long, as a year after 
his employer died—a thing, perhaps, less to be regretted 
by the boy, as his occupation had chiefly been to nurse 
an infant nephew of the tailor, since an eminent member 
of the Indiana bar and a Judge of the Supreme Court, 
Hon. Jeremiah Sullivan. Berry next engaged with a 
nailer, and remained with him until he became a good 
workman, but a new calamity overtook him. Ma- 
chinery was introduced into that neighborhood by two 
enterprising men, by which the nails were headed in a 
vice. As compared with the rapid processes of to-day, 
this method is antiquated, but when placed in contrast 
with the plan previously in use, where a hammer was 
employed to shape them, it was very rapid. The hand- 
workers were undersold, and they were obliged to look 
out for a new trade. But the young man, who had 
grown to be strong and energetic, did not mean to fail 
in life, and, without repining, turned to the black- 
smith’s forge, at which he wrought in his native county 
until 1816, when he thought he might venture West. 
He packed all his worldly goods, including a vice and 
anvil, upon ‘a four-horse wagon, and, with his wife 
and four children, departed for Indiana territory. No 
public roads existed, the streams were unbridged and 
the swamps innumerable, but with stout heart he 
plodded on, only being able to make half a dozen miles 


C 


6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


in a day sometimes, and occasionally finding his wagon 
stuck in the mire. The season had been one of copi- 
ous rains, and, if the roads were bad in dry weather, 
too much could not be said against them in wet. One 
night in November they camped near the house of 
Archibald ‘Talbot, in Butler County, Ohio. Mrs. Tal- 
bot, with the hospitality which has always distin- 
guished the pioneers, invited the family into the 
house, and gave them the best she had, which was 
. mush and milk. The result of the meeting was that 
Mr. Berry bought of his entertainer a tract of land 
three miles east of Brookville, Indiana, on which 
he settled, residing there until his death, and in a 
quiet part of which the remains of himself and wife 
now repose. They reached their new home on the 
7th of November, 1816. Judge Berry derived his title 
from having been the Judge of the Probate Court for 
more than twenty years, a position for which his natu- 
ral gifts eminently fitted him. The cause of the widow 
and orphan was safe in his hands, and he enjoyed the 
respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens to a very 
high degree. He was an earnest Methodist, and held 
firmly to their standards of faith until death, which oc- 
curred the twenty-first day of September, 1864. Of the 
sons of Judge Berry, the eldest is George, who was born 
in Rockingham County, Virginia, February17, 1811. He 
began the blacksmithing business with his father, but 
did not continue at it, as his health would not permit. 
He became a teacher, subsequently studying medicine, 
at the present time having been engaged in its prac- 
tice for over forty-seven years in Brookville. He has 
been elected to several offices of trust, among which 
we may mention state Senator for three terms. He 
was postmaster during the administrations of General 
Jackson and.Mr. Van Buren. He was a delegate to 
the Constitutional Convention of 1850, to revise the 
state Constitution, and for eight years he was county 
auditor. During the Mexican War he was surgeon to 
the 16th Regiment of the United States Infantry. He 
is Democratic in politics. Jesse, the second son, is a 
Virginian, and was born June 14, 1813. He was a 
farmer in summer and a school-teacher in winter. After 
a while he emigrated to Iowa, where he taught the 
first school ever opened in Iowa City. Upon the organ- 
ization of Johnson County he was chosen recorder, and 
clerk of the Commissioners’ Court. He was killed in a 
storm on his farm near Iowa City, in May, 1857. 
Henry, the third son, was born in Franklin County, 
Indiana. . He originally studied medicine, but only prac- 
ticed it for a short time, when he deserted it for jour- 
nalism. He was for a number of years the editor and 
one of the publishers of the Franklin Democrat, at 
Brookville. While conducting this paper he studied 
law, and was for eight years county clerk of the Circuit 
Court, and is now a member of the legal firm of Berry 


‘brother. 


[gth Dist. 


& Berry, of Brookville, composed of himself and his 
Fielding, the fourth son, and partner of the 
preceding, devoted a portion of his younger days to 
school-teaching, also serving at the same time as county 
surveyor. He subsequently studied law. 


—> $06-o— 


ACKMAN, JOHN J., merchant, late of Aurora, 
Indiana, was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, May 
G ie 15, 1814. His parents were in moderate circum- 
g stances, and, Mr. Backman dying when John was 
only eleven years of age, the son was early thrown upon 
his own resources. At the very outset of his career he 
displayed the remarkable energy and perseverance which 
characterized him throughout his life. He managed to 
work his way to the city of Baltimore, which he reached 
on foot. He often related that his first suit of fine 
clothes was purchased from the proceeds of the sale of 
chestnuts, which he had gathered while on his way to 
the city. In Baltimore he followed several occupations, 
never missing an opportunity to make an honest liveli- 
hood, until he was enabled to apprentice himself to the 
carpenter’s trade, which he mastered. In his after life 
he often remarked that he had never had occasion to 
regret the experience thus gained. After various changes 
of residence, and many and varied experiences, he at 
length, in 1845, came to the city of Aurora, Indiana, 
where he engaged with the firm of T. & J. W. Gaff, in 
the distilling business. Here his zeal, industry, and 
good management soon made itself evident, and he be- 
came manager of the immense establishment. In 1862 
he was admitted to the firm; and continued actively 
engaged in business up to the time of his death. His 
executive ability was remarkable. He personally super- 
intended the working department of the distillery, and 
was thoroughly cognizant of every detail of the busi- 
ness; nothing seemed to escape his observation. Com- 
ing into personal contact with every man in his em- 
ployment, he was sincerely respected by all, and his 
popularity among his employés was almost unbounded. 
While strict in his manner of dealing with any derelic- 
tion of duty, he was kind and courteous to all, impress- 
ing his people with the feeling that he was one of them, 
and that their interests were his. His memory is still 
cherished by all his subordinates. Quick in perception, 
punctual in his attention to duty, he never wanted in 
determination to accomplish what he undertook; full 
of laudable ambition for himself, he did not forget the 
interests of others, and assisted much in giving life and 
activity to the city of Aurora; fond of improvements 
in his own home and surroundings, he also took a lively 
interest in every thing that tended to improve and 
beautify the city of his choice. He was a member of 
the city council for twelve years, and filled the position 


4) 


eed 


gth Dist.) 
with entire satisfaction to the community. He was the 
prime mover in securing for Aurora the beautiful River- 


He 
was a stockholder in the United States Mail Line be- 
tween Cincinnati and Louisville and in the First Na- 
tional Bank of Aurora. During his whole life Mr. 
Backman was an ardent and enthusiastic Democrat, and 
took an active part in the councils of his party. He 
was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Aurora, 
and one of its most liberal supporters. He was also 
one of the original incorporators and stockholders in 
Mr. Backman 
His first wife, Miss Sallie Garrett, 
died January 1, 1851, leaving a family of one son and 
four daughters, who are all married. On the 26th of 
October, 1852, he married Miss Caroline Sutton, a sister 
of Doctor George Sutton, a prominent physician of 
Aurora. Mrs. Backman survives her husband. They 
have a family of four children, all living: Lilian, now 
Mrs. J. H. Lamar, of Aurora; George; Carrie; and 
John, a bright, intelligent boy, fourteen years old, who 
bids fair to follow in the footsteps of his honored father. 
Mrs. Backman is a lady of remarkable energy of char- 


view Cemetery, in which his remains now rest. 


the Aurora Gas and Coke Company. 
was twice married. 


acter and fine attainments. 
worthy partner of a worthy man; and their home in 
Aurora offered an example of refined hospitality and 
The oldest daughter, Mrs. Lamar, is a 


She was in every sense a 


cultured taste. 
lady of more than average intelligence and artistic 
tastes. In 1872 and 1873 she traveled extensively in 
Europe and the East, reaching home but a compara- 
tively short time before the fatal illness of her father. 
Mr. Backman was stricken by paralysis November 24, 
1873, and died January 12, 1874. Unremitting attention 
to business had undermined his constitution, which at 
last gave way. In his death Aurora lost one of her most 
enterprising citizens, a model husband and father, a use- 
ful member of society, a public-spirited citizen, a gener- 
ous, hospitable, whole-souled gentleman. 


—>-Fote<— 


OND, REV. RICHARD CLAYTON, M. D., of 
Aurora, a native of Wood County, West Virginia, 
was born March 22, 1822. - He is the seventh son 
of Lewis and Lydia (John) Bond. His father was 
a farmer and a Baptist minister; he was of English 
descent, and spent his early life in Maryland. Doc- 

‘tor Bond’s mother was of Welsh ancestry, and was born 

His early education 


in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. 
was received under her kind and intelligent instructions, 
and he was impressed in childhood with that love of 
truth which has marked all his subsequent career. At 
the age of eighteen years he was sent to New Geneva 
Seminary, Pennsylvania, where he remained some three 
years, pursuing scientific and literary studies. He then 
A—I2 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 7 


commenced reading medicine with Doctor James Steven- 
son, of Greensboro, Pennsylvania, and completed the 
course with Doctor Hecklin, of Virginia. He had 
early applied himself to the study of the Bible, and was 
always regarded as a pious and worthy young man; 
and when twenty years old he was baptized by his 
father and received into the Church. When about 
thirty-two he was seized with the conviction that he 
was called to preach the Gospel, and, after consultation 
and prayer, submitted himself to the Church for ordi- 
nation. He was for several years a pastor in charge of 
the Churches at Wilmington, Rising Sun, and Aurora, 
Indiana, and practicing medicine at the same time. 
Becoming convinced that the duties of one profession 
were ample for a man of the largest capacity, he reluc- 
tantly gave up his pastorates. He had removed to 
Ripley County, Indiana, in 1846, and in July, 1848, 
settled in Aurora, where he has since been engaged in 
successful practice. By his skill in the treatment of 
cholera during the great epidemic of 1849, he saved 
many lives and gained a wide reputation. In 1857 he 
attended lectures at the Miami Medical College, Cin- 
cinnati, from which he graduated with honor; and in 
1878 he received the ad eundem degree from the Med- 
ical College of Ohio, in that city. He is a member of 
the Miami Medical Association, of the Dearborn Med- 
ical Society, and of the State Medical Association. He 
was chosen to deliver the oration at the annual reunion 
of the Miami Alumni Association, at Cincinnati, in 
1876, and acquitted himself with distinction. He is 
past president and vice-president of the Dearborn Med- 
ical Society, and past vice-president of the Miami 
Alumni Association. In 1861 he was appointed surgeon 
of the 15th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served with 
it at the battles of Cheat Mountain, Laurel Hill, Rich 
Mountain, Greenbrier, and in the campaign of West 
Virginia. Later he was attached to the Army of the 
Cumberland, and served at the battle of Shiloh, and 
the siege of Corinth. In June, 1863, his health failed, 
and he was obliged to resign and return home, where, 
after recovering in a measure, he recommenced prac- 
tice. Doctor 
ber of the city council of Aurora, and has been an 
active member of the board of health for a number of 


Bond served several terms as a mem- 


years. His good judgment and efficient co-operation in 
all worthy enterprises make him a power for good in 
the community. In April, 1847, he married Miss Eliza 
Bevan, only daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Bevan. 
Mr. Bevan, now deceased, was a farmer and retired 
foundry merchant of Cincinnati. Doctor and Mrs. 
Bond have two daughters now living and one son; the 
latter, a promising young man, is studying medicine 
with his father. Doctor Bond’s professional reputation 
is of the very highest order of ‘excellence. Of strong 
character, healthful presence, and sympathetic heart, 


8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


always calm in the sick-room, he is the typical ‘family 
physician,” and his conscientious fidelity to duty and 
principle has won for him the love and confidence of 
all who come in contact with him, either socially or in 
his capacity of medical adviser 


—>- Foto —— 


A{;)) ONNER, SAMUEL A., of Greensburg, was born in 
j};)) Wilcox County, Alabama, December 5, 1826. He 
is the son of James and Mary (Foster) Bonner, both 
of Irish parentage, who were married in Abbeville 
District, South Carolina, in 1820, and removed the year 
following to Wilcox County, Alabama. | There his fa- 
ther engaged in planting, and remained until 1836, 
when, becoming dissatisfied with slavery, and wishing 
to remove his sons from its pernicious influence, he 
changed his residence to Decatur County, Indiana. 
Samuel A. Bonner attended the district school in that 
place until 1843, when he entered Richland Academy, 
in Rush County, Indiana, and prepared for college. He 
entered the freshman class at Miami University, Oxford, 
Ohio, in 1845, remaining there for a period of two and 
one half years. He then went to Center College, Dan- 
ville, Kentucky, and graduated in 1849. In December of 
that year he became a student in the law office of Hon. 
Andrew Davis, subsequently Judge of the state Supreme 
Court. He then attended the law school of the Indiana 
State University at Bloomington, and on graduating in 
the spring of 1852 commenced the practice of law in 
Greensburg. In 1854 he was elected to the Legislature 
from Decatur County, and in 1856 was elected Judge of 
the Common Pleas Court for the district composed of 
Rush and Decatur Counties, which office he held for the 
full term of four years. Retiring from public life in 
1860, he again engaged in the practice of law in Greens- 
burg, and continued it uninterruptedly until 1876, when 
he was elected Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, 
composed of Decatur, Rush, and Fayette Counties. 
Judge Bonner is a member of the Presbyterian Church, 
but his early religious training was in the Associate Re- 
formed branch, of which his brother, Rev. J. I. Bonner, 
D. D., of Due West, South Carolina, is a prominent 
minister. He married, in Salem, Indiana, November 
II, 1852, Miss Ella M. Carter, who died October 26, 
1861. She was the daughter of Colonel Carter, for 
many years clerk of the courts of Washington County, 
Indiana. Her mother was a sister of Hon. John I. Mor- 
rison, a prominent educator of Indiana, and at one time 
State Treasurer. Judge Bonner married, August 22, 1867, 
Miss Abbie A. Snell, of Holbrook, Massachusetts, a de- 
scendant, through her father’s line, of Governor Brad- 
ford, and through her mother’s of Peregrine White. 
Judge Bonner is tall and finely proportioned, with a 
handsome, genial, intellectual face. Though a man of 


[4th Dist. 


strong character and positive convictions, he is almost 
without an enemy. Socially, he is distinguished for his 
cordiality and liberality, and in his profession he com- 
mands the respect and admiration of all. 


+990 — 


rp) RACKEN, WILLIAM H., attorney-at-law, Brook- 
; °) ville, was born September 9, 1838, in Jackson 
f County, Indiana, being the son of William (and 
Patience A.) Bracken, a medical man, who prac- 
ticed over forty years in the state, and was also a mem- 
ber of the Indiana State Constitutional Convention, and 
in all walks of life well known and widely respected. 
William H., after receiving a common school education, 
attended Asbury University, on leaving which he was 
engaged for some three years in mercantile business at 
Milroy, Indiana. From there he went to Brookyille, 
where he studied law with Wilson Morrow, Esq., from 
September, 1860, until he was admitted to the bar, in 
July, 1861. In July, 1862, he assisted in recruiting the 
4th Indiana Cavalry, and entered the service as first 
lieutenant. He was on staff duty most of the time until 
the close of the war, when he returned to Brookville 
and resumed his profession, in which he has continued 
ever since, having a good practice. At the October 
election of 1878 he was elected clerk of the Franklin 
Circuit Court. He is a Knight of Pythias, and Royal 
Arch Mason, having joined the Masonic Order at the 
age of twenty-one. His religious views are liberal. In 
politics he is a Democrat. He was married, January 16, 
1863, to Phebe A. Kerrick, of Woodford County, Illi- 
nois, the daughter of a Methodist minister. They have 
six children, three boys and three girls. Mr. Bracken 
is a man of fine personal appearance, courteous in man- 
ner, of social disposition, a well-read and intelligent 
lawyer, and has met with success in his profession. — 


—~-Fit~<—_ 


Yeaeers JOSEPH T., mayor of Madison, was 

born May 10, 1832, in Washington County, Penn- 

sylvania. He is the son of Brazle V. and Mar- 
b garet (Trotter) Brashear. He attended a common 
school until the age of sixteen, and when there paid 
close attention to his studies, which enabled him to 
obtain a good, sound English education. On leaving 
he went to learn the trade of blacksmith, in which he 
continued until 1876. In May of that year, he was 
elected mayor of Madison, receiving a large vote, being 
one hundred and seventy-six, over his competitor. In 
May, 1878 he was re-elected to the same office, by a 
majority of four hundred and seventy-four votes. 
He had also been councilman from his ward from 1867 
to 1876, representing his ward for nine consecutive 


gth Dist.) 


years. Mr. Brashear took an active part in the erec- 
tion of the new city buildings, of which Madison is 
justly proud. In 1859 he was one of a party of three 
who built a dry dock for the use of his city. He sold 
out his interest in it in 1864, when he embarked in 
boiler building, under the firm name of Brashear, 
Campbell & Co. Two years afterwards he disposed of 
it, and took the position of foreman in the shops of 
Cobb, Stribling & Co., acting in that capacity up to the 
time of his being elected mayor. In 1853 he became a 
member of the Order of Odd-fellows, in which he has 
taken all the degrees, and also the Encampment. Sep- 
tember, 1879, he became a member of the Order of 
Knights of Honor. His religious views are liberal. In 
politics he is a Democrat, having cast his first vote for 
Franklin Pierce. He was married, August 3, 1853, to 
Nancy Conaway, daughter of Henry Conaway, a farmer 
of Jefferson County, now deceased. 
children, six girls and two boys. One daughter is now 
married, and resides in Cincinnati; another married 
daughter resides in Madison; the others are now attend- 
ing school. Mr. Brashear is a man of fine personal ap- 
pearance, and is in the enjoyment of most excellent 
health. He is a man who is an honor to his town. His 
views are liberal and progressive. He is a gentleman 
of the highest integrity and strictest honor, and is re- 
spected by the community and beloved by his family. 


They have eight 


—- G00 — 


i RENTON, JOHN T., physician and surgeon, Os- 
good, was born in Clarke County, Indiana, Feb- 
ruary 12, 1830, and is the second son of Francis 
and Mary (Giltner) Brenton. His father was a 

farmer and trader. His grandfather Brenton was a 

captain in the American army in the War of 1812. 

John T. Brenton worked on his father’s farm and attended 

the common schools until he was eighteen years of age, 

when he commenced the study of medicine with Doctor 

Samuel Shamwell, New Liberty, Pope County, Illinois. 

He afferward studied with Doctor W. H. Brenton, of 

Brooklyn, Illinois, and attended the Ohio Medical Col- 

lege, in Cincinnati, from which he graduated in 1858. 

He immediately commenced practice in Liberty, John- 

son County, Indiana, where he remained five years, 

and then removed to Edinburg. After residing there 

_ until 1876, he removed to Osgood, Ripley County, 

where he has since lived. January 7, 1855, he married 

Mary E. Marsh, daughter of a farmer of Bartholomew 

County, Indiana. They have two sons: Theodore M., 

now studying medicine with his father; and Charlie D., 

who is still in school. Doctor Brenton is a member of 

the Christian Church. He belongs to the Democratic 
party, which he has represented in the state convention 
as a delegate from Johnson County. He has devoted 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


9 


his whole attention to the practice of his profession, 
and is highly respected in the community in which he 
resides. 


ep) UTLER, WILLIAM W., of Brookville, was born 
in Brookville, Indiana, the eleventh day of 
March, 1810. Amos Butler, his father, was born 
in Chester County, Pennsylvania, about the year 
1770, and died in 1837. In an early day he entered 
land in Dearborn County, Indiana, but in 1803 he 
became dissatisfied with it; he had been on a trip 
East, and upon returning home found it mostly under 
water several feet deep. He then came to Brookville, 
and entered the tract upon which the town now stands, 
and afterwards lived upon it. 


He was married to Miss 
Mary Wallace, of Western Pennsylvania. She was born 
in 1786, and died about the year 1852. He was in 
poor health, and suffered much from the dropsy. She 
was a member of the Presbyterian Church, but he was 
a Quaker, and for marrying out of the Church lost his 
membership. He remained in Brookville several years, 
and then, considering the little town too wicked and un- 
healthy a place for his family, removed to Jefferson 
County. He had built a mill before leaving, being 
obliged, in those days of Indian paths, to bring his pro- 
visions and mill irons from Cincinnati on pack-saddles. 
The territory of Indiana was at that time entirely new. 
Mr. William Butler, the subject of this sketch, when 
eight years of age, started to school, gaining his primary 
education from the log school, but afterwards attending 
Hanover College. In 1832 he returned to Brookville, 
and in 1835 began in mercantile business, keeping a 
general assortment of dry-goods. In 1838 he was mar- 
ried to Miss Isabella McCleery, and after a few years left 
the store to carry on farming, but returned to it again. 
In 1842 he disposed of his stock of goods, and from that 
time to the present has superintended his farms and 
other business, living all the while in the city. He was 
in partnership with Mr. John G. Adair for six or eight 
years in a mill. Mr. Butler has been married three 
times. By his last wife, Miss Hannah Wright, he is the 
father of one child, a young man of more than ordinary 
promise, who has lately. been in Mexico, the invited 
guest of General Foster, American Minister to that 
country. He is a student of nature, and has made 
zoology and natural history his principal occupation. 
While in that Southern climate he made arrangements 


. for the capture and preservation of insects, reptiles, and - 


animals of every description peculiar to that region, and 
has had good success in obtaining specimens. Mr. 
Butler is now enjoying ease and affluence, the conse- 
quence of a well-spent life. He has the highest respect 
paid him by his neighbors and acquaintances, and is 
known and honored as an honest and useful citizen. 


ARTER, COLONEL SCOTT, of Vevay, was born 

in Culpepper County, Virginia, April 19, 1820. 

His parents moved from Virginia to Kentucky 

when he was quite young, and his early days were 
spent on a farm in Boone County, in that state. When 
he was fourteen his family removed to Indiana and 
settled at Florence, Switzerland County. At the age 
of twenty-one he commenced the study of law under 
Joseph C. Eggleston, father of the talented author, Ed- 
ward Eggleston. He attended two courses of lectures 
at Transylvania University, was admitted to the bar in 
1844, and commenced practice at Vevay, where he has 
resided ever since. In 1846 he was elected captain of a 
company which was organized at New Albany, and was 
assigned to J. H. Lane’s 3d Indiana Regiment, for 
service in the war against Mexico. They reached the 
Rio Grande River va New Orleans, and participated in 
the battle of Buena Vista. On his return home, in 
1847, he resumed the practice of law, until the out- 
break of the Civil War, when he took active part in 
raising the Ist Regiment of Indiana Cavalry, and was 
appointed lieutenant-colonel by Governor Morton, Gov- 
ernor Baker being colonel of the regiment. Colonel 
Baker was ordered West with a detachment of six com- 
panies, and the remaining six companies were ordered 
to Washington under command of Lieutenant-colonel 
Carter. There he was made colonel of the regiment, 
which was known as the 3d Indiana Cavalry. Colo- 
nel Carter was sent with his-regiment into -Lower 
Maryland, where they remained until May, 1862, when 
they were ordered back to Washington for the de- 
fense of the capital. At the time of Stonewall Jack- 
son’s raid into the Shenandoah Valley, he was ordered 
to Manassas and Ashby’s Gap; and in part of the same 
campaign acted with General Shields’s division in the 
Shenandoah Valley. afterward ordered to 
Fredericksburg, and served there under King and Gen- 
About the time of the second battle of 
Bull Run, the regiment was ordered to Washington, and 
to Edward’s Ferry, on the Upper Potomac, after Gen- 
eral McClellan assumed command of the army. The 
regiment was engaged in several skirmishes before the 
general engagement at Antietam, in which it bore a 
very active part, Colonel Carter’s command was in the 
advance at Fillemont, Union, Upperville, Barber’s Cross 
Roads, and again at Amosville. 


He was 


eral Burnside. 


They were principally 
engaged in outpost duty up to and including the battle 
of Fredericksburg. Colonel Carter remained in active 
service with his command until after the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville, when, his health having become seriously 
impaired, he resigned his commission and returned home, 
in 1863. For over three years he suffered serious in- 
convenience from the effect upon his constitution of the 
exposures incident to his military life. In 1868 he was 
elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ 4th Dist. 


counties of Jefferson, Switzerland, Ohio, and Dearborn. 
He was re-elected in 1872, and in March, 1873, was 
legislated out of office, the Common Pleas Court being 
abolished by the state Legislature. He also served as 
Judge, by appointment of Governor Willard, and as 
United States commissioner. Judge Carter was orig- 
inally a Whig, but when that party passed out of ex- 
istence he allied himself with the Democrats, and has 
voted and acted with them ever since. His initial vote 
was cast for Henry Clay, in 1844. He was a Whig 
elector in 1852, when General Scott was a presidential 
candidate. He has done some effective work in speak- 
ing for the candidate of his choice, but for the last few 
years has retired from active political life. He is a man 
of strong convictions, and outspoken in his views upon 
all subjects. He is a member of the Roman Catholic 
Church. February 19, 1848, he married Miss Susan M. 
Chalfant, a lady of Virginian descent. They have three 
children, two sons and a daughter. In personal appear- 
ance, Judge Carter is very striking. His head is mass- 
ive, the forehead broad and high, and’ crowned by a 
luxuriant growth of snow-white hair, while his long, 
flowing beard, and tall, well-proportioned figure make 
him at once dignified and imposing. His bearing is 
soldierly, and in conversation he is pleasant and genial. 
He is popular in a surprising degree for a man of his 
force of character and somewhat radical opinions. 


—+-90t6-<— 


(;HRISTY, SAMUEL, cashier of the Citizens’ Na- 
| tional Bank, Greensburg, was born in Decatur 
G) County, Indiana, August 7, 1827. His parents, 
2 Samuel and Mary (Rollins) Christy, were born in 
Greenbrier County, Virginia, of English parentage. 
They removed to Fayette County, Kentucky, about the 
year 1820, and settled upon a farm near Lexington, 
where they engaged in agriculture and stock trading. 
In 1826 they removed to Decatur County, Indiana, and 
continued in the same business for some time; but, not 
being satisfied with his success, Mr. Christy sold out, 
and returned to Kentucky in 1836, settling in Florence, 
Boone County. There he engaged in the manufacture 
of boots and shoes until 1840, when he returned to De- 
catur County, Indiana, and remained until his death, in 
1854. Samuel Christy, junior, received a good educa- 
tion iin the common schools, and remained upon the 
farm with his father until eighteen years of age. He 


. then purchased a stock of dry-goods in Westport and 


entered the mercantile business on his own account. In 
this he had moderate success for two years, when he 
sold out and engaged in teaching school, and other 
occupations. In 1852 he entered as clerk and salesman 
the dry-goods store of A. R. Forsyth & Co., and con- 
tinued in their employment four years. In 1856 he as- 


4th Dist.) 


_sisted in the organization of the Greensburg Bank, and 
became cashier, A. R. Forsyth being president. After 
occupying this position ten years he resigned, and, with 
David Lovitt and Levi P. Lathrop, organized the Citi- 
zens’ Bank of Greensburg, which was, in 1871, reor- 
ganized as the Citizens’ National Bank. Mr. Christy’s 
business life has been eminently successful; he has 
always given close attention to his business, avoiding all 
outside speculations. At the same time he has taken a 
deep interest in all matters of importance to the welfare 
of the community in which he lives. He is an active 
and worthy member of the Presbyterian Church. Since 
1869 he has been a trustee and member of the Greens- 
burg school board. He served on the committee that 
superintended the erection of the elegant school build- 
ing, and the fine house of worship, just completed, by 
the First Presbyterian Church. These structures are 
both exceedingly well adapted to their uses, and stand 
as monuments of the good taste and liberality of the 
citizens of Greensburg. Mr. Christy is in politics a 
Republican. He was married, May 17, 1849, to Miss 
Elizabeth Freeman, of Kentucky. She died December 
14, 1850, leaving one daughter, who is still living. 
January 29, 1866, he married Margaret, daughter of 
David Lovitt, Esq.; she died February 5, 1877. Three 
children of this marriage are now living. 


$90 


‘OGLEY, THOMAS JONES, M. D., of Madison, 
was born in 1814, near the town of Kittanning, 
Pennsylvania, and is the son of Joseph and Rachel 

» (Jones) Cogley. His early education was received 

in the old log school-house near his father’s farm. He 
early evinced a fondness for books, and employed all 
his leisure in the pursuit of knowledge, studying at 
night by the light of the coal fire and a tallow candle. 
At the age of seventeen he mastered, unaided, algebra, 
surveying, and natural philosophy; and when twenty 
years of age taught school in the neighborhood for a 
short time. He also attended the academy in Kittan- 
ning. The day after he was twenty-one, he left his 
home for the state of Indiana, where, in Union County, 
he read medicine with an elder brother, and at the same 
time studied the rudiments of Latin and Greek. After 
eighteen months, he passed a rigid examination by the 
_ state medical board, and received a license to practice. 
This he commenced in 1837, and four years later en- 
tered the Medical Department of the Transylvania Uni- 
versity, at Lexington, Kentucky. After taking a full 
course of lectures, he graduated with the title of M. D. 
in March, 1842, in the twenty-eighth year of his age. 
He afterwards went to Europe, and studied under the 
leading physicians and surgeons of Great Britain and 
France, visiting, in the course of his studies, the hos- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


II 


pitals of Dublin, Edinburgh, Belfast, Glasgow, London, 
and Paris. Before leaving home he had acquired ah 
imperfect but practical knowledge of both the Frerfch 
and German languages. Having accomplished the 
main objects of his sojourn in Europe, namely, the im- 
provement of his professional knowledge and the resto- 
ration of his health, which had become impaired by 
severe mental and physical labor, he returned home, 
and in 1845 established himself in the city of Madison, 
in the regular practice of medicine and surgery. He 
soon became largely engaged in the treatment of the eye 
and ear, and diseases of women, in which he was so suc- 
cessful that he was compelled to lay aside a part of his 
general practice. Many of his patients came from a 
great distance, including the states of Virginia, Oheo, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Min- 
nesota, and Illinois. By perseverance and energy alone 
he mastered many branches of science; but the intense 
labors of his early years undermined his strong consti- 
tution. He has now partially retired from practice on 
account of ill-health. In the course of his practice he 
repeatedly performed lithotomy, once exsected one-half 
of the lower jaw, and twice removed the parotid gland. 
He has many times operated successfully for cataract, 
with the needle, by corneal flap, extracting without 
iridectomy, and by Von Graeffe’s method of extracting 
with iridectomy; and is convinced by the results of his 
operations that the latter method is most effective. 
Doctor Cogley was elected a member of the Ohio State 
Medical Society in 1843; of the Indiana State Medical 
Society in 1855—he became president of the same in 
1856; and a member of the American Medical Asso- 
ciation in 1857. He has furnished the medical journals 
of Cincinnati, Louisville, and Nashville with accounts 
of the transactions of the associations of which he is a 
member; and he also contributed largely of other mat- 
ter. Doctor Cogley possesses fine social qualities, and 
his deportment is characteristic of the true gentleman. 
His demeanor towards strangers is distant, commanding 
their respect; while on a near acquaintance he proves a 
He is 
well built, being five feet nine and a half inches in 
and weighing one hundred and 


valuable friend, or an uncompromising enemy. 


height, eighty-five 
pounds. His religious views are in accordance with 
those of the Presbyterian denomination. Doctor Cogley 
has been twice married. 


—>-$0t-— 


ONWAY, JOHN WALLACE, M. D.. of Madison, 
was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, April 11, 
je@) 1827. His parents, William and Elizabeth Con- 
“)? way, were born and brought up in Kentucky, and 
emigrated to Indiana soon after its admission as a state. 
| John W. Conway was brought up on a farm, and ob- 


12 


tained his early education in the proverbial log school- 
house. Early evincing a fondness for books, he was 
liberally supplied with them ; and, by the light of a tal- 
low candle or a bright wood fire, spent his evenings 
absorbed in study. He improved every moment, even 
carrying books to his work, and drinking in knowledge 
while his tired team was resting in the plow. He was 
early sent to a select school, patronized chiefly by young 
men; the teacher being a profound scholar. Here he 
advanced in the rudiments of an ordinary education 
until he was competent to pass an examination for a 
more advanced school. He never entered college, how- 
ever, but studied higher mathematics, chemistry, botany, 
and the rudiments of anatomy and physiology, with 
the teacher above mentioned. He early evinced a taste 
for the classics, and at the age of fourteen, by hard 
study at night and the assistance of Professor Williams, 
he gained as thorough a knowledge of the Greek and 
Latin languages as is possessed by most college gradu- 
ates of the present day. The study of anatomy and 
physiology gave him a taste for medical and surgical 
literature; and at the age of nineteen he commenced 
preparation for his chosen profession—the science of 
medicine. After two years devoted to close study, he 
entered the Starling Medical College, at Columbus, Ohio. 
He then entered the old Ohio Medical College, and re- 
mained there until he received his degree, March 3, 
1849, since which time he has been actively engaged in 
his profession. During his leisure he has studied many 
of the sciences which are of great aid to the science of 
medicine; chemistry and agricultural chemistry, miner- 
alogy, geology, and astronomy have been a part of his 
reading. As a practitioner of medicine and surgery, he 
has been eminently successful. In the capacity of sur- 
geon he has performed most of the usual operations, as 
well as some very difficult and heroic ones, As an in- 
stance of the latter he was called into the country in a 
case of obstetrics, and found the patient in such a con- 
dition that only the most energetic means promised any 
chance for life. Assisted by two farmers, who held tal- 
low candles, the only available light, he performed gas- 
trotomy, or the cesarean section, and saved the life 
of both mother and child. This is the only case of the 
kind in the state of Indiana in which the patient has 
A full account of it will be 
found in the Cincinnati Lancet of either April, May, or 
June, 1863. Doctor Conway’s literary productions are 
of no mean order. He has contributed to most of the 
literary journals of the day, and to scientific and literary 
papers. He is also a poet of no mean order, having 
written and published many stray pieces, some of 
which have received very flattering notices from jour- 
nalists, as well as from higher literary sources. Before 
he was twenty years old his effusions filled the poet’s 
corner of many a newspaper. 


survived the operation. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gh Dist. 


RAVENS, MAJOR JOHN O., attorney, Osgood, 
Indiana, was born May 25, 1834, at Versailles, 
ie Ripley County, Indiana, and was the third son of 
“S) Hon. James H. and Sophia (Copits) Cravens. After 
attending the Ripley County Seminary he entered, 
in 1852, Asbury University, and graduated from the 
scientific department in 1853. He then entered the law 
office of his father; and, having graduated from the 
Cincinnati Law School in the winter of 1837 and 1838, 
was admitted to the bar in the latter year, and immedi- 
ately commenced practice at Martinsville, Indiana. In 
April, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company G, 9th 
Indiana Volunteer Infantry, being one of one hundred 
and twenty-three men who went to Indianapolis and 
tendered their services to Governor Henry S. Lane two 
days before President Lincoln issued his call for volun- 
teers. This was the first body of men in the state, out- 
side of the city of Indianapolis, who offered themselves 
to their country. In the winter of 1861, having been 
previously promoted to the rank of lieutenant, he was 
detailed as an aide-de-camp to Major-general R. H. 
Milroy, and was subsequently commissioned major and 
assistant adjutant-general on his staff by President Lin- 
coln, and retained the position until the close of the 
war. Although detailed from the company to which he 
belonged, and not serving with it after 1861, his men 
elected him their captain in 1863, and he was commis- 
sioned accordingly by Governor Morton; but, having in 
the mean time received higher rank from the President, 
he could not accept the captaincy. This fact illustrates 
the esteem in which he was held by his comrades in 
arms. He served in twenty-seven engagements, among 
the most important of which were Winchester, Second 
Bull Run, Cross Keys, Strasburg, Slaughter Mountain, 
and Murfreesborough. On retiring from the army, 
he resumed the practice of his profession. In 1872 he 
was elected prosecuting attorney of the Sixth Judicial 
Circuit; he was re-elected in 1874, and again in 1876. 
In politics, Major Cravens is a Republican. October 
22, 1862, he married Maggie Hite, an adopted daughter 
of Colonel Thomas Smith, of Versailles, Indiana. 
They have had five children, of whom two sons are 
living. 


—- Beth —_. 
i“) 


6 
ROZIER, AMOS W., sheriff of Ripley County, was 
born in Dearborn County, Indiana, October 5, 
1838, and is the eldest son of John and Angeline 
(Wilson) Crozier. His grandfather Crozier was a 
colonel in the Black Hawk War, and was one of the 
pioneers of Indiana, having removed to that state from 
Pennsylvania in 1804. His father was a leading Demo- 
crat in the district in his day, and in 1855 and 1856 
represented his county in the state Legislature. Amos 
Crozier had good opportunities for securing an educa- 


LiBRary 
Rese) OF THE 1 
UNIVERSITY OE teeWwayc 


mv 


Le pe 


(ee tts 


gh Dist. 


tion, which he improved. After attending the common 
schools, in 1856 he entered the State University at 
Bloomington, where he spent two years. His early life, 
when he was not attending school, was spent in assisting 
his father on the farm. In 1863 he went to California, 
where he spent several years, engaging in farming, min- 
ing, trading, and various other occupations. In 1865 
he returned, and purchased a farm in Dearborn County, 
Indiana, which he carried on until 1868. He then sold 
out, and bought the Lancaster flour-mills, of Orange 
County. After running them one year he sold them, 
and soon after purchased the Milan mills, which he 
conducted until he was elected sheriff, in the fall of 
1876. In the fall of 1878 he was re-elected to the same 
office. In June, 1867, he married Amanda A. Durham, 
daughter of Hon. N. C. Durham, of Sparta, Dearborn 
County, Indiana. They have had four children, two 
sons and two daughters. In politics Mr. Crozier has 
always been a Democrat, and has taken a very active 
interest in the affairs of his party. He is an active sup- 
porter of the free school system. Having been largely 
engaged in the manufacture of flour, and also exten- 
sively interested in the stock trade, he has done much 
towards the development and improvement of the 
county. He is a close observer of human nature, and 
a valuable and enterprising citizen. 


> 


f UMBACK, WILLIAM, lawyer and _ statesman, 
Greensburg, Indiana, was born in Franklin County, 

G@) Indiana, March 24, 1829. His parents, John and 
Elsie Cumback, were natives of New Jersey, of 
German and Scotch descent. William Cumback ob- 
tained his early education by attending school in the 
winter and working upon his father’s farm in the sum- 
mer. He made such progress in school as to distance 
his teachers, and thus found himself without instructors. 
By cultivating a piece of land which he rented, he was 
enabled, through hard work and self-denial, to supply 
himself with an outfit for college. With this, and four- 
teen dollars and seventy-five cents in his pocket, he set 
out for Miami University. He paid his tuition and room 
rent in the college building by ringing the college bells, 
and by using the most rigid economy remained six 
months. He then resorted to teaching school as the 
means best adapted to advance his own education and 
afford a support. This he continued for several years, 
at the same time pursuing the study of law, completing 
his course by attending lectures at the law school at 
Cincinnati. In 1852 he married Miss Martha Hulburt, 
a lady of education and culture, and in 1853 settled in 
Greensburg, Indiana, where he began the practice of his 
profession. He early distinguished himself by his bold 
and manly attitude on the liquor question, which at that 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| 


13 


time was appealing to the courts, and, by a conscientious 
regard for truth and justice, won the esteem and con- 
fidence of the community with which he had identified 
himself. In 1854, Mr. Cumback, then but twenty-five 
years of age, showed himself such a thoroughly repre- 
sentative man that he was unanimously nominated by his 
party for Congressman. In politics he found his voca- 
tion, for, though not a professional politician, Mr. Cum- 
back is a politician by nature. No man was ever more 
happy and effective onthe stump. With a fine physique, 
a resonant and commanding voice, a ready wit, a genial 
humor, and a sympathetic eloquence, he holds a crowd 
enthralled, and sways them at his will. The youngest 
member of the Thirty-fourth Congress, he made a con- 
spicuous figure in the debates of that body; and, partic- 
ularly in the Kansas investigation frauds, the young de- 
bater won from the editor of the New York 7 72ézne the 
highest encomiums, when praise from Horace Greeley 
was fame. The speech was reported by the 7 7zbune, 
and had also a wide circulation through other promi- 
nent journals. So highly was Mr. Cumback’s course 
approved by his constituents that in 1856 he was re- 
nominated by acclamation, but, with his party through- 
out the country, suffered defeat. In 1860 he was nomi- 
nated as elector for the state at large by the Republican 
State Convention, and ably canvassed Indiana for the 
election of Abraham Lincoln. Being the first on the 
electoral ticket, he cast the first electoral vote of his 
native state against the slave power, to overthrow which 
he had so long and steadfastly battled. When the great 
Civil War broke out, Mr. Cumback enlisted as a private 
soldier at the first call for Union troops, and was soon 
after appointed paymaster. In this capacity his tact and 
efficiency were so conspicuous that he was promoted to 
a district department, with a large corps of subordinates 
under his control. His high character for honesty and 
punctuality commanded large sums, with no other secu- 
rity than his word, and he was thus able to forestall 
government supplies by his hold on public confidence. 
When he requested to be mustered out, so exactly and 
faithfully had he rendered his accounts that, although he 
had received and disbursed over sixty millions of dollars, 
he was enabled to balance his books in three days—an 
example of business rectitude unprecedented in govern- 
ment affairs. 
offered him the position for life in the regular army; 
but, the war being over, he declined, and returned to 
the practice of his profession, poorer in purse than when 
he left it. In 1865, during his absence, his party re- 
nominated him to the state Senate, to which he was duly 
elected. Soon after taking his seat, the Governor of the 
state was chosen to the United States Senate, and the 
Lieutenant-governor became Governor. This made a 


Mr. Stanton, recognizing his efficiency, 


vacancy in the presidency of the Senate, and Mr. Cum- 
back was chosen to that position. How well he filled 


14 


the place may be inferred from the following resolution, 
offered by the leader of the opposition, and passed by a 
unanimous vote, at the close of the session: 

“Resolved, That the most cordial thanks of the Senate 
are hereby tendered to Hon. William Cumback for the 
ability, integrity, and impartiality with which he has 
uniformly discharged his arduous labors as president of 
this body; that, for the urbanity, harmony, and pros- 
perity of our deliberations, we are greatly indebted to 
his deep sense of justice and his elevating reverence for 
principle.” 

While he was president of the Senate the fifteenth 
amendment to the Constitution of the United States 
came before the Legislature of Indiana for ratification. 
Mr. Cumback was an ardent advocate of the measure. 
The Democratic members of that body bitterly opposed 
it, and to prevent its passage resigned, leaving less than 
two-thirds of the Senators in their seats. The Constitu- 
tion of the state provides that two-thirds of each House 
shall constitute a quorum. In this unusual dilemma 
many of Mr. Cumback’s political friends asserted that 
the true meaning of the Constitution is, that two-thirds 
of those who remain, and not two-thirds of the whole 
number, constitute a quorum. Mr, Cumback maintained 
that it required two-thirds of the whole number elected, 
and that the recent resignations destroyed the Legisla- 
ture; that the fifteenth amendment could not pass, 
nor could any legislative work be done, in accordance 
with the Constitution. This decision required courage ; 
but he made it, and stood by it, notwithstanding 
the great pressure brought to bear against it. During 
the next session, the fifteenth amendment passed the 
Senate with a quorum present. Two years later the 
opposition had the majority, and at a time not war- 
ranted by the Constitution undertook to pass an appor- 
tionment bill which, if passed, would have destroyed the 
political power of the Republicans for years. To pre- 
vent this, more than two-thirds of the Republicans re- 
signed. Governor Cumback, being president of the 
Senate, announced his former ruling, and saved his 
party. Had his sense of right yielded two years before, 
all would have been lost. In 1868 Mr. Cumback was 
nominated for Lieutenant-governor, and canvassed the 
entire state; and, although the ticket, embraced many 
strong and popular men, the force of Mr. Cumback’s 
popularity carried him far beyond his ticket, and secured, 
after his inauguration, his nomination by more than 
two-thirds of his party for United States Senator. A 
combination of friends of other candidates, however, 
defeated his election, disappointed the popular will, and 
occasioned the deepest regret to his many political and 
personal friends throughout the state; but, unlike most 
defeats, enthroned him more securely than ever in the 
hearts of the people. He continued to hold the office 
of Lieutenant-governor until the spring of 1870, when 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


and confirmed by the Senate, but, preferring to serve his 
country at home, he declined the honor. In 1871 he 
was appointed collector of internal revenue in the dis- 
trict in which he resides, which position he holds at the 
present time (1878). In 1871 he was chosen to deliver 
the address of welcome on the part of the state to the 
delegates from all the other states at the national con- 
vention held at Indianapolis. His address was one of 
the happiest efforts of his life. Mr. Cumback has not 
only done much service to the state, but is a pillar in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has long 
been a member. At the General Conference, held in 
New York, in 1872, he was appointed one of the twelve 
general trustees of the Church. In 1867 he was elected 
president of the State Sunday-school Union, and dis- 
charged the duties of his office so acceptably that he 
was re-elected in 1868. In 1867 he was chosen to de- 
liver the address on the occasion of the meeting of 
the four Methodist Conferences, at Indianapolis, and 
acquitted himself in his usual felicitous manner. In 
personal appearance Mr. Cumback is tall, of somewhat 
aldermanic proportions, with a handsome, genial, intel- 
lectual face, and most cordial and engaging manners. 
Socially, he is distinguished for his liberality and hospi- 
tality. He is a man without an enemy; for his large 
humanity embraces all his race,.and neither party feuds 
nor religious differences separate him from his kind. 
In the district where he is collector, although the taxes 
amount to over three millions of dollars each year, there 
has been no fraud or loss to the government. In May, 
1876, he was a member of the General Conference of 
the Methodist Church, which met at Baltimore, and took 
an active part in its proceedings. In June of the same 
year he was chairman of the Republican delegation from 
Indiana to the National Republican Convention, at Cin- 
cinnati. It is thought that by his management Governor 
Hayes received the nomination, on the seventh ballot. 
He was chosen to represent the state on the national 
Republican committee, and attended and took an active 
part in its meetings in the memorable campaign of 
1876. In November of that year he was one of the 
men sent from Indiana to New Orleans to witness the 
count of the returning board. In 1878 the board of 
bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church chose him 
as the lay delegate to go to Atlanta, with Rev. Doctor 
C. D. Foss, to take to the General Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in the South the fraternal 
greetings of the Church in the North. It was a del- 
icate duty, yet it was performed so well as to command 
hearty approbation. Mr. Cumback has been in the lec- 
ture field for the last four years, and each season has 
more invitations than he can accept. These requests 
are from all parts of the Union, and the press has 
been unanimous on the favorable criticisms of his 


he was appointed Minister to Portugal by the President, | lectures. 


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4th Dist.) 


County, is a native of that county, and was born 
November 5, 1835. His parents, Charles and 
Annie Briggs, emigrated from England to In- 
diana, where they engaged in farming. Abraham at- 
tended the common schools of his native state, and, 
when he arrived at the age of manhood chose farming as 
his occupation. Although not a politician he has long 
been a leader of his party in his immediate section. He 
served as township trustee for five years. (His father 
had previously held that responsible position, and had 
also been commissioner.) In 1876 he was elected to the 
important position of commissioner of Dearborn County, 
and was one of the three commissioners who directed the 
building of the very ornamental and substantial monu- 


Ste 
pyres, ABRAHAM, commissioner of Dearborn 
LE 


ment to the county in the shape of the great iron bridge 
over Laughery Creek. Upon it his name is inscribed as 
a testimony to his services. The length of this bridge 
is three hundred and one feet, the depth of cord from 
top to base forty-one feet, and the weight over two 
hundred and forty tons. Mr. Briggs married, in 1862, 
Miss Runnel, of Dearborn County, Indiana. 


—-G00-— 


AFF, JAMES W., manufacturer, formerly of Aurora, 
was born in Springfield, New Jersey, in the year 
1816. His parents were James and Margaret Gaff, 
both natives of Scotland, from which country they 
emigrated to the United States in 1811. His father fol- 

‘lowed the business of a paper-maker, and his son fol- 
lowed that business for a time, but afterwards became a 
distiller. Mrs. Gaff, the mother, was highly esteemed 
by those who knew her, and lived to old age, surrounded 
by all the comforts which her children could give her. 

"James W. Gaff received an elementary education at the 

district school, and, after acquiring a knowledge of the 

distilling business, removed to Philadelphia, where he 
entered into partnership with his brother, Thomas Gaff. 

Their enterprise was successful for a while, but the 


continual policy of the government in changing duties 
finally acted disastrously to them, and they were com- 
pelled to close up their establishment at a loss, then re- 


moving to Indiana. The money received from the sale 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


of their place in Philadelphia enabled them to go into | 


business at Aurora, Grain was much cheaper in the 
West, and the increased facilities they gained for the 
‘transaction of affairs soon made them acquire much 
wealth. Before the outbreak of the Civil War James 
W. Gaff removed to Cincinnati, where he ever after 
made his residence, and entered in partnership with 
C. L. Howe, as C. L. Howe & Co. He was a man 
eminently fitted for business. Nature had gifted him 
with a clear head and a comprehensive understanding, 
and after he once understood a thing he was not de- 


KT 4 


terred from embarking in it by the fear of failure. At 
the time of his death he was engaged in thirty-two dis- 
tinct firms and lines of business, nearly all of them 
successful, and some on the very largest scale. He was 
a member of J. & J. W. Gaff & Co., brewers, Aurora; 
Gaff, Fleischman & Co., compressed yeast, Riverside; 
J. W. Gaff & Co., distillers, Cincinnati; T. & J. W. 
Gaff & Co., distillers, Aurora; Parker, Wise & Co., ship 
chandlers, Cincinnati; Perin & Gaff Hardware Com- 
pany, Cincinnati; as well as many others; and became 
a man of great wealth. He was extremely industrious, 
and very careful about details, paying attention to the 
minutest particulars. He was generous and benevolent, 
and was very kind to young men, many of whom he no- 
ticed and advanced to positions of honor and trust. He 
had faith in them. He never held any office except 
that of state Senator. He had an instinctive repug- 
nance to the ways of politicians, and never desired pub- 
lic station. His death occurred in Cincinnati on the 
23d of January, 1879. His health had been failing for 
two years previously, occasioned by overwork, and he 
had been to the Adirondacks and to the Eastern coast, 
but without much help. 
the Kankakee region in Indiana, where he had consid- 
erable land, but without avail. It was too late. 


He also made a long visit to 


—+-$006-— 


’cCLURE, WILLIAM, of Brookville, was born 
on the Ist of May, 1802, at Rocky Springs, 
\\ Harrison County, Kentucky, but only remained 
SY” there a short time, when the family removed to 
Hunt’s Grove, Ohio. In 1807, after a few changes, they 
settled in Brookville, where Mr. McClure still resides, 
His father was of Scotch-Irish descent, and moved from 
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1783, to Lex- 
ington, Kentucky. In this early day his work was that 
of a pioneer. In the year 1798 he was married to Miss 
Phoebe Eads, with whom he lived until 1840, when he 
died of a malignant fever. His death occurred on the 
last day of that year. He was a soldier in the war of 
1812; and being a very early settler in this state had 
many a skirmish with the Indians. William McClure, 
the subject of this sketch, was the second child—his 
brother, next older, was drowned when a boy but ten 
years of age. Mrs. McClure was an exemplary wife and 
She possessed energy and Christian fortitude, 


mother. 
and braved through many a struggle for the love she 
bore to her children. She died in 1839. Mr. McClure 
was inured to the hardships of early pioneer life from 
the first. He was an early settler in Franklin County, 
and, in consequence, received but a meager education. 
His father was poor, and moved about much, making it 
necessary for him to walk three and four miles, often- 


times, to school. This, for a few weeks or months each 


14T REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


year, constituted his educational opportunities; but he 
has always been a close student and a great -reader. 
He pursued a course of study, being his own preceptor, 
until he became tolerably conversant with questions 
of history, law, and mathematics, and having a good 
-knowledge of astronomy and geography. Offices of 
trust were generally ignored, although he held that 
of Justice of the Peace for four years. He was always a 
warm supporter of Lincoln’s administration, and gave 
of his means freely for the suppression of the late 
Rebellion. 
—~<-Gote-~<—_ 


OFF, MICHAEL, commissioner of Dearborn 
County, is a native of Bavaria, Germany, and was 
educated in that country. He was then apprenticed 
“et to learn the shoemaker’s trade, and remained in 
that capacity two years. In 1835 he emigrated to 
America, and worked at his trade in Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
and Indiana until 1837, when he settled on a farm in 
Dearborn County, Indiana. There he worked at his 
trade and at farming. In the mean time, in 1836, he 
had married Miss Mary Catherine Loge, daughter of a 
well-to-do farmer of Dearborn County. Mr. Hoff has, 
from time to time, added to his possessions, until at the 


present time he owns four hundred acres of as good land as | 


the county affords. He served as trustee of his township 
for ten years. He is now county commissioner from the 


second district His term 


having been elected in 1876. 
expires in 1880. As such his name adorns the Dearborn 
entrance to the great iron bridge over Laughery Creek, a 
structure which reflects great credit upon the gentlemen 
to whom the county is indebted for its construction. 
Mr. Hoff is in every respect a self-made man. Landing 
in this country with little money, he owes his success to 
a stout heart and willing hands. 


active pursuits of life. 
——>-Facte-~<>—_. 


IW LATER, FREDERICK, JUNIOR, merchant of 
& ) Sparta, Dearborn County, was born October 6, 1828, 
Qs: in Hanover, Germany. He came to America with 
% his parents, Frederick and Matilda Slater, in 1835, 
settling on a farm in Alexandria, Campbell County, 
Kentucky. He attended the public schools, where he 
made good use of his time. In 1856, at the age of 
twenty-eight, he went to Aurora, Indiana, and engaged 
in mercantile business, which’he carried on with success 
until the breaking out of the late Civil War. He then 
vaised a company of volunteers, and, on the 22d of Sep- 
tember, 1862, was commissioned captain of the 11th 
Kentucky Cavalry, for three years. He was with Gen- 
erals Sherman and Thomas through the campaigns in 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, until the fall of At- 


[4th Dist. 


lanta. At the battle of Kenesaw Mountain he was 
among the first to occupy the enemy’s position. Imme- 
diately after this engagement he was promoted to the 
rank of major for gallantry on the field. He was with 
General Stoneman in .his famous raid to Andersonville, 
Georgia, and was complimented by that officer in his 
reports to the War Department. In the latter part of 
1863, while stationed at Hutchinsville, Tennessee, he 
was engaged in a severe struggle, and was obliged to 
surrender after a desperate resistance of some three 
hours; but, with his men, was soon after paroled. In 
the latter part of 1864, he took part in the great Salt- 
ville campaign with General Burbidge, and led his men 
in two bold charges against the enemy’s batteries, which 
it became necessary to silence or dislodge. In this he 
was successful, uncovering their position and compelling 
them to take refuge within their works. On the return 
from West Virginia the 11th Kentucky was given the 
post of honor, and ably performed the arduous duty 
of holding the army in check, saving it, by gallant con- 
duct, from severe loss. Immediately after this expedi- 
tion, June 1, 1865, Major Slater was promoted to the 
rank of lieutenant-colonel. At the close of the war he 
resumed mercantile business at Sparta, where he has 
since resided. June 26, 1856, Colonel Slater married 
Miss Sarah A. Carbett, of Kentucky. During the war, 
at the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, when he had 
scaled the top, he cut a walking-stick, which he pre- 
serves as a memento. He is a member of the Masonic 
Fraternity, and has attained the position of master of his 
lodge. While a resident of Aurora, in 1861, he was 
elected mayor on the Democratic ticket, and filled the 
position with credit to himself and satisfaction to his 
constituents. 
—+-4006--—* 


He has brought up a | oR 
large family of children, who are now engaged: in the | 


TRADER, SAMUEL McHENRY, of Madison, 
cf) was born in Jefferson. County, Indiana, March 1, 
55 1844, and is the son of Samuel McHenry and Ab- 
% igail (Higgins) Strader. Samuel M. Strader, the 
younger, was educated at Hanover College, graduating 


| in 1864, and afterwards taking a commercial course at 


Bartlett’s Commercial College in Cincinnati. He was 
then appointed to a position as teller in the First Na- 
tional Bank of his native city, filling it with credit to 
himself. In 1867 he resigned to become secretary of the 


Firemen and Mechanics’ Insurance Company, staying 


there two years, when he became a wholesale grocer, 
but resumed his former occupation in 1871. Upon the 
death of his father, who had been the president, he 


was chosen to the same place, which he still occupies. . 


He was president of the Jefferson County Agricultural 
Society from 1874 to 1877. He was married March 27, 
1879, to Lettie B. Carlile, daughter of ex-Congressman 
John S. Carlile, of Clarksburg, West Virginia. 


. 


4th Dist.] 


AINES, ABRAHAM B., M. D., physician and 
surgeon, of Aurora, Ohio County, was born on 

=C the 29th of November, 1823. He is the son of 
’ Doctor Matthias and Elizabeth (Brower) Haines. 

His father was a native of New Hampshire, of old 
Puritan stock. Deacon Samuel Haines arrived in this 
country from England in 1680, and from him sprang 
all who bear that name. His mother was of Knicker- 
bocker descent, and was born in New York City. In 
1816 his father, with a twin brother, migrated to Ris- 
ing Sun, Indiana, then completely covered with forest, 
except where a few clearings had been made for the 
purpose of putting up log-cabins at Rising Sun, Law- 
renceburg, and Aurora. In 1819 or 1820 Doctor Abra- 
ham Brower, with his family, removed from New 
York City and settled in Lawrenceburg. In 1822 Eliza- 
beth, his oldest daughter, became the wife of Matthias 
Haines. They settled at Rising Sun, where he began 
practice, and was among the earliest and most success- 
ful physicians. He was a gentleman who took great 
interest in the moral and intellectual development of the 
community in which he resided. Among other enter- 
prises to which he lent an active aid was the academy 
at Rising Sun. He died in 1863, at his old home, at 
the advanced age of seventy-five, respected and be- 
loved. His wife survived him nine years. They were 
both earnest members of the Presbyterian Church. 
Abraham B. Haines received his academic education in 
the Rising Sun Academy, then one of the principal 
scholastic institutions in Southern Indiana. The teachers 
were D. D. Pratt, afterwards United States Senator, and 
Professor Thomas Thomas, D. D. When he reached the 
age of sixteen he went to Miami University, Oxford, 
Ohio. Two years afterward he came to read medicine 
in the office of his father. He attended one course 
of lectures at the Ohio Medical College, in Cincin- 
nati, in the winter of 1843 and 1844. The next win- 
ter he attended another course, at the Western Re- 
serve College, in Cleveland, Ohio, and 
graduated in the spring of 1846. 
opened an office in Aurora, then a place of about 
five hundred inhabitants, and soon became favorably 
known, building up a large practice. In July, 1862, 
he received a commission from Governor Morton as 
assistant surgeon of the 19th Indiana Regiment, First 
Division, First Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac, 
known as the Iron Brigade. He was with the regiment 
continuously until Lee’s surrender, and was in all its en- 
gagements from the second Bull Run until the close 
at Appomattox. In May, 1865, he was promoted to the 
position of surgeon to the 146th Indiana Volunteers, 
but was finally discharged in September, 1865. In 1864 
he was much of the time in the field hospital, and was 
then engaged until the close of the war. In the spring 
of 1866 he reopened his office at Aurora, beginning 


was there 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


He immediately. 


15 
practice anew. He soon regained his former business, 
and has ever since resided there, being recognized as an 
able and efficient physician and surgeon. He has always 
avoided politics, in the general acceptation of the term, 
taking the part of a good citizen only. He votes the 
Republican ticket. He feels a lively interest in the ad- 
vancement of his Church, and in education and moral 
and intellectual training. He united with the Presby- 
terian Church when about eighteen, and after removing 
to Aurora joined there the Church of that denomina- 
tion. In 1848 he was elected an elder. He has repre- 
sented the Church in its higher courts, the State Assem- 
bly-and General Assembly. He is looked upon as one 
of its stanch supports. The Doctor has enriched his 
mind by travel, observation, and careful reading, and 
takes a position among the best informed men in Au- 
rora. He was married, October 25, 1847, to Miss Julia 
P. Loring, of Rising Sun, where she was born Novem- 
ber 24, 1824. Her father was a farmer, and one of the 
early settlers of Ohio County, but was originally from 
near Boston, Massachusetts. They had eight children 
born to them, three of whom survive. The oldest, Mat- 
thias L., received his classical education at Wabash Col- 
lege, Crawfordsville, Indiana, and his theological course 
at the Union Theological Seminary, New York City. 
He is now pastor of the Reformed Church at Astoria, 
Long Island. The two youngest, Thomas H. and Mary, 
are still living at home. He was one of the organizers 
of the Dearborn County Medical Society, and became a 
member of the State’ Medical Society in 1851. 


—+-4206-<— 


te JEPTHA DUDLEY, member of Congress 
from the Fourth District in Indiana, was born at 
. Vernon, Jennings County, Indiana, November 28, 
)» A. D. 1830. He is descended from Revolution- 
ary stock, his grandfather, Jethro New, having served 
in the War of Independence. Jethro New was a na- 
tive of Delaware and settled in Gallatin County, Ken- 
tucky, early in life, and in 1822 removed to Jennings 
County, Indiana, now the home of his distinguished 
grandson. Ile was the father of twelve children, of 
whom Hickman, the father of the subject of the pres- 
ent sketch, was the youngest. 


G 


Hickman New now lives 
at Vernon, at the advanced age of seventy-three years, 
and is well preserved, both physically and mentally. 
He is a cabinet-maker by trade, and is also a well- 
known and highly respected minister of the Christian 
Church. He was one of the pioneer members and min- 
isters of the Christian Church in Southern Indiana, and 
by his industry and application to books, together with 
talent of a high order as a speaker and reasoner, soon 
took front rank as an advocate and resolute defender 
of the faith of that Church. Having experienced the 


16 


want of a liberal education himself, he determined that 
his children should have all the educational advantages 
his means would afford. Jeptha D. New was educated 
at the Vernon Seminary and at Bethany College, Vir- 
ginia, an institution founded by the celebrated Alexan- 
der Campbell, one of the ablest theologians and deba- 
ters of the nineteenth century. While preparing for 
college, Judge New—he is now known by that title— 
assisted his father much of the time by working in the 
cabinet shop, and he did so much of this kind of work 
that he became a good workman at that trade. He 
left college in 1850, and for the next two years was en- 
gaged in school teaching and reading law. Subse- 
quently, he studied law for a time in the office of the 
Hon. Horatio C. Newcomb, at Indianapolis, but his 
preparation for the practice of his profession was mainly 
in the office of Lucius Bingham, Esq., of Vernon, at 
that time an eminent member of the legal profession. 
In the summer of 1856 Judge New and the Hon. Thomas 
W. Woollen, attorney-general of Indiana, formed a 
partnership for the practice of the law, and opened an 
office at Franklin, Indiana. That fall he was nominated 
by the Democracy of that circuit for prosecutor, but the 
Republican majority was so large that it could not be 
overcome. In the spring of 1857 he returned to Ver- 
non and opened a law office there. The same spring, 
on the 5th of April, he was married to Miss Sallie But- 
ler, who had been a pupil of his in the first school 
taught by him after leaving college. Their marriage 
has proved to be a most happy one, and they have re- 
sided at Vernon ever since, with the exception of a few 
months’ residence in Minnesota in the fall of 1860 and 
spring of 1861. 
ecuting attorney, and served as such until the fall of 
1864, when he was elected Common Pleas Judge, and 
served out the term of four years, but declined a re- 
election. In the summer of 1874 he was nominated for 
Congress by the Democracy of his district and elected. 
The nomination was not sought by him, on the con- 
trary he declined it in a card published throughout the 
district, and he also protested against making the race 
while the convention was in session which nominated 
him. Notwithstanding this he was conscripted into the 
In politics he had always been a Democrat 
and a very active worker in his party’s cause, but was 
not inclined to accept political office. Jennings County 
presented him as a candidate for the congressional 
nomination in 1860, but he declined to stand. When 
nominated in 1874, he had a majority of seven hundred 
to overcome, but he was elected by a majority of thir- 
teen hundred. There were eight counties in the dis- 
trict, all of which had always been reliably Republi- 
can except two. He carried every county extept Ohio 
County, where he was beaten five votes. He was the 
first, and is thus far the only, Democratic candidate for 


service. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


In 1862 he was elected district pros- | 
| report. 


[zth Dist. 


Congress who has carried Jennings and Jefferson Coun- 
ties. In 1876 he was unanimously renominated for Con- 
gress, but declined. In 1878 he was urged to accept 
the nomination, and did so. He was elected: after the 
hottest congressional contest ever known in Indiana 
in an off year. One hundred and thirty-two more 
votes were polled for the candidates for Congress in 
that district than had been cast at the presidential 
election two years before. His majority was four hun- 
dred and ninety-one, although the same counties gave 
the Republican state ticket a majority. Judge New’s — 
remarkable vote testified to his popularity in a district 
he had before ably represented. In the Forty-fourth 
Congress he was on the Committee on War Claims; he 
was also on the special committee to investigate the real 
estate pool in the District of Columbia, and the indebt- 
edness of Jay Cooke & Co. to the government, out of 
which grew the celebrated Hallet-Kilbourn contempt 
case, which is now in the Supreme Conrt of the United 
States. He took the lead on behalf of the committee, 
and argued the whole question fully in the House. The 
New York World at the time editorially noticed the 
argument of Judge New in these words: 


‘¢ Judge New has added greatly to an already good 
reputation in his career in Congress, and distinguished 
himself especially by his able legal argument on the 
question of the jurisdiction of the House over Kilbourn. 
His thorough exposition of an intricate legal problem 
was much admired.” 


In the same Congress Judge New was one of a spe- 
cial committee sent to New Orleans to examine into the 
conduct and management of the Federal offices there. 
He prepared and submitted to Congress the committee’s 
After the presidential election of 1876, he was 
one of the committee of fifteen sent to Louisiana to 
investigate the election there. After reaching New 
Orleans the committee was subdivided, and Judge New 
was made chairman of the committee that went into 
the parishes in which the notorious Weber and Jim 
Anderson reigned. When the finding of the Electoral 
Commission was made as to Louisiana, he was one of the 
six members of the House selected by the Democratic 
members to argue the objections filed to that finding. 
Before the close of that session he discussed the Louisi- 
ana election of 1876 at length, and with much force and 
ability. In the present—the Forty-sixth Congress—he is 
a member of the Judiciary Committee and of the Commit- 
tee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice. He is 
also chairman of the special committee raised to investi- 
gate the charges preferred against Mr. Seward, our Min- 
ister to China. He was on the special committee sent to 
Cincinnati last summer to investigate the congressional 
elections in that city. The Indiana Morgan raid claims 
have received special attention from him, and he was 
mainly instrumental in having them transferred from the 


| LIBRARY 
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office of the Adjutant-general of Indiana to the War 
Department, at Washington, just in time to save them 
from being barred by the statute of limitation. At the 
long session of the Forty-sixth Congress, he took active 
part in the preparation and advocacy of a bill amend- 
ing existing laws as to the jurisdiction of the Federal 
courts, which has passed the House. The foregoing is 
a brief outline of Judge New’s public career. It has 
been creditable to him and his state. No member of 
Congress from Indiana has ever taken higher rank in 
the same time. He has been a hard worker from boy- 
hood—in the cabinet-shop, in the school-room, in his 
law office, on the bench, and in Congress. His indus- 
try, pluck, and perseverance, added to natural talent of 


a high order, together with a thorough education, have’ 


won for him a front place among the public men of the 
state, and will, if he lives, push him still further ahead. 
As a public speaker he is accurate, logical, and fluent. 
He has on two occasions been spoken of quite promi- 
nently for Governor, and it is among the probabilities 
of the future that he will live to occupy that exalted 
position: Judge New’s home is a most pleasant one. 
He has three children—Mary, Willard, and Burt. He 
has a sister and brother. The former is Mrs. Emily 
Branham, of Princeton, Indiana; the latter, George W. 
New, of the hardware firm of Vajen & New, Indian- 
apolis. His mother, whose maiden name was Smyra 
Ann Smitha, died in 1879, at the age of seventy years. 
She was a good wife and mother, and was distinguished 
for her Christian walk, calmness, fortitude, and strength 
of mind. Mr. New has been successful in accumulating 
property by the practice of his profession, and also by 
He has the faculty of discerning 
His habits 
are unexceptionable. He uses no spirituous liquors or 
intoxicating drinks of any kind, and is the very pic- 
ture of robust health, physically and mentally. He is 
five feet eleven inches high, florid complexion, black 
hair and beard, and weighs two hundred and thirty- 
eight pounds. Such is Jeptha D. New, one of the self- 
made and rising men of Indiana. 


outside ventures. 
what business is profitable and what is not. 


ee 


AVISON, ANDREW, of Greensburg, was a. native 
of Pennsylvania, from whence he emigrated to In- 
4§ diana in 1825. He became an active member of 
“@e the bar, and was elected in 1853 one of the 
Judges of the Supreme Court of the state. Six years 
after concluding his term of service, in 1865, he died. 
We can furnish no better summary of his life and charac- 
ter than to give the proceedings of the Greensburg bar 
on this occasion. After the object of the meeting was 
* stated resolutions were presented by a committee, and 
B. W. Wilson, who was the most intimate with the de- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


17 


ceased, was requested to give a short biographical 
sketch of Judge Davison. Mr. Wilson proceeded as 
follows: 


‘Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: Andrew Davison 
was educated at Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, 
Pennsylvania, and studied law at Chambersburg with 
Hon. Thomas H. Crawford. In the spring of 1825, at 
the age of twenty-four years, he was at his father’s 
house in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, a graduate of 
the above-named institution, and had license to practice 
law; but, with a delicate physical organization and 
health much impaired, from this home and its endear- 
ments, where he was born September 15, 18co, he de- 
termined to go, with the double purpose of recruiting 
his health and seeking a place to commence the prac- 
tice of his chosen profession. On horseback he passed 
through Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee, touching at Cincinnati, Covington, Nash- 
ville, and other points. Towards the close of the sea- 
son, in which only, at that time, was traveling practi- 
cable, especially in Indiana, he recrossed the Ohio, and 
passed into Indiana by by-ways, blazed tracks, and what 
were then called highways, through dense forests, with 
here and there the cabin of a backwoodsman. He was 
pleased with the novelty of the scene, enticed by the 
pioneers’ hopes, energy, and hospitality, and believed 
that the future would develop the wealth of soil that 
every-where existed. 

“In the fall of 1825, after traveling a distance of 
about one thousand miles, he ‘put up’ at Greensburg 
at its best hotel, a log-house—two rooms down, two 
up-stairs, and a kitchen—kept then by Thomas Hen- 
dricks. Greensburg then existed only to a sight ex- 
tent on the records of the county. There were a few 
small houses, but the broad face of the county was 
covered by almost unbroken forests. The land where 
the town (now city) now stands, was then covered 
almost entirely with forest stumps, underbrush, and 
fallen timber, heaped and tangled together in pro- 
miscuous confusion. And here the inexperienced youth, 
in feeble health, with no friends and little money, de- 
termined to remain and commence in earnest the battle 
of life. Soon he accommodated himself to the new 
and, to him, strange people and circumstances, shared 
with those about him in their amusements and hospi- 
talities, in their pleasures and sorrows, in their energies 
and hopes, and became a part of those who were ‘all 
in all’ to each other then, and friends true and sincere 
for life. Of these, here and there one still survives— 
the many are gone. 

‘On the twenty-sixth day of September, 1825, on the 
records of the Decatur Circuit Court, Benjamin F. 
Morris presiding, is found the following: ‘On motion 
of W. A. Bullock, Andrew Davison, Esq., is admitted 
to practice as an attorney and counselor at law in this 
court, who produced his license, and was duly sworn.’ 
Business gradually came until he attained the first rank 
in his profession, with such rivals as James T. Brown, 
Caleb B. Smith, George H. Dunn, and others. He was 
eminently a careful practitioner, and, being in a circuit 
where there were but few books except the elementary 
works, he, like his associates, had to depend upon prin- 
ciples and precedents rather than authorities; 1 Black- 
ford was not published then, nor till 1830; 2 Blackford 
not until 1834; and 3 Blackford until 1836, and so on. 
In practice he was a great laborer. His clients never 
failed to receive faithful and unflinching efforts, and his 
skill none who ever met him as a lawyer would be dis- 


18 


posed to question. His greatest power was in his mas- 
terly use of general principles, and unerringly. he applied 
them to the given particular case. His pleadings were 
formal], terse, and accurate, and rarely trammeled the 
pleader on the trial, but often worked the overthrow of 
his adversary. His battles were fought with an array 
of principles and precedents; and with great skill and 
sleepless vigilance he marshaled his forces, and woe be- 
tide the luckless adversary who had left an unguarded 
point on his line, for there the attack would surely be 
made, and when least expected. 

“‘On the third day of January, 1853, he became, by 
election, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of 
Indiana, and continued in office until the third day of 
January, 1865—a term of twelve years—having been re- 
elected in the fall of 1858. His first reported opinion 
is found in 3 Indiana, 371; and his last, 23 Indiana, 63. 
Of his opinions, published in twenty-one volumes of our 
reports, nothing need be said to his professional breth- 
ren. These opinions will stand, an enduring monument, 
imperishable as our literature and laws, long after he 
and all who know him have passed to the land of silence 
and dust. 

‘Judge Davison’s fame rests mainly on his profes- 
sional life; but this did not bring to view the best 
elements of his real nature. These could only be ap- 
proached when disputation was ended, and the harmo- 
nies established that existed at his home and with his 
friends. 

«‘On the fifteenth day of April, 1839, Andrew Davi- 
son and Mrs. Eliza Test were married, and she, with 
one son, survives him, to deeply mourn the loss of a 
most devoted husband and father. In his home the 
manner of the disputant was laid aside, and he appeared 
only in that genial and sincere character that sought 
the good of all around him and the injury of none. 

‘¢On retiring from the Supreme Bench, Judge Davi- 
son returned to his home and retired from all active 
business of a public character. He put in order his own 
private business, which had been accumulating through 
all these years of professional toil. Yet he never ceased 
from labor. His reading went on; took, as it always 
had, a very wide range; and now he had time and 
means to gratify his inclinations in that regard. Poetry 
and fiction, history and philosophy, and laws both hu- 
man and divine, were in turn, and as inclination directed, 
earnestly read. His memory, always retentive, never 
failed him. To the last week of his life he was inter- 
ested in all matters of importance transpiring at home 
and abroad. Modesty, a marked feature of his nature, 
and even disgust of any thing savoring of ostentation, 
prevented all display of the accumulation of knowledge 
he had acquired, retained, and added to, even to the 
closing scenes of his life. In all his private relations 
Judge Davison was courteous and kind; his friendships 
closed only with his life. Patient in great suffering, he 
advanced to the conclusion of his life calmly and delib- 
erately, heard the waves that were bearing him over 
dashing against the untried shore. The final summons 
came, and at noon, on the fourth day of February, 1871, 
he died.. Andrew Davison is gone, his complete record 
is finished. Its pages are before that Judge in whose 
decisions there is no error, and whose judgments are 
tempered with that mercy that ‘endureth forever.’ ” 


The following was the response of Judge Worden: 


“‘Gentlemen of the Bar: It affords me great pleas- 
ure to have an opportunity, in responding on behalf 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gh Dist. 


of the court to your resolutions and memorial, to 
speak briefly of the eminent, just, and pure man who 
has passed away. It was my fortune to occupy a seat 
on this bench with Judge Davison for the period of 
seven years—from January, 1858, to January, 1865— 
and therefore I had the opportunity of knowing him 
well, both as a jurist and as a man. A purer or more 
spotless man never graced the judicial ermine. He was 
never known, from any motive whatever, whether of 
personal friendship, partisan considerations, or otherwise, 
to swerve in the slightest degree from an upright and 
fearless discharge of his duty as a member of this court, 
and the administration of the law as he found it to ex- 
ist. He administered what he believed to be the law 
without considering where the blow would fall, or who 
would be injured or benefited thereby. In this respect 
he may well be ranked with a Mansfield or a Marshall, 
a Kent or a Story. As a jurist, while he was thor- 
oughly read in all the departments of law and equity, 
his mind, intuitively, and as if peculiarly formed for that 
purpose by nature, seized upon the broad and compre- 
hensive principles of the common law as the distinctive 
field in which he delighted to revel, exploring the 
depths of its foundations, and tracing the entire fabric 
of its structure. He was, indeed, an eminent common 
law lawyer, while he was well versed in every depart- 
ment of jurisprudence, 

*¢ Although the severe and laborious study of the law 
engrossed the most of his time during his youth and 
manhood, it is very evident that he failed not to feast 
upon lighter literature during his hours of leisure. He 
was conversant with the works of most writers of dis- 
tinction, and it is believed that he relished the Waverley 
series of Sir Walter Scott more than any other writings 
of that class. His mind was cultivated and refined ; 
his manners easy and dignified without the slightest ap- 
proach to ostentation, and in his intercourse with others 
he was always gentlemanly and courteous. He was a 
genial companion, frank, open-hearted, and generous. 
Those who knew him best, loved and respected him 
most. 

‘““Your resolutions and memorial, which are so full 
and expressive that little can be added, will be spread 
upon the order book of this court.” 


Mrs. Eliza A. Davison, widow of the late Judge 
Davison, was the daughter of Robert Robison, of New- 
town-Butler, county of Fermanagh, Ireland, where she 
was born, on the 30th of November, 1809. The family 
emigrated to America and settled in the city of Balti- 
more, Maryland, in 1816; some years later they removed 
to Greensburg, Indiana. On the nineteenth day of 
April, 1835, she was married to John Test, a lawyer, 
who afterward died at Mobile, Alabama. April 11, 
1839, she married Andrew Davison. She died at 
Greensburg, July 23, 1878, leaving an only son, Joseph 
R. Davison, a young man of promise, possessing in a 
large degree many of the noble traits of his parents. 
He is heir to a handsome estate, left by them. Mrs. 
Davison was a woman of brilliant mind, a great reader, 
and a fine conversationalist. Her society was sought 
and enjoyed by the most intelligent and refined, as well 
as by those in need of the sympathy and-charity which 
she so liberally bestowed. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF IHEINAK 


4th Dist.} 


ORMAN, FRANCIS RILEY, merchant, and ex- 
sheriff of Dearborn County, was born March 22, 

1834, in Manchester Township, of the same county. 
ag) He is the eldest son of John and Jane (Truitt) 
Dorman, both of English descent. The Dorman and 
Shockly families are widely known in the peninsular part 
of Maryland, called the ‘‘ Eastern Shore,” where they 
have lived for nearly two centuries. ‘The ancestors of 
the mother were the wealthy and numerous Parker 
family, living in the same locality, not far from the 
‘*old Bohemia Manor,” the celebrated ancestral seat of 
the Bayard family, of Delaware. Mrs, Dorman was 
brought to Indiana by her parents in 1818, two years 
after its admission as a state, and has lived in sight of 
the spot where they settled ever since that time. Mr. 
Dorman came to the state about six years later. They 
reared a family of five children—Frank, as he is known, 
being the oldest—and have accumulated a competence. 
Frank Dorman passed his boyhood in labor on the farm 
in summer and attending common school in winter. 
In his seventeenth year he entered Asbury University, 
at Greencastle, Indiana, where he undertook a full clas- 
sical course, under the presidency of Doctor Lucien 
Berry, who succeeded Bishop Simpson in that institu- 
tion; Professor Lattimore, since the celebrated Professor 
of Analytical Chemistry, of Rochester University; and 
Professor Tingley, still of Asbury University, where he 
has become famous for his new discoveries in mathe- 
matical science. His classmates were, N. S. Givans, now 
Judge of the Circuit Court; Hon. William M. Springer, 
member of Congress from Illinois; Judge Wilbur F. 
Stone, Chief Justice of Colorado; and Robert Hitt, 
private secretary to President Lincoln, and Secretary to 
the French Legation at Paris, France. 


In his senior 
year, Mr. Dorman went home and remained for one 
year, and then entered the State University at Bloom- 
ington, under the charge of that wonderful orator, 
President William M. Daily, where he graduated with 
honor in the class of 1857. He afterward received a 
diploma from Asbury University. Not desiring to study 
any of the professions, deeming them already too full, 
he turned his attention to farming. In March, 1865, 
he married Geneva Jordan, second daughter of the late 
W. W. Jordan, an old and reputable merchant of 
Manchester, Indiana, and began life with little more 
than hope and good resolutions. 
esting family of children, four in number—Blanche, 
Earl Jordan, Frank Parker, and Haynes Shockly. About 
the time of his marriage, Mr. Dorman was made town- 
ship trustee, which office he held for several Vicarage t 
was the ability with which he managed the township 
affairs that suggested his name for sheriff of Dearborn 
County, to which responsible office he was elected twice 
successively. The last time he was nominated by ac- 
clamation, and had no opposition at the polls, a con- 


They have an inter- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


19 


spicuous compliment in a county where party feeling is 
very bitter. He acquitted himself in this, as in every 
position, with honor to himself and his party. During 
his term of service a number of desperadoes, who had 
long terrified the citizens of South-eastern Indiana, 
captured and convicted of their crimes, 


were 
Thus, through 
his indomitable courage and firmness, lawlessness and 
violence were suppressed, and beneficent results were felt 
for many years. It was also while he was discharging the 
duties of sheriff that two successive attempts were made 
by mobs of masked men, in imitation of the “Seymour 
vigilantism,’? much in vogue at the time, to take prison- 
ers charged with murder from his custody. Their efforts 
were baffled, however, through his watchfulness and 
courage, and he had the satisfaction of seeing his pris- 
oners fairly tried. They were adjudged guilty, and sen- 
tenced to hard labor for life. After his official term 
expired, Mr. Dorman entered upon mercantile life 
in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and rapidly rose to be the 
leading merchant in the city and county; and in every 
situation in which he has been placed, whether public 
or private, has shown unmistakable business ability, and 
has made many friends. Mr. Dorman is public-spirited, 
enterprising, and free from narrowness, Politically, he 
is a liberal Democrat. 


—>-P6t6--— 


7 ace ALEXANDER C., of Rising Sun, ex- 
j | Judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana, was born 
IC in Hamilton County, Ohio, September 10, 1817. 
eC His parents were John Downey, born August 12, 
1786, and Susannah (Selwood) Downey, born October 
28, 1791. They removed to the southern part of Dear- 
born County, Indiana, in 1818. The subject of the 
sketch was one of a large family. His father died July 
19, 1863; his mother, April 9, 1874. Both rest in the 
cemetery at Rising Sun. Receiving the rudiments of 
education in the log school-house of pioneer days, he 
pursued his studies in the county seminary at Wilming- 
ton, under the instruction of Professor Lawrence, sub- 
sequently distinguished for his prominence asa geologist. 
He maintained himself by farming and coopering, by 
making several flat-boat trips down the Mississippi 
River, by carpentry and cabinet-making, and by teach- 
ing school. He studied law with James T. Brown, an 
able and eccentric lawyer of Dearborn County, and was 
admitted to practice in 1841. He was in partnership 
with Amos Lane for a time, and with Theodore Gazlay. 
Ohio County was organized in 1844, out of that part 
of Dearborn County lying south of Laughery Creek, 
and in which was the home of his boyhood. He then 
removed to Rising Sun, which was made the seat of 
justice of the new county, where he has ever since re- 
sided. In August, 18s0, he was appointed Circuit 


20 REPRESENTATIVE MIEN OF INDIANA. 


Judge by Governor Wright; elected by the General As- 
sembly under the old Constitution the following winter, 
and elected by popular vote in the fall of 1852 under 
the new Constitution. He served until August, 1858— 
eight years in all—and then resigned to engage in prac- 
tice. During his first term his circuit was composed of 
the counties of Ohio, Switzerland, Jefferson, Jennings, and 
Bartholomew, and the salary was eight hundred dollars 
per annum. The next term Ripley and Brown Counties 
were added, making in all seven counties, to constitute 
the first circuit. It extended from the Ohio River on 
the east more than half-way across the state. The ad- 
dition of these two counties made an increase in his 
salary of two hundred dollars per annum. He made a 
tour of the circuit twice each year, reaching the remote 
counties, one hundred and twenty-five miles distant, by 
stage, over rough roads, around the head-waters of swollen 
streams, or often on horseback. During his service he 
was treated by the bar and the people with marked re- 
spect; and in turn sought to administer with great care 
and conscientiousness the responsible duties of his high 
trust, awarding to each suitor equal and exact justice. 
In 1854 he undertook to conduct a law school in Asbury 
University. The term commenced in November, after 
the close of his fall terms of court, and continued until 
February, 1855. Two classes, junior and senior, were 
organized. He continued there during three succeeding 
terms, the last ending in February, 1858. Not a few 
who received instruction from Mr. Downey at that time 
have since held responsible public positions. Recently, 
at least four of his pupils were circuit judges, one’occu- 
pying the bench of the first circuit, which he then held. 


He continued practice in Ohio County and adjoining 


counties until December 31, 1870. In the fall of 1862 
he accepted, as a war Democrat, the nomination for the 
state Senate, on the Union ticket, and was elected. In 
the session of 1863, being listed as an Independent, be- 
cause elected by a coalition of Democrats and Republi- 
cans, he had the difficult duty to perform of refusing to 
be amenable to the partisan claims of either; but on 
each occasion he spoke and voted as he thought was 
right. His vote in favor of the adoption of the resolu- 
tion ratifying the thirteenth amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the United States secured its passage, and, so 
far as Indiana was concerned, the abolition of slavery. 
He was earnestly in favor of all proper measures for the 
prosecution of the war. As a member of the Judiciary 
Committee he was careful and painstaking in the exami- 
nation of legal questions. His term as Senator expired 
in October, 1866. He attended the regular sessions of 
1863 and 1865, and the special session convened by the 
Governor in November, 1865. Upon the passage of 
‘*An Act to establish a House of Refuge for the Cor- 
rection and Reformation of Juvenile Offenders,” approved 
March 8, 1867, he was appointed by Governor Baker as 


[4th Dest. 


one of the three commissioners constituting the board 
of control, and was associated with the eminent Friend, 
Charles F. Coffin, of Richmond, and General Joseph 
Orr, of Laporte. Having visited and inspected houses 
of refuge and reform schools in other states, they 
adopted the family plan, and employed a superintendent 
to whom it was familiar. The institution was established 
on a farm near Plainfield, selected and purchased by 
the Governor, and was opened for the reception of in- 
mates, January 1, 1868. Mr. Downey’s legal judgment 
and careful business management were valuable to the 
state in founding an institution which has now grown 
to large proportions. His term as commissioner expired 
with the year 1870. Having been nominated by the 
Democratic state convention, in January, 1870, and 
elected in October following, he was sworn into the 
office of Judge of the Supreme Court, and took his seat 
January 2, 1871. His associates, elected and qualified 
at the same time, were John Pettit, James L. Worden, 
and Samuel H. Buskirk. Andrew L. Osborn was added, 
by appointment of Governor Baker, in 1872; and was 
succeeded by Horace P. Biddle—elected in 1874—in 
January, 1875. His six years’ term was one of close 
application to the severe and monotonous labors of the 
office. Of the cases in Indiana Reports, Volumes 
XXXIIF to LIII, numbering two thousand eight hun- 
dred and thirty-seven, which went into judgment of 
the court, as thus constituted, one thousand and sixty- 
three were disposed of by opinions prepared by him. 
Renominated by the Democratic state convention in 
April, 1876, he declined to be a candidate; and, since 
January 2, 1877, has been engaged in the practice of 
law. In 1861, when the active militia was organized 
along the Ohio River, as the Indiana Legion, he became 
a private in Captain Wells’s company, at Rising Sun, 
and, because of his height and soldierly bearing, was 
appointed first corporal. This gave him position at the 
right of the company, and in the front rank. His 
activity in the organization of the militia, and his de- 
votion to the cause of the Union, commending him to 
Governor Morton, commander-in-chief, he was by him 
promoted from the ranks and commissioned a brigadier- 
general. In command of a part of the forces along the 
border during the war, he rendered acceptable service. 
As a Free and Accepted Mason, he traveled with the 
venerable Samuel Reed, grand lecturer, visiting lodges 
in South-eastern Indiana, and receiving and giving in- 
struction. A member of Rising Sun Lodge, No. 6, he 
was its Worshipful Master. For several terms he was 
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge. His annual address 
in May, 1861, wherein he referred to the war recently 
begun, received marked attention for its opportune and 
patriotic sentiments. The degree of Doctor of Laws 
was conferred upon him by Asbury University in 1858, 
and by Indiana University in 1871. In religion, he is 


4th Dist.] 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


21 


a Methodist, and has consistently trained his family” father cleared a small farm, and the son obtained his first 


under the influence of that form of Christianity. For 
many years he has been chosen by the conference in 
which he resides a trustee of Indiana Asbury Univer- 
sity, and has been for thirteen years honored by an 
election as president of the joint board of trustees and 
visitors. He married, April 19, 1846, Sophia J. Tapley, 
born May 10, 1825, only child of Daniel Tapley and 
Susan (Chandler) Tapley. Her father was a native of 
Danvers, Massachusetts, and was born July 14, 1791; 
her mother was born September 15, 1798, in Accomack 
County, Virginia. They were married at Rising Sun, 
December 20, 1820, and resided there until their death ; 
that of the former occurring October 22, 1878, and that 
of the latter, June 10, 1879. Mr. and Mrs, Downey 
have had eight children: Samuel Reed, born in 1847; 
Daniel Tapley, born 1850; Harry Selwood, born 1853; 
Alexander Coffin, born 1856, died in 1858; George 
Eddy, born 1860; John Chandler, born 1863, died in 
1866; Anna Winona, born 1865; and Frank Merritt, 
born 1868. The first three have been educated for the 
law, and have entered into its practice. Judge Downey 
possesses a large and well-developed body; his head is 
large and well shaped, with high, broad. forehead and 
prominent nose. He is more than six feet in height, 
with broad shoulders, full chest, firm, erect carriage; 
and weighs over two hundred pounds. 
are distinguished by a quiet native dignity that, upon 
occasion, is singularly impressive, without sternness or 
severity, but full of the gentleness and firmness which 
become the Christian, the jurist, the Mason. 
Despite the exhaustion incident to years of judicial 
labor, which has removed from life two of his associates, 
he shows but little the weight of threescore years which 
rest upon him, and bids fair to realize the hopes of 
many friends, that he may have ample strength of body 
and mind to enjoy their society beyond the limit of 
fourscore years, common to his ancestry. 


His manners 


and 


—+-6906-<—_ 

20) 
J} UFOUR, PERRET, of Vevay, Switzerland County, 
4, was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, August 


©{§ 21, 1807. His father, John Francis Dufour, settled 
oe in Kentucky in 1801, and was a native of Switzer- 
land, canton of Vaud, village of Montreaux, near Ve- 
. vay. His mother, Mary (Crutchfield) Dufour, belonged 
to a family from North Carolina, which had settled on 
the opposite side of the Kentucky River in 1801. In 
1806 his parents were married, and in March, 1809, they 
left Kentucky, came down the Kentucky River to its 
mouth, and then up the Ohio to what is now the city of 
Vevay. In a little log-cabin built among the primeval 
forests, and surrounded by numerous Indian neighbors, 
the childhood of Perret Dufour was passed. Here his 


lessons at a log school-house about a mile distant, French 
being the language spoken by teacher and pupils. In 
1813 the town of Vevay was laid out, John Francis Du- 
four being the prime mover and actor in the undertak- 
ing. To him belonged the honor of giving the town its 
name; and afterwards, on the organization of the county, 
being privileged by the territorial Legislature to name 
that also, he called it for Switzerland, the land of his 
birth. He was the first clerk of the county, serving all 
through the territorial government, and for seven years 
after Indiana was admitted as a state. He was also Jus- 
tice of the Peace, county surveyor, and assessor of prop- 
erty for taxation. He was elected one of the Associate 
Judges, and in 1827 became a member of the state Leg- 
islature. He was afterwards elected Probate Judge, and 
was subsequently re-elected Associate Judge, which po- 
sition he occupied at the time of his death, in 1850. In 
1810 he had been appointed postmaster of Vevay by 
Postmaster-general Gideon Granger, and served in that 
capacity twenty-six years, until October, 1836. Perret 
Dufour assisted his father in the clerk’s office and also in 
the post-office. At about sixteen years of age he went 
to Lewisburg, Preble County, Ohio, and was engaged as 
clerk in a store, remaining five years, with the exception 
of a short interval spent in flat-boating on the river. In 
1829 he returned to Vevay, and the next year engaged 
in the mercantile business with his father, continuing 
until the fall of 1834, when they retired. The next year 
Perret formed a partnership with his father-in-law, Judge 
Abner Clarkson, whose daughter, Eliza M. Clarkson, he 
married, December 30, 1830. Mrs. Dufour is still living. 
Iler father died at the advanced age of ninety-three. 
The partnership with Judge Clarkson continued until 
after the Civil War, their business including trading and 
buying produce. They were successful in making money, 
but suffered very severely by the operation of the bank- 
rupt law of 1841. Mr. Dufour was at this period called 
upon to occupy various public positions of more or less 
prominence. In 1832 he was elected Justice of the Peace 
for five years, and in 1837 was re-elected for a second 
term of five years. In 1837 he was appointed postmaster 
at Vevay, and served until 1841. He was again ap- 
pointed postmaster in 1845, and served until 1849. In 
1842 he resigned the office of Justice of the Peace, and 
was elected to the state Legislature on the Democratic 
ticket, serving during the term of 1842-43. In 1851 he 
was appointed by the county commissioners to ap- 
praise the real estate of the county. In 1870 he was 
elected Justice of the Peace for four years; was re-elected 
in 1874; and, in 1878, the person elected to succeed him 
having failed to qualify, he held the office until a suc- 
cessor was elected. In 1850 a turnpike company was or- 
ganized, the charter of which was drawn up by Mr. Du- 
four and his father, known as the Vevay, Mt. Sterling 


22 


and Versailles Turnpike. His father was the first presi- 
dent, and one of the nine original directors, only three of 
whom now survive—Messrs. Schenck, Grisard, and Arm- 
strong. Mr. Dufour was elected first secretary, and still 
holds that position. From 1832 to the present time he 
has been particularly active in the politics of the county, 
and no man within its borders knows more of its history. 
In the centennial year he wrote a concise history of the 
county, full of interesting matter relating to its settle- 
ment and progress, which was published in installments 
in the Vevay Réverl/e. As a source of reliable informa- 
tion on the county history it can not be excelled, and 
should some day be published in book form. For nearly 
fifty years Mr. Dufour has lived within a radius of one 
hundred feet of his present residence at Vevay. Every 
vote that he has ever cast has been deposited within the 
city limits. He has voted at thirteen presidential elec- 
tions, and each time his suffrage has been given to the 
Democratic candidate, his first vote having been cast for 
Andrew Jackson, in 1828. For the last half century he 
has had a voice in every enterprise in which Vevay was 
interested. Although past his seventy-first year, and 
commencing to feel the infirmities of age, his faculties 
are as keen and his perceptions as quick as in his 
younger days. His counsel is still sought, and carries 
with it the weight of experience and matured judgment, 
His 
is a familiar household name in Switzerland County, 
and will undoubtedly survive the changes and chances 
of many generations. 


and he is held in respect alike by young and old. 


—- $0 — 


}URHAM, JAMES F., one of the proprietors and 
/*|| managing editor of the Versailles Lndex- Dispatch, 


was born in Dearborn County, Indiana, August 2, 
«Ce 1850. He was the fourth son and seventh child of 


Hon. Noah C, and Ann (Ramsey) Durham. His father, 
a farmer and miller, is still an active business man; and 
has done much for the county in bringing farms under 
cultivation and building mills. He was formerly one 
of the leading Democratic politicians of his county, 
which he represented in the Legislature from 1853 to 
1857. James F. Durham lived on his father’s farm and 
attended school until he was seventeen years of age, 
when he entered Moore’s Hill College. There he spent 
three years; and, upon leaving the institution in 1870, 
entered the law office of Judge Noah S. Givans, of 
Lawrenceburg. In 1871, he entered the county clerk’s 
office of Dearborn County, where he remained two 
years. Having been admitted to the bar in 1871, he 
began the practice of his profession in 1873, and con- 
tinued it until 1876. During this time he wrote many 
articles for the Cincinnati Znguirer, taking the nom de 
plume of ‘*Fernando;” and in 1874 he became connected 
with that journal, traveling through the state of Indi- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gth Dest. 


ana as its Indiana correspondent. In 1876 he went to 
Washington, and wrote for the Indianapolis Sezdtzned/. 
Returning to Indianapolis, he became a member of the 
Sentinel staff; and for a short time kept books for his 
father. In 1878 he assumed in Versailles the practice 
of his profession, which he continued until the spring 
of 1879, when he purchased an interest in the Jzdex- 
Dispatch. In politics, Mr. Durham is an active Demo- 
crat, and conducts the paper in the interest of his 
political faith. During the campaigns of 1876 and 1878 
he made political speeches in parts of the state, thus 
aiding in advancing the interests of the Democratic 
party. 
—+-$006-<— 


Q(VISHER, REV. DANIEL WEBSTER, D. D., 
y) president of Hanover College, Hanover, Indi- 
ot ana, was born near Arch Spring, in what is now 
4 Blair County, Pennsylvania, on the 17th of Jan- 
uary, 1838. His father was a farmer. His mother 
was a sister of Ner Middleswarth, who in Whig times 
was a prominent leader of that party in Pennsylvania. 
The subject of this sketch is the youngest of four 
brothers, one of whom is dead, and two of whom oc- 
cupy the paternal estate. Doctor Fisher received his 
primary education in the common schools near the home 
of his childhood, and his preparation for college at 
Milnwood Academy, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, 
and at Airy View Academy, in Juniata County, Penn- 
sylvania. In the fall of 1854 he entered Jefferson Col- 
lege, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he graduated 


| in 1857, taking one of the honors of a class of between 


fifty and sixty members. The same fall he entered the 
Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian 
Church, located at Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, and 
completed the full course of three years in the spring 
of 1860. In the spring of 1859 he was licensed by the 
presbytery of Huntingdon to preach the gospel, and 
spent the summer as a missionary in Jackson County, 
West Virginia. In the spring of 1860 he was ordained 
as a missionary to Siam, and soon afterward married 
Miss Amanda D. Kouns, of Ravenswood, West Vir- 
ginia. Through providential causes the mission to 
Siam was abandoned, though with great reluctance. In 
the fall of 1860 he removed to New Orleans, Louisiana, 
and took charge of what is now known as the Frank- 
lin Memorial Church. On account of the secession of 
Louisiana and the outbreak of the Civil War, he 
thought it wise to return North in June of the follow- 
ing year, although the Church. reluctantly parted with 
him. In August he became pastor of the First Presby- 
terian Church of Wheeling, West Virginia, in which 
charge he continued for fifteen years. In West*Vir- 
ginia, Doctor Fisher was prominently connected with 
not only the ecclesiastical affairs of his denomination, 


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4th Dist.) 


but also with most of the general philanthropic and 
benevolent movements of the region. He was one of 
the first regents of the deaf and dumb and blind insti- 
tution, supported by the state, and had much to do 
with its successful inauguration. The pastorate at 
Wheeling covered the stormy times of the war and the 
period which succeeded it. On account of the divided 
feelings of the people, the position was one of great 
difficulty, but it was so filled as to command universal 
respect, and to avoid all just cause of blame from any 
quarter. The Church greatly prospered under this 
ministry. In the spring of 1876 Doctor Fisher re- 
signed the pastorate at Wheeling and sailed for Europe, 
where he spent the summer in travel through Ireland, 
Scotland, England, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzer- 
land, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. It 
had been his intention, also, to extend his journey to 
the East, but the threatened outbreak of the ‘Turkish- 
Russian War led to a change of plans. Returning 
home, he spent the winter in preaching and in some 
literary labors. In the summer of 1877 he made a jour- 
ney to California, and in the fall he removed to Madi- 
son, Indiana, and took charge of the Second Presby- 
terian Church. In July, 1879, he was unanimously elected 
to the presidency of Hanover College, Hanover, Jefferson 
County, Indiana. Doctor Fisher has been a prolific writer 
for the public press, including secular and religious 
newspapers and the higher reviews. He has the repu- 
tation of a high order of scholarship and literary cul- 
ture. He has repeatedly been called to deliver the an- 
nual addresses before various collegiate societies, and he 
sometimes lectures for lyceums and similar organiza- 
tions. In 1874 Muskingum College conferred upon him 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. He is the 
father of three children, the eldest of whom is in the 
midst of his collegiate course. In height Doctor Fisher 
is about five feet nine inches. He weighs about one 
hundred and forty pounds. His hair and whiskers are 
black, and his countenance rather dark. His manner of 
preaching is without manuscript, but after careful 
preparation. His type of theology is Scriptural and 
evangelical. Though true to his denomination, he is 
free from narrow sectarianism. His administration of 
the affairs of his college has been highly successful. 


te 


OLEY, JAMES B., ex-Congressman, Greensburg, 
Indiana, was born in Mason County, Kentucky, 
October 18, 1807. His mother, Mary (Bradford) 
2) Foley, was the daughter of Benjamin Bradford, 
superintendent of the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, 
during the Revolutionary War. His father dying when 
James was but seven years old: left his mother, who had 


meanwhile become blind, with eight children dependent 
A—I3 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 23 


upon her for support. He therefore received no educa- 
tion except such as he gained from contact with the 
world. At the age of sixteen he engaged as cook on a 
flat-boat bound to New Orleans. He next served as 
deck-hand and steersman on two succeeding trips, and 
then commenced freighting, from Maysville and Dover 
(Kentucky) down the Mississippi, on his own account. 
He continued in this business for fifteen years, during 
which time he had owned as many different boats. At 
the age of twenty-one he commanded a credit of twenty 
thousand dollars, a remarkable showing for a man who 
had just attained his majority, and, poor and friendless, 
had commenced life as a deck-hand on a Mississippi 
flat-boat. It would seem, however, that the very obsta- 
cles he had to surmount in his efforts to realize a com. 
petency, by developing his energy, resources, and inven- 
tion, were the means best adapted to the end, as his 
subsequent career has proved. June 15, 1834, he re- 
moved to Greensburg, Indiana, and opened a dry-goods 
store, in which business he continued successfully for 
two years. In 1837 he abandoned merchandising and 
purchased a farm of four hundred and eighty acres, 
about two miles from Greensburg. This farm, on which 
he has ever since resided, is not only in a high state of 
cultivation, but is one of the most valuable in the state. 
He engaged in pork-packing in Lawrenceburg and -Cin- 
cinnati, which he continued with varying success until 
1877, his transactions in a single year amounting fre- 
quently to eighty thousand dollars. During the entire 
course of his mercantile and public career, a period of 
sixty years, he has never been the defendant in a law- 
suit—an honorable record, justifying a pardonable pride, 
and one of which but few men can boast. In 1841 he 
was elected treasurer of Decatur County, serving the 
full term. He was elected in 1850 to the Constitutional 
Convention at Indianapolis, at which were also present, 
as delegates, Michael J. Bright, Schuyler Colfax, Will- 
iam S. Holman, Robert Dale Owen, and Judge Pettit, 
and William H. English was its secretary. He was the 
author of several important provisions in the new Consti- 
tution, among which were those fixing the terms of state 
and county officers, and making the Governor and Lieu- 
tenant-governor ineligible to re-election, and other state 
and county officers ineligible to a second re-election; and 
the provision prohibiting the state from giving aid to rail- 
roads, canals, and other public improvements. Through- 
out the convention he was an ‘active opponent of the thir- 
teenth article of the Constitution, which forbade the 
immigration of negroes into the state. In 1852 he was 
appointed by Governor Wright brigadier-general of mili- 
tia for the Fourth District. In 1856 he received the 
Democratic nomination for Congress. His competitor 
was the now celebrated Will Cumback, at that time the 
incumbent, and desirous of re-election. The canvass 
marked an epoch in the political history of that district. 


24 


Party feeling was well-nigh suspended, the election be- 
ing an issue of personal popularity between the two 
men. The friends of Cumback, relying on his party 
record, his oratorical powers and knowledge of wire- 
pulling, freely backed their favorite with large sums of 
money, which were in turn as quickly taken. by the 
adherents of his less brilliant, but more astute 
and clear-headed opponent. When the result became 
known, it was found that General Foley had beaten 
Mr. Cumback by fifteen hundred votes. While a 
member of the Thirty-fifth Congress, the celebrated 
Lecompton Constitution, the outgrowth of the Kan- 
sas troubles, came before that body. Though a Demo- 
crat, General Foley opposed the bill with all the 
stubbornness of an honest man fighting an iniquitous 
measure, and though personally importuned by Pres- 
ident Buchanan, and his colleagues in both Houses, he 
remained unchanged in his determination. At this junc- 
ture, Senators Bright and Fitch threatened to remove 
certain persons whom the General had had appointed to 
office in his congressional district. Meeting them both 
at their rooms one day, he denied their ability to make 
these changes, and then, suddenly removing his coat, 
offered to settle the matter on the spot by recourse to 
the ‘‘manly art.” The honorable gentlemen, deeming 
‘¢discretion the better part of valor,” wisely avoided 
the combat, and the General heard no more of their 
threatened interference. Calling upon Mr. Buchanan a 
few years later, the President referred to Mr. Foley’s 
conscientious attitude on the Lecompton Constitution, 
and, laying his hand on his heart, said, in a tone which 
the General never forgot, ‘‘Had they all [meaning the 
Democratic members] been as honest as you were, I 
should have had less occasion for the regret which I 
now feel.’’ Mr. Foley was one of the original projectors 
of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette, and Terre 
Haute and Cincinnati Railroads. He has also liberally 
endowed Bethany and Butler Colleges, and is, in short, 
a man whose hand and purse are ready to promote any 
enterprise for the welfare of the community. In 1874 
he was again offered the nomination for Congress, ‘but 
declined, since which time he has retired from active 
business, and on his beautiful farm, surrounded by his 
children and his grandchildren, he is spending the 
evening of his days in that peace and content which 
can come only from a pure heart and a clear conscience, 
and is best appreciated after the vicissitudes of half a 
century of active life. General Foley was married, April 
2, 1829, to Miss Martha Carter, of Mason County, Ken- 
tucky. Six children blessed this union, three of whom 
are still living. The second son, Benjamin, died in New 
Orleans, August 19, 1848, while returning from the Mex- 
ican War. He was again married March 4, 1848, to 
Mrs. Mary Hackleman, of Decatur County, Indiana, by 
whom he has three children. The eldest child of the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


second marriage, William O. Foley, has been for some 
years the Deputy Treasurer of State, at Indianapolis. 
Mr. Foley belongs to the Masonic Fraternity, and is a 
member of the Christian Church. In person he is of 
medium height, stoutly and compactly built, possessing 
a pair of keen, penetrating eyes, which meet the gaze 
clearly and unflinchingly, and are perhaps the best 
index of the man’s character—shrewd, honest, and 
brave. As a friend, he has always been found faithful; 
as a companion, he is exceedingly interesting and con- 
vivial. Gentle as a woman in his ordinary moods, when 
aroused in controversy he displays almost lion-like 
power. God made him for a purpose, and he has 
accomplished it. 
—>-9oC-o-—_ 


REEMAN, AMZI WHITEFIELD, minister, of 
Aurora, Dearborn County, was born in South 
Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, June 10, 1821. 

His ancestors came, as early as 1667, from Con- 
necticut to Newark, and soon after took a prominent - 
part in the formation of the Mountain Society, which 
by an ecclesiastical change became the first Presby- 
terian Church of Orange. In the records of this organ- 
ization several generations of Mr. Freeman’s paternal an- 
cestors are represented among its officers as deacons or 
elders; the last being his father, who led a colony and 
founded the Presbyterian Church of South Orange. His 
mother (zée Tichenor), was descended from the same 
Puritan stock, and her grandfather honorably distin- 
guished himself in the War of the Revolution. When 
the subject of our article was fifteen years of age, his 
father died, leaving him a patrimony to be expended 
for his collegiate education, with the prayer recorded 
in his-will that he might become a minister of the gos- 
pel. Before the son was aware of this clause in the 
testament, the prayer was in effect answered by his con- 
secration of himself to that work. After his preparation 
for college, which was completed in the academy at 
Morristown, in the:autumn of 1840, he entered Nassau 
Hall, at Princeton, from which be graduated in 1843. 
After a year spent in teaching in Sparta, Sussex County, 
Mr. Freeman entered Union Theological Seminary, New 
York City, where he remained three years. In the fall 
of 1847 he came to Indiana, which has been his adopted 
state. His first settlement was at Covington, Fountain 
County, where he labored four years. During this time 
he had also the care of the Presbyterian Church in 
Perrysville, on the opposite side of the Wabash. Dur- 
ing his stay his congregation at the former place erected 
a house of worship, and his people at Perrysville pur- 
chased an edifice already built from another denomi- 
nation. In 1852 he was invited to take charge of the 
Second Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne, where he re- 
mained two years. About July 1, 1854, he was called 


gth Dist.) 


to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church of Aurora, 
where, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, he still 
continues to minister. Here, too, soon after his coming, 
he had the pleasure of seeing a house of worship, only 
the basement of which had been finished, entirely and 
elegantly completed. Besides his pastoral and pulpit 
labors in this prosperous and influential Church, Mr. 
Freeman has taken a great interest in the prosperity of 
the city and in the general improvement of society. 
Both a vocalist and instrumentalist himself, he has done 
much towards the cultivation of music. In the cause 
of education he has always been especially interested. 
Indeed his love of teaching has been such that during 
the greater part of his life he has had under his care 
either private pupils or classes. Often has he been 
solicited to make teaching a profession, but his attach- 
ment to his people has prevented. This interest led him 
to take charge of the public schools of Aurora for the 
period of two years, during which time they were first 
thoroughly and systematically graded. For many years 
Mr. Freeman has been a trustee of Hanover College. 
In 1861-62 Mr. Freeman’s resources were greatly in- 
creased by a year’s travel in Europe and Palestine. 
During his absence he was a regular correspondent of 
the Cincinnati Gazette, and on his return he delivered to 
large audiences, in a series of lectures, his personal ob- 
servations in the lands of the Bible. As a pastor, Mr. 
Freeman is sympathetic with those in affliction, helpful 
to the poor, and watchful over the young. As a 
preacher, he is studious in his preparations and earnest 
in his delivery. He has been successful in his efforts to 
do good, and has a claim to be numbered among the 
benefactors of our state. 


—<-§9t6-<— 

Py 
| AFF, THOMAS, merchant, banker, and manufac- 
h turer, of Aurora, was born near Edinburgh, 
ep) Scotland, July 8, 1808, and came to the United 
States with his parents, James and Margaret Gaff, 
when only three years of age. They settled in Spring- 
field, New Jersey, where Thomas Gaff received his 
early education. At the age of sixteen he learned his 
father’s trade—paper-making; but, on the introduction 
of improved machinery, he learned the distilling busi- 
ness from an uncle, Charles Wilson, of Brooklyn, New 
_ York. With his brother, James W. Gaff, he engaged 
in the same business in the city of Philadelphia, Penn- 
sylvania, where for a time they were successful. Finally, 
a change in the duties, operating to their disadvan- 
tage, rendered their business unremunerative, and they 
disposed of their establishment and removed to Indiana 
in the year 1843. They settled in Aurora, where they 
laid the foundation of what is now the flourishing 
establishment of T. & J. W, Gaff & Co. This firm 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


= 


has done much toward building up the city of Aurora. 
The Gaff Brothers were the first to undertake the con- 
struction of turnpikes, and to establish daily communi- 
cation by steamboat between Aurora and Cincinnati. 
Thomas Gaff was also one of the original stockholders 
and directors of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. 
Their enterprises have been various and extensive, in- 
cluding farming, mining in the Rocky Mountains, 
foundry and machine-works, mercantile business, and 
banking. Mr. Thomas Gaff is also a joint partner in 
the extensive flour and hominy mills at Columbus, 
Indiana, vice-president of the Aurora Gas-light and 
Coke Company, and president of the First National 
Bank of Aurora. During the late Civil War, Mr. Gaff 
strongly supported the cause of the Union, furnishing 
steamboats and supplies for the use of the government. 
The beautiful and fast-sailing « Forest Queen,”’ which, 
under the command of Captain C. D. Conway, of Au- 
rora, Indiana, successfully ran the blockade at Vicks- 
burg, under a storm of shot and shell from over two 
hundred cannon, was principally owned by the Gaff 
Brothers. She was afterward burned at St. Louis, 
Missouri, by emissaries of the Confederates. Mr. Gaff 
has partially retired from active pursuits, his business 
interests being to a large extent managed by his brother- 
in-law and confidential partner, Mr. Henry W. Smith. 
Though his early educational advantages were limited, 
Mr. Gaff has always been a diligent reader and student. 
As a financier, he is regarded as one of the best in the 
country. His executive ability is remarkable. No trans- 
action within the range of his complicated affairs escapes 
his observation. He is generous, and ready to relieve 
the deserving poor. Few men have been more liberal 
in their contributions to religious and charitable objects. 
By his honorable life he has won the esteem of all who 
His wife, who was Mrs. Sarah T. Whipple 
(zée Darling), of Providence, Rhode Island, is a Christian 
lady of great refinement and culture, and of remarkable 
personal beauty. Of their six children, two only sur- 
vive, both happily married. 


know him. 


— > Gaee-<—_ 
AEF) JOHN siz retired merchant, late of Law- 
renceburg, was born in Springfield, New Jersey, 
} September 13, 1820. He was one of the family 
of five sons and five daughters of James and 
Margaret Gaff, who emigrated to this country from 
Scotland about the year 1811. His father was a paper- 
maker, and was considered an expert at his trade. His 
mother, a pious and worthy woman, lived to a ripe old 
age, enjoying the hospitalities of her children and 
grandchildren. John H. Gaff received in his boyhood 
acommon school education; and in 1835 was ap- 
prenticed to learn the jeweler’s trade with Mr. Acker- 


26 


man, of New York City. He remained in New York, 
working at his trade, for six years, when, feeling a de- 
sire for a change, he visited Mexico. He remained at 
the capital of that country for four years, working at 
his business and making a specialty of diamond setting, 
in which he was remarkably expert. He was a resident 
of the City of Mexico when Santa Anna was crowned 
Dictator of that country. In 1845 he returned to the 
United States, and settled in Aurora, Indiana, where he 
engaged in distilling with his brothers; first as clerk and 
afterwards as partner. While a resident of Aurora, he 
was held in the highest esteem by his fellow-citizens, 
and served two terms as mayor of that city. On the 
sixth day of May, 1851, he married, in the village of 
Newburg, New York, Miss Margaret G. Lendrum. She 
is a very estimable lady, and was in every sense of the 
word a helpmeet to her husband, and a most admirable 
coadjutor in his many plans for the welfare of the com- 
munity. In 1864 Mr. Gaff, with his family, removed to 
Lawrenceburg, where he continued to reside until his 
death, February 16, 1879. The partnership with his 
brothers at Aurora culminated in one of the largest dis- 
tilling interests in the country; and, on his removal to 
Lawrenceburg, he continued the business with his 
brothers and Mr. Anson Marshall. On the withdrawal 
of Mr. Marshall from the firm, a new firm was organ- 
ized, consisting of Mr. Gaff and Charles L. Howe, 
under the firm name of John H. Gaff & Co. This firm 
continued until the year before Mr. Gaff’s death, when, 
owing to feeble health, he retired. His business career 
had been one of intense earnestness, and drew heavily 
upon his physical resources. The people of Lawrence- 
burg looked upon Mr. Gaff with a feeling of respect 
and confidence to which few men attain in 
munity. He was actively identified with the educa- 
tional interests of the city; after the organization of the 
graded schools he was elected first trustee, and was for 
several years a member of the board of education. In 
this position he acquitted himself with so much satisfac- 
tion to his constituents, and won such universal respect, 
that the school was closed and the school bell tolled 


a com- 


during his obsequies, in appreciation of his services. He 
His high regard 
for the rights and feelings of others insured him from 
enmity; a rare thing for one occupying his position in 
life. He was an acceptable member of the Presbyterian 
Church; a quiet, unassuming gentleman of pleasant 
social nature ; and, in the family circle, a devoted hus- 
band and tender father. He was buried with the hon- 
ors of the Masonic Fraternity, of which he was a mem- 
ber; and was followed to the grave by a large concourse 
of sorrowing friends. Besides his wife, four daughters 
and one son survive him. Two daughters are married: 
Mrs. Aggie Andrews, of Cumminsville, Ohio: and Mrs. 
Roger Spooner, of Madison, Wisconsin. 


was a thoroughly honorable man. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ath Dist. 


mm AVIN, JAMES, lawyer and soldier, late of Greens- 
(y burg, Indiana, was born in Butler County, Ohio, 
cp March 31, 1830. His parents moved to Franklin 
GG County, Indiana, and settled about two and a half 
James Gavin was the youngest 
son of a large family, and was reared, as boys usually 
are on a farm, to work early and late, a habit which he 
never lost. He spent his time in this way until about 
fifteen years of age, going to school a few months, and 
studying at home under the supervision of his brother, 
David. About this time he went to Brookville, and 
became clerk in the store of Andrew Shirk, after which 
he taught school. In 1851 he married Martha E. 
Tucker, and continued teaching near Dublin, Indiana. 
In 1852 he removed to Greensburg. He had studied 
law while teaching, and, entering upon its practice, 
soon succeeded in obtaining an excellent business. 
About the year 1857 the firm of Gavin & Hord was 
formed, and commenced the revision of the Indiana 
statutes, known as the Gavin & Hord Statutes; but Mr. 
Gavin did not remain until the completion of the work, 
on account of the breaking out of the Civil War. Pre- 
vious to that event Mr. Gavin was a Democrat, and a 
warm supporter of Douglas; but he immediately took 
up the cause of the Union, and aided in organizing the 
7th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, of which he was made 
lieutenant and adjutant. At the expiration of its term 
of three months the regiment was reorganized for the 
three years’ service, with E. Dumont as colonel and 
James Gavin as lieutenant-colonel. 
diately appointed brigadier-general, and Mr. Gavin be- 
came commander of the regiment. Under Colonel 
Gavin, and its subsequent colonel as well, the 7th Indi- 
ana became essentially a fighting regiment. Colonel 
Gavin was by no means a martinet; he thought much 
of his men, and held their comfort and their safety ever 
in his mind, but when the time came they must fight, 
and they did fight, cheerfully and well. While at home 
on a furlough, the excitement over an expected raid 
from John Morgan caused the calling out of the thirty 
days’ men, which Colonel Gavin commanded, at Hen- 
In that vicinity Colonel Gavin and 


miles from Brookville. 


Dumont was imme- 


derson, Kentucky. 
a small party of his men were ambushed by Morgan’s 
troops; and Lieutenant Braden, who happened to be in 
full uniform—while Colonel Gavin, by accident, had on 
a civilian’s coat—was literally riddled with bullets. 
Colonel Gayin’s horse was killed under him, and he 
himself was wounded in the hand. All the party 
were wounded; but they succeeded, by taking to the 
bushes, in escaping and reaching the camp next 
morning. At the second battle of Bull Run, on the 
evening of the second day’s fight, Colonel Gavin was 
shot through the right breast. From the effects of this 
wound he was long in recovering fully, and in 1863 re- 
signed his commission, while in charge of a brigade. 


4th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
In the fall of 1862, while at home and confined to the 
house by his wound, he was nominated for member of 
Congress, against W. S. Holman, but was able to make 
no canvass, and, sharing the fate of many others, was 
defeated. Upon resigning his position in the army, 
he was nominated and elected clerk of Decatur County, 
but vacated his office in 1864 to take command of the 
134th Indiana Volunteers. After the return of this reg- 
iment he was re-elected clerk, and filled the office until 
1867, resigning when the Republican party divided. 
He followed the Johnson element, and, having always 
claimed to be a war Democrat, he returned to the Dem- 
ocratic party, with which from that time he was in full 
accord. In the Greeley campaign he was one of the 
candidates for elector at large. July 4, 1873, he died, 
being but little over forty-three years old, and having 
raised himself from poverty to his position in the law, 
in the army, and among the people, solely by his own 
exertions. Colonel Gavin left a widow and three chil- 
dren—Frank E., William J., and Addie M. Gavin. 
Frank E. Gavin is a member of the law firm of Miller 
& Gavin, of Greensburg ; William is reading medicine. 


——>- Fate — 


IVENS, NOAH &., Judge of the Seventh J idicial 

District, was born in Dearborn County, September 

30, 1833, and is now, therefore, in the forty-seventh 

year of his age. His parents are both dead. The 
father, who was called Joshua, was an early emigrant 
of that county, having arrived there from Maryland, 
where he was born, in 1835. His mother was a native 
of the same state, her maiden name being Henrietta 
Davis. The father followed the occupation of a farmer, 
and the son’s earlier years were passed alternately in 
assisting in agricultural labor and in going to school. 
At twenty years of age he entered Franklin College, 
which he attended three years, afterwards going to the 
State University at Bloomington, and remaining there 
for two years, when he was graduated in the literary 
department. This was in 1858. A general course of 
study in law was then begun with Judge Buskirk, 
strengthened by attendance at the law school; and, re- 
ceiving his license in 1859, he opened practice at 
Washington, Daviess County, staying there five years, 
and then removing to Lawrenceburg, in the same county, 
where he now is. He was prosecuting attorney there 
for two years, and in 1862 he was elected a Repre- 
sentative to the state Legislature on the Democratic 
ticket. He has held various official positions since living 
in Lawrenceburg, for which his party has chosen him. 
In 1872 he was a Representative, serving two years; in 
1874 a Senator from Dearborn and Franklin Counties for 
four years; and in 1878 he was elected Judge of the 
Seventh Judicial District, for a term which has not yet 


MEN OF INDIANA. 27 
expired, it lasting for six years. He has been a coun- 
cilman and a school trustee for several years, and a 
county examiner for two or three years. He is a 
Democrat in his political views, and his standing is very 
high in his party, as was shown by his nomination for 
elector on the Tilden ticket in 1876, a position which 
is esteemed a most honorable one; but he has never 
been a wire-puller or enthusiast. He frequently speaks 
from the stump, and is considered an able and effective 
orator. He was married, on the 17th of October, 1866, 
to Miss Mary Martin, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, but 
whose family resides in Dearborn County. They have 
four children, two boys and two girls. 


ote — 


ILLESPIE, WILLIAM, M. D., of Rising Sun, 
Indiana, was born in Ohio (formerly Dearborn) 
County, Indiana, June 17, 1821. He is of pure 
Scotch descent. His parents were Robert and 
Margaret (Robertson) Gillespie, the former a native of 
Leith, Scotland, where he was born in 1793; Mrs. Gil- 
lespie being born at Falkirk, near Edinburgh, in 1799. 
They emigrated to America in 1819, and settled in Cass 
Township, Ohio County, Indiana, where Mr. Gillespie 
practiced medicine until his death, in 1846. He was a 
graduate of the University of Edinburgh, having re- 
ceived the degree of Ch. M. (Master of Surgery); was 
considered the leading physician and surgeon in Ohio 
and the adjoining counties, and enjoyed an enviable 
reputation, both professionally and socially. William 
Gillespie spent his youth in Cass Township, where he 
studied medicine under his father’s tuition. He gradu- 
ated at Evansville in 1850, and commenced practice in 
Rising Sun. In 1856 he took a second medical course, at 
Jefferson College, and in 1861 entered the army as sur- 
geon’s mate of the 7th Indiana Three Months’ Volun- 
teer Infantry, under General Dumont. 
zation of the 7th Indiana for the three years’ service, he 
was appointed assistant surgeon, and, with his regi- 
ment, took part in the first battle of Winchester, under 
General Shields. A few days after he was appointed 
post surgeon at Strasburg, Virginia, and, after the re- 
treat of General Banks from the valley, was captured by 
Stonewall Jackson while on duty at the hospital there. 
He remained for eight days in the enemy’s lines on pa- 
role, and, after the retreat of the Confederates on the 


On the organi- 


advance of General Fremont, went to Washington and 
Alexandria, Virginia. From there he was sent to Camp 
Chase, Ohio, to take charge of the Union encampment 
of paroled men. On September, 1862, he was dis- 
charged from the 7th Regiment, and commissioned 
medical inspector of the 83d Indiana, at Lawrenceburg, 
with the rank of first assistant surgeon. He was with 
his regiment on the Coldwater march; went thence to 


28 


Vicksburg, and participated in the first attack on 
Haines Bluff, under General Sherman. About January 
1, 1863, he was detached for special service on the hos- 
pital boat ‘‘Adriatic;” a month later was placed on 


duty at the officers’ hospital at Milliken’s Bend; soon | 


afterwards was ordered to assist in the small-pox hos- 
pital at the same place; and, subsequently, was sta- 
tioned at the small-pox hospital on Paw Paw Island, 
above Vicksburg. In the fall of 1863 he was sent by 
General Grant to take charge of a contraband hospital, 
where his duties were of the most arduous kind. He 
was then promoted to the rank of surgeon of the 83d 
Indiana, and ordered to join his regiment at Corinth, 
Mississippi. The regiment was attached to the Second 
Brigade, Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, under 
General Sherman, and took part in the battle of Chatta- 
nooga. After that battle it went into winter-quarters 
at Larkinsville, Alabama; and, in March, 1864, Doctor 
Gillespie received his discharge from the service, on ac- 
count of disability. He had been engaged almost in- 
cessantly in exhaustive labors; had performed nearly 
every operation known to surgical art; had been ex- 
posed to extreme privations, as well as to the contagion 
of small-pox hospitals; and even his vigorous constitu- 
tion gave way under thestrain. It was nearly a year be- 
fore he had recovered sufficiently to resume his practice. 
He is imbued with an intense love for his profession, 
especially the surgical branch; and his reputation as a 
physician and surgeon is excelled by none in the county. 
Doctor Gillespie is a stanch Republican, but not an of- 
fice-seeker. He has served three terms as mayor of 
Rising Sun, and takes a lively interest in the prosperity 
and good government of the city. 
the Masonic Fraternity and of the Independent Order 
of Odd-fellows. In 1850 he married Miss Margaret 
Boyle, of Ohio County, a lady of Scotch descent. 
They have a family of three sons and three daughters. 
In his religious opinions he is inclined to Unitarianism. 
Ilis practice is not confined to Ohio County, but ex- 
tends for a long distance into the counties adjoining, 
He takes his father’s place in the esteem of the com- 


munity, and does full credit to his sturdy ancestry. His 


constitution is hale and vigorous, and his form of a ro- 
bust type. Few men of his age are more active and 


energetic than Doctor Gillespie. 
—>-Fate--— 


~\OODWIN, JOHN R., M. D., of Brookville, In- 
diana, late president of the Brookville Bank, un- 
dér the title of J. R. Goodwin & Son, was born in 
that town July 15, 1820, and was atthe time of 
his death the oldest person born there who had main- 
tained an uninterrupted citizenship in the precinct. He 
was the son of Samuel Goodwin, who came to Brook- 


He is a member of | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


-home required’ that he should resign the position. 


[4th Dist. 


ville from Warren County, Ohio, in the spring of 1816. 
He was a natural leader of men, and had a strong and 
penetrating intellect. The grandfather, Thomas Good- 
win, was originally from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, 
and was one of the pioneers of civilization in the Miami 
Valley. John R. Goodwin passed his early life about 
the farm and in the tannery which his father carried 
on. He was early deprived by death of paternal care, 
but resolutely began laboring for himself. He left 
home in his twenty-first year to attend college, and.en- 
tered Asbury University, at Greencastle, where he was 
a classmate with Senator Harlan, of Iowa, graduating 
with distinction in 1845. Thence he went to Cincinnati, 
joining the Ohio Medical College, and receiving the 
degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1847. He returned to 
the neighborhood of Brookville and settled down, and 
not long after married Miss Rachel Goudi:, daughter 
of Joseph Goudie, one of the earliest residents of that 
section of the state. Their married life was long and 
happy, although Mrs. Goodwin has never been in strong 
health. During the years from his graduation until the 
breaking out of the war he lived on a farm, four miles 
east of Brookville, and with his father-in-law conducted 
the business of farming, while at the same time he 
practiced medicine, and had the editorial charge of the 
agricultural department of the Judiana American. He 
was successful in his profession as a physician; his ac- 
quirements in the schools were joined to a native sa-. 
gacity that made him much sought after at the bed- 
side. He filled many stations of trust, and discharged 
their obligations acceptably. When the war broke out 
he knew that his duty called him to the conflict, and 
raised a company, of which he was elected captain. It 
was Company G, 37th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. 
Within an hour, however, of his election he received a 
commission from Governor Morton as surgeon to the 
3d Indiana Cavalry. Desiring to go into the service 
with the company he had raised, he exchanged his 
offered position for that of assistant surgeon of the 37th 
Regiment, and served in that capacity during the 
war with credit and distinction. Much of the time 
he was in charge of one of the principal hos- 
pitals at Nashville. At the close of the contest 
Doctor Goodwin returned home, but was soon ap- 
pointed disbursing clerk to the Department of the 
Interior at Washington City, a position in which he 
remained until July, 1871, when his private interests at 
Dur- 
ing the six years of that service he drew from the 
treasury and disbursed money to the amount of many 
millions of dollars, without error or complaint. Within 
two weeks from the time of his resignation he settled 
his accounts without the discrepancy of one cent. At 
the Republican State Convention of 1872 he was chosen 
elector for the Fourth Congressional District, and had 


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4th Dist.) 


the honor of casting the vote of his district for Gen- 
eral Grant. After the fall of 1872 he was connected 
with the banking business in Brookville. For several 
years he was cashier of the Brookville National Bank, 
and when that institution closed he became the founder 
of the Brookville Bank, its president, and its principal 
He was a trustee of the university from which 
he graduated, having been elected by the South-east In- 
diana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
to which body he belonged. He was an ardent and en- 
during Christian; his whole heart was in his work, and 
he had been chosen by his associate laymen to represent 
them in the great parliament of Methodism, the Quad- 
rennial General Conference. Its first meeting was held 
in Cincinnati on the Ist of May of the present year, and 
.at that session he had been present. He returned home 
for Sunday, the 2d, and was preparing to return the 
next day, when he was struck down by the hand of an 
assassin. Doctor Goodwin was a man of the kindest 
disposition, a friend to the poor, a help to the widow 
and the fatherless, an upholder of Christianity, and a 
man with a strong love of humanity. He was a well- 
known temperance speaker. His social standing was 
very high, and his friends were agitating his name as 
that of a candidate for Governor this year. His abilities 
were thought to be equal to any position. He leaves a 
widow, a lady who has for thirty years borne him com- 
panionship; and one son, Charles, part owner of the 
Brookville Bank. 


owner, 


oe —— 


| REEN, EDWARD H., mayor of Aurora, was born 
March 1, 1837, and is the youngest son of Stephen 

and Martha J. Green. His father was a native of 
Kentucky, and removed to Indiana at an early 
period. He was for many years treasurer of the city of 
Aurora, and held various official positions for a great part 
of his life. He was never but once defeated for office. 
Edward H. Green took a scientific course of study in 
Franklin College, Indiana, under President Silas Bailey. 
Me then read law with Judges Holman and Haynes, 
and commenced practice in Aurora. In 1861 he enlisted 
for one year in Company I, 16th Indiana Volunteer In- 
fantry, and was appointed orderly sergeant. He was 
with his regiment in Virginia and Maryland, and was 
located for a time at Harper’s Ferry. On the day after 
the disastrous battle of Ball’s Bluff, the 16th covered 
the retreat of the Union forces; and in the spring cam- 
paign of 1862 marched up the Shenandoah Valley to 
Manassas, Centerville, and the Rappahannock River. 
The regiment was mustered out at Washington, District 
of Columbia, in June, 1862, and Mr. Green immediately 
assisted in raising a company of cavalry, which was 
tendered to Governor Morton, but was refused unless it 
should be used in filling depleted companies of regi- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


29 


ments already in the field. The company was then ac- 
cepted by the Governor of Kentucky; and, armed with 
Spencer carbines, was assigned to the 11th Kentucky 
Cavalry as Company E. Sergeant Green was commis- 
sioned second lieutenant of Cavalry Volunteers, and 
afterward captain. He was with Burnside at the siege 
of Knoxville, with Sherman at Atlanta and its ap- 
proaches; and was engaged at Resaca, Dalton, Dallas, 
Big Savannah, and Kenesaw Mountain, where the men, 
following the example of their leader, bore themselves 
nobly. His company for a time formed the escort of 
Major-general J. J. Reynolds. After the battle of Stone 
River he pursued Morgan through Ohio, Kentucky, and 
Indiana, and assisted in his capture. Upon the close 
of the war he resumed the practice of law, and in 
1866-7 served in the Lower House of the state Legis- 
lature, having been elected on the Democratic ticket. 
In 1877 he was elected mayor of Aurora, the place 
of his nativity. Upon the expiration of his first term as 
mayor, so popular had his administration of the office 
rendered him, that he was re-elected for two more years 
without opposition. In 1862 he married Miss Lizzie 
Shirley, of Jeffersonville, Indiana. They have had four 
children ; but only one, a promising daughter, is living. 
Mr. Green has done some very efficient service for his 
party. During the last campaign he spoke at various 
places in the state with acknowledged ability. He is 
clear, logical, and forcible in his style of delivery, and 
has been eulogized by the press as one of the most elo- 
quent speakers in the state. 


—<-$00-o— 


f IREEN, MARTIN R., of Patriot, Indiana, was 
h born in Enfield, New Hampshire, September 27, 
ep) 1809. His father was Rev. John Green, and his 

mother was Pallas Ruter, a sister of the late Calvin 
W. Ruter, so widely known in Indiana as one of the ablest 
and most earnest of the pioneer clergymen of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church; as also of Rev. Martin Ruter, a 
pious, devoted, and eloquent divine of the same Church, 
who fell while engaged in the missionary work in Texas, 
before its annexation asa state of the Union. Mr. Green’s 
parents left New Hampshire the year after his birth for 
Marietta, Ohio, one of the principal points to which 
emigration was directed in the then ‘‘ Far West.” In 
1822 they removed to Quercus Grove, Switzerland 
County, Indiana. In 1828 his father died, and Mr. 
Green took upon himself the responsible task of provid- 
ing for the family. Although a young man, he per- 
formed his self-imposed duty well—as, indeed, he did 
every thing he undertook. In 1834 Martin R. Green 
was elected a Justice of the Peace, which office he held 
until May 2, 1837, when he resigned. Jacob R. Harris 
and Henry Waite were his sureties, and his is the first 


30 


on the county register of official bonds. 
Green was elected to the state Senate on the Democratic 


ticket, and served with credit to himself and satisfac- | 


tion to his constituents. In 1848 he was again elected 
a member of the Indiana state Senate for a term of three 
years, the length of the term before the adoption of the 
new Constitution. 
gained a popularity which he retained until the day of 


his death, and his counsel was sought and listened to | 


with that respect which his age, experience, and well 
known fidelity to principle so justly demanded. He 
obtained great notoriety during his last term in the state 
Senate, as the original purchaser from the state of the 
famous Georgia swamp lands, which afterward passed 
into the hands of wealthy New York speculators, and 
became the subject of much litigation and special legis- 
lation. In 1856 Mr. Green was a delegate to the Na- 
tional Democratic Convention, which assembled at 
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he voted fifty-four times for 
the nomination of James Buchanan for the presidency, 
June 11, 1843, Mr. Green married Mary Harris, by 
whom he had four sons and one daughter. In the same 
year he removed to Donahue’s Deadening, in Mexico Bot- 
toms, above Patriot, where he resided about two years, 
when he removed to Patriot, where he engaged in the 
business of selling dry-goods. In 1853 he removed to his 
farm, one mile above Patriot, where he resided until 
three years before his death, when he again removed to 
Patriot. His wife died September 25, 1868. Mr. Green 
had always enjoyed good health until March, 1878, 
when he had a stroke of paralysis, from which he par- 
tially recovered, and seemed to be continually improv- 
ing in health until September 25, 1879. On the evening 
of that day he retired, feeling even more comfortable 
than usual. The next morning he arose at half past 
five and came down into the sitting-room, dressed as 
usual. He was first noticed by his daughter-in-law, 
Mrs. William M. Green, kneeling as if in prayer, from 
which position he arose and seated himself, and was 
then suddenly attacked by disease. His son William 
was called, who attempted to relieve him by bathing 
his head, but without success, as he in a few minutes 
slipped from his chair to the floor and immediately ex- 
pired, September 26, 1879, exactly eleven years after 
the death of his wife, and within one day of being sev- 
Three sisters, one brother, and four 
Mr. Green, early 
in life, became a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and died in that faith; he was also a mem- 
ber of the Masonic Fraternity, and his funeral was 
largely attended by members of that order, Judge A. C. 
Downey reading their beautiful burial service at the 
grave. Thus closed the ripe life of one, who, by ster- 
ling integrity and industry, had acquired much means 
and high position, and left a noble example, 


enty years of age. 


sons are left to mourn their loss. 


In his political career Mr. Green | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


In 1838 Mr. | 


[ 4th Dist. 


|RISARD, CAPTAIN FREDERICK L., of Vevay, 
Switzerland County, was born in the canton of 
Bern, Switzerland, August 14, 1808, and is the 
son of Frederick and Mary A. Grisard. When he 
was ten years of age his parents left their native land, 
and set sail for the United States. After a voyage of 
forty-four days from Havre de Grace they arrived in 
New York. Remaining one month in Philadelphia, 
they then went to Pittsburgh, the next stage of their 
westward journey. From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh 
Frederick Grisard and his mother were weighed as 
merchandise, and made the journey under those novel 
conditions. From Pittsburgh they worked their way 
down the Ohio River in small boats, and arrived at the 
Swiss settlement at Vevay December 15, 1818, about 
four years after the town was laid out. Here they built _ 
a log-cabin in the woods, and the father worked at his 
trade of blacksmith, and cleared some land in the vicin-: 
ity of his home. Amid such surroundings, and under 
such circumstances, Mr. Grisard spent his boyhood, 
sharing in the vicissitudes incidental to pioneer life, and 
educating himself as best he might. In 1825 he was 
apprenticed to learn the blacksmith’s trade in Cincin- 
nati, and served three years. He worked at the trade 
in Vevay until 1845, at first in connection with his fa- 
ther, and after the death of the latter in 1838 remained 
alone until 1845. He then went into the general hard- 
ware business on the site of his present store in the 
city of Vevay. While engaged at his trade he also 
manufactured agricultural implements. He made the . 
first steel plow ever used in SwitzerlandgCounty, and 
helped to build the first steam-engine ever used in 
Vevay. He has always been successful in his business, 
which has been large and flourishing. In the days of 
flat-boat trading on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers he 
was very active in that line, and accumulated a compe- 
tence. His name has been identified with every enter- 
prise for the improvement of the city of Vevay, and he 
has never been backward in furthering any thing that 
commended itself to his deliberate judgment. He 
was elected first treasurer of the county, under the 
new organization, in 1840, and has been for several 
years school trustee. He has been a director in the 
First National Bank of Vevay since its organization; 
and since 1850 has been president of the Vevay, Mount 
Sterling and Versailles Turnpike. Almost from his 
boyhood, Mr. Grisard was captain of an artillery com- 
pany organized at Vevay, and when the Civil War 
broke out he was appointed by Governor Oliver P. 
Morton captain of a company of artillery mounting 
three pieces. This the immediate 
cause of his suffering a serious loss. His large ware- 
rooms and store-rooms, supposed to contain government 
supplies, but containing only private property, were 
burned to the ground by Confederates or Confederate 


connection was 


4h Dist, 


sympathizers, involving a loss to him of about fourteen 
thousand dollars. He has been a Democrat all his life, 
but a strong Union man, and never a bitter partisan or 
an aspirant for political honors. April 24, 1828, Cap- 
tain Grisard married Miss Zella C. Simon, a native of 
the canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland, and a lady of 
rare accomplishments. She still survives, after a happy 
married life of more than half a century. Her father 
was a college professor, and left Switzerland to join the 
Swiss colony on the Red River, South; but, by an un- 
fortunate mistake, the party were taken to the Red 
River, North, and landed near Hudson’s Bay, at Lord 
Selkirk’s settlement, thousands of miles from their des- 
tination. During the long and tedious voyage they 
were several times ice-bound, spending weeks at a time 
fastened to icebergs, occasionally visited by polar bears, 
and the native Esquimaux. The trials and vicissitudes 
of the long journey from that region to Southern In- 
diana will never be forgotten by the family of Mrs. 
Grisard. Her mother and herself were the first white 
women who ever traversed the wild waste of country 
between the British settlements and the United States, 
and they had many hair-breadth escapes and numerous 
adventures among the Indians. They were obliged to 
subsist for weeks together upon what the hunters of 
the party provided for them. They arrived in Switzer- 
land County in August, 1823. Mr. and Mrs. Grisard 
have had seven children, four sons and three daughters. 
Two sons and three daughters survive. Frederick is as- 
sociated with his father in business; James S. Grisard is 
with the Meader Furniture Company, of Cincinnati. The 
eldest son, Perret J., died in infancy. Rudolph F. lost 
his life in December, 1877, while saving a little girl 
from a runaway horse. The daughters are, Louisa iNee 
wife of F. L. Dubacs, of Hannibal, Missouri; Zella, 
wife of A. P. Dufour, of Vevay; and Lucilla, wife of 
Mr. Jagers, who resides with her parents. Captain 
Grisard is essentially a self-made, self-educated man. 
Coming from a robust race, he enjoys a strong consti- 
tution, is upright in his bearing, and though past three- 
score and ten is still hale and vigorous. No one in 
Switzerland County bears a better reputation for sterling 
worth ; few men have been more faithful and energetic 
in business; and few are more happily situated. His 
residence in Vevay is considered one of the finest in 
Switzerland County, 
~-->- 906-2 


ALL, WILLIAM, cashier of the First National 
Bank of Vevay, is a native of the county of 
Down, Ireland, where he was born, March 31, 
1817. His education was obtained in the public 
schools of Ireland, whence he emigrated in June, 1837, 
being then in his twenty-first year. His history, like 
that of a great majority of the self-made men of our 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


31 


country, repeats the story of the triumph of industry, 
perseverance, and indomitable energy over the disad- 
vantages of early poverty and limited opportunities for 
culture. His first start in life, after his arrival at Vevay, 
was as deputy clerk in the court-house, the county clerk 
being his distant relative. This position he occupied— 
and a part of the time that of deputy recorder and dep- 
uty sheriff—four years; and in 1842 he was appointed 
county treasurer, to fill a vacancy in that office. In 1844 
he was elected on the Democratic ticket for a term of 
three years, and in 1847 was re-elected for three years, 
making a continuous term of eight years during which 
he served in that capacity. He then engaged in wharf- 
boating and dealing in produce, at first on a small 
scale, but gradually increased in business until it as- 
sumed large proportions, and he had acquired a very 
comfortable income. In 1864 the First National Bank 
of Vevay was organized, and“ he was elected cashier, 
which position he has held ever since. He is also the 
senior partner of the mercantile firm of Hall & Lewis, 
at Vevay, and is interested in the Union Furniture Man- 
ufacturing Company. He is also a stockholder in the 
Vevay, Mount Sterling, and Versailles Turnpike. On 
July 27, 1842, Mr. Hall married Miss Sallie Singer, of 
Vevay, whose family were among the old settlers of 
Switzerland County. They have no children living. 
Mr. Hall is a gentleman of agreeable manners and fine 
social qualities. He is a careful and methodical busi- 
ness man, rather conservative in his views, and not 
inclined to be carried away by visionary schemes; but, 
where his head approves, his heart is always ready to 
engage in any enterprise for the benefit of his commu- 
nity. He is one of the best known and most highly 
respected citizens of Switzerland County, 


—-$006-o— 


ARRIS, JACOB R., one of the earliest pioneers 
‘Jif, of Switzerland County, was born in Kortright, 
Col\ Delaware County, New York, May 20, 1802. He 
ie) was the son of Robert and Lucretia (Kennedy) 
Harris, who were well known for their industry and 
frugality in the neighborhood in which they lived. His 
father, who was born in 1766, was a gallant soldier for 
three years of the Revolution, and after his discharge 
was appointed major of the home militia. He con- 
tinued to reside in the place of his nativity until 1782, 
when he removed to Delaware County, New York. 
The family continued to make New York state their 
home until the year 1817, when they emigrated to 
what were then the wilds of Indiana, settling in Switzer- 
land County. Robert Harris was a man of more than 
ordinary ability, and received the advantages of a good 
education. But with a large family of children he was 
kept in indigent circumstances, and often found it diff- 


32 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


cult to provide for their wants. His principal occupa- 
tion was that of a farmer, although, being a natural 
mechanic, he at times found recreation in working at 
the carpenter’s trade. In those primitive days the 
facilities for education were very limited, and the sub- 
ject of this sketch was allowed only two weeks’ school- 
ing after reaching the age of eight years. By careful 
training at home and his own eagerness to learn, he 
was prepared on reaching maturity to teach a small 
school, which employed his attention for one winter. 
When he had attained ‘his majority he was intrusted 
with the settling up of his father’s business in New 
York state, and proceeded by water to Pittsburgh, and 
thence on foot to his native town. After an absence 
of eighteen months he returned to Indiana, with four 
hundred dollars as the result of his trip. He was 
offered remuneration by his father, but it was refused. 
He had earned fifty dollars during his absence by 
working as a farm hand at six dollars and seventy-five 
cents per month, and, being anxious to possess a home 
of his own, he borrowed an additional fifty dollars and 
bought from the government eighty acres of land, sit- 
uated in Switzerland County. The land office was then 
located in Cincinnati, and to enter his purchase he had 
to proceed on foot to that city, a distance of thirty-five 
miles. He returned the same way, and was soon at 
work clearing his land and hewing timbers for a log 
house. He had made a vow in his early youth that he 
would never marry until he had a house of his own to 
which to take his wife. Accordingly, as soon as one 
room was completed, he was united in marriage to Miss 
Gertrude Scott. This was on the 5th of January, 1826. 
She proved a true helpmate to him, and with his strong 
physical powers and his willing hands he soon began to 
make visible inroads upon the forest. In about eight- 
een months he had cleared this farm and earned sufh- 
cient means to purchase an additional hundred acres. 
This, however, was but the commencement of his 
career as a farmer, for at one time he owned not less 
than one thousand acres, part of which was under cul- 
In 1837 he began in the mercantile business, 
which engaged his attention, in connection with his 
He was elected Jus- 
tice-of the Peace, and acted in that capacity for a long 
time, and was also county commissioner for nine 
years. He served for four years as one of the charter 
members of the State Board of Agriculture. He was 
initiated into the different temperance organizations at 
an early day, and has always been a stanch advocate 
of total abstinence. At the age of sixteen he united 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which for 
sixty-two years he has been a consistent member. - He is 
recognized throughout the community as an earnest 
Christian gentleman. In politics he was first an old- 
line Whig, but when the Republican party came into 


tivation. 


farm pursuits, for twelve years. 


[gh Dist. 


power he united with them, and has ever since been a 
decided and influential member of that body. He and 
his estimable wife have lived together for fifty-four 
years, and have raised a family of eight children, all of 
whom have reached the estate of manhood and woman- 
hood, and with the aid rendered by their parents have 
pleasant homes, and are surrounded with happy families 
and the comforts and luxuries of life. Mr. Harris has 
reached his present position of usefulness without as- 
sistance, impelled by an innate force that no obstacles 
could resist. He is for the most self-educated, but is 
superior to many who have been trained by qualified in- 
structors. Through great industry, good judgment, and 
fine executive ability, he has accumulated a handsome 
fortune, which he has liberally used in his family, and 
for the advancement of public improvement. Although 
past the allotted age of man, he is still a type of splen- 
did physical and intellectual manhood, and bids fair to 
live many. years of usefulness. He is a gentleman of 
fine social qualities; he is genial and affable, and is 
highly esteemed for his noble bearing and sterling in- 
tegrity. 
—> Gogo 


a eancns GOVERNOR WILLIAM; ELA Ds 
Kt of Madison, was born in Westmoreland County, 
<7) Pennsylvania, on the 12th of November, 1782, and 
cist died at Madison, Indiana, May 16, 1850. His 
parents were Abraham and Ann (Jamison) Hendricks. 
The Hendricks family in America are descended from 
a French Huguenot of that name, who fled to this coun- 
try from France, by way of Holland, during the perse- 
cution of the seventeenth century, and settled in New 
Jersey. Governor Hendricks was brought up on a 
farm. He educated himself; and taught school in order 
to obtain money with which to support himself during 
more advanced study. He attended college at Cannons- 
burg, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1810. Immedi- 
ately after he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he 
studied law in the office of Mr. Corry, supporting him- 
self by teaching school. In 1812 he removed to Madi- 
son, Indiana, where he spent the remainder of his life. 
In 1813, in connection with William Cameron, he es- 
tablished a printing-office, and published a paper called 
the Western Eagle, which in 1815 he sold to Mr. 
Cameron. In the mean time, in 1813, he had commenced_ 
the practice of law. In the winter of 1812-13 he was 
made secretary of the territorial Legislature, at Vin- 
cennes, which was then the seat of government. In 
1814 he -was elected representative to the territorial 
Legislature. In June, 1816, he was appointed secretary 
of the Constitutional Convention, which was held at Cory- 
don, the capital of the new state. In August, 1816, he 
was elected as the first and sole Representative to Con- 
gress from the state, and served three successive terms, 


ath Dist.J 


until 1822, when he was elected Governor. During the 
last winter of his term as Governor he was elected to 
the United States Senate, and resigned his position in 
order to take his seat in the Senate, March 4, 1825, 
He was re-elected to the Senate in 1830-31; and served 
altogether twelve years. His political opinions were 
truly Democratic. Party lines in those days were not so 
distinctly drawn as now; Governor Hendricks was 
never elected to any position as a partisan, and never 
gave a partisan vote; but voted for those measures 
which in his belief were best for his constituents and 
for the country. When he ran for Governor he had 
no opponent. No other man in the history of the state 
has been so honored. In 1840 he was one of the state 
electors on the Van Buren ticket; and it was during this 
campaign that he contracted bronchitis, from which he 
suffered all his subsequent life. This was his last polit- 
ical campaign, as the condition of his throat prevented 
public speaking; and he was afterwards engaged only 
in his personal business. May 19, 1816, at Madison, 
Indiana, Governor Hendricks married Miss Ann P. Paul, 
eldest daughter of Colonel John Paul, one of the original 
proprietors of the town of Madison, and one of George 
Roger Clarke’s men in the campaign against the Indians 
in the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in the years 
1778 and 1779. She is still living (1878), at the age of 
eighty. The eldest and youngest sons of Governor 
Hendricks fell while fighting for the preservation of 
their country; the eldest, Colonel John A., at Pea 
Ridge ; the youngest, Thomas, sergeant-major, command- 
ing a company of the 67th Indiana Volunteers, at Icaria, 
Louisiana. Governor Hendricks was a man of imposing 
appearance. He was six feet in height, handsome in 
face and figure, and had a ruddy complexion. He was 
easy in manner, genial and kind in disposition; and was 
a man who attracted the attention of all, and won the 
warm friendship of many. 
Presbyterian faith, early united with that Church, and 
lived a consistent, earnest Christian life, 


—>+Fote~<- — 


AZEN, ZACHARY T., attorney, of Versailles, was 

; born in Ripley County, Indiana, March 15, 1848, 

€ and is the second son of Amasa and Eliza (Van 
2 Zile) Hazen. His father was a farmer and trader, 
and was prominent in politics in the county in which he 
lived. Zachary T. Hazen remained on his father’s farm 
until he was eighteen years of age, and attended the 
In 1866 he entered Brookville Col- 
He then taught school 


common schools. 
lege, where he spent two years. 
for a time, after which he attended school at Lebanon, 
Ohio, for one term. In 1871 he entered Moore’s Hill 
Coliege, and in the following year the state university. 
Having been reading law for several years, he was en- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


He was brought up in the. 


ao 


abled to graduate from the law department of this insti- 
tution in the spring of 1873. He immediately estab- 
lished himself at Versailles, and, being admitted to the 
bar in April, began the practice of his profession, which 
he has since continued. In politics he is a Republican. 
In 1878 he was the nominee of his party for prosecuting 
attorney, but, though he made a fine canvass, was de- 
feated through jealousy of local politicians. April 14, 
_1873, he married Eliza Martz, daughter of John Martz, 
a farmer of Ripley County. By close application Mr. 
Hazen has built up a fine practice, and is regarded as a 
rising man. He is an honored citizen of the town and 
county. 

—>-4006-o— 


ENRY, W. CRAWEORD, M. D., of Aurora, was 
born in Wayne County, Ohio, February 1, 1841. 
OR} He is of Scotch-Irish extraction, and his ances- 
Oe tors settled in the United States early in the his- 
tory of the country. During boyhood he attended the 
public schools of Ohio, where he acquired a knowledge 
of the usual English branches, including the higher 
mathematics, and also studied Greek and Latin, besides 
paying some attention to elementary anatomy, with a 
view to entering the medical profession. At the age of 
twenty-one he left school and enlisted for three years as 
a private in Company A, 120th Ohio Volunteer Infan- 
try. He was soon promoted to the rank of sergeant, 
and participated in Grant’s campaign in the Chickasaw 
Swamps against Vicksburg and its approaches until 
after the fall of the place, in 1863. While in the army 
his health having become impaired, he was sent home 
on sick leave, at the expiration of which he reported 
at Indianapolis, and was detailed to hospital duty, in 
which he was engaged during the remainder of his 
term of service. While thus employed he gave spe- 
cial attention to his duties, with the view of making 
the profession of medicine his avocation in life; and, on 
leaving the service, immediately entered the Vermilion 
Institute, at Hayesville, Ohio.. There he pursued a pre- 
paratory course for two years, after which he studied 
medicine with Doctors Baker and Barrett, of Wooster, 
Ohio. Subsequently, he attended two courses of lectures 
at the Miami Medical College, Cincinnati, where he 
graduated in 1870. He first practiced at Tipton, Mis- 
souri, about eighteen months, and then removed to 
Aurora, Indiana, where he has since been one of the 
most successful physicians. His course of study included 
special instruction on treatment of diseases of the eye 
and ear, under Doctor E. Williams, and he has since 
given much attention to this branch of the profession. 
During the prevalence of the epidemic in the state in 
1874, Doctor Henry contributed a valuable paper on 
trichinze to local journals, which attracted much atten- 
tion at the time, and was favorably commented on by 


34 


the profession generally. Immediately after his gradu- 
ation, in 1870, he married Miss Kate Lindsay, daughter 
of John F. Lindsay, contractor and builder, of Cincin- 
nati. Doctor Henry’s reputation as a skillful and pains- 
taking physician is well known. He is an active mem- 
ber of the Dearborn County Medical Society, and of 
the Indiana State Medical Society, having been for the 
past five years secretary of the former body. He is also 
city physician of Aurora, surgeon by appointment of 
the eastern division of the Ohio and Mississippi Rail- 
road, and has been for two years a member of the city 
council, in which he takes an active and prominent 
place. His politics are those of the Democratic party. 
Doctor Henry is a member of the Masonic Order, in 
which he has reached the Blue Lodge; anid is also iden- 
tified with the Knights of Honor, holding the position 
of dictator in his lodge. He is an active member and 
elder in the Presbyterian Church, at Aurora, 
this brief outline it will be gathered that he occupies a 
prominent place not only in his profession, but in the 
Church, in society, and in local politics. He is now in 
the prime of his manhood, and is highly esteemed for 
his agreeable social qualities. 


if 


tt 


From 


—<-g006-2— 


OLMAN, JESSE L., was born October 24, 1784, 
at Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky. During 
his early infancy his father, in seeking to relieve a 
block-house beleaguered by hostile Indians, in 
which his wife and children had taken shelter, was 
killed, leaving his family in poverty. Judge Holman’s 
early opportunities for instruction were extremely lim- 
ited, but by persistent efforts and unfaltering determina- 
tion he, almost unaided, obtained the benefits of a 
common school education, and in later life became ac- 
complished in the higher branches of mathematics and 
general literature. Before he reached his majority, 
under the encouragement and auspices of Henry Clay, 
who was several years older than himself, he published 
a novel entitled ‘“*The Errors of Education,” in two 
volumes, which obtained a large circulation for that 
period, and a few copies of which are still extant, al- 
though at a later period, impressed with the belief that 
the morals of his work of fiction were not sound, he 
bought up and destroyed the edition, as far as he was 
able. Some of the first scholars of that day, however, 
have expresséd the belief that the moral tone of “The 
Errors of Education” was at least as elevated as the 
better class of fictitious literature of the early part of 
this century, and that the author pronounced too severe 
a judgment on his work. Judge Holman studied law in 
the office of Mr. Clay, at Lexington, Kentucky, where 
Mr. Clay had settled a few years before, and commenced 
its practice when scarcely of age at Port William, now 


39 |2s\ 


Ce 


CEPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gth Dist. 


Carrollton, Kentucky, where he married Elizabeth 
Masterson, a most estimable lady of superior accom- 
plishments, and-of tastes similar to his own, who sur- 
vived him five years. And soon after he determined to 
remove to the Indiana Territory. In 1810 he built a 
cabin on the range of hills that rise abruptly from the 
Ohio River south of the city of Aurora, in Dearborn 
County, and to this new home, remote from other set- 
tlers, he removed his family, wife and daughter, in the 
They brought with them and emancipated 
a large family of negro slaves, which had descended to 
the wife from her father. He called his place, with the 
taste of a poet, ‘‘ Veraestan,” a name it has ever since 
borne. It commands one of the finest landscapes on the 
Ohig River, overlooking a magnificent valley on either 
shore, with an extended view of the Great Miami, as it 
approaches the Ohio. Here he cleared up a farm, and 
the embellishment of this rural home was a labor of 
love, and occupied the leisure hours of his life. From 
the time he settled in the Indiana Territory his life was 
almost uninterruptedly devoted to public employments. 
In 1811 he was appointed by General Harrison, then 
Governor of Indiana Territory, prosecuting attorney for 
Dearborn County. In 1814 he represented that county 
in the territorial Legislature, and was elected president 
of the legislative council; and in the same year was 
appointed by Governor Posey Judge of the Second 
Judicial Circuit of the territory. In 1816, on the ad- 
mission of the state into the Union, he was appointed 
one of the three Supreme Judges of Indiana by Govy- 
ernor Jennings, -the first Governor of the state, and re- 
mained on the Supreme Bench for fourteen years. In 
1831 he was defeated by General Tipton, before the 
Legislature of Indiana, by only one vote, for United 
States Senator, although the Legislature was strongly 
against him politically. In 1832 he was elected super- 
intendent of common schools of Dearborn County. In 
1834 he was appointed by President Jackson, and con- 
firmed by the Senate, United States Judge for the Dis- 
trict of Indiana, and held the office until the time of 
his death, March 28, 1842. After the death of Judge 
Holman, the members of the bar of Indiana presented 
to the Circuit Court of the United States, then in ses- 
sion at Indianapolis, resolutions expressive of their 
sentiments in relation to his death, Judge John McLean, 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, presiding. 
Judge McLean said: 


‘‘The court will direct that the proceedings of the 
bar on this mournful occasion shall be spread upon it# 
records. It is fit and proper that it should be done. 
For years past the name of Judge Holman has been 
intimately connected with the proceedings of this court. 
That connection is now broken by death, but the mem- 
ory of his labors here remains of record; and it is appro- 
priate that those who so long and so often mingled in 
ardent discussion before him, and in the exhibition of 
professional skill, should express their opinion of the 


same year. 


4th Dist.) 


deceased, and their sorrow for his loss. None had a 
better opportunity than the members of this bar of 
knowing the qualities of his mind, and the purity of his 
motives. It was not until 1837, when my official rela- 
tions with Judge Holman commenced, that I became 
acquainted with him. My acquaintance with him was 
not long, but it was long enough to impress me deeply 
with his high merit as a man and a public officer. His 
mind was sound and discriminating. Of his legal re- 
search and acumen, he has left enduring evidence; but 
what most excited my admiration was his singleness of 
heart. He had no motive but to discharge his public 
duty uprightly. Most truly and deeply do I sympathize 
with the members of this bar in the loss we have sus- 
tained—a loss which is felt by the community at large. 
But this has been infinite gain to him. He has left be- 
hind him the influence of a high moral example. This 
will be widely felt, and its salutary effects can not be 
lost on society.” 


Judge Holman was not ambitious of public employ- 
ments, but loved the quiet of country life. His tastes 
were eminently domestic and social, and, although so 
long on the bench, he was more devoted to literary em- 
ployments and to the society of friends than to the pro- 
fession of the law. He read the poets with the ardor 
of one, and wrote many short poems, which were pub- 
lished in his life-time, and two extended ones, which still 
await publication, both legends of Indian life. Judge 
Holman was a Baptist preacher, and connected with 
that Church from boyhood; and he was, for years, the 
pastor of the Aurora Baptist Church, preaching regu- 
larly when not away on public duty. He organized a 
union Sunday-school, believed to be the first in the state, 
and was its superintendent up to his death. As trustee 
for an association composed of himself and several other 
gentlemen of Ohio and Kentucky, he laid out the pres- 
ent prosperous city of Aurora, making provisions for the 
Churches of all denominations, and ample appropriations 
for education and a public library. His charity and af- 
fectionate interest in the unfortunate knew no limits, 
and he earnestly supported every measure which prom- 
ised the elevation and improvement of mankind. He 
was active in the establishment of Indiana College, now 
the state university, and was one of the earliest and 
most devoted friends of Franklin College, Indiana, the 
leading institution of learning of the Baptist denomina- 
tion of the state. He left surviving him his widow 
and a large family of children, most of whom are still 
living; and his beloved * Veraestan” is still occupied by 
. members of his family, 


——>-9ot~<__. 


OLMAN, WILLIAM SG., is a native of Indiana. 
He was born at a pioneer homestead called Verae- 
<i) stan, on the Ohio River hills, near the city of Au- 
ce rora, in Dearborn County, Indiana, on the sixth 
day of September, 1822. Here his father, Judge Jesse 
L. Holman, had settled in 1810. He obtained the ben- 


5 | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


35 


efits of a common school education in the schools of his 
neighborhood, and studied at Franklin College, Indi- 
ana—an institution in which his father took a lively in- 
terest—for two years. He taught school for some time, 
but the early death of his father terminated his oppor- 
tunities for completing his education. Before reaching 
his majority he married Miss Abigail Knapp, a young 
lady of excellent education and refinement. He studied 
law, and when of age was admitted to the profes- 
sion, at once engaging in its practice in his native 
county, and the same year (1843) was elected Probate 
Judge of the county. In 1849 he was chosen prosecut- 
ing attorney, and in 1850 he was elected the senatorial 
delegate from Dearborn County to the Constitutional 
Convention. In 1851 he was elected to the House of 
Representatives of the state Legislature, the first held 
under the new Constitution. Although one of the 
younger members, he was appointed chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee of the House. He supported most 
of the measures of reform which were incorporated 
into the revised statutes of 1852, and among other acts 
introduced and secured the passage of the bill which 
extended the township system to the several counties of 
the state—a system modified since by providing for one 
instead of three trustees. In 1852 he was elected a 
Common Pleas Judge. During his incumbency he re- 
ceived a commission as Circuit Judge of his circuit, but 
held the office of Common Pleas Judge until the end of 
the term. In 1858 he was elected to the United States 
House of Representatives from the Fourth District, and 
entered the Thirty-sixth Congress. He introduced in 
the House, on the 16th of December, 1860, the resolu- 
tions condemning the doctrine of secession, and declar- 
ing it the duty of the Federal government to maintain the 
union of the states by the employment of all its powers— 
the first introduced in either House. He was re-elected 
to the Thirty-seventh Congress in 1860, to the Thirty- 
eighth Congress in 1862, and to the Fortieth Congress 
in 1866, from the same district. Under the redistricting 
of the state, in 1867-68, he was elected tu the Forty- 
first Congress in 1868, from the Third District; and re- 
elected to the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses 
in 1870 and 1872; and under the redistricting of the 
state, in 1872-73, he was chosen to. the Forty-fourth 
Congress, from the Fifth District of the state, in 1874. 
During a large portion of the time he was in Congress 
Mr. Holman served on the Committee on Claims, and 
on that of War Claims after its organization, and on 
Commerce. He was a member of the Select Committee 
on Government Contracts during the war, of which Hon. 
E. B. Washburne was chairman, and which held sessions 
in all sections of the country; also of the special com- 
mittee to inquire into the cause of the decline of our 
commerce, which held sessions in the leading cities. In 
the Forty-fourth Congress he was chairman of the Com- 


36 


mittee on Public Buildings and Grounds, and the second 
member of the Committee on Appropriations; and during 
the last session of the Forty-fourth Congress he was 
chairman of both committees. It is claimed by his 
friends that the expenses of the government for that 
year were reduced something more than ten millions 
lower than for any year before or since during the last 
nineteen years, with no deficiencies. During the war 
Mr. Holman was classed as a Union Democrat. He has 
always acted with the Democratic party. He supported 
the war measures of Mr. Lincoln’s administration, and all 
the appropriations made for the conduct of the war. He 
brought forward many of the measures which became 
laws, touching the increase of pay and the bounties of 
the Union soldiers. He was an earnest advocate of the 
homestead policy, and was opposed to any other method 
of disposing of the public lands except as bounties to 
the soldiers of the Union army. Mr. Holman earnestly 
opposed the subsidy system from the public resources, 
either in bonds, lands, or money, to promote private en- 
terprises; and it is claimed by his friends that the series 
of resolutions on that subject which he succeeded in car- 
rying through the House broke down—for the time, at 
least—the entire system of subsidies. He opposed all 
forms of class legislation. He introduced and carried 
through the measures which relieved the commerce of 
the Ohio River from the oppressive tax imposed upon 
it at the Louisville and Portland Canal. Mr. Holman, 
since the close of the Forty-fourth Congress, has been 
actively engaged in his profession, and, with strong local 
attachments, still lives at the old homestead on the Ohio 
River hills. 


sn 
J UNTER, W. D. H., of Lawrenceburg, was born 
on the 8th of January, 1830, in that city, and is 
2v\ the only surviving son of James W. and Harriet 
Cet Hunter. His father, who was prominent and in- 
fluential among the early citizens of Lawrenceburg, 
died in 1835. His mother was afterwards married to 
Judge Isaac Dunn, of the same place, a wealthy and 
eminent citizen, who died in 1870, leaving her for the 
second time a widow. She is still living, at the ad- 
vanced age of seventy-seven years, and is greatly re- 
spected by all who know her. Doctor Hunter received 
his primary education in the best schools of his native 
city, and at the age of eighteen years entered Asbury 
University, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he took a 
scientific course. In the spring of 1851 he removed to 
Mexico, Missouri, where he read medicine with an 
elder brother. Later, he attended lectures at the Ohio 
Medical College, Cincinnati. Returning to Missouri, 
he entered upon the practice of his profession, but, ow- 
ing to the exposure incident upon the discharge of his 
duties in that part of the country, and a predisposition 


—>- 9906-0 


1 
COaRS 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gtk Dist. 


to consumption in his family, he gave up active practice, 
and engaged in the drug business in the young but 
thriving town of Mexico, Audrain County. There he 
conducted a successful business for some twenty years, 
during which time he gained many warm friends. He 
was several times mayor of the city, for a long time 
councilman, and served one term as clerk of the county 
court. He was also for some time postmaster of 
Mexico, under President Pierce’s administration. In 
1861 he was nominated by the conservative party to 
represent the district composed of Audrain, Pike, and 
Lincoln Counties in the Constitutional Convention called 
to consider the question of the position of Missouri in 
relation to the Civil War; but, on account of the ex- 
citement attending the election, he declined torun. In 
1864 he was elected a Representative from Audrain 
County to the state Legislature. He immediately took 
a very prominent position in that body, being foremost 
in the counsels of his party, and the recognized leader of 
the Democracy in the House. In 1866 he was ap- 
pointed, by President Johnson, assessor of internal 
revenue for the Fourth District of Missouri. He repre- 
sented the Ninth Congressional District of Missouri in 
the National Democratic Convention of 1868, and was a 
member of the committee on permanent organization in 
that body. He was also for fourteen years editor and 
proprietor of the Mexico Ledger, a sharp, conservative 
paper, devoted to the political and agricultural interests 
of Missouri. While in the Missouri House of Repre- 
sentatives, Doctor Hunter made a memorable speech on 
the proposed amendments to the new Constitution in 
regard to the ‘‘ test oath,’”? which was afterward printed 
by the state executive committee and used as a cam- 
paign document. He also introduced many important 
bills for the welfare of his constituents, and, though 
belonging to the party in the minority in the House, 
held the following responsible positions: Chairman of 
the Committee for Visiting State Asylums, a leading 
member of the Committees on Ways and Means, Inter- 
nal Improvements, and State University; also, of the 
committee appointed by joint resolution to examine the 
accounts of the State Auditor and Treasurer; chairman 
of the Committee of the whole House on the Revision 
of School Laws; chairman of the Committee on the Me- 
morial of the St. Louis Medical Society, requiring 
physicians to give evidence of qualifications, etc.; and a 
member of the committee to escort Hon. B. Gratz Brown 
to a seat within the bar of the House. Concerning his 
appointment as assessor of internal revenue, the Demo- 
cratic Register, of Lawrenceburg, has the following : 


‘*We are gratified to learn that Doctor W. D. H. 
Hunter has been appointed United States assessor of 
the Fourth District of Missouri. He was a member of 
the last Missouri Legislature, where he achieved lasting 
honors, and is now promoted to a lucrative and respon- 
sible position, in which he will no doubt sustain him- 


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“UNIVERSITY OF ILLINGIS 


4th Dist.] 


self, and administer its affairs to the satisfaction of the 
government.” 


The Mexico Leager, in referring to the same appoint- 
ment, says: 

“‘We congratulate the people of the district and the 
department on this judicious selection. A place of 
honor, profit, and trust, we believe, was never more 
fitly bestowed. Doctor Hunter is eminently qualified 
for the duties of the position, and is every way worthy. 
His friends will never cease to remember with pride the 
sublime heroism with which, in the last Legislature, he 
led a forlorn hope, in opposition to the infamous radical 
majority of that body; and will rejoice to know that he 
has been suitably rewarded.” 


The St. Louis Republican, the leading Democratic 
paper of the West, in speaking of the same episode in 
Doctor Hunter's career, says: 


“Besides being a pleasant and intelligent gentleman, 
he is an upright and honorable citizen, one who will dis- 
charge the duties of his office without favoring political 
friends or oppressing political opponents.. In the late 
Legislature he was a decided, active, and efficient con- 
servative member. Notwithstanding his decision and 
activity, his integrity of purpose was never doubted. 

In his new and important position he will be sure to 
discharge his duties correctly and honorably, and so se- 
cure the esteem of honorable men.” 


Doctor Hunter was a member of the state board of 
managers of the Missouri State Insurance Company, 
and president of the board of local managers for Au- 
drain County; he was also director of the Life Asso- 
ciation of America at St. Louis. The death of his step- 
father, Judge Isaac Dunn, in 1870, left his mother bur- 
dened with the management of a large estate. Mrs. 
Cornelius O’Brien, her only daughter, was able to 
lend her little aid. At the urgent solicitation, there- 
fore, of his mother and only sister, he consented to re- 
turn to Lawrenceburg, and in February, 1871, took up 
his residence in that city, not, however, with the inten- 
tion of remaining permanently; but the past few years 
of residence in the city of his boyhood have established 
his social and business relations, and it is presumed that 
Lawrenceburg will be his future home. In 1875 he was 
appointed, by Governor C, H. Hardin, of Missouri, 
commissioner of deeds for the state of Indiana. Doctor 
Hunter, during his residence in Missouri, was an active 
friend to every enterprise that had a tendency to build 
up his county, and was, therefore, among the first to 
‘call the attention of the people of his section of the 
country to the building of railroads. As early as 1854 
he took an active part in securing the location of the 
North Missouri Railroad, now known as the St. Louis, 
Kansas City and Northern Railroad, and was for a time 
a director of the company. He was one among the first 
projectors of the Louisiana and Misscyri River Rail- 
road, now the western extension of the Alton and Chi- 
cago Railroad, of which he was several years a director, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


an 


and took an active part in raising subscriptions to its 
stock in the different counties through which the road 
was built. Doctor Hunter was married, November 21, 
1854, to Miss Lucy J. White, of Audrain County, Mis- 
souri, who lived but a few months after her marriage. 
He was married in Mexico, Missouri, October 15, 1857, 
to his present wife, Miss Fannie A. Cauthorn, daughter 
of Ross and Sarah Cauthorn, of Essex County, Virginia. 
They have two children, Hattie and Bessie, both ac- 
complished young ladies. The Doctor is a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lawrenceburg, and 
is a trustee and the treasurer of the Church. He is also 
a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and has attained 
the rank of Senior Warden. He is president of the 
board of education of the city of Lawrenceburg. 
1877 he has been editor and one of the proprietors of the 
Lawrenceburg egzster, and holds a high rank among 
the editors of the state of Indiana. He is vice-presi- 
dent of the Southern Indiana Editors’ Association, and 
president of the South-eastern Indiana Editorial Associ- 
ation. At the Democratic state convention of Indiana, 
held at Indianapolis, June 9, 1880, he was chosen a 
member of the state central committee for the Fourth 
Congressional District, to serve two years. Since taking 
up his permanent residence in Lawrenceburg, the city 
of his birth, Doctor Hunter has in every way justified 
the record that he made among the people of Missouri. 
His culture and intelligence, his active temperament and 
untiring devotion to all that is noble and pure, make 
him a power for good in the community; while his so- 
cial nature and winning manners render him very pop- 
ular even among those who differ with him in politics. 
In his domestic relations he is blessed with great hap- 
piness, and his home combines all that is attractive and 
pleasant in life. 


Since 


——-90te-— 
> 


(Ss 


Ci( OHNSON, CAPTAIN GEORGE &., of Brookville, 
was born in Aurora, Indiana, February, 23, 1843. 
ran His father was a slave-holder in Mississippi, where 
Gp) he reared a family of five children, three sons and 
two daughters. He afterward removed North and set- 
tled in Aurora. Mr. Johnson was a conscientious man, 
and before leaving the South disposed of his thirteen 
slaves in a manner most likely to advance their best 
interests—although he thus sacrificed the money he 
would have gained by selling them as chattels in the 
slave mart. Returning to the Southern States in 1846, 
he fell a victim to that dreaded scourge, yellow fever, 
and died in New Orleans. His widow is still living, 
at an advanced age, with her son, who is cashier 
of a bank in Aurora. Another son is a professor of mu- 
sic, and was connected for years with the firm of D. H. 
Baldwin & Company, Cincinnati. George Johnson, the. 
immediate subject of this sketch, obtained a fair educa- 


38 


tion, principally by his own exertions. Unlike the other 
members of the family, he possessed a natural taste for 
mechanics, and has directed his studies more particularly 
to that subject and its cognate branches. Of mathe- 
matics, mechanics, and philosophy, he has a good 
knowledge, and so thoroughly has he mastered the me- 
chanical arts that a few years ago he built a traction-en- 
gine that could be guided and directed, and used suc- 
cessfully, on our common roadways. This engine when 
completed weighed six thousand pounds, and the first 
journey made was from Connersville to New Castle, a 
distance of thirty-one miles. The time occupied was 
eight and one-half hours. Twenty-five passengers were 
carried on this trip, and it was found that by reversing 
the engine in proportion to the grade or declivity of any 
hill a very steep descent could be easily and safely made. 
A few years previous to the late Civil War, Mr. Johnson 
was employed in the shops of the Ohio and Mississippi 
Railroad, at Cochran, Indiana. George B. McClellan, 
afterwards major-general in the United States army, 
was then superintendent of that road, and Horatio G. 
Brooks was master-mechanic. At the breaking out of 
the war Mr. Johnson volunteered as a private, and be- 
came a drummer in Company E, 7th Indiana Regiment. 
His regiment was sent to West Virginia, and served in 
the battles at Philippi, Laurel Hill, and Carrick’s Ford. 
He was regularly mustered out of service that year, and 
returned to his old employment. In the spring of 1862 
he enlisted part of a company, and was elected orderly 
sergeant of Company I, 83d Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 
commanded by General Benjamin Spooner. He was soon 
promoted to the rank of lieutentant, and finally to that 
of captain, which position he had nominally held for 
some time. He also served as staff officer for General 
Sweeny, General Jones, and others. His regiment was 
in the Atlanta campaign. At Vicksburg he was 
wounded in the hip, and at the battle of Resaca 
he was wounded badly in the shoulder. On being 
mustered out of the 1865, he began 
work in Richmond, Indiana, in the shops of Gaar, 
Scott & Co., and went from there into the employment 
of P. H. & F. M. Roots, at Connersville. While there 
he superintended the building of one of the largest 
force-blast blowers in the world, to be used on the 
underground railway in New York. The shafts of this 
blower were twenty-two feet long and seven and one- 
half inches in diameter. It had two gear-wheels, each 
weighing three thousand pounds and eight feet in di- 
ameter. It weighed, when completed, sixty-five tons; 
was twenty-two and a half feet long, twenty-two feet 
high, and fifteen feet wide; and was capable of produc- 
ing an air pressure of fifteen thousand pounds, hurricane 
speed. After leaving Connersville he managed some 
machine works of his own for four years, and was very 
successful. He finally took charge of the Brookville 


service, in 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gth Dest. 


Machine Works as proprietor, building portable, sta- 
tionary, and traction engines. He has here every ap- 
pliance for the manufacture of all kinds of tools, agri- 
cultural implements, and the different kinds of engines. 
His trade is rapidly growing into large proportions; 
and, from the fact that every thing is cheaper in the 
country than in the city, he is enabled to make the low- 
est bids, and compete with the largest shops of the kind 
in city or country. He married, August 2, 1865, Miss 
Clara Gill, an intelligent and educated lady of Hing- 
ham, Massachusetts. Her brother married a Miss Bur- 
bank, a sister of the wife of Governor Morton. Captain 
Johnson is yet a young man. He possesses fine busi- 
ness qualities in addition to his ability as a mechanic, 
and has also the reputation of being scrupulously honest 
in his work and in his dealings with men. He is a 
Republican, and a member of the Baptist Church. He 
designs to improve his traction engine and put it upon 
the market. He is now making money; but he started 
as a poor boy, and has lost several thousand dollars 
through dealings with others. 


—~- 40th 


ONES, JOHN, of Brookville, was born January Io, 
1813, near the town of Denton, Caroline County, 
Maryland. The circumstances of his early life 
were peculiarly unfortunate. He is a posthumous 

child, his father, Robert Jones, having died two months 

before his birth. His mother, Elizabeth Jones, died in 

1816, leaving six children, five sons and one daughter, 

friendless and entirely destitute. Finding them in this 

sad condition, one William Lucus, an overseer of the 
poor, took charge of them, and finally found homes for 
all except John Jones, the youngest, and the immediate 
subject of this sketch. Two years afterward a home 
was procured for him in the family of Zedrich Ferrens, 
in the county of his birth, with whom he remained 
until he was twenty-one years of age, about which time 
Mr. Ferrens died. From his youth Mr, Jones was a 
man of great industry and energy, and endured untold 
privations and hardships. He knew nothing of social 
or educational advantages; for few privileges or oppor- 
tunities were accorded to the friendless orphan, bound 
to a task-master, in an impoverished, slavery-stricken 
state. He was compelled to toil like the veriest slave, 
and received little more compensation than did the slaves 
with whom he labored. During his term of service he 
worked on the farm, and did much toward rearing and 
supporting the Ferrens family. In consequence of their 
early separation, Mr. Jones has never been able to ascer- 
tain the whereabouts of his brothers or sister. He mar- 
ried Maria Colescott, of Caroline County, on the 17th 
of September, 1834. He continued farming about three 
years, but the soil was so poor, and the hand of God 


4th Dist.] 


seemed to be so strongly against that country and its 
fostered institution of slavery, that he and his good wife 
resolved to emigrate to. Indiana. They crossed the 
mountains in a wagon, and in November, 1837, reached 
Marion, Ohio, where they remained until the following 
spring. During this time Mr. Jones was engaged in 
cutting cord-wood, for which he received only a trifle; 
but his disposition then, as now, was never to be idle, 
and he was willing to work for what he could obtain. 
Accompanied by his wife and child, he arrived at Brook. 
ville, Indiana, on the 24th of May, 1838. It being too 


early in the season to commence farming, true to his | 


- industrial habits, he at once engaged himself to the 
company at that time employed in building the White- 
water Valley Canal. He labored incessantly wherever 
his services were most needed; sometimes digging in 
the ditch, sometimes cutting timber, sometimes laying 
piers and helping to erect bridges. He began farming 
in the spring of 1839, renting the Sullivan-Colescott 
farm, east of Brookville. After long and tedious years 
of toil, through industry and unceasing energy he extri- 
cated himself from the slough of poverty, and has for 
nearly twenty years enjoyed the blessings of a good 
home. He now owns a spacious and comfortable resi- 
dence, on a beautiful farm of nearly three hundred acres, 
which overlooks the city of Brookville. It is the joint 
product of his own labor and that of his estimable 
wife, who has been, in every sense, a helpmeet to him. 
Their lives have been made successful by their united 
efforts against obstacles that oftentimes seemed insur- 
mountable. Eight children have been born to them— 
William Henry, James Thomas, John Wesley, Richard 
Franklin, Oliver Pitt, Alexander Hamilton, Anna Maria, 
and Charles Fremont Jones, of whom all are now dead 
except William H. and Charles F., the eldest and 
youngest. Oliver P. died November 26, 1862, aged 
seventeen years; James T. and John W. died Decem- 
ber 40, 1862, aged respectively twenty-three and twenty- 
one years; Richard F. died November 1, 1873, aged 
thirty; Anna M., the only daughter, died November 
20, 1874, aged twenty-three; Alexander H. died October 
19, 1876, aged twenty-eight. Thus the hand of afflic- 
tion has been relentless and severe. Of these deceased 
children we give the following brief sketch: James 
Thomas Jones, after graduation, chose the profession of 
law, and was prosecuting his studies at the time of nis 
death. Possessing no ordinary mind, he excelled as a 

student, and while affable in his manners was firm and 
determined. He was reared on the farm, and knew 
something of the hardships and struggles of the family. 

John W. was also brought up a farmer, and as early as 
possible contributed his mite toward assisting his father. 
At the time of his death he was a member of Company 
H, 68th Regiment of Indiana Infantry, having volun- 


teered for three years in the war for the Union. He 
A—14 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


3g 


had been through a campaign, but in an engagement 
with the enemy was captured, with most of his regi- 
ment, and subjected to the hardships of a prisoner of 
war. Finally he was paroled, and returned home on 
a furlough. While there he was attacked by illness, 
doubtless the effect of exposure in the service, which 
resulted in his death. He was a promising youth, 
patriotic and true. The early life of Richard F, Jones 
was also spent in the country; in the summer working 
with his father, and in the winter attending school. 
Even during this period he exhibited many of the rare 
traits which in his subsequent life bound him to rela- 
tions and friends more firmly than the endearing ties 
of blood. On arriving at manhood he entered upon a 
course of study in the Brookville College, which he 
pursued with few interruptions, and graduated, with 
much honor, in the class of 1867. His intellectual 
powers were of a peculiar order, and his sound, prac- 
tical sense was a safe guide to him in all the emergen- 
cies of his brief career. He was little disposed to wan- 
der where prudence did not lead the way; and, once 
having a purpose in view, his force of will led him on- 
ward to its accomplishment, although frequently his 
powers of endurance were overtaxed by his efforts in 
well-doing. At the conclusion of his collegiate course, 
he chose the profession of teaching, in which, as in 
every undertaking, his labors were crowned with suc- 
cess. In a few years, however, failing health com- 
pelled him to abandon his work and return home. 
Oliver P. Jones was a straightforward, honest, and indus- 
trious boy, and an exemplary youth, admired by all who 
knew him for his excellent qualities. Alexander H. Jones 
was also reared on the farm, but found time to acquire 
a good education, and, like two of his elder brothers, 
chose the profession of law, graduating in the Law De- 
partment of the Indiana University in 1875. His char- 
acter was adorned with excellent qualities, and those 
who were admitted to his friendship could not escape 
the conviction that they were brought into fellowship 
with a noble, generous young man. All who knew him 
remarked in him peculiar earnestness, and the ability to 
become one of the leading men of the country. To 
him life was inviting and full of promise. He was a 
hard student, a fluent and eloquent speaker, and excelled 
in all his undertakings. Anna M. was an accomplished 
and most estimable young lady, of rare attainments. 
Her character was of that high order that commanded 
the esteem and admiration of all with whom she came 
in contact. A sketch of the life of William H. Jones, 
the eldest son, appears elsewhere in this work, and it 
now remains only to speak of the youngest son, Charles 
Fremont Jones. After obtaining a good English edu- 
cation, he spent some time in traveling as the compan- 
ion of an afflicted brother. After his return home, like 
three of his elder brothers, he chose the legal profession, 


40 


and completed his studies at the University of Virginia, 
from which he graduated with honor in the spring of 
18709. after, he commenced the practice of law 
in his native city. He is a bright and earnest student, 
an attentive and honorable business man, and has the 
prospect of a successful future. He married, October 
23, 1879, Mary, the accomplished daughter of the late 
Samuel Rose, of Fairfield, Indiana. He is a stanch 
Republican. John Jones is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, with which all his children have 
united. He was a Whig, but has been a Republican 
since the organization of that party, ever true to its 
principles and devoted to his country. Mr. Jones has 


Soon 


done much good, not only in guiding his own family in | 
He | 
| for that purpose. 


the right way, but in elevating and helping others. 
is a man of firmness and integrity, and has many friends. 


—>-9906-0— 


‘OHNSON, RICHARD, starch manufacturer, Mad- 
ison, was born at Belfast, Ireland—a place noted for 
1, the number of business men of prominence it has 
ay) given to this country—January 11, 1829. He is 
the eldest son of John and Margaret (Waring) Johnson. 
His father was a soap merchant, and educated him with 
a view to a profession, But, preferring mercantile life, 
he went into the office of Mr. O’Neill Bayley, of Belfast, 
After this he went into 
the produce business on his own account. In 1850 he 
concluded to sell out and go to America. He was of- 
fered, as inducements to remain at home, situations with 
some of his relatives, who were extensive ship-owners 
and shippers, doing business with the East Indies and 
America; but these offers could not make him alter his 
determination to strike out for himself and seek his for- 
tune among strangers. Shortly after his arrival in New 
York he obtained a situation in a commission house, 
where he remained for more than a year, and then came 
West. After traveling through different parts of the 
Western States, he finally settled at Madison, Indiana. 
Here he was employed in the pork-packing establishment 
of Mr. O’Neill Bayley, with whom he had served his 
time at home. He remained with Mr. Bayley several 
years, attending to his pork business here, and in differ- 
ent cities of the West, and, during the summer months, 
when business was dull—there was no summer packing 
in those days—would seek such other employment as it 
was offered. He could not endure idleness, and often 
worked as a laborer during the day and attended to his 
bookkeeping at night. In 1856 Messrs. O’Neill Bayley 
& Co, purchased the Crystal Starch Works at Madison, 
and appointed Mr. Johnson superintendent, which posi- 
tion he held until the failure cf that firm in 1859. The 
next year Mr. Johnson and Mr. John Clements, under 
the firm name of Johnson & Clements, purchased the 


with whom he served his time. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| same starch works. 
and a bad investment’ for its owners, 


[4th Dist. 


This had hitherto proved a failure 
but, 
careful and judicious management, a large and profita- 
ble trade was established. In 1872 they talked of moy- 
ing their works to some other locality, and, after looking 
around for some time, they finally chose Leavenworth, 
Kansas, as heing a suitable place. When the citizens 
of Leavenworth heard of this possibly large addition to 
their manufacturing interests, they sent a committee of 
three citizens to confer with them in regard to the ad- 
vantages of that locality. Upon the return of this com- 
mittee, the city of Leavenworth made Messrs. Johnson 
& Clements the flattering offer of a gift of about fifty 
thousand dollars to locate their works there. An act of 
the Legislature was passed to enable them to issue bonds 
This offer was taken into considera- 
tion, but, on account of the possible failure of crops in 
that state, they decided to remain at Madison, and a 
short time afterwards dissolved partnership. The same 
offer was then made to Mr. Johnson to build at Leaven- 
worth that was made to Messrs. Johnson & Clements, 
but, for the above reason, was not accepted. He then 
associated with him his son John, under the firm name 
of R. Johnson & Son, and erected at Madison one of 
the largest corn-starch works in the country, with all the 
modern improvements, and in a locality unsurpassed for 
convenience by that of any other establishment in the 
state, having the Ohio River on one side and the Jef- 
fersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad on the 
other. The starch bearing their brand is well and favor- 
ably known, and finds a ready sale in all the principal 
markets of the world. Mr. Johnson is engaged in other 
enterprises, but the starch business receives the most of 
his attention. He has always been very successful and 
persistent in his undertakings, and his opinions and judg- 
ments are formed only after the most careful consideration. 
Having once decided upon a course of action he pur- 
sues it with fortitude, devoting his whole energy and 
constant efforts to the attainment of his object. He has 
been twice married, and is the father of seven children, 
five of whom are still living. He is a regular attendant 
of the Presbyterian Church, and has always given liber- 
ally for charitable and other objects, 


under their 


+900 — 


ONES, CAPTAIN WILLIAM H., lawyer, of 
Brookville, was born in Caroline County, Mary- 
land, July 1, 1836. The distinguishing features of 
ay his boyhood were poverty, hard work, and an un- 

gratified thirst for knowledge. Up to the nineteenth year 
of his age his education had been acquired 1n that unsatis- 
factory and desultory manner better described as being 

‘picked up;” that is to say, a grain of knowledge here 
and another there, as chance afforded the opportunity, 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF IKEINGI° 


gth Dist.) 


and a leisure moment the time. At the age above men- 
tioned he entered the Brookville College, and graduated 
with credit four years later. During this time he lived 
at home—a distance of about two miles from the town— 
where, morning and evening, he assisted on the farm, 
in addition to working in the field during the hot, ener- 
vating days of summer. It is possible, however, that, 
hard as his lot then seemed, the very difficulties he en- 
countered laid broad and deep the foundations of that 
energy, perseverance, and strength of will that have 
characterized him in all the pursuits of life. On leav- 
ing college, he quietly began his routine labors on his 
father’s farm, teaching school occasionally, when he 
could be spared from home, and slowly but surely ac- 
quiring the funds necessary to defray personal expenses 
while studying law, to which profession he had long 
resolved to devote himself. He had just commenced 
his law studies, in the office of Howland & Barbour, at 
Indianapolis, when the death, in rapid succession, of his 
brothers, Pitt, James, and John, recalled him to Brook- 
ville. This sad event necessitated his remaining at 
home, where, in the office of Holland & Binkley, he 
again plunged, with all the ardor of youth and en- 
thusiasm, into the dry mysteries of Coke and Black- 
stone. He speaks with a gratitude that is truly re- 
freshing of Messrs. Holland & Binkley, by whose 
kindness he was enabled, as a notary public, while 
yet in their office, to earn an occasional dollar in 
fees. He passed some time in studying law, assist- 
ing his father, and occasionally teaching school, as 
in his college days. At the breaking out of the war 
he joined one of the three months? regiments, and 
participated in the first West Virginia campaign. By 
Governor Morton he was afterward commissioned captain 
in the Indiana Legion, which did service as effective 
though less glorious than that of their comrades in the 
field. His record asa soldier closes with a short campaign 
as first lieutenant of the Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in 
1864. He was admitted to the bar the year following, 
and was at once appointed deputy district attorney for 
the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court. January 1, 1867, he 
was admitted as an equal partner in the firm of his old 
preceptors. His star was now in the ascendency. He 
had toiled for years amid the rocky and barren fields of 
poverty and want, but was now beginning to reap the 
well-earned reward of his merits. In 1868 he was 
elected district attorney, and in the spring of 1872 re- 
ceived the appointment of United States comunissioner, 
which position he still fills. Judge Holland died in 
1875, and the year following Mr. Jones dissolved his 
partnership with Mr. Binkley; a twelvemonth later the 
present firm of Jones & McMahan was formed. Mr. 
Jones is a most radical Republican; and as a political 
speaker and delegate has in several campaigns rendered 


his party efficient service. He married, May 16, 1864, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


AI 


Miss Aurelia H. John, daughter of the late Robert John. 
One child—a daughter of thirteen—is the result of the 
union. Captain Jones isa man of strong, well-knit 
frame, of prepossessing appearance, and manners so un- 
assuming that they might be termed diffident. He pos- 
sesses a strong constitution and is capable of performing an 
almost unlimited amount of work. He has an excellent 
practice, which has handsomely remunerated his years 
of hard labor. His reputation as a lawyer is equaled 
only by his worth as a private citizen. His domestic 
life is charming in its refinement and culture; sympa- 
thetic and charitable, he has a kind word for all. There 
is much in his life to admire; in his character there is 
still more to respect. 
—>F0te-— 


GP aan, JOHN HOWARD, merchant, of Aurora, 
4 is a native of the state of Kentucky, and was born 
Gi on the 4th of September, 1850, in Maysville, 
©? Mason County. He is descended from English 
and French ancestors, and is the eldest living son of 
William W. and Elizabeth (Blake) Lamar. He was 
educated in the Maysville Seminary under the tuition 
of President Richardson, a gentleman of high literary 
attainments, and a successful educator. After taking a 
full classical course he graduated with honors, and 
soon after went with his parents té Newport, Kentucky. 
In 1864 his father removed to Aurora, Indiana, where, 
assisted by his son, he conducted a successful dry-goods 
trade. In the early part of 1878, Mr. Jee Hes Wamiar 
purchased his father’s store, and is now carrying on the 
business. In 1878 he married the accomplished daughter 
of J. J. and Caroline Backman, of Aurora. Miss Back- 
man spent two years in traveling under the tutorage of 
Rev. Doctor Burt, visiting, besides various parts of 
Europe, Egypt and the Holy land. In the fine arts 
she has displayed skill and versatility, and some of her 
landscape paintings are executed with surprising exact- 
ness, She is a member of the Presbyterian Church, 
while Mr, Lamar belongs to the Episcopal Church, of 
which he was appointed junior wardcn by Bishop Tal- 
bott, of the diocese of Indiana. Mr. Lamar is an active 
and enterprising business man, and one of Aurora’s 
most wealthy and popular citizens. 


—>S0t<— 
a 
AMB, JAMES, M. D., of Aurora, was born in Ve- 
nango County, Pennsylvania, on Oil Creek, near 
Sik the first oil well, February 15, 1818, and was the 
- oldest son of the thirteen children of David Ham- 
ilton and Margaret (Kidd) Lamb. His paternal ances- 
tors emigrated from the north of Ireland before the 
Revolutionary War, and General John Lamb was the 
first collector of the port of New York under Washing- 


42 
ton. Both his grandmothers were of Scotch-Irish de- 
scent. One was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. 


When he was only nine years of age his parents removed 
to Indiana and settled in Jefferson County. 
of fifteen he became clerk in a dry-goods store in the 
village of Canaan, and after one year was sent by his 
employers with Mr. Goodrich on a coasting trading boat 
down the Ohio River. Although among other duties 
he was obliged to sell intoxicating liquors, he never in- 
dulged in their use. After disposing of his goods and 
boat, he entered the employment of two brothers who were 
extensive farmers, merchants, and suppliers of wood to 
steamboats. He was engaged to take charge of their 
store, all the money taken in their extensive business 
passing through his hands. He early acquired studious 
habits, and spent his evenings in reading aloud to his 
employers, who became so well pleased with him as to 
offer to educate him at the Catholic institution at Beards- 
town, Kentucky. He had made preparations to accept 
their kindness, when he was stricken with a disease from 
which he did not recover for eighteen months, and was 
obliged to return home. Preparatory to moving West, 
his father, David Lamb, sold his farm, taking in part 
payment notes which matured some two years after. He 
then returned to Pennsylvania, received his money, and 
invested in a fleet of coal-barges. They were wrecked in 
a storm near Cincinnati, and Mr, Lamb never fully recov- 
ered from the loss. He died in 1866, at the age of sev- 
enty-five years. His wife survives him, and is eighty 
years old. James Lamb’s educational advantages were 
very limited. After mastering Pike’s and Smiley’s arith- 
metic, he wished to procure a grammar; and in order to 
procure the necessary means took some corn on horse- 
back nine miles to Madison, where he sold it at twenty 
cents per bushel. He then bought one of Professor 
Kirkham’s grammars, and by close application mastered 
it. At the age of nineteen he began teaching school, 
which he continued twelve years, spending his leisure in 
study. In the autumn of 1845, after he had been teach- 
ing one year, he commenced the study of medicine, re- 
citing to Doctor John Horne, of Moorefield. He after- 
wards studied with Doctor Buel Eastman, and, later, with 
Doctor Benjamin Tevis, gentlemen of culture and ability. 
He commenced practice in May, 1849, just previous to 
the great cholera epidemic of that year, and treated 
many cases successfully. In 1856 he performed paracen- 
tects abdominis for a lady thirty-six years old, who had 
become so large that respiration was seriously impaired; 
and in twenty-three tappings, in a period of fourteen 
months, drew away one hundred and twenty-six gallons 
of fluid. In 1858, in company with Doctor Butz (since 
deceased), he opened a preparatory college of medicine, 
supplying it with a very valuable anatomical museum 
and laboratory, at a cost of sixteen hundred dollars. 
They had six students at the breaking out of the war, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


At the age | 


[gth Dist. 


| five of whom, including a brother of Doctor Lamb, en- 
"tered, the army, and either were killed on the field, or 
died of disease or wounds. During the small-pox epi- 
demic of 1862 in Indiana, out of about one hundred 
cases treated by Doctor Lamb, only three proved fatal. 
During the prevalence of this disease he saw no 
other patients. Feeling a desire for a more thorough 
medical education, he took a course of lectures at the 
Medical Department of the University of Michigan, 
where he graduated in 1853, the second in’ the class. 
While a student in the university he was chosen one of 
the committee to revise the ‘‘ Serapion,” a college literary 
and scientific society; and at the close of the session re- 
ceived a certificate of honorable membership. He re- 
sumed practice in the spring of 1856 at Allensville, Switz- 
erland County, Indiana. In 1865 he removed to Aurora, 
where he has since been engaged in successful practice. 
Doctor Lamb was an old-line Whig, and is now a Repub- 
lican. He cast his first vote for General Harrison, in 
1840. He was a warm friend of the Union in the late 
Civil War, and was only prevented from enlisting by the 
care of his family and his aged parents. He had four 
brothers in the army, one of whom, as before menticned, 
died from a wound received at the battle of Gettysburg, 
and was buried with the honors of war in the soldiers’ 
cemetery at York, Pennsylvania. Another brother, 
Hugh, was wounded while storming the enemy’s works 
at Richmond; the two others escaped unhurt. Both 
Doctor Lamb and his wife are members of the Presby- 
terian Church, he having united with it when twenty- 
four years old, and she in early youth. In 1862 Doctor 
Lamb was a delegate to the United States General As- 
sembly at Cincinnati, Ohio; and also to Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, in 1870; and was a member of the judi- 
ciary committee, composed of the ablest churchmen of 
America and Europe. He has always been frank and 
generous, and ready to alleviate the sufferings of his 
fellow-men. He is an honored member of the Masonic 
Fraternity, but thinks Church duties of more importance 
than those of Freemasonry. He assisted in reorganiz- 
ing the Dearborn County Medical Society, which had 
been suspended for several years, and which now num- 
bers about fifty physicians, some of whom reside out of 
the state. He has contributed many papers to this 
society, which are now on-file in the archives; and is 
always ready to defend the honor and integrity of the 
profession. In 1874 he was called to treat an obscure 
‘disease which, with the assistance of the celebrated Doc- 
tor George Sutton and son, was pronounced trichinosis, 
and as such was successfully treated, only three out of 
eleven cases proving fatal. Doctor Lamk.also operated 
successfully for a case of strangulated hernia, the patient 
being fifty-five years old, for which operation he re- 
ceived complimentary notice from the Dearborn County 
Medical Society. He has devoted a large portion of his 


4th Dist] 


time to the successful treatment of chronic female dis- 
eases and diseases of the eye. In November, 1841, 
Doctor Lamb married Miss Sarah Ann Carnine, of 
Switzerland County, Indiana. Her ancestors on her 
mother’s side were Hollanders, and remotely connected 
with the celebrated Anneke Jans. Her grand-parents 
came from New Jersey to Kentucky, from which state 
her parents migrated to Indiana at an early date. Doc- 
tor Lamb has had four children, two of whom survive. 
The son, Lamartine Kossuth, is a graduate of the Ohio 
Medical College, and has a good practice in Tolono, 
Illinois; the daughter, America Cerella, who completed 
her musical education under the tuition of Professor 
Andre, of Cincinnati, Ohio, is the wife of Doctor Fred- 
erick Treon, also a graduate of Ohio Medical College, 
and in practice with his father-in-law at Aurora. 


>ATHROP, LEVI P., late of Greensburg, merchant 
and banker, was born in that place, April 15, 
1832. His father, Ezra Lathrop, a native of 
Canada, came to Greensburg in 1824; engaged in 
business as a dry-goods merchant, and retired with a 
handsome fortune. Levi P. Lathrop received a good 
education in the Greensburg schools. After a thorough 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


| ment. 


business training in his father’s store, he was received | 


as partner at the age of twenty-one. On the 14th of 
April, 1857, he married Eliza, second daughter of David 
Lovett. He continued a prosperous business with his 


father until April, 1865, when he engaged with David | 


Lovett and Samuel Christy in banking. In this, also, 
he was very successful until his death, which took place 
September 15, 1874. He died, as he had lived, a con- 


sistent Christian, having been for several years a worthy | 


member of the Greensburg Baptist Church. He left a 


wife and two children. 
—~-4at6--— 


fy ATHROP, EZRA, merchant and capitalist, of 
Greensburg, was born March 12, 1803, at Sutton, 
Canada, to which place his father, Rev. Erastus 

- Lathrop, had removed from Connecticut a few 
years previous. On the breaking out of the War of 
1812, Rev. Erastus Lathrop went to a place near St. 
’ Albans, Vermont, being unwilling to pass through the 
war against his native country. Here, while a boy, 
Ezra Lathrop learned much of the excitement attend- 
ing war. The battle of Lake Champlain was fought in 
hearing of his father’s house, and many adventures with 
smugglers kept up the excitement until the conclusion 
of peace. 


His father, not being satisfied with the coun- | 


43 


journey of five hundred miles was made in sleighs dur- 
ing the winter. Such an undertaking, with a young 
family, required great nerve for its accomplishment. 
Arriving at Olean Point, a place famous in pioneer his- 
tory, they embarked on a raft for their point of desti- 
nation, steamboats being then unknown. The first year 
was spent in Dearborn County, and at its close Mr. 
Lathrop purchased lands on the edge of Ripley County, 
on the hills of Laughrey Creek, the principal object 
being to find a more healthy Jocation. At this time a 
few miles back on the north-west was Indian Territory. 
The block-houses erected by the territorial inhabitants, 
to which they fled for defense against. Indian depreda- 
tions, were still standing. Three years later the title of 
the Indians to a large tract of land, the richest and 
best for settlement in the state, was extinguished, and 


_ the land placed upon the market by the general govern- 


Mr. Lathrop determined to profit by the advan- 
tages offered, and, selling his farm in Ripley County in 
the year 1821, made purchases in Decatur County. Re- 
turning to his home in Ripley County with a view to 
the removal of his family, he was stricken down with 
malarial disease, and died. Then began the real hard- 
ships and trials of the subject of this sketch. In the 
following January, with a younger brother for cook, and 
a hired man, he found his way through the wilderness 
to the lands purchased by his father. It was a dense 
forest, overgrown with spice-wood and great trees, which 
the woodman’s ax had not disturbed. Here, in the 
month of January, beside a poplar log, a rough camp 
was improvised for a house, and during the winter and 
spring ten acres of land were cleared, and a log-cabin 
provided for the widowed mother and little children. 
At this time there were but few families in the country. 
The town (now city) of Greensburg contained but three - 
cabins, while forest trees and spice-wood covered its 
public square. In the spring of 1822 the family re- 
moved to their new lodge in the wilderness. On the 
4th of August, 1824, Ezra Lathrop married Miss Abbie 
Potter, daughter of Nathaniel Potter, who had moved 
from Kentucky and settled near by. She proved to be 
a devoted and frugal wife, and aided him in his strug- 
gles in a new country in the effort to rise from poverty 
to competence. They lived together prosperously until 
her death, which occurred August 21, 1877. His early 
occupation was farming, but after his marriage, having 
a taste and aptness for business, he removed to Greens- 
burg, and by employing skilled labor became a con- 
tractor and builder in stone and brick. This he contin- 
ued until he was elected a Justice of the Peace in 1832, 
in which office he served, with repeated elections, for 
twenty-four years, doing a large amount of business. 
In the year 1838 he formed a partnership with his 


try where he was living, sold his possessions there and | brother-in-law, Zebina Warriner, in the dry-goods trade. 
removed to the state of Indiana in the year 1817. The | After remaining in this relation one year he sold out, 


44 


and engaged in the same business in partnership with 
Calvin Poramore. At the close of a year he purchased 
the interest of Mr. Poramore, and soon after made his 
son, Levi P. Lathrop, a partner in the trade. The lat- 
ter became a successful merchant and business man. 
He died in 1874, after having acquired a handsome 
estate for his family; the later years of his life he spent 
as a banker. In January, 1862, Ezra Lathrop retired 
permanently from the mercantile business, placing his 
son, Rey. James Lathrop, who for many years had been 
employed as an active minister in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in various parts of Indiana, in his stead 
in the firm. Mr. Lathrop has since been known as a 
lender of money, in which he has had a large experi- 
ence. In early life, in the state of Vermont, he united 
with the Baptist Church, of which he remains an active 
member and supporter. Though his head is white with 
the frost of years, his place is always filled in the sanc- 
tuary. At the Sabbath-school, the prayer-meeting, and 
public congregation it would excite remark if he were 
absent. His opportunities for an early education were 
poor, but he acquired sufficient knowledge for the cor- 
rect transaction of business, and, during his long service 
as a Justice of the Peace, such familiarity with the laws 
of the country as made him the legal adviser of many 
of his neighbors. Now, in old age, bereft of all his 
family but one son, he is spending a quiet though 
not indifferent life, looking forward to the near future, 
when he shall realize that for which he now cheerfully 
hopes. 


tf) 
Ci ANGTREE, SAMUEL DALY, of Aurora, was 
Als born November 12, 1839, in Napoleon, Ripley 


—>-ste-<—_ 


(an County, Indiana. His parents, James Hope and 
Oe Mary Jane (White) Langtree, emigrated from 


Belfast, Ireland, in 1831. His mother was the daugh- 
ter of a linen-draper, and a manufacturer of consider- 
His father’s father was a minister of 
considerable eloquence and power. Samuel D. Lang- 
tree received a common school education, and when 
nineteen years of age opened a retail grocery in Au- 
In 1865 he 
commenced to ship produce to New Orleans, and in 
five years shipped one hundred and thirty-five boat- 
loads of produce and plantation supplies to that market 
In 1872, in company with Mr. J. W. Gaff, 
he purchased the old Union Brewery property—now 
called the Crescent—which, after being improved, be- 
came very valuable, and is now the largest and best 
arranged brewery in the state. 


able means. 


rora, in which he was very successful. 


with profit. 


The building originally 
cost two hundred and sixty thousand dollars, and when 
in full operation employs from sixty to seventy-five 
men, producing, on an average, six hundred kegs of 
beer per day. A bottling department has recently been 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


added. In 1867 Mr. Langtree married Miss Louisa R. 
Cornell, daughter of Elias and Esther Cornell, of Rip- 
ley County, Indiana, and has two children. Mr. Lang- 
tree is an excellent business man, and a wealthy and 
useful member of society. He is unpretentious in his 
manner, and a great favorite with all who have the 
pleasure of his acquaintance. He is a Democrat, but 
takes no specially active part in politics. For the past 
four years he has been a member of the common coun- 
cil of Aurora. 
—~>- FH —_ 


eITTLE, REV. HENRY, D. D., was born in Bos 
* cawen, New Hampshire, March 23, 1800, Enoch 
Little, the ancestor of his father, emigrated from 
London to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1640; and 
Captain William Gervish, his mother’s forefather, from 
Bristol, England, to the same place, in 1639. Both were 
Christian men, and their numerous posterity were prom- 
inent in the agricultural and financial affairs of the 
country, taking an active part in the old French and 
Revolutionary Wars, and did much in organizing schools, 
Churches, and society in those early times. Trained in 
the habits of industry and economy upon his father’s farm, 
he became intensely interested in all parts of the busi- 
ness; and, being well educated in the free schools of 
New England, he taught three months the winter he 
was seventeen, and for some years following. Becoming 
a Christian in his early childhood, and taking an active 
part in religious meetings in all his youth, and being 
advised by as many as six ministers to make preaching 
the gospel his life-work, about his twentieth birthday 
he reluctantly gave up the farm to a younger brother, 
and began to prepare for college. He graduated at 
Dartmouth, standing high in his class, in 1826, and at 
Andover Theological Seminary in 1829; and the day 
after, September 24, with fifteen other home and for- 
eign missionaries, was ordained by the Newburyport 
Presbytery, in Park Street Church, Boston. His influ- 
ence had been such with young men as to induce the 
professors of the seminary to advise him to accept an 
appointment of the American Educational Society. He 
worked for them almost a year in New England and 
another in the West, and in this time induced so many 
to commence their preparation for the ministry, and 
raised so much money for their support, as to make 
these years the most useful of his life. In 1831 the 
Presbyterian Church of Oxford, Ohio, called him to be 
their pastor. The professors of the university and two 
hundred students were a part of his congregation, and 
in less than two years two hundred and _ ninety-seven 
united with his Church. September 19, 1831, he mar- 
ried Susan Norton Smith, who was born in Hatfield, 
Massachusetts, May 10, 1810. She was a pupil of Miss 
Mary Lyon, and, with an associate, had been teaching a 


gtr Dist.) 


ladies’ high school in Chillicothe, Ohio. In her hus- 
band’s long absences from home she had the principal 
training of her eight children, and has now the happi- 
ness of seeing them all Christians, and the four sons all 
very successful ministers of the gospel. Known to 
have been very successful in his work for the American 
Educational Society, that society, the American Board of 
Foreign Missions, the American Tract Society, and the 
American Home Mission Society, all wished him to. be 
their secretary and general agent, with his office at Cin- 
cinnati; but, seeing the immense emigration beginning 
to flow over the Alleghany Mountains, and the few 
Churches then in the valley of the Mississippi, he re- 
luctantly left a loving, united Church, and accepted the 
call of the American Home Mission Society, though it 
promised less salary, and presented, at that time, more 
hardships and self-denial, than either of the other three. 
But it was not yet decided that this should be his per- 
manent work; so, in 1838, he accepted a call to the 
Second Presbyterian Church of Madison, Indiana, where 
he labored successfully for about two years, and was 
then pressed into the home mission work again, and has 
continued in it ever since, turning aside once to collect 
about fifty thousand dollars for Lane Seminary, and at 
another to raise about ten thousand dollars for the 
Western Female Seminary at Oxford, and once gave a 
course of seven lectures to the students of Lane Semi- 
nary; and, though twice invited to fill the chair of a 
professor in college, and to become pastor of the Churches 
in Lexington, Kentucky ; Lowell, Massachusetts ; Cincin- 
nati, Louisville, St. Louis, and many other places, he 
believed he could do more for his Master in the home 
mission work than by having the care of any one Church. 
Though his family lived in Madison, ever after 1838, 
his office was for years at Cincinnati; and as Ohio, 
Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois were filling up, and as 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa began to be populated, 
others came in to help him in his wide and growing 
field of labor. His duties required long rides on horse- 
back to Western Pennsylvania and Western Virginia, 
Southern Tennessee, and all over Indiana, through 
deep mud, fording and swimming swollen streams. 
Scearcely once in the fifty years of his ministry did he 
fail in an appointment. He has never once gone aboard 
a railroad, steamboat, or a stage in any of the twenty- 
four hours of a Sabbath day. Often preaching in barns, 
log-cabins, school-houses, on steamboats, sometimes as- 
sisting ministers one, two, or three weeks in their pro- 
tracted meetings, and in more than twenty Presbyterian 
camp-meetings, in a large part of the last forty-five 
years he has delivered the Word on an average as often 
as once a day, and has seen some thousands become 
pious under his ministry.. In 1865 the title of D. D. 
was conferred by Wabash College. When he moved 
his family to Indiana, she had no free schools, and two- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF JNDIANA. 


45 


fifths of her voters could not read; and always taking a 
deep interest in education, believing that free schools, 
where God’s Word, the infallible guide to individuals, 
families, and nations, is read daily, are essential to the 
prosperity of a state or nation, he wrote seven letters 
for a Madison paper, urging the authorities to establish 
graded schools. He gave many lectures in other parts 
of the state upon the subject, and in the Indiana Cen- 
tennial School Report his name is given as the principal 
originator of the first ‘*graded school” of the state. 
A fuller history of a man who has had so much to do 
with the wonderful changes and improvements since he 
first saw Indiana, in 1830, would present some incidents 
of most striking interest, but could not be expected in 
this sketch. We close with a part of a letter written 
in 1867 for the New York Evangelist, by Doctor Tuttle, 
of Wabash College. He says of Doctor Little: 


‘During a brief pastorate scores were converted, 
and some of them fill places of great usefulness in 
Church and state. There is no labor he shuns in pros- 
ecuting his work as a sort of home missionary bishop. 
Along the Miami, the Scioto, the Muskingum, the 
White, and the Wabash Rivers, in the heats of sum- 
mer and the tremendous discomforts of a Western 
winter, he pushes his work, now in the grand old 
woods, now in the log school-house and private man- 
sion, or in the humble meeting-house, telling men of 
Christ. He has ridden four continuous days on horse- 
back, in mud and rain, to reach an appointment. From 
Marietta to Evansville, from Cleveland to Laporte, this 
man has gone, planting Churches, building up waste 
places, encouraging home missionaries, searching out 
the scattered sheep, holding protracted meetings, every- 
where welcomed, honored, and loved. Thirty-six years 
has he been at this work, until he has publicly addressed 
more audiences, visited more Churches, worked directly 
in more revivals, in Ohio and Indiana, talked to more 
people, seen more changes in communities and persons, 
than any other man that can be named. Go where he 
will, he meets those who owe every thing to him as 
God’s instrument, those who have been encouraged by 
him, those who have caught the best impulses of life 
from him; and now, in this year 1867, this blessed man 
has preached fourteen times in eight days in one pulpit, 
placing the gospel in such a cheerful light that his 
hearers exclaim, ‘Would to God we could love as he 
does?” 


J} 
C(GIVINGS, THEODORE, attorney-at-law, Vevay, 
4° was born in Switzerland County, September 15, 
Gh 1839. His parents, Everson and Lucy (Norton) 
ey) Livings, are still living, on a farm at Allensville, 
Switzerland County. His father’s family is of Penn- 
sylvanian origin, but his mother is of English descent, 
and is from Martha’s Vineyard. His early education 
was in the common schools; and he taught for some 
time, until he decided to enter college. Lacking the 
necessary means, he resolved, nevertheless, to overcome 
that difficulty, and in 1859 went to Wabash Uni- 


46 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


versity at Crawfordsville. Here he pursued his studies 
for four years, paying his way by his own labor. He 
was, at the same time, janitor of the college building, 
sexton of a Methodist Church, and for three hours each 
day waited at a hotel table for his board. Notwith- 
standing the encroachments made upon his time and at- 
tention by these duties, he not only kept up with his 
class, but always stood at the head of the roll of honor, 
and was considered worthy of the distinction of a mem- 
bership in the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity. He thus 
succeeded not only in meeting his necessary college ex- 
penses, but had a little money to spare after educating 
and clothing himself. In 1862 he left college to enter 
the army, was active in raising a company, and ob- 
tained the first lieutenancy of Company D, 93d Regi- 
ment Indiana Volunteers. He was appointed post 
adjutant of the regiment at Madison, where they ren- 
dezvoused. From Madison they went to Memphis, 
where he was detailed on staff duty, acting as brigade 
aide-de-camp and adjutant during almost his entire 
term of service, and for some time as inspector gen- 
eral of division, under General Buckland. In 1864 he 
was commissioned as adjutant of his regiment, with 
which he was engaged at the siege of Vicksburg, and 
in the battles of Jackson, Guntown, Tupelo, Nash- 
ville, Mobile, and Blakely, besides several skirmishes. 
The 93d Indiana Regiment was in the same bri- 
gade during its whole term of service. At Nashville 
this brigade, on the afternoon of the second day’s fight- 
ing, was led out to storm the enemy’s works, and, while 
the rest of the command lay watching the result with 
fearful anxiety, this little band of soldiers broke Hood’s 
lines for the first time that day, capturing sixteen can- 
non, and more prisoners than the brigade had men. 
The whole Union line, charging immediately afterward, 
routed Hood’s forces, and followed him most of the 
night. His term of service expired in August, 1865, 
and he returned to his home, spent another year 
at college, and commenced the study of law with 
Ion. O. M. Wilson, of Indianapolis. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Vevay in March, 1868, and has 
been engaged in the practice of law in that place ever 
since. He was for two years school trustee of Vevay, 
for six years deputy United States collector of the 
county, and for five years deputy prosecuting attorney 
for the county. While engaged in the last capacity, he 
conducted several important trials, in every instance 
proving himself an able and skilful lawyer and a suc- 
cessful prosecutor. In his law practice he was for five 
years associated with the late W. H. Atkinson. Since 
1878, he has been in partnership with Colonel W. D. 
Ward, under the firm name of Ward & Livings. In 
addition to his practice, which is reputed the most ex- 
tensive in the county, Captain Livings does a large 
business as agent for a number of prominent insurance 


[gth Dost. 


companies. He is a member of both the Masonic and 
Odd-fellows societies, and is Past Master of the Masonic 
Lodge. He is also a member of the Baptist Church at 
Vevay. As a lawyer he has the reputation of being 
shrewd, clear-headed, painstaking, and industrious. He 
is a close student, and few men conduct a case with 
better defined ideas of the points of law bearing on the 
subject. Mr. Livings is a Republican, and, while never 
himself a candidate for office, has done active service in 
speaking for others, both in national and local cam- 
paigns. April 7, 1870, he married Miss Mary A. Jack- 
man, daughter of Josiah Jackman. Mr. Jackman, who 
was for many years a prominent citizen of Vevay, was 
a founder and machinist by trade, and enjoyed the rep- 
utation of being one of the most singularly ingenious 
mechanics of his day. He had a rare talent for the 
sciences, and the construction of scientific instruments; 
and there are still in possession of the family rare and 
curious models of his contrivance, including microscopic 
and telescopic appliances, etc. Mr. Livings has a fam- 
ily of two children, a son and a daughter. He has 
erected a pleasant residence in Vevay, occupying one- 
fourth of a square, and has collected many of the com- 
forts of life around his home, where he will probably 
spend the remainder of his life. Personally, he is a 
man of fine appearance and good address, a fluent 
speaker, and popular in his profession and in the com- 
munity. 

—<-9ath-~—_ 


7? OVETT, DAVID, merchant and banker, Greens- 
burg, was born in Dayton, Ohio, November 22, 
1809. His parents, Elias and Sarah (Chenoweth) 
Lovett, both natives of Virginia, were of German 
and English ancestry. They came to Ohio in 1806, and 
settling near Dayton engaged in farming. When he was 
but six months old David Lovett’s father died, leaving 
him to the care of his widowed mother, who after five 
years removed with him to Pendleton County, Ken- 
tucky, where she soon after married Henry Wicoff, a 
farmer. With a very limited common-school education, 
Mr. Lovett was industriously employed on the farm at 
home until he was eighteen years of age, when with the 
consent of his mother he started out to make his own 
living. His first engagement was with a farmer two 
miles away, where he remained six months engaged in 
common farm labor with the slaves, receiving as his 
wages six dollars and twenty-five cents per month. He 
continued at farm labor until he reached his twenty-first 
year, when, in 1830, he went to Marion County, Indi- 
ana, near Indianapolis, and entered forty acres of land. 
After making suitable improvements he brought his 
mother and step-father from Kentucky, where they had 
lost their property, and settled them upon this farm. 
He then purchased eighty acres of land in the same 


ae 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOK 


4th Dist.) 


county, and after making some improvements sold it 
and bought one hundred and sixty acres, upon which he 
remained two years. Selling this he removed to Shelby 
County, where he bought a farm of one hundred acres, and 
remained until 1837. He then sold his land, and engaged 


in the mercantile business at Middletown, in the same: 


county. After two years he sold out, and removed to St. 
Omer, Decatur County, where he carried on a successful 
dry-goods trade until 1850. He then disposed of his 
stock, and in company with Richard Robbins entered into 
the wholesale grocery business at 68 West Pearl Street, 
Cincinnati. After one year’s experience he sold out, and 
removed to Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana, and 
again engaged in the dry-goods trade, having a prosper- 
ous business until 1865, when he again sold out. One 
year after, with Levi P. Lathrop and Samuel Christy, he 
organized the Citizens’ Bank of Greensburg, which after 
five years of successful business was reorganized as 
the Citizens’ National Bank: David Lovett, presi- 
dent; L. P. Lathrop, vice-president; Samuel Christy, 
cashier; and Daniel W. Lovett, bookkeeper. This bank 
has been very prosperous, and the fact that it has not 
lost one thousand dollars since its organization is an evi- 
dence of its officers’ skillful management and judicious 
investments. David Lovett has occupied many impor- 
tant positions of trust and responsibility. His varied 
and useful life has been characterized by honesty and 
integrity, and is a striking illustration of what can be 
accomplished by industry, energy, and perseverance. 
He is emphatically a self-made man; having arisen from 
comparative obscurity to wealth, refinement, and influ- 
ence in society. He is a kind and indulgent father, a 
good citizen, and a devoted Christian. He has for 
many years given the closest attention to business, has 
been prompt to meet his promises, honest and straight- 
forward in his dealings, and has been deservedly success- 
ful. He has accumulated a comfortable fortune, which 
he enjoys with his family and friends. He gives boun- 
tifully of his means to sustain the Church. In politics 
Mr. Lovett is a Republican. He is a modest man, 
rarely taking any part in public discussions on any ques- 
tion, but is always found with a clear conviction of what 
is right and best to be done. David Lovett mar- 
ried, January 10, 1833, Matilda Conner, of Shelby 
County, Indiana. She died September 1, 1839, leaving 
three children to his care; one of them, the widow of 
the late Levi P. Lathrop, is still living. October 1, 
1840, he married his present wife, Hannah Wood, of 
Rush County, Indiana, a lady of superior excellence 
of character, in every way worthy of the high position 
she holds in the affection of her family, and in the es- 
teem of a large circle of friends. They have had three 
children, of whom two sons are now living. At the 
age of twenty-four years Mr. Lovett united with the 
Baptist Church in Kentucky, and remained an active 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


47 


member until after his second marriage; he then with 
his wife joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 
which he has been an official member to the present 
time. 

a OG 


izens’ National Bank, was born at St. Omer, De- 

catur County, Indiana, March 15, 1845. He was 
SY educated at Asbury University, Greencastle, and 
soon afterwards engaged as bookkeeper in the Citizens’ 
Bank of Greensburg. There he remained until 1873, 
when he resigned his position and formed a partner- 
ship with W. W. Lowe, in the St. Paul and Greens- 
burg stone-quarries. After two years of very successful 
business he sold his interest to Mr. Lowe, was chosen 
vice-president of the Citizens’ National Bank, and has 
since been engaged in banking. He is an active mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and assisted in 
the organization of the Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
tion of Greensburg, of which he is the corresponding 
secretary, and one of the most active members. He 
takes a deep interest in all important enterprises of a 
public nature, either in Church or state. - He is a mem- 
ber of the Republican party. November 16, 1871 he 
married Caroline S, Sharon, of Cincinnati, Ohio. They 
have two children. 


QWARSHALL, JOSEPH GLASS, of Madison, Jef- 

||| ferson County, was born in Fayette County, Ken- 
tucky, January 18, 1800. He was the son of 
the Rev. Robert Marshall, a Presbyterian min- 
ister of that state—born in Ireland, a man noted for his 
power of oratory—and of Elizabeth Glass Marshall, born 
in Virginia. It was under his father’s instruction that 
Mr. Marshall was prepared for the junior class in col- 
lege. In 1823 he graduated from Transylvania Univer- 
sity, Lexington, Kentucky, receiving his second degree, 
M. A., in 1826. In 1828 he entered upon the practice 
of law, locating at Madison, Indiana. 


Pew DANIEL W., vice-president of the Cit- 
C 


—+-4006-<— 


His position as 
a lawyer became in time one of strength, power, and 
success, and placed him in the first rank of his pro- 
fession. He was remarkably gifted with what is called 
‘*a legal mind,” and although ‘he comprehensively and 
profoundly understood the law, not only in its humbler 
relations, but in its higher departments, it was an intu- 
ition of what a law must be, independent of the books, 
more than the learning of his profession, which made 
him the great lawyer that he was. That he was in pos- 
session of this power was the testimony of Judge Black- 
ford, of the Supreme Court of Indiana. On one occa- 
sion he was urged for his opinion of the law in a suit 
of unusual importance, but declined .giving it, for the 
reason he had not time to examine his books. ‘ But,” 


48 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


added he, ‘*see Mr. Marshall, he can give you the law 
without turning a leaf; he is the embodiment of law.” 
And upon another occasion he remarked of him, ‘‘ He 
is one whose difference of opinion I always felt bound 
to respect. If he differed from the books, the books 
were usually in the wrong.” Politically, Mr. Marshall 
was a Whig, and for years was the recognized leader 
of his party in Indiana. He continued his public speak- 
ing when necessary, from 1832 to 1854, often faithfully 
defending his party’s principles in its darkest hours. 
In 1830 he was appointed Judge of the Probate Court 
of Jefferson County. Subsequently, he served several 
terms in both branches of the state Legislature. He 
was the opposing candidate in 1856 to Governor 
Whitcomb, for Governor of the state. In 1852 he was 
a candidate for Representative in Congress, but was de- 
feated on both occasions in consequence of the views 
he maintained in opposition to slavery. He declined 
an appointment as Governor of Oregon, offered by Pres- 
ident Taylor in 1849. In 1836, 1840, 1844, he was pres- 
idential elector at large, and he represented his party 
in various other high and important positions. He was 
twice his party’s candidate for United States Senator, 
but he was defeated both times (1843 and 1854) by a 
postponement of the elections, and, consequently, never 
gained the position where, unquestionably, with his 
large capacity and superior powers of oratory, he would 
have ranked among the foremost. It was the opinion 
of many of his contemporaries (amongst whom were 
Justice McLean, of the United States Supreme Court, 
and Henry Clay himself), who knew many of the pub- 
lic men of the country, that if opportunity had been 
afforded him, Mr. Marshall would have proved him- 
self the peer of Webster, Clay, Pinckney, Wirt, or 
Calhoun. It is a cause for regret that so many of our 
greatest men have never had an opportunity of distin- 
guishing themselves in national affairs, as that renown 
is more likely to endure than that gained in the service 
of the state. While in the Legislature he served with 
ability and acceptance, always being one of its lead- 
ing members, and occupying the highest stations. 
Tt was to his influence that the internal improvement 
system of Indiana owed its inspiration. Personally, Mr. 
Marshall stood high, and few had more warm and de- 
voted friends and fewer enemies than he. He was 
eminently warm-hearted and generous, and discharged 
his duties in all the relations of life with fidelity and 
zeal. He was married, in 1832, to Sarah Sering, daugh- 
ter of John and Ruth T. Sering, of Madison. In per- 
son he was more than six feet in stature, and large and 
vigorous in proportion, being a man of commanding 
presence. ~ His hair was of a light reddish color, his 
forehead broad and square, his eyes blue and penetrat- 
ing. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church. 
He was a man who was considered worthy of holding 


[gr Dist. 


the highest offices of the state, one who was an orna- | 


ment to his profession, and in its employment never for- 
got his character as a man and citizen. He was a man 
whom even his political opponents eulogized, and one 
who left no stain of dishonor to sully his memory. He 
owed much in life to the early training of a most ex- 
cellent mother, and the religious culture of a pious 
father. He died April 8, 1855, leaving a family and a 
host of friends to mourn his loss. His disease was con- 
sumption, and his demise sudden and unexpected. He 
was cut off in the height of his glory and usefulness. 
‘‘He died for his party and his principles,’’ remarked 
Colonel Thompson, afterward Secretary of the Navy, 
‘*for his death was hastened many years by too much 
political speaking out of doors. He began in 1832 and 
never ceased talking, when occasion demanded, until 
his health completely broke down in the campaign of 
1854.” He possessed a most remarkable memory, and 
was gifted with the most glorious powers of oratory. 
He would hold an audience spell-bound, or bring them 
to tears. Many are the stories told illustrating his great 
influence over a jury or upon a crowd. His defense of 
Delia Webster is cited as one of the most wonderful 
displays of this power to turn a court-room full of 
spectators into a violent mob. Delia was a Massa- 
chusetts Abolitionist, who had established her head- 
quarters on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, directly op- 
posite Madison. Her mission was to assist runaway 
slaves into Canada by the underground railway. Of 
course she was arrested, and for convenience she was 
temporarily lodged in the Madison jail. But when the 
officers came to take her to the ‘sacred soil,” Mr. 
Marshall came to her assistance with a writ of hadeas 
corpus. Instantly the news flashed over the city, and 
in twenty minutes the court-house, yard, and adjacent 
streets were thronged with men and women. The 
great advocate bowed to the court, but in his most 
vigorous manner addressed his fellow-citizens. They 
heard him for half an hour, until, overcome with sym- 
pathy, they demanded the men who purposed ‘ drag- 
ging a poor defenseless woman into a Kentucky dun- 
geon because she loved humanity for humanity’s sake.” 
Meanwhile the officers, scenting the coming storm of 
indignation, had taken flight through alleys and back 
streets to their boats, leaving Delia and Marshall mas- 
ters of the situation. Such is the brief record of one 
of Indiana’s greatest men. To some future historian 
must be the honor, and duty, of writing that fuller and 
more complete biography the life of so great a man de- 
serves, that his memory, his life, and its lessons may 
remain with us, embodied in the annals of our coun- 
try; for 
“Lives of great men all remind us, 
We can make our lives sublime, 


And, departing, leave behind us 
Foot-prints in the sands of time.” 


— 1 4 


ae Oe a ee se ee 


gth Dist.] 


ORTH, CAPTAIN BENJAMIN, late of Rising 
Sun, a citizen and a public man of the highest 
reputation, was born in a house which stood near 
the site of his late residence at North’s Landing, 
in Ohio County, February 7, 1830. He was the son of 
Levi North, a native of that section which has produced 
many of the best men in the West, New England, and 
came to Ohio County at a very early day, settling in the 
south-east corner, on the shores of the Ohio River, in 
what is now the town of Randolph. To him a family 
of nine children was born, six of whom are still living. 
Benjamin North was the third in order. He was brought 
up as a farmer, and carried on this occupation more or 
less all his life, although he was an owner of boats upon 
the river, and for a while sold dry-goods. This last 
was shortly after his marriage to Miss I. H. Harris, a 
most estimable lady, second daughter of Jacob R. Har- 
ris, of Switzerland County, a widely known citizen of 
South-eastern Indiana. Her union was celebrated on 
the 19th of May, 1852. The following year, on the 30th 
of December, he joined the society of Masons as an 
Entered Apprentice; on the 28th of January, 1854, he 
was passed to the degree of Fellow Craft, and on Feb- 
‘ruary 4 was raised to the sublime degree of Master 
Mason. He paid particular attention to the obligations 
he then entered into, was punctual at meetings, and 
zealous in the defense of the principles of the order. 
He was but little more than of age when the Repub- 
lican party was created from the ruins of the Whig 
organization, and had joined their ranks when the Civil 
War breke out. He became a member of the Union 
army as first lieutenant of Company C, of the 83d 
Indiana Volunteers. This was in the autumn of 1862, 
and he was promoted to the position of captain on the 
death of Captain Calvert, which occurred May 19, 1863. 
He took an active part in all the duties of his position, 
was liked by his men and esteemed by his superior of- 
ficers; but, unfortunately, he was compelled to retire in 
September, 1864, on account of ill-health. When he 
became a soldier he was a strong and vigorous man, 
full of health and vigor, but the exposure of camp life 
reduced his flesh and weakened his frame. He appeared 


wan and pale, and his leaving the army was an absolute 
necessity. From the hardships he then experienced he 
contracted the seeds of the disease which resulted in his 
death twelve years later. On his return he resumed his 
usual avocations, and was thus employed until 1872, 
when he was elected to represent the counties of Ohio 
and Switzerland in the state Legislature. He served 
during that winter and an extra session of the subsequent 
year. 
course, and so expressed themselves. 
an intelligent and thorough farmer; and it was, there- 
fore, no surprise to his friends when he was nominated 
as a member of the State Board of Agriculture from 


His constituents were well pleased with his 
He was known as 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


49 


the Fifth District, composed of the counties of Clarke, 
Jefferson, Switzerland, Jennings, Ripley, and Ohio. He 
rendered most valuable service to the rural portions of 
the state during his term of office, which lasted from 
1867 to 1872, and would not then have resigned except 
on account of his other business, which prevented him 
from attending the board meetings. His father-in-law, 
Jacob R. Harris, was a member when the board was 
chartered, in 1850. Captain North also was a director 
of the National Bank of Rising Sun from its organiza- 
tion. By his assiduous attention to business he gained 
considerable property, which he dispensed liberally to 
the poor and afflicted of his town and county, and his 
death was deeply regretted by them. He was interested 
in the progress of his neighborhood; he devised plans 
for its improvement, and put his own shoulder to the 
wheel to put them into effect. In personal appearance 
he was commanding. His conversation was pleasing, 
and his manners were those of a gentleman. He died 
on the twelfth day of January, 1877, of diabetes mellitus. 
The funeral was largely attended, and he was buried 
with Masonic honors. ‘One month later their beautiful 
and highly accomplished daughter Grace died, aged 
twenty-one years, and was placed, by her bereaved 
mother, beneath the sod which had been so recently 
broken for her beloved husband. 


eT ee 
AG 

ATTISON, CAPTAIN ALEXANDER B., of 
<, Aurora, was born May 20, 1835, in Cincinnati, 
3 i) Ohio. He removed with his parents to Dillsbor- 
coe ough, Dearborn County, Indiana, in 1841, and to 
Aurora in 1844. His parents being possessed of little 
means, he was, at the age of twelve years, thrown 
almost entirely upon his own resources. He attended 
the public schools of his county in winter, working in 
summer to pay for his board and tuition. He also at- 
tended a select school for about six months. In 1848 
he entered the office of his brother at Cincinnati, where 
he studied surveying and civil engineering, and, through 
his brother, obtained the position of assistant civil 
engineer on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. He 
assisted in making the preliminary survey of that road, 
and remained with it until its completion, in 1856. He 
then removed to Nebraska Territory, and settled at a 
point about eighty miles west of Omaha, at what was 
then a town only on paper, but, since the completion of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, has grown to a city of some 
importance. member of the convention’ 
chosen to organize the county of Platt, and was elected 
Probate Judge, being the first judicial officer in the 
county. He returned to Aurora in 1860, and resumed 
his occupation of surveying and engineering. On the 
breaking out of the war between the North and South, 


He was a 


50 
he was the first man in Aurora to enlist. His example 
was quickly followed, companies were organized, and he 
was elected second lieutenant of Company E, 7th 
Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for three months. 
He took part in the campaign of 1861, in West Vir- 
ginia and Maryland; and was at the conflicts of Rich- 
Mountain, Philippi, Carrick’s Ford, and Greenbrier. At 
the last named battle, while leading his men,,he was 
wounded in the knee by a shell. At the expiration of 
his term he re-enlisted with his regiment and returned 
to Virginia, having been promoted to the rank of first 
lieutenant, and was soon after made captain of Com- 
pany A. At the engagement at Port Republic he com- 
manded a battalion, and had two horses shot under him. 
At Port Royal, Fredericksburg, Second Bull Run, and 
Chancellorsville his regiment bore a conspicuous part, 
and Captain Pattison was early and always in the 
fiercest of the fight. He took part in all of Grant’s 
campaigns, from the crossing of the Rapidan to the en- 
gagement before Petersburg; was at the engagements on 
the Weldon Railroad, Antietam, and Gettysburg; and 
was detailed by General Wadsworth, commanding the 
First Army Corps, to superintend the construction of a 
line of earth-works on the extreme right. When in 
camp he was acting judge advocate on General Wads- 
worth’s staff, but on the march and in action he could 
not be prevailed upon to leave his men, between whom 
and himself there was a devoted attachment. In Decem- 
ber, 1864, he married Miss Elizabeth C. Cornett, the 
accomplished daughter of Doctor W. T. S. Cornett, of 
Ripley County, Indiana, and settled in Aurora. In 1870 
he was appointed to the revenue service as government 
In 1876 he was a prominent candidate for 
State Treasurer before the Republican convention, but, 
although receiving good support, failed of the nomina- 
tion. In 1878 he was elected to the responsible posi- 
tion of auditor of the county by a very flattering ma- 
jority. 


gauger. 


—>-g086-2— 


banker, of Madison, was born in Frederick County, 
Maryland, October 18, 1814. But little is known 


a patriot of the American Revolution. His parents, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


of his ancestors, except that his grandfather was 


Jacob and Elizabeth Powell, early removed to the West, 


and settled near Rising Sun, in what was then Dearborn 
County, Indiana, but is now a part of Okio County. 
Mr. Powell received his early education in the country 
school, and at the age of seventeen began to earn his 
own living. Before he was twenty-one years old he had 
saved sufficient money to build his father a barn, and 
otherwise materially aid him in the care of the family. 
Tn 1839 he removed to Madison, and soon became largely 
interested in the lower river boating trade, shipping 


| They have 


[4h Dist. 


large quantities of grain, produce, pork, and flour to 
New Orleans and the adjacent cities. In this he was 
very successful, and continued the work until the break- 
ing out of the war between the Northern and Southern 

States. He was a warm supporter of the Union, and 

furnished both quartermaster’s and commissary stores, 

besides lending the government a large aniount of gold. 

Although not a politician, his opinion was sought by 
public men on all important subjects. He is a member - 
of the Republican party, but he has never been a strict 
partisan, having always cast his vote for the man he 

deemed most worthy, and having had little reason to 
regret his choice. As a citizen, he supports all measures 

for forwarding the best interests of the city. In 1848 

he assisted in reorganizing the old Madison Life, Fire, 

and Marine Insurance Company. He became one of its 
largest stockholders, and has been its president since 

1851. The company was also engaged in banking and 

discount until 1865, when, on the organization of the 

National Branch Bank, the banking interests were trans- 

ferred to that institution, of which Mr. Powell has long 

been president. He is an able banker, and, as a finan- 

cier, takes rank with the first in the country. His ready 

and clear comprehension of all business transactions de- 

pendent upon the aid afforded by banks, his ability to 

read character, his sound judgment and strict sense of 

justice, have won for him many warm friends, as well 

as the confidence of his business associates. No transac- 

tion is so minute as to escape his observation. He is 

one of the few men who by their own exertions have 

risen from obscurity to wealth and position. He is now 

sixty-five years old, and, his health being impaired by 

past labors, he has by advice of his physician retired 

from active business. His home in Madison is among 

the finest in the city. He has never connected himself 

with any religious organization, but is a liberal supporter 

of all denominations, and an attendant of the Presby- 

terian Church. Few men have accomplished as much. 

He is a-good citizen, a kind father, and a devoted hus- 

band. October 5, 1846, he married Miss Mary Francis 

Watts, daughter of Doctor Howard Watts, of Madison. 

had eight children, six sons and two 

daughters. 


—>-gace-o— 


UICK, JUDGE JOHN, was born near Baltimore, 
Maryland, in the year 1780, whence he came in 
childhood to Kentucky, where he grew up and 
married Miss Mary Eads, a lady &vhose charitable 


Ss 
Op) 
heart and bountiful hand in after years became a bless- 
ing to many unfortunate pioneers of Franklin County, 


Indiana. From Kentucky Judge Quick moved, in 1805, 
to Butler County, Ohio; thence in 180¢ to Franklin 
County, Indiana, where he entered land near Brook- 
ville, and resided until his death, in 1852. He served 


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4th Dist.| 


for a number of years as Associate Judge of the county, 
and was a member in high standing of one of the first 
Baptist Churches ever organized in Indiana; and, dying 
four years after his estimable wife, was survived by nine 
of his ten children, five of whom are still living, and two 
of whom have always made their home in the county; 
his third son, Cyrus Quick, now deceased, served for a 
‘number of years as county commissioner. Doctor John 
H. Quick, son of Judge John Quick, was born in 
Franklin County, Indiana, near Brookville, October 22, 
1818, where he was brought up to the medical pro- 
fession, and, after a course at the Medical College of 
Ohio, in Cincinnati, married in 1841 Miss Sarah J. 
Cleaver, daughter of Doctor John Cleaver, who was 
one of the first and most prominent physicians of 
this (Franklin) county. Doctor Quick commenced the 
practice of his profession near Brookville, and was 
elected in 1854 to the office of county auditor, and re- 
elected in 1858, serving eight years. He then renewed 
his medical practice, in which he still continues, resid- 
ing on his farm, one mile south of Brookville. To 
Doctor Quick were born five children, the two oldest 
of whom, Florence and George, died in childhood. 
The third, a son, Emmett Wilfred, grew to promising 
manhood, graduating with honors in the same profes- 
sion, and from the same college, his father had chosen, 
and took the situation of house physician in the Good 
Samaritan Hospital of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he 
bravely gave his life in combating the cholera epidemic 
in that city in 1873. Of the two remaining, Edgar 
Rollin, though occupied in farming, devotes a great 
portion of his time to scientific research, while Ger- 
trude, the youngest, has chosen to apply herself to the 
study of drawing and painting. Edgar has made a col- 
lection of two or three thousand Indian relics, and vari- 
ous kinds of archzological specimens, while Gertrude 
has adorned the walls of her father’s parlor with fine 
paintings and some elegant wood carving. The family 
enjoy every comfort of a pleasant home, and are of high 
standing in the community. 


—-40te<— 


Gi\ ABB, DAVID GUILKERSON, an eminent cit- 
izen of Rising Sun, Indiana, was born in Staun- 
ton, Virginia, in August, 1812. When he was 

rg but four years of age his parents removed to Dear- 

born County, Indiana, and he ever after remained a 

resident of that section of country. In 1824 he was 

attacked with the bronchitis, so affecting his voice that 
he was subsequently unable to follow any calling which 
required public speaking, and the results of this disease 
were always afterward to be noticed in his system. He 


obtained his early education in the schools of Hardin- 
town and Lawrenceburg, but in 1828 went to Cincin- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


51 


nati, where there was then an excellent classical and 
mathematical school, under the control of Mr. Win- 
wright; it subsequently became known as Woodward 
College. His health again became impaired, and he 
entered the service of the American Fur Company, cne 
of those gigantic trading corporations which transacted 
most of the business with the Indians. Their hunters 
and trappers covered the whole West, from the British 
frontier to the confines of New Mexico, and from the 
Mississippi to the Pacific. Their life was all passed in 
the open air, and Rabb journeyed with them over the 
Missouri Plains, through the gaps in the Rocky Mount- 
ains, and among the headquarters of the Missouri, for 
six months, gaining health and knowledge at every step. 
Returning to Cincinnati, he was for a brief time in mer- 
cantile employments, and was for a while in the shop 
of his father, who was a wagon-maker by trade. Life in 
the open air had become a necessity to him, however, 
and he relinquished in-door occupations and became a 
farmer. He bought some land below Laughery Creek 
in what is now Ohio County, and with four hundred 
dollars obtained from his father began clearing and 
cultivating an extensive tract of land. It was per- 
fectly new and had never been In, the 
year 1823 he was married to Miss Abigail Scoggin, of 
Hamilton County, Ohio, and made his home at the 
Laughery island farm, now owned by Mr. Thomas Pate. 
His wife died soon after from consumption, as did also 
their infant child, George. He afterward married Miss 
Margaret Jelley, of Rising Sun. In the year 1847 he 
bought the farm known as Maple Grove, famed far and 
near for its beautiful location, and shortly after moved 
upon it. Here his second wife died of consumption, 
that dread disease, leaving six children, three of whom 
have since died from the inherited weakness of lungs. 
In 1856 he was married to Miss Rachel A. Fitch, of 
Bedford, Massachusetts, and had by her five children, 
all of them now living with their mother. Mr. Rabb’s 
farming was successfully conducted, as he understood 
agriculture thoroughly, and he also was fortunate 
in his boating experience on the Ohio. When he 
removed to the neighborhood of Rising Sun he immedi- 
ately took an active interest in the prosperity and wel- 
fare of the place. No plan was suggested for its im- 
provement to which he did not lend a helping hand; 
and he gave aid to the schools, the Churches, the soci- 
eties, and to charities, according to his strength and 
means. He contributed frequently to the public press, 
especially upon questions which interested farmers, and 
for many years was a member and officer of the State 
Board of Agriculture. He became initiated into the 
Masonic Order early in life, and had passed through all 
the degrees up to that of Knight Templar, being at the 
time of his death one of the three oldest Knights Tem- 
plar in the state, and still being an active worker. For 


touched. 


52 


several years he was engaged in the dry-goods business in 
Rising Sun, in conjunction with Mr, J. H. Jones, and in 
1868 he opened an office for the purpose of attending to 
the produce commission business. He dealt largely with 
the farmers in his neighborhood in these commodities, 
continuing the business until his final weakness com- 
pelled him to relinquish it. He was a patriotic man. 
He could not bear to see the slightest injury offered to 
his country. During the Black Hawk War he acted as 
a scout. For the Mexican War he raised a company of 
artillery, receiving his commission as captain; but the 
government did not require its services, and it was ac- 
cordingly disbanded at Indianapolis. August 5, 1861, 
he received a commission as captain of the 2d Indiana 
Battery, and went into camp at the state capital. They 
were remoyed to St. Louis, where Captain Rabb was at- 
tached to the staff of General Fremont, and with the 
brave pioneer made the celebrated hundred days’ march 
through Missouri. He never entirely recovered from 
the exposure and fatigue of this campaign. On the 
24th of November, with two other officers, he was taken 
prisoner by Si Gordon’s guerrilla band. He was re- 
turning from St. Louis to his command, then stationed 
at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, when the cars were stopped, 
and the capture made. He received many indignities 
from the rebels, but was finally paroled by General Price, 
to remain within the limits of Fort Leavenworth. His 
actual captors were dissatisfied with this, and intimated 
their intention of not abiding by the conditions; and 
he accordingly determined to effect his escape, which he 
did, although with great difficulty. His former residence 
in the country did him great service in this undertaking. 
He was sent to the camp of paroled prisoners, Camp 
Chase, at Columbus, Ohio, where he was in command 
for four months. Arrangements were made for an ex- 
change with a rebel officer, but the latter escaped, and 
the arrangement came to nothing. He was discharged 
on a surgeon’s certificate. Mr. Rabb was eminently 
He gave freely to the poor and 
He was an ardent friend of the colored race. 
He hated slavery; and this was an inherited antipathy, 
for it was the cause why his father left Virginia and be- 
gan life again in a free state. There was no probability 
that their condition would be changed. He aided the 
blacks in their troubles. Many gathered in front of his 
door on the day of the funeral, and accompanied the body 
to its last resting-place. He wasa firm Christian. In the 
family the regularity of devotion was kept up. He was 
a diligent student of the Bible, and a regular attendant 
upon public worship, but, from some singularity, did 
not unite with any organization until he was sixty years 
old. Then he became a member of the New-school 
Presbyterian Church, and was at once made a ruling 
elder. In his earlier life he attended the Methodist 
Church. He was one of the members of the first Sun- 


a benevolent man. 
weak. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[ 4th Dist. 


day-schools in Indiana; and, when practicable, al- 
His death, which 
was on October 7, was occasioned by consumption. 
It had lasted a long time. He had been hoping 
to go to California, and preparations had two or 
three times been made for this end, but he grew too 
weak. Two of Captain Rabb’s sons served with distinc- 
tion in the war of the Rebellion. John W. Rabb was 
born in Ohio County, in 1838, on the 6th of August. 
He graduated at Wabash College, Indiana, afterwards 
studying law. He began its practice in Rising Sun, 
and at the same time became editor of a newspaper 
there. When the call for soldiers in 1861 was made, he 
at once responded, enlisting in April. He was mustered 
in as captain of Company J, 7th Regiment of Indiana 
Volunteers. This was under the three months call, 
and his command participated in most of the battles 
of that spring and summer—those of Philippi, Cheat 
Mountain, Carrick’s Ford, ete. Their colonel was 
John Dumont. When their term expired he entered 
his father’s battery, the 2d Indiana, as first lieutenant, 
and, when his father was captured, was promoted to 
his place. He was in the army under the command, 
successively, of Fremont, Hunter, Halleck, and Lane, 
and was in the battles of Round Grove, Hartsville, 
Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, and Van Buren. At the lat- 
ter place boats and quartermaster’s stores were de- 
stroyed. He served as inspector-general on General 
McNeil’s staff at Springfield, Missouri, and was on the 
road with him through Missouri and Arkansas, after the 
rebel generals Joe Shelby, Coffee, and Campbell. He 
recruited and organized the 2d Regiment of Missouri 
Light Artillery in December, 1863, and was commis- 
sioned its senior major. Stationed at New Madrid, he 
commanded the south-eastern sub-district of Missouri 
until after the Fort Pillow massacre, when he was 
ordered to St. Louis. He was at Pilot Knob when it 
was attacked by General Price in 1864, and was forced 
to blow up the caissons of Battery H of his command. 
He took part in the raid after General Price through 
Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian Territory, in 1864, as 
part of the Sixteenth Army Corps, under command of 
General A. J. Smith. After the battle of Nashville he 
was ordered to Johnsonville, Tennessee, where he was 
in charge of the port artillery, afterwards becoming 
commander of the port. He was mustered out of sery- 
ice with four batteries of his regiment at St. Louis, on 
the 27th of September, 1865. After the close of the 
war he went to Lafayette, Indiana, beginning the prac- 
tice of law there. In a short time he was compelled 
by failing health to return to his father’s home, where . 
he died of consumption, in the thirty-first year of his 
age, leaving a wife and two sons. His brother, George 
J. Rabb, was also born in Ohio County, in January, 
1845. He was a student at the Miami University, Ox- 


ways was an active teacher in one. 


4th Dist.| 


ford, Ohio, when the war began, and immediately 
enlisted in the ninety days’ service in the company 
commanded by Professor R. W. McFarland. In this 
company, A, of the 6oth Indiana Volunteers, he became 
captain. They saw active service in West Virginia. 
On the expiration of its term he enlisted, as a private in 
the 2d Indiana Battery in August, 1861. He was made 
a second lieutenant of Battery I, 2d Missouri Light 
Artillery, February 18, 1865, and was mustered out of 
service September 27, 1865. On the return of peace he 
studied medicine, graduating at the Medical College of 
St. Louis, Missouri, and is now practicing medicine at 
Marshall, Illinois. 


—>-8906-—_ 


') OBERTS, REV. DANIEL, was born in the town of 
Durham, Cumberland (now Androscoggin) County, 
in the state of Maine, July 16, 1790, one mile and 
ahalf from the village of South-west Bend, situated 
on the Androscoggin River. His father was Vinson 
Roberts, who owned and cultivated a farm one mile west 
of Durham’s Corners, where the subject of this sketch 
was born. Vinson Roberts, who was highly respected 
for his stern integrity, was one of the pioneer settlers 
of the town of Durham, having located there when it 
was almost an unbroken forest. Daniel’s educational 
advantages were very limited. He attended school at 
Durham’s Corners, in a log school-house, where greased 
paper was used for window lights. The parish parson, 
Herrick by name, was his schoolmaster, who ruled his 
pupils with a rod of iron. Two years constituted the 
entire period of his attendance at the public school. 
Having, however, acquired a thirst for knowledge, and 
possessing studious habits, he continued his studies by 
fire-light at home, until he obtained a proficiency in gram- 
mar, arithmetic, geography, ancient and modern history. 
The study of the Bible and ecclesiastical history, for 
which he showed a fondness while yet a boy, ultimately 
led him to a life of piety, which he has maintained for 
seventy-five years. In his old age—having far outlived 
the time allotted to him by the psalmist—he looks back 
with pride upon the fact that while yet a boy he obeyed 
the sacred injunction, ‘*Remember thy Creator in the 
days of thy youth.” Daniel Roberts married Miss Abi- 
gail Goodwin, also a native of Durham, Maine, July 
19, 1812. She was a lady of marked good sense, and 
throughout a long and eventful life, wholly devoted her- 
‘self to the interests of her family. She died near Man- 
chester, Indiana, March 27, 1867, in the seventy-sixth 
year of her age. To this marriage twelve children were 
born, six boys and six girls. Of this number were Pro- 
fessor William O. J. Roberts, a man of learning and ex- 
cellent moral worth, who died while yet young, near 
Wheeling, Delaware County, Indiana, in the winter of 
1855; and Judge O. F. Roberts, of whom a sketch ap- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


53 


pears in another part of this w6rk. In 1813 Daniel 
Roberts enlisted in the Maine militia at Freeport as a 
private soldier, in the regiment commanded by Colonel 
Smith. The troops were attached to a brigade under 
the command of General Richardson, quartered at Port- 
land, to protect the city from a threatened attack of a 
British fleet then lying in sight off the harbor. His 
company was stationed near the old light-house, still 
covering the approach to the harbor at the lower part 
of the city. He remained there about forty days, when, 
peace being declared, he was honorably discharged from 
the service. He was placed upon the pension roll in 
1878. In 1817 he determined to seek a home in the 
West, Indiana being his objective point. Using an ox 
team for his mode of conveyance, he started on this long 
and tedious journey. On reaching a point near the falls 
of the Genesee River, in the state of New York, his 
money being exhausted, he was compelled to stop and 
engage himself as a common laborer in order to replen- 
ish his scanty purse. Having obtained a small sum of 
money, he continued his journey until he reached Pitts- 
burgh, arriving there at the beginning of the summer of 
1818. He hastily constructed a rude craft, upon which 
he and his family embarked, and proceeded down the 
Ohio River to Cincinnati, where he concluded to stop 
for a time before continuing on to Indiana, his origi- 
nal destination. He remained in Cincinnati nearly 
two years. During the year 1819, under the ministry 
of Rev. I. Smead, a powerful and able preacher, he 
joined the Christian Church, and was immersed in the 
Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Licking. At 
the age of thirteen he had joined the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, at Durham, Maine, under the preaching 
of Joshua Soule, afterward a bishop of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church South; but, the forcible sermons of 
Smead having satisfied him that the doctrine and 
polity of the Christian Church were more in ac- 
cord with the teachings of the Bible, he concluded to 
join that organization. While still in Cincinnati, he 
was ordained an elder by the minister who received 
him into membership, and soon after entered upon the 
itinerant ministry. In 1820 Daniel Roberts, with his 
family, removed to Indiana, and located near Manches- 
ter, Dearborn County. He resided for two years on 
Pipe Creek, in Franklin County, but with that excep- 
tion he has made Dearborn County his home. Here he 
entered fully upon the itinerant ministry. He engaged 
in farm labor during summer seasons for the support 
of his large family, but on the Sabbath day and 
through the fall and winter he would be many miles 
from home, preaching the Word in its simplicity to the 
pioneers of the wilds of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. 
He frequently, through a period of thirty years, ex- 
tended his travels to Central Kentucky, the Wabash 
Valley, in Indiana, and the valley of the Scioto, in 


54 


Ohio. For this labor he received no compensation, 
with the exception of small contributions: which indi- 
viduals saw proper, unsolicited, to make to him. The 
people in general were poor, and unable to aid in the 
support of the ministry, but he felt that his duty to his 
high calling was as imperative as if he received a 
liberal salary. He was the contemporary of Barton W. 
Stone, Peter Cartwright, Allen Wiley, James Jones, 
James Havens, and other pioneer ministers of the West, 
who, in those early days, preached the Word to the 
people ‘‘without money and without price,” while 
thousands received it with gladness. During the active 
ministry of Daniel Roberts he organized over two hun- 
dred Churches, and baptized by immersion upward of 
two thousand converts. In the prime and vigor of. 
manhood he was one of the finest pulpit orators in the 
West. He possessed a voice of wonderful force, clear- 
ness, and solemnity, which was peculiarly adapted to 
out-door preaching. But few men excelled him in this 
regard. During the summer of 1830 he delivered a ser- 
mon of great force and power to a large audience, 
from the front door-step of the residence of General 
William Henry Harrison, at North Bend, Ohio, on the 
general’s special invitation. General Harrison after- 
wards pronounced the discourse one of the ablest he 
had ever heard, and faultless in point of oratory. Asa 
preacher, Daniel Roberts was beloved by all who knew 
him. He labored for the good of mankind, and justly 
won their esteem in return. His name was so familiar 
throughout his extensive field of labor that he was 
every-where greeted and recognized by old and young as 
‘Father Roberts.” Of him it may be said, that his 
life has been a continuous example of piety, and earnest 
devotion to correct principles) No man in South- 
eastern Indiana stands higher in this respect, or has ex- 
erted a more salutary influence on those around him. 
His life of piety and good works will stand as a monu- 
ment to his memory many years after he is called hence 
to his reward. 


})OBERTS, OMAR F., of Aurora, was born in 


Gj 
| 


|), Manchester Township, Dearborn County, Indiana, 


——>-S0-0— 


e 


£3) Abigail (Goodwin) Roberts, both natives of Dur- 
ham, Maine. His father, a minister of the gospel in 
the Christian Church, now in his ninetieth year, dis- 
tinguished for his eloquence as a pulpit orator, served 
in the War of 1812, and is on the pension roll. Omar 
F. Roberts was brought up on a farm in his native 
township, where he attended the common schools and 
was a diligent student of ancient and modern history. 
At the age of eighteen he entered the Lawrenceburg 
Institute, then under the control of Professor Benjamin 
T. Hoyt, one of the most distinguished educators of his 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


7k June 17, 1834, and is the son of Daniel and | 


[4th Dist. 


day—where he remained three years. He was a la. 
borious student, and acquired a liberal academic educa- 
tion. In 1854 he turned his attention to the study of 
law, entering the law office of Hon. William S. Holman 
and John D. Haynes, of Aurora, two of the ablest law- 
yers in Indiana. He remained in their office until the 
fall of 1856, when he entered the Law Department of the 
State University at Bloomington. William M. Daily, 
D. D., a distinguished divine of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, was president of the college; and Hon. 
James Hughes, once Judge of the Circuit Court, four 
years a member of Congress, and ultimately Judge of 
the United States Court of Claims, was professor of law; 
Judge Ambrose B. Carlton was also a professor in the 
law, department—both eminent in their profession. Mr. 
Roberts graduated February 27, 1857, and was admitted 
to the bar at Lawrenceburg in March following. In 
May he opened an office and began practice at Ver- 
sailles, Ripley County, Indiana, where he remained 
until the fall of 1858. At that time his health failed 
and he returned to Dearborn County, and did not re- 
sume practice until December, 1859, when he opened 
an office at Aurora. In June, 1860, he was nominated 
for Representative to the Legislature on the Democratic 
ticket, and was elected in October following, taking his 
seat in the House in January, 1861. He supported 
Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency in that cam- 
paign. This was a time of great excitement over the 
threatened resistance to Federal authority by the people 
of the South; and Mr. Roberts, being a war Democrat, 
and favoring the suppression of the Rebellion at all 
hazards, soon after taking his seat delivered a speech 
favoring a vigorous enforcement of the laws. April 24, 
1861, Governor Morton, by proclamation, convened an 
extra session of the Legislature. On the second day of 
the session Mr. Roberts introduced a joint resolution, 
which was unanimously adopted, ‘‘ tendering to the gen- 
eral government all the aid necessary, both in men and 
means, to put down treason, preserve the Union, enforce 
the laws, and perpetuate the liberties of the people.” 
This resolution and the speech at the regular session 
of the Indiana Legislature attracted much attention 
throughout the country. Mr. Roberts adhered to 
these principles through the entire struggle. During 
the session of 1861 Mr. Roberts was commissioned 
major in the militia of the state by Governor Ham- 
mond, and subsequently lieutenant-colonel in the In- 
diana Legion for Dearborn County by Governor Morton. 
On Christmas day, 1860, at Aurora, he was married to 
Miss Eliza J. Elden, a lady distinguished for her piety 
and intellectual ability, who for nine years shared the 
misfortunes and trials of her husband, in his battle with 
poverty and ill-health, as he struggled for an honorable 
position as a lawyer. She died July 23, 1870. In De- 
cember, 1861, Mr. Roberts removed to Lawrence- 


ath Dist.) 


burg, where he opened a law office and practiced 
his profession. In 1862 he was again elected to the 
lower branch of the Legislature. During the session 
of 1863 he supported Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks 
for the United States Senate, and had the satis- 
faction of seeing him elected. In July, 1864, he 
was a private in a company of militia from Lawrence- 
burg that aided in driving General Morgan from the 
state, when he made his celebrated raid through In- 
diana. In 1865 Mr. Roberts was elected, in anticipa- 
tion of a called session of the Legislature, to fill an 
unexpired term in the lower branch of that body. In 
1873, the state having been redistricted for judicial pur- 
poses, he was appointed by Governor Hendricks Judge 
of the Seventh Circuit, to serve until the time provided 
by law for the election of a judge by the people. He 
discharged the duties of the office with so much ability 
that he was nominated for election by acclamation, and 
_ although opposed by a very able and popular lawyer he 
received a majority of votes in nearly every township 
in the circuit, and was elected by a very large majority. 
His term of office lasted six years from the date of his 
commission, October 21, 1873. Probably few judges 
have commenced their administration under circum- 
stances calculated to so severely test their ability in 
rapid and accurate dispatch of business as Judge Rob- 
erts. The Court of Common Pleas had just been abol- 
ished, and all its business transferred to the Circuit 
Court, and, as causes had been accumulating in both 
courts for a long time, his duties were at once arduous 
and complicated. It is but just to say that he evinced 
a familiarity with legal principles, and a ready percep- 
tion of facts, together with the ability to apply the one 
to the other, which at once obtained for him the rep- 
utation of a worthy and competent judge. His admin- 
istration of the judicial office has been characterized by 
great industry, careful investigation, strict impartiality, 
and entire independence of all improper influences from 
every source. Perhaps his most prominent character- 
istics as a judge are his dislike of legal technicalities 
and his love of justice. While he never disregards the 
forms of law, he never permits the ends of justice to be 
defeated by legal quibbles, if by any reasonable con- 
struction it can be avoided. He has had occasion to 
consider and decide some very important questions, in- 
volving the new applications of legal principles, notably 
the question of the validity of divorces granted without 
the state to a party residing within the state, neither of 
the divorced parties residing within the state granting 
the divorce. The question of the validity of such a 
divorce, granted under a statute of the territory of 
Utah, came before Judge Roberts, and he was the first 
judge in the state to decide the question against their 
validity. His opinion was ably and elaborately given, 
being so full and accurate a statement of the law that 
A—15 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


55 


the Supreme Court of the state, on affirming the judg- 
ment on appeal, adopted not only his legal conclusion, 
but even his language. The case referred to is as fol- 
lows: About the year 1870 a corrupt system of broker- 
age in divorce was entered upon all over the country— 
Utah-Territory being the field in which they were ob- 
tained—through attorneys in all the large cities of the 


.United States, who devoted themselves to that business 


alone, some of them amassing fortunes. As a rule, the 
divorces were obtained fraudulently. Their legality was 
not called into question, however, until 1877, when one, 
Nelson F. Hood, was indicted in the Dearborn Circuit 
Court for adultery. For defense he set up a divorce ob- 
tained by him from his former wife in Utah in 1876, 
thus trying to establish that he was not guilty, as he had 
been subsequently married to the woman with whom he 
was charged as living in adultery. Judge. Roberts 
charged the jury that if the evidence showed that Hood 
and his first wife were residents of Kentucky when the 
Utah divorce was granted, it was null and void, the 
Utah court having acquired no jurisdiction to try the 
case, and grant the divorce. This case being appealed 
to the Supreme Court, Judge Roberts’s rulings were sus- - 
tained, and the result was the breaking up of the most 
corrupt divorce system ever known in any country. 
(See Hood v. State, 56 Indiana Record, page 263.) The 
case attracted wide-spread attention, all the leading jour- 
nals commenting extensively upon it, commending Judge 
Roberts in his course. Judge Roberts has a ready com- 
mand of language, and his instructions to juries are 
models of clearness and force, always covering and 
making plain the legal points involved: He has perhaps 
had a fewer number of cases reversed by the Supreme 
Court than any wzs¢ przus judge in the state. In May, 
1876, he was elected from the Fifth Congressional Dis- 
trict a delegate to the St. Louis Democratic Convention, 
in which he supported Governor Thomas A. Hendricks 
for the presidency. November 23, 1870, he married Miss 
Mary McHenry, of Aurora: One child, Paul Wickliffe, 
a bright and interesting boy, was the result of this mar- 
riage. In the winter of 1878, while Judge Roberts was 
holding court at Rising Sun, colored men served as petit 
jurors for the first time in the judicial history of Ohio 
and Dearborn Counties, which at the time created quite 
a sensation. At the April term, 1879, of the Dearborn 
Circuit Court, held at Lawrenceburg, a married woman 
testified, for the first time in that county, in a civil suit 
against her husband for divorce, a step in judicial re- 
form which met his hearty approval.. While a member of 
the Legislature he advocated the removal of all restric- 
tions upon the admission of testimony in courts of justice 
(except in certain cases as now defined by law), be- 
lieving that a court and jury trying a cause should 
be permitted to obtain the truth from all reasonable 
sources, justice being the aim and end of testimony, 


56 


the medium of light and truth in all judicial proceed- 
ings, should be free and unobstructed. 


—+-400-0— 


OBERTS, REV. ROBERT, A. M., of Madison, 
son of William and Henrietta Roberts, was born 


o» Of his father’s family he knows little; they were 
scattered while he was yet a child. His father, while 
possessing many excellent qualities of head and heart, 
was fond of sporting, and loved the fox-chase, so com- 
mon in his time, and the associations of gamesters. 
These habits involved loss of time, neglect of business, 
and the expenditure of money, which, in their turn, 
brought bankruptcy to the family. His mother, whose 
maiden name was Pratt, belonged to a wealthy and in- 
fluential family of Queen Anne County, Maryland. 
She was an amiable, Christian lady ; and in her death, 
which occurred when her son Robert was but six years 
of age, he lost his best earthly friend. His father died 
six years later, thus early leaving him an orphan, with- 
out money or influential friends. After spending a few 
years on the farm with an elder brother, working for 
his board and clothes, he engaged with a neighboring 
farmer. The price of his services was to be twelve 
dollars a year, board for the same length of time, and 
three months’ schooling. The second year he received 
twenty-five dollars; the third, thirty-six—other things 
remaining the same. At fourteen years of age he made 
a profession of religion, and soon after joined the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, in which he found kind friends. 
This he now looks upon as the most important step in 
his life. When about eighteen years old he apprenticed 
himself to John M. Mason, a cabinet-maker, of Easton, 
Talbot County. . Soon after, his eldest brother, William 
H. Roberts, of Franklin County, Indiana, being desi- 
rous of having all his brothers and sisters in the West, 
went to Maryland, and brought the four younger children 
to Indiana. In this state Robert Roberts soon found his 
way to Connersville, the county seat of Fayette County, 
and there spent several years, working as molder, tinner, 
Here he deposited his letter in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, of which Rev. Joseph Cotton 
was pastor. Mr. Cotton took a warm interest in him, 
and suggested what had been on his own mind for 
years, namely, that he ought to preach. He gave him 
license to exhort; but being young, timid, and conscious 
of his utter disqualification for the work, he soon sur- 
rendered his authority, and gave his attention to busi- 
ness. 


and clerk. 


He was then about twenty years old. The con- 
viction that he ought to preach still followed him, 
however; and early in the spring of 1857 he commenced 
the study of theology with his old friend, Rev. Joseph 
Cotton, who was then stationed in Indianapolis. After 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


in Caroline County, Maryland, August 22, 1835. - 


[4h Dist. 


remaining here until fall, he was admitted into the South- 
eastern Indiana Conference, and appointed to Columbia 
Circuit, near Connersville. Success attended his min- 
istry from the beginning. At the close of his third 
year in the ministry he married Miss Emily E. Ball, 
youngest daughter of Jonathan and Asenath Ball. The 
Ball family is connected with the Methodist Church, 
and is one of the most wealthy, liberal, and influ- 
ential in Rush County. After traveling ten years Mr. 
Roberts, still feeling most keenly his want of educa- 
tional advantages, resolved to make a bold effort to re- 
pair the misfortunes of his early life. He accordingly 
removed his family to Moore’s Hill, and entered col- 
lege. Notwithstanding the humiliation which, as the 
head of a family and a member of ten years’ standing 
of the South-eastern Indiana Conference, he necessarily 
felt upon taking his place in classes with boys and 
girls, yet he toiled on for three years, taking part with 
the other students in all the college and society duties. 
His purpose was to remain five years; but, his eyesight 
failing, he was compelled to discontinue his studies. 
He was then stationed in the Centenary Charge, Greens- 
burg, where he served three years, after which he was 
appointed to Edinburg and Shelbyville. He is now 
pastor of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Madison, 
one of the first appointments of his conference. The 
most prominent characteristics of Mr. Roberts are his 
unyielding energy and his faith in God. 


—~-H -o— 


(@ CHENCK, ULYSSES P., merchant and manufac- 
sN) turer, of Vevay, Switzerland County, was born in 
(45 the canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland, May 16, 
1811. Tis parents, John J. P. and Matilda 
Schenck, came to this country in 1817, and settled ona 
farm about three miles from Vevay. His father was a 
tinner, but after his arrival in America turned his atten- 
tion principally to farming until 1825. He then re- 
moved to Louisville, then Shippingport, and engaged 
in the mercantile trade on a small scale, gradually in- 
creasing and enlarging his business until 1832, when he 
returned to his farm near Vevay, where he soon after- 
ward died. Ulysses P. Schenck was obliged to content 
himself with the limited opportunities for education 
which the common schools afforded, and early acquired 
that self-reliance which proves the best mental dis- 
cipline. To trace the successive steps by which, from a 
humble commencement, he gradually rose to be one of 
the wealthiest men in Southern Indiana, would be in- 
teresting as well as profitable; but the limits of a bio- 
graphical sketch forbid more than an outline of his 
htstory. perseverance, good management, 
energy, and, above all, strict attention to the principles 
of honesty and integrity, “point the moral and adorn 


Industry, 


ae 
eR 


LIBRARY 
OPTHE sie. 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
is oe aa i 


1 wee fe i. a 


gih Dist.] 


the tale.” He was employed as clerk by his father in 
Louisville until he came of age, when he was enabled 
to commence business for himself at the same place. 
In 1837 he removed to Vevay, and the following year 
engaged in the mercantile trade on the site of his pres- 
ent mammoth establishment. He was successful from 
the very start, and added to the profits of his business 
by sending flat-boats down the river. He soon com- 
menced to deal very largely in produce, and by careful 
management and judicious investments gradually ac- 
cumulated a fortune, which, however, he did not lock 
up, but put into circulation through various channels. 
His name soon became identified with steamboat inter- 
ests to a large extent. In 1854, with his brother, he 
built the ‘‘ Switzerland,” which, on the outbreak of the 
Civil War, he sold to the government for a gunboat. 
He has owned and controlled as large a number of 
steamboats as any one man on the Ohio River. In 1876 
the «*U. P. Schenck,” one of the largest boats on the 
river, was built for the Cincinnati and New Orleans 
trade, and does a fine business. His son, Andrew {fc 
Schenck, was her first captain, and is now her sole 
owner, As may well be supposed, Mr. Schenck is 
prominently identified with the manufacturing, financial 
and other interests centering in the city of Vevay. He 
is president of the Union Furniture Manufacturing Com- 
pany, the principal industry of the place, which gives 
employment to about sixty hands; president of the First 
National Bank of Vevay, which he was the prime mover 
in organizing; and has been interested in the Versailles 
turnpike road since its construction. From the enor- 
mous quantities of hay purchased and handled by Mr. 
Schenck, he was long known by the title of “The Hay 
King.” In 1878 his immense ware-rooms, containing a 
large quantity of hay, were burnt to the ground, but he 
has since rebuilt them on a somewhat smaller scale. He 
has been a member of the Baptist Church for nearly 
thirty-five years, and has been a liberal contributor to 
Church enterprises. He expended about ten thousand 
dollars in aid of the erection of the Baptist Church 
edifice in Vevay, and has also donated large sums to 
Franklin College, a Baptist educational institution, of 
which he was a trustee for several years. On the 22d 
of September, 1830, Mr. Schenck married Miss Justine 
Thiebaud, a lady of Swiss extraction, whose family 
were among the early settlers of Vevay, She came to 
‘ this country in early childhood, on the same vessel with 
her future husband, unconscious of the link which was 
destined to unite them in later years. Of a family of 
eleven children born to them, only two survive, An- 
drew J. and Ulysses, who are associated with their 
father in business, the latter widely known among 
steamboat men as Captain Schenck. In politics, Mr. 
Schenck has always been a Democrat, but has avoided 
official position, except when local and city offices have, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


57 


from time to time, been thrust upon him. Personally, 
he is a gen‘leman of quiet appearance, inclined to be 
over-modest in his estimate of himself, frank and kindly 
in his manners. _ He still gives close personal attention to 
his affairs, and undoubtedly has many years of useful- 
ness still before him. No name is more familiar to the 
citizens of Southern Indiana than that of U. P. Schenck. 
He possesses an extraordinary memory; and, while con- 
ducting a more extensive business than perhaps any 
other man in Southern Indiana, he seems at all times 
perfectly familiar with every detail of his immense estab- 
lishment. His patience is proverbial; he never acts 
hastily, but, coolly calculating the risks of a proposed 
investment or transaction, giving it careful and syste- 
matic consideration, rarely makes a mistake. He is al- 
ways ready and willing to advise others, and many are 
eager to avail themselves of his valuable lessons on busi- 
ness matters. In short, he has one of those rare minds 
that enable their possessors to amass wealth, and to a 
great extent control public sentiment, without incurring 
the envy or ill-feeling of those with whom they come in 
contact. 
—+-4006--— 


COBEY, JOHN:S., of Greensburg, was born in 
)) Sycamore Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, De- 
» cember 2, 1818, and is the son of Timothy and 
Chloe (Gest) Scobey. He received the education 
common to the youth of that period, which consisted sim- 
ply of a few months’ tuition during the winter, devoting 
himself the remainder of the year to work on his 
father’s farm. At the age of twenty-two he entered the 
freshman class of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 
where he remained until the end of the sophomore year, 
and then commenced reading law in the office of Gov- 
ernor Bebb, in Hamilton, Ohio. Having determined 
to practice in Indiana, he removed to that state in 1843, 
and entered the office of Governor Matson, at Brookville. 
In August, 1844, he was admitted to the bar by Miles 
C. Eggleston, and immediately commenced the practice 
of his profession. In 1847 he was admitted to the bar 
of the Supreme Court of the state, at a time when such 
distinctions were obtained far less easily than at present. 
In August of the same year he was elected prosecuting 
attorney of Decatur County, and served the full term. 
In 1852 he was elected state Senator from the same 
county, and the following autumn was on the Scott 
electoral ticket from the congressional district composed 
of Decatur, Rush, Franklin, Dearborn, Ohio, Switzer- 
land, and Ripley Counties. When President Lincoln 
made his call for five hundred thousand troops, in July, 
1862, Indiana’s quota was one regiment from each con- 
gressional district. Receiving a telegram from Gov- 
ernor Morton, Mr. Scobey proceeded to Indianapolis, and 
was requested by the great war Governor to raise a 


58 


company of men in Decatur County. This he succeeded 
in doing a few days later, and received a‘commission 
as captain of Company A, 68th Indiana Volunteers, 
which almost immediately started for Kentucky. The 
regiment having gone to the field without a major, Cap- 
tain Scobey was appointed to fill the vacancy. In June, 
1863, Lieutenant-colonel Shaw resigned at Murfreesboro, 
Tennessee, on account of disabilities, and was succeeded 
by Major Scobey. After the Chickamauga battle, in 
which Colonel King, of the 68th, who commanded the 
brigade, was killed, Lieutenant-colonel Scobey was ap- 
pointed his successor, with the full rank of colonel. 
Thirty months of active service, together with the hard- 
ships of camp life, having made terrible inroads on his 
health, Colonel Scobey resigned his position in the win- 
ter of 1864, and returned to Greensburg an absolute 
wreck of his former self. In the quiet of farm 
life, far removed from the stirring scenes in which he 
had so long been a participant, he gradually regained 
his physical powers. In resigning his position, which 
he had won step by step, Colonel Scobey was actuated 
by that high sense of honor which is ever an attribute 
of the true soldier. Unwilling to draw pay and share 
honors for a duty which, by reason of ill-health, he was 
unable to perform, he wisely concluded to resign, even 
though such resignation precluded all idea of further 
military advancement, an event at that time extremely 
probable. Emerging at last from private life, we find 
his name in 1872 on the electoral ticket on which Hor- 
ace Greeley’s name appeared for President. In 1876 
he was chosen by the Democratic State Convention as 
elector at large on the ticket represented by Tilden and 
Hendricks; Daniel W. Voorhees and himself being the 
electors for the state at large, together with thirteen 
district electors. _ In this election Mr. Scobey ran nearly 
five hundred votes ahead of his ticket, a substantial evi- 
dence of his wide-spread popularity. During this can- 
vass he was an indefatigable worker, often delivering 
three speeches at as many different points in one day. 
As a mark of personal regard he was assigned the honor 
of delivering the returns to the president of the Senate 
at Washington. He married, November 4, 1845, Miss 
Maria M. Stuckey, at Brookville. Three children were 
the fruits of this marriage, two of them still living, 
His oldest son, Orlando B. Scobey, studied law with 
him, and for the past four years has filled the office of 
prosecuting attorney for this judicial circuit. The other, 
Daniel L. Scobey, practices medicine in Greensburg, 
Colonel Scobey was married, May 5, 1856, to Miss Lu- 
cinda Davis, of Columbiana County, Ohio, by whom 
December 30, 1879, he 
married Mrs, Mary A. Watts, with whom he is now 
living. Colonel Scobey is a Democrat. He is a 
Knight Templar, and a member of the Presbyterian 
Church, He is of medium height, and possesses a 


he has had three children. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[4th Dist. 
countenance at once grave, handsome, and intellectual. 
Though a man of strong convictions and positive char- 
acter, he is almost without an enemy, 


MITH, EDWIN, M. D., of Aurora, was born April 
af) 29, 1832, in the old Bay State. His parents were 
GQ: Rufus and Polly (Foskett) Smith, the former of 
B whom was of an old Massachusetts family, and the 
latter of Welsh descent. His father was a shoemaker, 
and died when Edwin Smith was only eleven years old, 
His mother being left with little means, he endeavored 
to aid in the support of the family, at the same time 
making rapid progress in his studies by improving the 
limited advantages afforded by the public schools. 
After he had attained his eighteenth year, he received 
private instruction from his pastor for some two years, 
during which he pursued a scientific and literary course; 
with a view to the study of medicine. He afterward 
traveled two years in the life insurance business, and 
then spent some time in the employment of a relative 
who was a merchant. In 1852 he went to Cleveland, 
Ohio, and engaged in business on his own account, 
which he continued some four years, when, finding it 
did not agree with him, he retired. He then took a 
thorough course in a commercial college, and attended 
two courses of lectures on commercial law, after which 
he removed to Canton, Ohio, and engaged in teaching 
from 1857 to 1876. During that time he formed a de- 
termination to study medicine. He had nearly all his 
life been a student of the science after the old school, 
and had intended to prepare himself for that form of - 
practice, when he became interested in homceopathy. 
He purchased Dr. Pulte’s books and a case of medicines, 
and in due time commenced treating himself and friends. 
Being favorably impressed with the results, he gave up 
teaching, and entered the Pulte Medical College, of 
Cincinnati. In addition to the regular course, he gave 
special attention to gynecology and diseases of the eye 
and ear, and received a special diploma in the former 
branch. He graduated in May, 1877, and was awarded 
the prize for his thesis on the eye and ear. In July of 
the same year he removed to Aurora, Indiana, and began 
practice. His good judgment and ability, and his le- 
niency towards those holding different opinions from his 
own, have won him honor and friendship. He is a 
member of Hamilton County Pulte Association, the 
State Medical Association, and the American Institute 
of Homeopathy. He has been a member of the Baptist 
Church, of which both his parents were life-long mem- 
bers, since attaining his fifteenth year, For a number 
of years he was secretary of the Church at Canton, 
Ohio, and has been secretary of the Wooster Baptist 
Association, and of the Sabbath-school Convention. He 


gth Dist.] 


has occasionally contributed to the Church journals, and 
has been an earnest worker. Dr. Smith has been twice 
married; first, to Miss Mary Andrews, daughter of Hon. 
Luther Andrews, of Queensbury, Warren County, New 
York. She died January 11, 1861, leaving an infant son, 
Edwin Rufus, junior. In 1867 Dr. Smith married Miss 
Cornelia Whitmore, daughter of Russell and Jane Whit- 
more, of Georgetown, New York. She died January 1, 
1877. Doctor Smith’s mother is still living, and resides 
with her eldest daughter, who is the wife of Professor 
Charles E. Hamlin, of Harvard College, Cambridge, 


Massachusetts. 
(55 field, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, October 
23, 1827, and is the son of Obadiah and Susan 
(Norton) Smith. His father was a merchant, who first 
introduced into New York the manufacture of brooms 
from broom-corn. He was eminently successful in busi- 
ness, and had large and varied commercial interests, 
through which he accumulated great wealth; but dis- 
aster to his shipping interests, consequent upon the War 
of 1812, reduced him from affluence to very moderate 
circumstances. The mother of H. W. Smith was de- 
scended from prominent New England families. Her 
father was a captain in the Revolutionary army, and her 
mother, whose maiden name was Porter, came from a 
line of ancestors who occupied the judge’s bench during 
a period of over two hundred years. As early as 1659, 
Samuel Porter was a King’s Justice; one of his de- 
scendants was a Justice and Judge of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, Judge of Probate, and Judge of one of the 
first courts that sat afterthe Revolution. For many years 
the descendants of the family resided in the old man- 
sion, built in 1713, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In the 
latter part of 1833 Obadiah Smith went with his family 
to Missouri, where he died before the close of the year. 
In 1840 his widow removed to Madison, Indiana, at 
which time Henry W. Smith was but thirteen years old. 
He resided in the families of his brother, Rev. Wind- 
sor A. Smith, at Lawrenceburg, and his sister, wife of 
Rey. Henry Little, of Madison, his education being, to 
a large extent, superintended by these gentlemen. He 
also received private instruction from the Rev. Benja- 
min Nice, with the hope of being able to take a com- 
plete college course. In this he failed, however, for 
want of money. At the age of twenty-two he became 
clerk for the firm of Thomas & James W. Gaff, at 
Aurora, distillers and rectifiers. He filled the position 
acceptably for fifteen years, and, in 1864, was admitted 
as a partner. He is now third member of this firm; 
senior member of the firm of Henry W. Smith & Co., 


—+- 40 — 


MITH, HENRY WINTHROPE, merchant and 
banker, of Aurora, was born in the town of Hat- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


59 


president of the First National Bank of Aurora, Indi- 
ana; and is interested in the United States mail line 
of steamers between Cincinnati and Louisville, Ken- 
tucky. He is also connected with several other busi- 
ness enterprises, employing large capital and requiring 
first-class ability in their successful conduct. On the 
Ist of August, 1848, in the city of New Vork, Mr. 
Smith married Miss Alexania Gaff, of Aurora, sister of 
Thomas and J. W. Gaff, a lady of great worth. They 
have had four children, two daughters and two sons. 
The elder son died in infancy. The daughters united 
with the Presbyterian Church when yet children. 
They both graduated with high honors from the Mount 
Auburn Female Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, and then 
spent two years in Rev. Doctor Burt’s school, traveling 
in France and- Italy. They then traveled with their 
mother and brother through Europe and the Holy 
Land, visiting Alexandria and Cairo, Jerusalem and 
Damascus, Constantinople, Athens, and all the cities 
and points of interest in England, Ireland, and on the 
Continent. The son, Henry W. Smith, junior, received 
a good English education, and then entered the em- 
ployment of his father, in the house of Henry W. 
Smith & Co., at Cincinnati. In his youth Mr. Smith 
united with the Presbyterian Church, and is one of its 
liberal supporters. All obligations, whether written or 
verbal, are alike sacred to him, and he is honored and 
esteemed by his fellow-citizens. His home is all that 
refined taste and means can make it, and his social and 
family relations are of the pleasantest character. 


os 

Oe GENERAL BENJAMIN J., of Law- 
ef) renceburg, was born at Mansfield, Ohio, October 
W5 27, 1823. His parents, Charles and Mary Spooner, 
é emigrated from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He 
received his early education in the public and private 
schools of Ohio and Indiana, and was noted among his 
class-mates for little study and ready recitations. At 
the age of eighteen he apprenticed himself to learn the 
tanner’s trade. Upon the breaking out of the Mexican 
War he enlisted in Colonel James H. Lane’s regiment, 
the 3d Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, for one year, 
and was elected second lieutenant of Company K. He 
participated in the battle of Buena Vista, with General 
Taylor. At the expiration of his term of service he re- 
turned home, and read Jaw in the office of his brother 
Philip, and John Ryman, Esq. After being admitted 
to the bar, he commenced practice in Lawrenceburg. 
He was prosecuting attorney of his circuit two years. 
He early took an active part in the political issue of the 
day, acting with the Whig party, and afterward with 
the Republican party. Upon the breaking out of the 


Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky; vice- | late Civil War he was among the first to offer his serv- 


60 


ices to the Governor of the state, and raised the first 
company in Dearborn County, and the second mustered 
for the three months’ service; this was assigned to the 
7th Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and Mr. 
Spooner received the commission of lieutenant-colonel. 
They took part in the battle of Philippi, Laurel Hill, 
and Carrick’s Ford, West Virginia, engaging the enemy 
almost daily and suffering considerable loss. When they 
were mustered out of service, Governor Morton compli- 
mented both men and officers. In the course of his 
address he said: ‘It is difficult to find words fitting to 
welcome men, each of whom has striven to distinguish 
himself in the service of his country. The events of 
this campaign are recorded in your country’s history; 
and it will be pointed to with pride by your children 
that their fathers were members of the gallant Seventh.” 
The regiment was disbanded, and Lieutenant-colonel 
Spooner re-commissioned as lieutenant-colonel of the 
5ist Regiment of Infantry, under command of Colonel 
Straight. They immediately commenced a rigid course 
of drill and discipline, and broke camp December 16, 
1861. They moved to near Bardstown, Kentucky, and 
thence to Lebanon, where they were attached to the 
Twentieth Brigade, consisting of the 51st Indiana, the 
65th Ohio, and the 15th Kentucky. After remaining here 
a short time they were ordered to Hall’s Gap, the key 
to operations in Eastern Kentucky, Virginia, and Ten- 
nessee, and went into winter-quarters about January 15, 
1862. The weather had been exceedingly cold and 
rainy, rendering the march very disagreeable, but en- 
couraging words from Colonel Spooner buoyed up the 
spirits of his men, and his every order was cheerfully 
obeyed. On the 7th of February came the inspiring 
words, ‘‘Meet the enemy.” They marched back to 
Lebanon, thence to Nashville, where they arrived on 
the 9th of March, and were assigned to the Sixth 
Division, Army of the Ohio, Major-general Wood com- 
manding. From here they marched to Pittsburg Land- 
ing, arriving in time to participate in the close of the 
great battle of April 6 and 7, and were hailed with 
joy by the brave soldiers of the hard-fought field. 
On the 9th, General Spooner rejoined his division, and 
was actively engaged in the movements of the army 
toward Corinth. After the evacuation of that place by 
Generals Johnston and Beauregard, he marched to Town 
Creek, North Alabama, where he tendered his resigna- 
tion and returned home, the regiment losing a most val- 
uable officer. Yielding to Governor Morton’s earnest 
solicitations, he recruited and accepted the command of 
the 83d Regiment, establishing his camp at Lawrence- 
burg. On completing its organization he moved by rail 
to Cairo, Illinois, by steamer to Memphis, Tennessee, 
and took part in the battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Yazoo 
Pass, Arkansas Post, and all the engagements in and 
around Vicksburg, until the fall of that place, July 4, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gtk Dest. 


1863. He was assigned to the Fifteenth Army Corps, 
Second Brigade, Second Division, and was with General 
Sherman as he moved toward Atlanta, va Chattanooga, 
Lookout Mountain, Resaca, Dallas, Dalton, and Ken- 
esaw Mountain. At the last named place, June 27, 
1864, while cautioning his men, some of whom had 
become reckless in exposing themselves to the enemy, 
Colonel Spooner was so severely wounded in the left 
arm by sharp-shooters that amputation at the shoulder 
was necessary. He had often been the recipient of 
favorable mention from his commanding general, and 
in this, as all other engagements, fought at the head of 
his regiment. After the battle of Mission Ridge he 
was presented, by the non-commissioned officers and 
privates of the 83d Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with a 
beautiful gold-hilted sword, the scabbard of which is 
solid silver, mounted with heavy gold bands, set with 
jewels. The sword is inscribed: ** We remember Chick- 
asaw Bayou, Resaca, Chattanooga, and Arkansas Post;’ 
and its value is over five hundred dollars. His wounds 
rendering him unfit for the field, he was assigned to duty 
on the military commission to try the Indiana and Chi- 
cago conspirators. In April, 1865, he resigned his com- — 
mission, and was immediately appointed United States 
Marshal for the District of Indiana by President Lin- 
coln, this being one of the latter’s last appointments, 
and his commission was issued by President Johnson as 
one of his first official acts. He held this position con- 
tinuously from the date of his first appointment until 
the spring of 1879, when he tendered his resignation. 
For the past eighteen years he has held positions of 
trust, either civil or military. His fitness for any place 
is every-where acknowledged. During the great railroad 
strikes of 1877, he distinguished himself as an efficient 
officer of the Federal court, and by the fearless dis- 
charge of his duty saved the Indianapolis, Burlington 
and Western, the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafay- 
ette, the Indianapolis and Terre Haute, and Ohio and 
Mississippi Railroads from great loss. These roads, with 
the exception of the Terre Haute and Vandalia, were 
in the hands of the Federal courts, and a writ of assist- 
ance was issued by Judge Gresham to Marshal Spooner, 
to enforce the orders of the court. The prominent part 
that he took in the suppression of the riots can be gath- 
ered from the subjoined extracts from the press notices 
of his connection with the troubles: 


‘That riot [referring to the Civil War] made many 
heroes, among whom we mention with pride General 
Benjamin Spooner, present United States Marshal for the 
state of Indiana. Although the General has but one 
arm, having lost the other in putting down the afore- 
said great riot, he found the remaining one amply suffi- 
cient to cope with the great road insurrection. ‘Three 
cheers for the brave and valiant old General Benjamin 
Spooner! He is our choice for the next Governorship 
of the state of Indiana; he would not only add dignity 
to the position, but would be equal to any emergency 


gth Dist.) 


in which the laws or good government of the state were 
in danger.” 

August 21, 1845, General Spooner married Miss Eliza 
J. Callahan, orphan daughter of Joseph and Mary Cal- 
lahan, of Lawrenceburg. They have had eleven chil- 
dren, seven of whom are living. The eldest son, John 
C., is an attaché of the revenue service, and Samuel H. 
is a practicing attorney in Lawrenceburg. 


—<- Goto 


TEDMAN, NATHAN ROCKWELL, foundryman 

ff) and engine-builder and pioneer, was born in Mon- 
* mouth County, New Jersey, on the roth of Feb- 
ruary, 1814. He is the oldest son of Nathan 
and Melinda (Stebbins) Stedman, who emigrated soon 
after their marriage from Wilbraham, Massachusetts, to 
New Jersey, remaining there, however, but a few years, 
when they went back to Massachusetts, and later re- 
moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where the boy received 
his primary education. At .the age of sixteen he was 
apprenticed for a term of five years, to learn the mold- 
er’s trade. When twenty-two he came West to Cincin- 
nati, and took a position as foreman of the Niles Works 
(foundry and machine-shop), and while in that position 
superintended the founding of the largest bell at that 
time cast in the West. It was made for the Fourth 
Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1838, he 
went to Rising Sun, then Dearborn County, but now 
Ohio County, Indiana, and in company with Mr. Pink- 
ney Jones erected a foundry, and continued business 
until 1849, when he was induced to remove his works 
to Aurora, a thriving town on the Ohio and Mississippi 
Railroad, receiving as partners in the same Messrs. J. 
W. and Thomas Gaff, under the title of Stedman & Co. 
They erected suitable shops—removing their old one— 
and engaged in a more extensive business, making a 
specialty in steam-engines and mill machinery, which he 
has conducted very successfully for many years. At the 
breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. Stedman was cut off, 
while attending to collections in the South, and forced 
to remain in Mississippi until after the fall of Vicks- 
burg, July, 1863. 
ing, and made many warm friends in that section. 


During this time he engaged in farm- 
He 
has been eminently successful as a business man, and is 
well regarded socially by his fellow-citizens. He has 
been three times married, to highly respected ladies, 
by whom he has eleven children. His present wife has 
adopted a daughter, over whom he exercises a fatherly 
care. His eldest son, Nathan, is the financial manager 
of the business. He is a young man of promise, pos- 
sesses good business capacity, and is well fitted for the 
duties of his position. His other sons aid him in the 
business. Several of them are married, and he is happy 
_in being the grandfather of twenty-four children. Only 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


61 
one grandchild is dead. Mr. Stedman takes a deep in- 
terest in the Universalist society, and several years ago 
procured the formation of a Church at Aurora, which 
is now in a flourishing condition. His wife, a lady 
highly respected for her amiable qualities, is a member 
of the Presbyterian organization. He is a strong friend 
of education, and in connection with Doctor G: Sutton 
and B. N. McHenry assisted in forming at their city 
the first graded schools established in South-eastern 
Indiana. At their beginning they met with much op- 
position, but their superiority soon became manifest, 
and the system was almost immediately adopted in 
the surrounding towns of Indiana. 


+ 0t-o— 


pioneer, of Aurora, was born near Moore’s Hill, 

on the 31st of December, 1821. 

natives of Nova Scotia, and of English descent. 
His father, Ranna C. Stevens, came to Indiana in 1818, 
two years after its admission as a state. Crossing the 
Alleghany Mountains to Pittsburgh, he there procured 
a flat-boat, and floated down the Ohio River to where 
one or two log-cabins marked the site of the present 
beautiful city of Aurora. Deeming the rich bottom 
lands unhealthful, he settled on the ridge, some twelve 
miles back of the river, where, surrounded by Indians 
and wild beasts, he cleared a place in the wilderness. 
Bears and wolves often intruded upon the inclosure 
surrounding his cabin, and until a substantial habitation 
could be erected it was necessary to build fires as a 
protection against them. Small game and deer were 
abundant, and by spending an hour with his rifle Mr. 
Stevens was able to supply his table for days. He built 
himself a comfortable cabin, with puncheon floors, and 
made the necessary furniture from the same material. 
Here, in the quiet solitude of the forest, in the enjoy- 
ment of his family, he was happy. He continued to 
enlarge his clearing until he had several acres yielding 
rich harvests of grain. The Indians often visited him, 
and, as he treated them kindly, they became his warm 
friends. William F. Stevens attended the log school- 
house near his home until he was fourteen years of age, 
when he was sent to the Dearborn County Seminary, at 
Wilmington, then the only institution of learning of any 
note in that part of the state. After remaining at this 
school four years, he read law under James T. Brown 
three years, teaching school at intervals. As he ap- 
proached manhood, however, his tastes inclined more to 
active business, and he became clerk in a store. 
1843 to 1851 he was bookkeeper for T. & J. W. Gaff, after 
which he was admitted to the firm of Chambers, Ste- 
vens & Co.—composed of Josiah Chambers and Levi E. 
Stevens, his elder brother—of which he is still a mem- 


His parents were 


ee WILLIAM FRANKLIN, merchant and 
@ 


From 


62 


ber. -This dry-goods house, for the past fifteen years, 
has averaged a business of over one hundred and twenty- 
five thousand dollars per year. In 1857 the firm opened 
the well-known house of Chambers, Stevens & Co., at 
Cincinnati, which has since deservedly enjoyed a degree 
of prosperity and confidence in the commercial world un- 
surpassed by any firm in the state. Mr. Chambers with- 
drew from this branch of the business in 1875, and W. F. 
Stevens, C. C. Stevens, and G. B. Maltby now compose 
the firm. Mr. William F. Stevens has been identified 
with nearly every enterprise for public improvement in 
the city which he has made his home, and is highly re- 
garded by his fellow-citizens. He was an active mem- 
ber of the school board for several years. He is a 
member in good standing df the Independent Order of 
Odd-fellows of Aurora, having attained the rank of 
Past Chief Patriarch. With his family, he belongs to 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the Sabbath-school 
of which he has been a worker, and for fifteen years 
was in charge of the largest and most successful school 
in the city. In 1844 he married Miss Mary Ann Scctt, 
daughter of Abram and Rebecca Scott, of Dearborn 
County. They have had three children: Ida, wife of 
Mr. G. B. Maltby, who is in charge of the grocery de- 
partment of Chambers, Stevens & Co.; Charles C., who 
is married, and resides in Aurora, where he assists his 
father in conducting their extensive business; 
Abbie, an accomplished young lady. 


and 


2800-0 — 
B rctnee JEREMIAH, late of Madison, Indiana, 
was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia, July 21, 1794. 
His maternal grandfather, James Irwin, removed 
with his family from near Chambersburg, Pennsyl- 
vania, to Augusta County, Virginia, in the year 1780, 
There his daughter Margaret was married to Thomas 
Sullivan, a young Irishman who had come to this coun- 
try to escape the oppressive laws forbidding Catholics to 
hold any office of honor or trust in Ireland, by which his 
father, a prominent barrister, had lost his position. The 
young couple settled in Harrisonburg, Rockingham 
County. Two children were born to them, a son and 
a daughter, but the death of the latter in infancy left 
the subject of this sketch an idolized only child. His 
father, being a Catholic, early destined his son for the 
priesthood, and the greatest care was exercised in his 
education and the formation of his character. His 
mother, a woman of superior ability, was a devout 
Methodist, and wielded an influence over him which, 
long after her death, controlled him in both his public 
and private life. 


Her principles and example were suf- 
ficient to give him a distaste for the life marked out for 
him. He evinced great thirst for knowledge, and, after 


receiving all the instruction in the power of the village 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


schoolmaster to impart, he entered William and Mary’s 
College, where, after a thorough course of study, he 
graduated with honor. Having chosen the law as his 
profession, he became the pupil of George Harrison, of 
Harrisonburg, and remained with him, not only as a 
student, but as a confidential friend, until the year 
1816, when he received his license to practice from the 
Commonwealth of Virginia. In the mean time, with a 
number of other young patriots of Virginia, he enlisted 
for the War of 1812, and was commissioned captain for 
his ‘‘ bravery and good conduct.” When Captain Sulli- 
van finished his legal studies, Mr. Harrison offered, as 
an inducement for him to remain in Virginia, to make 
him his partner; but, having resolved to carve out his own 
fortune, he followed the ‘star of empire” in its course 
westward. In company with two young friends, he 
started on horseback for Louisville, Kentucky. On ar- 
riving at Cincinnati, he was advised to go to Madison, 
Indiana, as a location in every way desirable for a 
young lawyer. Acting upon this advice, he was so well 
pleased with the advantages offered that he decided to 
remain. He opened a law office there, and soon became 
a leading spirit in the legal fraternity of that day. After — 
securing a comfortable home, he returned the following 
year to Virginia for his father and mother, and the same 
year was married to Miss Charlotte Cutler, of his native 
town. Madison now being his home, and Indiana his 
field of labor, he applied himself with great diligence 
to his profession, and the success which intelligent per- 
severance always brings marked him for a more promi- 
nent position. In politics he supported Monroe, and in 
1820 was elected to the state Legislature, at that time 
held in Corydon. It was during this session that the 
act was passed appointing commissioners to lay off a 
town on the site selected for the permanent seat of gov- 
ernment. To Mr. Sullivan belongs the honor of bestow- 
ing the name upon the future capital of the state in leg- 
islative baptism. To quote his own words: 

‘‘T have a very distinct recollection of the great di- 
versity of opinion that prevailed as to the name the 
new town should receive. The bill was reported by 
Judge Polk, and was, in the main, very acceptable. A 
blank, of course, was left for the name of the town that 
was to become the seat of government; and during the 
two or three days we spent in endeavoring to fill that 
blank there was some sharpness and much amusement. 
General Marston G. Clark, of Washington County, pro- 
posed ‘Tecumseh’ as the name, and very earnestly in- 
sisted on its adoption. When that failed, he suggested 
other Indian names, which I have forgotten. They also 
were rejected. Somebody suggested ‘Suwarrow,’ which 
met with no favor. Judge Polk desired the blank to be 
filled with ‘Concord;’ that also failed. Other names 
were proposed, but they were all voted down; and the 
House, without coming to any agreement, adjourned 
until the next day. There were many amusing things 
said during the day, but my remembrance of them is 
not sufficiently distinct to state them with accuracy. I 
had gone to Corydon with the intention of proposing - 


eR 


SSS SS 
SSS 


Western Bingl Pub Co 


LIBRARY 
OF THE i 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


gth list.) 


‘Indianapolis’ as the name of the town; and, on the 
evening of the adjournment above mentioned, I sug- 
gested to Mr. Samuel Merrill, the Representative from 
Switzerland County, the name I preferred. He at once 
adopted it, and agreed to support it. We together 
called on Governor Jennings, who had been a witness to 
the amusing scenes of the day previous, and told him 
to what conclusion we had come. He gave us to under- 
stand that he favored the name we had agreed upon, 
and that he would not hesitate to so express himself. 
When the House met, and went into committee on the 
bill, I moved to fill the blank with ‘Indianapolis.’ The 
name created a shout of laughter. Mr. Merrill, how- 
ever, seconded the motion. We discussed the proposi- 
tion freely and fully; the members conversed with each 
other informally. and the name gradually commended 
itself to the committee, and was accepted. The princi- 
pal reason given in favor of its adoption—to wit, that 
its Greek termination would indicate the locality of the 
town —was, I am sure, the reason that overcame opposi- 
tion to the-name. The town was finally named Indian- 
apolis.’’ 

The above is an official letter to Governor Baker, and 
is among the archives of the state. In 1824 Mr. 
Sullivan:-was nominated for Congress, but was defeated 
by his opponent, William Hendricks. He had now es- 
tablished his reputation as a lawyer whom no hope of 
reward, whether of gold or glory, could ever tempt to 
betray his trust. He was identified with every promi- 
nent enterprise of Church or state, and his profes- 
sion was valued only so far as he could through it ad- 
vance the cause of morality and religion. In 1828 he 
was ordained an elder in the Presbyterian Church; but, 
while his attachment to his own Church, her doctrines, 
forms, and polity, was sincere, he was no sectarian 
bigot, and was ever willing to co-operate with Chris- 
tians of other denominations. The cause of missions 
among the Romanists he regarded as of vital importance, 
and followed with money and prayers the operations of 
one of his favorite societies, the American and Foreign 
Christian Union. In 1829 he was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Ray commissioner, with full power to adjust the 
terms upon which: the land granted to this state by act 
of Congress, March 2, 1827, should be conveyed to the 
state of Ohio for the construction of the Wabash and 
Erie Canal. This position of trust he filled with such 
judgment as to elicit commendation from the executives 
of both states. Until 1836 he was conspicuous in nego- 
tiations of the canal and fund commissioners for In- 
diana, as a man of unblemished integrity. It is not to 
be wondered at then, that, upon the death of Judge 
McKinney, Governor Noble should appoint Mr. Sulli- 
van to fill the vacancy upon the Supreme Bench, with 
Judges Blackford and Dewey as associates, which place 
he occupied for nine years. During the term of service 
of this bench, the Supreme Court rose to a dignity and 
reputation unequaled by any of the newer states, and 
unsurpassed by any of the older. Their decisions have 
Seen, and are yet, quoted on the Queen’s Bench, Eng- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


63 


land, as embodying clear and well-defined principles of 
common law. The characteristics of the three judges 
were entirely different, yet, combined, served to secure 
for the bench this high reputation. As a man, Judge 
Sullivan’s character was one of purity and integrity ; as 
an advocate, he was a deep thinker and _ plain speaker, 
commanding great power over a jury; as a jurist, his 
keen appreciation of equity in our own jurisprudence 
was such that his decisions possessed unusual weight 
and authority. Like every good magistrate, he bowed 
to the majesty of the law, yet was always desirous that 
justice should be administered. Soon after his retire- 
ment from the bench he was solicited to accept the 
nomination of the Whig party for Governor, but he 
preferred to resume the practice of law. Although for 
twenty-five years the servant of the public, and away 
from home the greater part of his time, the training of 
his children was not overlooked. The loving, tender 
care of the father was combined with dignity and firm- 
ness; and probably no family in the West was more 
thoroughly conversant with the purest literature of the 
day than his. Two of his sons followed him in his 
own profession; the third entered the navy of the 
United States, where he remained until he passed his 
final examination. He afterward served with distinction 
in the late Civil War, rising from the rank of captain 
to that of brigadier-general. Judge Sullivan remained 
a very decided Whig until that party was broken up, 
after which he became a Republican, though taking no 
active part in political affairs until the commencement 
of the war, in 1861. Then, with all the ardor of loy- 
alty and patriotism, he lent his abilities and influence 
In 1869, 
upoh the formation of the Criminal Court of Jefferson 


to the support of Mr. Lincoln and his policy. 


County, Judge Sullivan was appointed, by Governor 
Baker, to organize the court and hold it until the gen- 
eral election; at which time, by the voice of the peo- 
ple, he was again made judge of the same court. 
The first term of the new court opened on Tuesday, 
December 6, 1870, when he was to be sworn into office, 
but on that morning the citizens were startled with the 
intelligence that Judge Sullivan had passed from time to 
eternity. The angel of death had been sent to summon 
him to attend a higher court, and peacefully, painlessly, 
and without objection, he had passed from earth, in the 
ripeness of his years and the maturity of his wisdom and 
usefulness. The resolutions of the Supreme Court of 
the state show in what respect he was held by the com- 
munity at large. Hon. Joseph E. McDonald said: 

‘* May wt Please the Court: 1 have been deputed by 
my brothers of the bar to make formal announcement 
of a sad event, by the news of which you have already 
been pained. Hon. Jeremiah Sullivan, who was one of 
the judges of this court from the year 1835 to the year 


1846, died suddenly at his home, in Madison, on the 
sixth day of December, 1870. It is the sentiment of 


64 


my brothers of the bar, that the death of one to whom 
the jurisprudence of the state owes so much, should be 
noticed in fitting terms upon the records of the high 
court to which his labors in former years contributed so 
much of character and respect. As a judge, he was 
learned and inflexibly just, and an ornament to the 
bench. As a practicing lawyer, he was able and honor- 
able, and an ornament to the profession. As a sincere 
Christian, he was an ornament to the Church. As a 
man of exalted personal character, he was an ornament 
to society. I respectfully move, your honors, that the 
accompanying resolutions of the bar be ordered spread 
upon the records of the Court: 

‘*At a meeting of members of the bar’ of the Su- 
preme Court of Indiana, held at the Supreme Court 
room, on the second day of January, 1871, convened 
because of the recent death of Jeremiah’ Sullivan, a 
former judge of the court, the following resolutions 
were adopted: 

“« Resolved, That it is fitting that some suitable ex- 
pression of regard for the memory of Judge Sullivan 
should be preserved among the records of the high 
court over which he once presided. 

“¢ Resolved, That, in the sense of the legal profession 
of this state, the name of Jeremiah Sullivan should be 
prominently inscribed in the list of those learned and 
able judges to whom Indiana will ever remain indebted 
for their services in laying the firm foundation of its 
jurisprudence. 

“¢ Resolved, That we will cherish the memory of 
Judge Sullivan as that of a learned and upright judge, 
a devoted Christian, and a man of unsullied purity and 
integrity of character.” 


—- te — 


K UTTON, GEORGE, M. D., of Aurora, was born 
tf) in London, England, on June 16, 1812. His 
ens father was of a literary turn of mind. He had a 
©) good library, and was remarkable for his memiory 
He died in 1850. His mother’s 
She received her education at 
one of the fashionable boarding schools near London, 
and was accomplished in music, drawing, and needle- 
Her son has a piece of her needle-work represent- 
ing an Egyptian scene. Although it is now more than 
eighty years old, it still adorns the walls of his parlor, 
and is regarded as a masterpiece of art. She died in 
1827. Inthe year 1819 the parents of Doctor Sutton 
emigrated to the United States, and went on to Cincin- 
nati, where they remained during the winters of 1819 
and 1820. In the spring of 1820 the family removed to 
a farm in the valley of the White Water, in Franklin 
County, Indiana. There Doctor Sutton received as 
good an education as could be obtained in those days 
at the country log school-house. He was fond of field 
sports, and was a successful hunter of deer and wild 
turkeys, which were in abundance at that time in that 
section of country. In 1828 he was sent to the Miami 
University to acquire a knowledge of Latin and mathe- 
matics. In the winter of 1832 and 1833 his father re- 


and colloquial powers. 
maiden name was Ives. 


work. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dise. 


moved with the family to Cincinnati, where in the fol- 
lowing summer he commenced the study of medicine, 
under Doctor Jesse Smith. He was a pupil of Doctor 
Smith only a few weeks, as his preceptor died from a sud- 
den attack of cholera, at that time prevailing in the city 
as an epidemic. He afterwards became a student of 
Professor John Eberle, and also attended a course of 
private lectures given to a small class by Professor S. 
D. Gross, now of Philadelphia. He attended lectures 
at the Medical College of Ohio during the winter, and 
spent most of his time in the dissecting room in the 
spring and fall. In the spring of 1835, as he had been 
a close student, he needed change, and a rest from 
study. For this purpose, and also to look at the country, 
he made an excursion with gun and knapsack, going 
from Cincinnati by the Miami Canal to St. Mary’s, down 
the St. Mary’s River in a flat-boat to Fort Wayne; 
thence on foot to Huntington. Here he purchased a 
small canoe and floated down the Wabash to New Har- 
mony. From Huntington to Logansport the river ran 
through an almost unbroken forest. He left Hunting- 
ton in the afternoon, intending to stay all night at La 
Grove, about twelve miles distant; but the Wabash was 
at flood height, and the branches of the trees on each 
side of the river hung down in the swift current, mak- 
ing it safer to keep in the middle of the stream than to 
attempt to stop. Night and a thunder-storm coming on 
just before he reached La Grove, he saw the lights of 
the town as he floated by, without attempting to land. 
By the flashes of lightning and the wall of trees on 
each side of the river, he kept in the middle of the 
stream until some time in the latter part of the night, 
when he lodged on the head of an island. To keep his 
canoe from turning he pushed his paddle down in the 
sand, and, with his head resting on its end and an 
umbrella over him, he dozed till morning. At day- 
light he pushed away the drift-wood that had lodged 
against the canoe, swung out into the river, and re- 
sumed his journey. He stopped a short time at Peru, 
and visited the Indian village, as the natives at that 
time had not left the Reserve. On this solitary voyage 
of several hundred miles down the Wabash he shot wild 
turkeys and wild geese, and saw other game in abun- 
dance. As night approached he occasionally built a 
fire on the banks of the river, made a temporary shelter, 
and remained at this camp until morning, then em- 
barked in his canoe and continued his journey. Invig- 
orated in health, he returned to Cincinnati, after being 
absent about 
He graduated the following spring at the Ohio Medical 
College, after having attended three full courses of 
lectures. The title of his thesis was, ‘*The Relations 
between the Blood and Vital Principle.” In the spring 
of 1836 he commenced the practice of his profession at 
Aurora. He soon obtained an extensive practice, as 


two months, and resumed his studies. 


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there was at that time a large amount of sickness on 
the low malarial bottom lands in the neighborhood of 
Aurora. On June 7, 1838, he was married to Miss 
Sarah Folbre, of Aurora. By this marriage they have 
had five children, four sons and one daughter. He has 
lost three sons, but his daughter and one son are still 
living. His wife died in 1868. In the winter of 1838, 
after failing to obtain a fost mortem examination of a 
case in which he felt much interested, he wrote a series 
of articles on the ‘‘Importance of Post Mortem Ex- 
aminations to the Public.” These papers were pub- 
lished in the Dearborn Democrat, during the months of 
December, January, and February, and were his first 
literary efforts for publication. In 1839 the citizens of 
Aurora celebrated the Fourth of July in grand style. On 
this occasion he was one of the orators of the day, and 
delivered an address to an audience of many thousands. 
In 1840 he published a paper in the American Journal of 
Medical Science, Volume XXVI, ‘‘On Enlarged Prostate 
Gland Connected with Thickened and Sacculated Blad- 
der.” In the winter and spring of 1843, epidemic 
erysipelas, known by the popular name of “black 
tongue,” prevailed at Aurora, and also in the surround- 
ing country, in Dearborn and Ripley Counties. Neigh- 
boring physicians were attacked with the disease. It 
caused the death of one who resided a few miles from 
Aurora. The only physician in Wilmington, a little 
town two miles from Aurora, also had a severe attack, 
and at one time it was thought would not recover. 
The illness of these physicians enlarged the range of 
practice for Doctor Sutton, and gave him an extensive 
experience with the epidemic. In the fall of 1843 he 
published his observations on this epidemic erysipelas 
in the Western Lancet. He directed attention to the 
various forms assumed by erysipelas. He said: 

**This disease has either assumed several characters, 
or we have had several epidemics traversing the county 
together. . . . It attacks the mucous membrane 
of the respiratory passages, the tongue, the glands of 
the throat, the skin in the form of erysipelas; the lungs 
and thoracic viscera; the uterus and its appendages, 
producing puerperal fever, as this last disease in several 
places has also accompanied the epidemic.” 

At the time this paper was published these were ad- 
vanced views. The paper immediately attracted atten- 
tion, and extracts from it were republished in medical 
journals, and also in Copland’s Medical Dictionary, 
and it was reprinted in full in Bell’s edition of Nun- 
nerly on Erysipelas. Doctor Sutton has been closely 
identified with the formation and growth of the Dear- 
born County Medical Society, which at the present 
time ranks among the most prosperous county medical 
societies in the state. In the spring of 1844 he issued 
a circular, which was sent to physicians in Dearborn 
and adjoining counties, and the first meeting of the 


first medical society formed in Dearborn County was | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


65 


organized at his residence, in Aurora, on the first Mon- 
day in June, 1844. This society continued in existence 
for some time. It was reorganized in 1867, and has 
since held regular monthly meetings. At this time 
(1844) he had a large and lucrative practice, and gave 
much attention to surgery. He was frequently selected 
to deliver public addresses, and took an active part in 
the temperance movement. In the summer of 1849 
cholera made its appearance at Aurora in its most ma- 
lignant form. His labor was incessant night and day; 
and while attending patients he was suddenly attacked 
with the disease himself. This was about two o’clock 
in the morning. He had been up during the whole 
night, and for a number in succession his rest had been 
broken. The epidemic was most violent in that portion 
of the town in which he resided. More than half of 
his immediate neighbors died. His whole family were 
stricken down one after another. His oldest son died 
after only a few hours’ illness, and his youngest son sank 
into collapse so low that his recovery was despaired of 
for nearly twenty-four hours. Doctor Sutton partially 
recovered from the attack, and although feeble and 
emaciated again assisted, as far as he was able, in the 
treatment of the sick. The distress and anxiety of the 
citizens of Aurora at this time can scarcely be realized, 
for, in the midst of the pestilence, the destruction of 
the town by fire seemed at one time to be almost in- 
evitable. On the 23d of July, while Doctor Sutton was 
rendering all the assistance that he could in his feeble 
health, at the bedside of a patient in the collapse stage 
of cholera, the alarm of fire was given, and he was 
hurriedly called from this patient to attend one of the 
citizens who had received fatal injuries and burns at the 
conflagration. The flames for a time were uncontrollable, 
and the destruction of property was great. A large 
flouring-mill, distillery, corn-house, and a number of 
other buildings were destroyed. Seeing the difficulty 
citizens occasionally had in procuring a physician to 
attend immediately on the sick, Doctor Sutton, while 
convalescing from his illness, issued in pamphlet form, 
for gratuitous circulation, ‘‘A Summary of the Symptoms 
and Treatment of Asiatic Cholera,” intended for a guide 
in the treatment of the disease until a physician could 
be procured. . In 1852 a celebration was held in Aurora 
on the Fourth of July. He was selected as orator of 
the day, and delivered an address ‘*On the Danger of 
Dissolution of the Union from the Question of Slavery.” 
This oration was published in the newspapers, and also 
in pamphlet form. The danger of civil war, which oc- 
curred nine years afterwards, was forcibly predicted. 
This year he joined the Indiana State Medical Society, 
and was appointed chairman of a committee to report 
on the ‘‘Medical History of Cholera in Indiana.” He 
issued a circular, which he sent to physicians through- 
out the state. It contained a series of questions with 


66 


blank spaces for answers. He succeeded in obtaining 
answers and communications from forty-six physicians, 
showing the extent to which the epidemic had prevailed 
in thirty-eight counties. A number of these communi- 
cations were from the most eminent practitioners in the 
state, and the report, it is believed, contains the largest 
amount of trustworthy information concerning the prey- 
alence of Asiatic cholera within the state of Indiana 
that has yet been published. The report was presented 
to the State Medical Society at its meeting in May, 1853, 
and is published in its Transactions. In that report he 
advocated the view that cholera was an infectious dis- 
ease, and was diffused over the globe by human agency. 
He also advanced the idea that cholera, like other dis- 
eases, presents different grades of severity; and that the 
choleraic diarrhea, which at that time was regarded as 
a premonitory system only, was in reality a mild form 
of the disease. He divided cholera into four phases: 
the form of diarrhea; the form of dysentery; a mild form 
resembling cholera morbus; and the malignant form, 
where there was failure of the circulation, in connection 
with vomiting and purging, blueness of the skin, 
cramps, etc. He argues at some length to show how 
the disease may be spread over the country by persons 
laboring under diarrhea, and how difficult it is to trace 
the manner of its diffusion. (See page 168, Transac- 
tions of Indiana State Medical Society.) He also ad- 
vanced the idea, which has since become widely be- 
lieved, that infection arose from the evacuations; and 
he directed attention to the local malignancy of cholera, 
and how this local malignancy may arise from the accu- 
mulation of infection, either from the soiled clothes or 
bedding of the sick, or from throwing the cholera evac- 
uations upon the ground. (See pages 162, 163, and 
166.) He says in that report that— 

«Six or seven hours before the first case terminated 
fatally, the evacuations from the bowels passed invol- 
untarily into the bed; consequently, the bed and straw 
became saturated with these discharges. Immediately 
after the death of this patient the straw in this bed 
was emptied upon a vacant lot on the west side of this 
house. Now, if we can conceive that from this straw 
there emanated a poison capable of producing cholera, 
that portion of the town which became infected is just 
that portion which a vapor emanating from this place 
would be most likely to pass over.” 


Continuing to discuss this subject through several 
pages, he says: 

‘‘When the disease prevails, each house at which a 
fatal case has occurred becomes a source of infection— 
first from the patient, next from the bed and bedding, 
and also from the excretions, which from their watery 
appearance are generally emptied on the ground.” (See 
page 163.) 

He believed that cholera could be spread through 
the community from the clothing of an individual 
being slightly soiled by this painless or choleraic diar- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gth Dist. 


rhea, while the person himself wearing the clothing, 
although laboring under an infectious diarrhea, would 
scarcely be aware that he was unwell. It must be 
borne in mind that these views were formed in 1849, 
to account for the introduction and prevalence of chol- 
era at Aurora. They were presented to the profession 
in May, 1853, at the meeting of the Indiana State Med- 
ical Society. It is believed that in this report is found 
the first warning of danger arising from choleraic evac- 
uations, and consequently the danger of throwing them 
upon the ground. Doctor Snow, of London, in 1854, - 
one year afterwards, presented his theory that cholera 
poison emanated from the evacuations, but that this 
poison must be swallowed, either in drinking water or 
otherwise, to produce its specific effects. Doctor Sutton’s 
report is full of original observations, and is suggestive 
in the highest degree. It was read to the society at a 
morning session, and, as the views presented were new at. 
that time, it was made the order of the day at two o’clock 
for discussion. It was taken up, and ‘discussed at large 
‘by Doctors Harding, Moffat, Lomax, Bobbs, Clark, 
Ritter, Reid, Demming, Mears, Yeakle, Sutton, and 
other members of the society, when the report was re- 
ferred to the committee on publication, and the com- 
mittee requested to continue the investigation, and 
report at the next session.” On motion of Doctor 
Lomax, the thanks of the society were ‘tendered to 
Doctor Sutton for his able and interesting report on the 
medical history of cholera.” (See pages 12 and 13, ibid.) 
In the spring of 1856 he was selected by Professor S. 
D. Gross as one of the collaborators for the Louisville 
Review, and also, in 1857, for the North American 
Medico-Chirurgical Review, published at Philadelphia. 
To both of these journals ‘he contributed papers. This 
year he furnished a report to the Indiana State Medical 
Society on erysipelas, which is published*in the Transac- 
tions for 1857. About this time the remarkable epizootic 
known by the name of ‘‘hog-cholera”’ made its appear- 
ance, not only in Dearborn County, but in other por- 
tions of the state, also in Ohio and Kentucky. The 
disease spread over the country, and the swine died by 
hundreds and thousands. But little was definitely known 
at that time of the nature of this disease. Some writ- 
ers thought it was a species of cholera resembling the 
Asiatic, from which it took its name, and depended 
upon an ‘*‘epidemic influence;” others, that it arose 
from crowding hogs together in the pens at the large 
distilleries. Some thought that the slop fed to hogs at 
the distilleries gave rise to the disease; but none at that 
time had proved that it was a contagious or infectious 
disease. Doctor Sutton made a series of experiments 
to ascertain the etiology and pathology of this disease. 
By these experiments he ascertained the disease to be 
highly infectious, that it is self-limited, that this infec= 
tion had a latent period seldom exceedingtwenty days, 


gih Dist. REPRESENTATIVE 
and that an attack exempted the animal from a second. 
He also presented evidence to show that the disease 
could not be communicated to the human system. 
From the dissection of sixty-seven hogs, he ascertained 
that it was not a disease confined to the alimentary 
canal, but that nearly every tissue bore evidence of in- 
flammatory action. He came to the conclusion that 
this ‘‘disease appears to be intermediate between the 
specific eruptive diseases and erysipelas, partaking of 
the nature of each, and not having its exact resem- 
blance among the diseases to which the human system 
is subject.” The first notice of these investigations 
was published in the Cincinnati Gazette, January 14, 
1857. It was copied into several agricultural papers. 
A more extended series of experiments and observations 
was published in the May, 1858, number of the North 
American Medico-Chtrurgical Review. Quotations were 
given in the agricultural reports and newspapers, and a 
lengthy review was printed in the Sandtary Review and 
Journal of Public Health, for October, 1858, published in 
London, England, and edited by Professor B. W. Rich- 
ardson, M. D. Professor Richardson says: 

‘¢In pursuance of our previous observations, we this 
time offer some account of a remarkable epizootic 
amongst swine in the United States of America. We 
had heard of the disease incidentally at our last issue, 
but not with sufficient accuracy of detail to warrant any 
description. This quarter we are more fortunate. The 
North American MWedico-Chirurgical Review for May con- 
tains an able article on this subject from the pen of 
Doctor George Sutton, of Aurora, Dearborn County, 
Inciana. Doctor Sutton has made a iong series of re- 
searches on the epizootic, and has contributed a paper 
which will not soon be lost in the rolis of scientific 
history. From this paper we shall borrow in full all 
the information as to the origin, nature, and transmis- 
sion of the new-disease visitor.” 

In concluding a very lengthy review, Doctor Rich- 
ardson says: 

‘¢We place its history, therefore, before our epidem- 
iologists, as a record of great importance, and in doing 
so we beg to offer to Doctor Sutton our respectful and 
earnest appreciation of his laborious and carefully con- 
ducted researches.” 

Twenty-two years have passed away since these in- 
vestigations were made, and time has confirmed the 
correctness of the conclusions then arrived at. The 
epizootic still prevails, and may now be regarded as one 
of the most remarkable known to have occurred upon 
our globe. Millions on millions of swine have died 
from the disease, producing a loss to our country al- 
most incalculable. When the history of this epizootic 
comes to be written, it will be found that the researches 
of Doctor Sutton were the first that unraveled the mys- 
teries surrounding the disease, and gave the proper 
direction for further investigation. Having had much 
experience with scarlatina in its most malignant form, 
he published in the Worth American Medico -Chirurgical 


MEN OF INDIANA. 67 
Review for November, 1857, his observations on the 
He di- 
rected attention to the four following modifications: 
1. Where the system is suddenly prostrated at the com- 
mencement of the disease, as if from a severe shock 
upon the organic nervous system. 2. Where the vio- 
lence of the disease is directed to the brain, producing 
congestion or inflammation of that organ. 3. Where 
the alimentary canal is the principal seat of irritation, 
producing symptoms resembling a violent cholera mor- 
bus. 4. Where the disease is principally directed to the 
throat and respiratory passages. He presented cases to 
show that these symptoms were occasionally as distinct 
as those’ upon which scarlatina is divided into the mild, 
the anginose, and the malignant varieties. Doctor Sut- 
ton was fond of the natural sciences, and, although ac- 
tively engaged in the practice of his profession, he 
devoted a portion of his time to their study and inves- 
tigation. In 1859 he delivered a course of lectures on 
geology, embracing the physical history of his own 
neighborhood, with which, from careful study, he had 
made himself familiar. 


diversity of symptoms in scarlatina maligna. 


These lectures were delivered 
in behalf of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, of 
which he was one of the advisory committee for Indi- 
(See Mount Vernon “ecord for May, 1859.) A 
synopsis of these lectures was published in the Aurora 
Commercial at the time. This year he sent to the secre- 
tary of the Smithsonian Institute his observations of the 
great auroral display of September 1 and 2, 1859. Pro- 
fessor Henry sent extracts from this paper for publication 
to the American Journal of Science and Arts (Stlliman’s 
Journal), which may be seen in the November number 
for 1860, page 354. In 1862, a few days after the battle 
of Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh), Tennessee, he offered his 
services to the United States Sanitary Committee, visited 
the field of battle, and was assigned the surgical ward 
of one of the hospital’s boats, which were, at that time, 
conveying the wounded and sick from the field of bat- 
tle to the hospitals at New Albany, Louisville, etc. 
During the same year he wrote a series of articles of 
local interest on the financial complications of the city 
of Aurora with the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad and 
These papers were published in 
the Aurora Commercéal, and presented the subject of dis- 
pute in so clear a form that, at the next election, he was 
brought out as a candidate for mayor; and, although 
contrary to his own wishes, was elected by an almost 
unanimous vote, only twenty-four votes out of the whole, 
including the different wards of the city, being cast for 
the opposing candidate. He was elected three times in 
succession, the last time without opposition. He refused 
to serve longer, as the office interfered with the duties 
of his profession. In 1866, as cholera was again ap- 
proaching the country, he published a summary of ob- 
servations on cholera, in which he reiterated the views 


ana. 


certain individuals. 


e 


68 


presented in 1853, with additional observations. (See 
Medical and Surgical Reporter, of Philadelphia, for April 
14, 1866.) In August, 1866, cholera was again intro- 
duced into the city of Aurora. The experience which 
the citizens had had with this disease caused the city 
council to give the board of health unlimited power to 
prevent ‘its spread. Dr. Sutton, being a firm believer 
in the efficacy of sanitary measures, and the power in a 
great measure to ‘‘stamp out” the disease, superin- 
tended, as president of that board, the disinfection of 
all the houses and premises at which the disease had 
appeared; and a general system of disinfection over the 
whole city was adopted. The disease was confined toa 
small locality, and only twelve deaths occurred. In 
1877 he presented a report to the Indiana State Medical 
Society on cholera, showing its introduction and the ex- 
tent to which it prevailed in Dearborn, Ohio, and Ripley 
Counties, Indiana, in 1866. (See Transactions of Indiana 
State Medical Society for 1867.) In 1868 he presented an- 
other report to the State Society, the object of which was 
to show that cholera was not a zymotic or blood disease, 
in which the poison germ is redeveloped within the blood, 
but that its development was from the mucous mem- 
brane of the alimentary canal; and that the presence of 
the poison germ within the mucous membrane poisons 
the nerves of the part; and this abnormal condition fa- 
vors its redevelopment by producing a local hyperamia 
of the tissue from which it is reproduced. (Transactions 
of Indiana State Medical Society for 1868.) This year 
he also published a new method of reducing disloca- 
tion of the hip-joint, by using the femur as a lever over 
a fulcrum placed in the groin. The paper was delayed 
in its publication, but appeared in the number of the 
Western Journal of Medicine, published at Indianapolis, 
in September, 1868. In 1869 he was elected president 
of the Indiana State Medical Society, an honor he 
highly appreciated, as he was not even present that year 
at the meeting of the society over which he was chosen 
to preside. Doctor Sutton has full faith in the mission 
of the medical profession to prevent and cure disease; 
and, as president in 1870 of the Indiana State Medical 
Society, he delivered an address in which he discussed 
the power which mind has over the laws of nature, and 
that medicines were means, when properly used, by 
which we could aid and control the laws of human life. 
(See Transactions of Indiana State Medical Society for 
1870.) In 1871 he attended the meeting of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association at San Francisco, California, as 
a delegate from the Indiana State Medical Society, and 
was appointed chairman of the section on medical 
topography, meteorology, and epidemics. He wrote 
letters describing his trip to California, which were pub- 
lished in the Dearborn Independent. In 1872 he at- 
tended the meeting of the American Medical Asso- 
ciation at Philadelphia, and presided over the section 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


on medical topography, meteorology, and epidemics. 
Valuable papers were read before the section, which 
are published in the Transactions. He was reappointed 
chairman of the same section for 1873. (See Transactions 
of the American Medical Association for 1871 and 1872.) 
In 1873 he attended the meeting of the American 
Medical Association at St. Louis, and presided over the 


section on psychology, medical jurisprudence, physiology, 


and hygiene. (See Transactions of the American Medical 
Association for 1873.) This year he presented to the 
Indiana State Medical Society a lengthy report on the 
medical topography and diseases of Indiana. He sent 
circulars to a large number of physicians, and procured 
valuable information relating to this subject in forty-two 
counties, and also the prevailing diseases. (See Trans- 
actions of the Indiana State Medical Society for 1873.) 
In August, 1873, cholera was again introduced into the 
city of Aurora. The board of health, of which he was 
president, adopted the same vigorous course of disinfec- 
tion that was pursued in 1866, and with the same excel- 
lent effects. There was the most conclusive evidence of 
the introduction of the disease this year into the city by 
infection, and its spread throughout the country by 
human agency. He read a paper before the Society of 
Natural History at Cincinnati, the object of which was 
to show that we occasionally have local thunder-storms 
which present evidence of a strong wind blowing out- 
wardly in all directions from the center. This paper 
was published in the American Journal of Science and 
Arts, (See July number for 1873.) In 1874 he made the 
discovery that hogs in the neighborhood of Aurora 
were infected with trichinz. He was also called to at- 
tend a number of cases of trichinosis, produced from 
eating diseased pork. He published several articles on 
this subject in the Aurora Farmer and Mechanic. These 
contributions were republished in the Cincinnati Com- 
mercial, Gazette, and LEnguzrer, and other papers, in 
January and February, 1874. He continued his investi- 
gations, and in May, 1875, presented a report on trichi- 
nosis to the Indiana State Medical Society. In this 
report he directed attention to the fact, which he had 
discovered, that from three to ten per cent of the hogs 
in South-eastern Indiana were infected with trichine, 
the number of hogs diseased varying greatly in different 
localities; and also that it was highly probable that 
trichinous pork was one of the causes of gastro-enteri- 
tis, diarrhea, and dysentery—diseases so prevalent in 
our country, (See Transactions of the Indiana Medical 
Society for 1875; also, extracts republished in the Lon- 
don Lancet and a large number of medical journals.) 
On the 21st of December, 1874, he read a paper before 
the Academy of Medicine at Cincinnati on ‘‘ The Ful- 
crum as an Aid to Manipulation in the Reduction of 
Dislocations.” He directed attention to its assistance 
in the reduction of dislocation of the hip-joint, as well as 


gth Dist.| 


its aid to manipulation without force in the reduction 
of dislocations of the shoulder-joint. (See Cénie for 
January 2 and January 9, 1875.) In the Medical and 
Surgical Reporter for January 23, 1875, he published his 
second case of successful reduction of dislocation of the 
hip-joint by manipulating the femur over a fulcrum. 
This case had resisted the usual methods recommended 
to effect the purpose, but was reduced by this plan in a 
few moments. In May, 1876, he read a paper before 
the Indiana State Medical Society on this manner of 
reducing dislocations of the hip-joint. In this paper he 
presents seven rules to guide in the reduction of the 
different forms of dislocation of the hip-joint by ma- 
nipulations over a fulcrum. He presented additional 
cases of success in the April and also in the September 
numbers of the American Practitioner for 1876. One of 
these cases was of twenty-eight days’-standing, and had 
resisted all efforts to effect reduction. On the 18th of 
November, 1876, he reduced, at the Philadelphia Hos- 
pital, a dislocation of the hip-joint of ninety-eight days’ 
duration. From its long standing and the extensive ad- 
hesions which had formed, and from the fact that it had 
resisted all the scientific efforts made at this hospital to 
effect reduction, he regards this as a most conclusive test 
case, and as establishing beyond all doubt the efficacy 
of this mode of reducing dislocations of the hip-joint. 
His son, Doctor H. H. Sutton, assisted in the reduction 
and made this case the subject of his thesis, as he was 
at that time attending the Jefferson Medical College, 
and graduated in the spring of 1877. Doctor H. H. 
Sutton watched the case from the time of its reduction 
up to the roth of March, when the man was able to go 
about. The hospital record shows that he was dis- 
charged cured. In the summer of 1877 Doctor Sutton 
published additional evidence of the efficacy of this 
mode of reducing dislocation of the hip-joint. (See Cin- 
cinnati Lancet and Observer for September, 1879.) On 
the 23d of February, 1875, he read a paper before the 
Dearborn County Medical Society on the fulcrum as an 
aid in manipulating without resorting to force in the 
reduction of dislocation of the shoulder-joint. (See Rec- 
ords of the society for February 23, 1875.) Doctor 
Sutton had succeeded in reducing several cases of dislo- 
cation of the shoulder-joint by the method proposed, 
but did not regard them as test cases. On the 25th of 
June, 1878, Doctor H. C. Vincent, of Guilford, presi- 
dent of the Dearborn County Medical Society, brought 
before the society a patient in which the humerus was 
dislocated on the roth of March, and had resisted all 
the usual efforts to effect reduction by extension and 
counter-extension, with a ball or fulcrum in the axilla. 
From its long standing, extensive adhesions, and the un- 
successful efforts that had already been made to effect 
reduction, it was thought by a number of, the members 
that no further effort should be made to effect reduc- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN.OF INDIANA, 


69 


tion. As Doctor Sutton was not present that day at the 
society, it was decided to take the patient to Aurora on 
Thursday, June 27, and if reduction should be attempted 
this at least would be a test case for the plan which he 
had presented to the society. The man lived about 
twelve miles from Aurora, and on the day appointed 
Doctor H. C. Vincent, accompanied by the patient and 
by Doctor T. M. Kyle, of Manchester, and also Doctor 
W.C. Henry, Doctor R. C. Bond, and Doctor H. H. 
Sutton, met at the office of Doctor Sutton. The dislo- 
cation was one of one hundred and ten days’ duration, 
and difficulty was anticipated. The patient was brought 
under the influence of chloroform, and, assisted by these 
gentleman, Doctor Sutton reduced the dislocation, by his 
peculiar mode of manipulating, in less than five minutes. 
Three months later the patient was again brought to the 
society by Doctor Vincent, perfectly recovered, with perfect 
use of his arm, showing that this plan of reducing dislo- 
cation of the shoulder-joint is at least worthy of a trial. 
As a member of the committee on necrology in the 
American Medical Association he presented biographical 
sketches of Doctors Isaac Casselberry, Thos. Fry, James 
P. Debruler, and also G. W. Mears. (See Transactions 
of the American Medical Association for 1875 and 1880.) 
He has also furnished for publication biographical sketches 
of Doctors H. J. Bowers, Nelson Torbet, D. Fisher, Mat- 
thias Haines, W. E. Sutton, H. T. Williams, M. H. Hard- 
ing, junior, and John Hughes. At the meeting of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
held in Buffalo, August, 1876, he read a paper on the 
‘* Evidence in Boone County, Kentucky, of Glacial or Ice 
Deposits of Two Distinct and Widely» Distant Periods.” 
This paper was published in the Proceedings of the as- 
sociation for 1876, and reviewed in the American Journal 
of Science for September, 1877, page 239, and also repub- 
lished in full in the Geological Report of Indiana for 
1878. In 1878 he read a paper before the Indiana State 
Medical Society on ‘‘ Placenta Przevia and Its Treatment,” 
which was published in the Transactions of the society 
for 1878, and also in pamphlet form. In this paper he 
suggested the importance of collecting statistics on this 
subject, which has since been done. He kept a meteor- 
ological journal for over thirty years, and furnished 
to the Smithsonian Institute regular meteorological ob- 
servations for many years. (See Smithsonian Reports 
from 1859 to 1873.) Doctor Sutton is an independent 
thinker—has been remarkable for his indefatigable en- 
ergy, industry, and love of science. Although engaged 
in a large practice in the different branches of his pro- 
fession, he found time to direct a portion of his atten- 
tion to geology, meteorology, and archzology, and also to 
write for the newspapers on a great variety of subjects. 
Some of these articles were his best productions. He 
has written on sanitary science, scarlatina, cholera, geol: 
ogy, a series of articles on the graded school system, 


7O 


railroad obligations of Aurora, excursion to Niagara 
Falls, to Canada, to California, and other ‘articles too 
humerous to mention. He has been selected as orator 
for a large number of public celebrations, and has de- 
livered addresses and orations, many of which were pub- 
lished in pamphlet form. As president of the board of 
trustees of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of In- 
diana, he delivered an address to the graduating class 
at Indianapolis in 1877, and also in 1878, which were 
published in the Indianapolis papers. (See Sentinel and 
Indianapolis Journal of February 22, 1878.) He has 
given much attention to the microscope, and has made 
valuable discoveries and suggestions on trichine and 
trichinosis, to which allusion has already been made. 
He has made surgery a specialty, is an expert operator, 
and has had a large surgical practice. The machine 
shops of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway are situated 
near Aurora, and, as might be expected, many accidents 
occur at them, requiring prompt surgical aid. Much of 
this has fallen to his care, and he has performed a large 
variety of surgical operations. His suggestions in rela- 
tion to the reduction of dislocations have been exten- 


sively republished, and Professor Pooley, in the Prac-’ 


tationer, of December, 1876, says: 


“It seems to me, therefore, that we are indebted to 
Doctor Sutton for a valuable improvement; and. I do 
not know a more beautiful and philosophical piece of 
practical surgery than the reduction of a dislocated hip 
by Doctor Reid’s manipulation, performed over Sutton’s 
fulcrum.”’ 


Doctor Sutton is remarkable for his independence in 
thought and action. He has had the confidence of the 
public for over forty years, and from an extensive con- 
sulting practice and lucrative business as surgeon and 
physician has, although a poor collector, been able to 
acquire ample means to live comfortably in his old age. 
He has always taken a deep interest in the subject of 
education; was connected with the board of school 
trustees of Aurora for over sixteen years, and was in- 
strumental in erecting at Aurora one of the finest school 
buildings in South-eastern Indiana. He directed his at- 
tention many years ago to the antiquities of his neigh- 
borhood—made notes and drew sketches of the fortifica- 
tions and earth-works then to be seen, as it was evident 
that from the progress of improvement all trace of these 
monuments would in time be lost. He made collections 
of the antiquities, fossils, and geological specimens found 
in the neighbarhood of Aurora, and has now a cabinet 
of many thousand specimens valuable for their local in- 
terest. He has a fine equatorial telescope—five feet long, 
object glass three and a half inches—finely mounted, for 
celestial observations, which he places at the disposal 
of the astronomical class in the high school of Aurora. 
Sketches of his life have already been published by the 
Rocky Mountain Medical Association, and also in the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


‘Biographical Sketches of Physicians of the United 
States.”” In the sketch of his life in the Transactions of 
the Rocky Mountain Medical Association, Doctor Toner 
says that ‘‘all of his papers have the rare merit of be- 
ing original and practical.” He is an active member 
of the Dearborn County Medical Society, and also a 
member of the Indiana State Medical Society, and 
of the American Medical Association, and was a member 
of the International Medical Congress of 1876, as a dele- 
gate from the Indiana State Medical Society. He isa 
member of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, 
of the Archeological Association of Indiana, and of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
He is an honorary member of the Ohio State Medical 
Society, the California State Medical Society, and also 
of several other societies. 


—>-Gote-<—_ 


<¢ UTTON, WILLIS EDGAR, M. D., a son of Doc- 
tor George Sutton, a well-known physician of 

€ ( Southern Indiana, was born in Aurora, Indiana, 
June 2, 1848, and died at his father’s residence, in 
Aurora, February 24, 1879. Doctor Sutton was never 
very robust, having suffered from a severe attack of 
cholera in the spring of 1849, when it was prevailing 
so fatally at Aurora, and his life was despaired of; con- 
trary to all expectations, however, he recovered from 
this disease, though it left his system in an enfeebled 
condition, from which he felt the effects in after life. 
As he grew older he seemed to become more vigorous, 
strengthening his constitution by all kinds of outdoor 
sports, of which he was extremely fond, and was able to 
receive a good education, attending first the excellent 
graded schools in his native town, then Moore’s Hill 
College, and afterward Wabash College, at Crawfords- 
ville. Deciding to become a physician, in the year 
1869 he commenced the study of medicine, under the 
tuition of his father, and attended lectures in Cincin- 
nati, graduating at the Ohio Medical College in 1872, 
The following winter he went to Philadelphia, to con- 
tinue his studies at the famous Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege, also visiting the hospitals of that city. On his 
return home he entered upon the practice of his profes- 
sion, and having the elements of success, ability and 
pleasing manners, soon became popular as a physician, 
and acquired a large practice. He had a great love for 
his chosen profession, and was conscientious in the dis- 
charge of its duties, attending the sick faithfully and 
with a kindly spirit. He was fond of surgery, and a 
good surgeon, and had performed delicate and diffi- 
cult operations with success. He was an excellent anat- 
omist. A good student, close observer, and familiar 
with the periodical literature of the day, he bade fair 
to rise to eminence in his profession. Being skillful as 


ath Dist.) 


a microscopist, under the direction of his father he was 
the first to detect trichine in the pork raised in South- 
eastern Indiana, rendering valuable assistance in 1874 
in investigating cases of trichinosis that occurred in 
Aurora. He connected himself with several medical 
societies—the Dearborn County Medical Society, the 
Indiana State Medical Society, and the American Med- 
ical Association. In the summer of 1877 he made a trip 
to Memphis for the benefit of his health. While at 
Evansville on his return home, he was caught in a 
storm of rain, his clothing becoming wet, and that 
night on the boat he was seized with a chill, followed 
by an attack of pneumonia. The disease assumed dan- 
gerous symptoms by the time he reached Aurora, the 
left lung becoming consolidated. During the summer 
he went to Minnesota, his health improving somewhat 
in that climate, and in the fall to Florida, arriving at 
Jacksonville just as the yellow fever had made its ap- 
pearance in that city and was creating a panic among 
the inhabitants. The letters which he wrote on this 
subject were exceedingly interesting, and some of them 
were published in the Dearborn Zvadependent. While in 
Florida he kept a daily record of the weather, being 
interested in meteorology, and took notes on a variety 
of subjects, as it was his intention to write a paper on 
Florida as a health resort for invalids. He remained 
there until the following May, when he returned but 
little improved in health. The winter of 1878-79 he 
determined to go to Texas, but finding himself failing 
rapidly in that state he returned home, and died a few 
weeks after his return to Aurora, in the thirty-first year 
of his age. Thus passed away a young man who was 
high-minded, honorable in every respect, universally 


liked, and who commenced his professional career with 
| ing, held at the house of Jonathan Jaques, Rev. Charles 


the most brilliant prospects. Immediately after his death 
appropriate resolutions were passed by several societies 
of which he was a member. Those of the Dearborn 
County Medical Society were as follows: 


‘* Whereas, In the dispensation of an inscrutable but 
all-wise Providence, we are called to mourn the loss, by 
death, of our friend and confrére, Willis E. Sutton, 
M. D.; and, whereas, Doctor W. E. Sutton was a young 
man of more than ordinary attainments, bidding fair to 
become a useful member of our society and an orna- 
ment to the profession, possessing, as he did, such excel- 
lent social qualities as well as a strictly moral and up- 
right character; therefore, 

** Resolved, That we, as members of the Dearborn 
County Medical Society, do most deeply sympathize with 
Doctor George Sutton and his remaining son and daugh- 
ter in this their great bereavement. 

** Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be for- 
warded to Doctor Sutton and family, as a token of our 
respect for our deceased brother, and also of our appre- 
ciation of the eminent ability in our profession, and high 
standing in our society, of the bereaved father. 

‘* Resolved, That we attend the funeral of the de- 
ceased ex masse.” 

A—16 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


71 


JIJARKINGTON, REV. JOSEPH, of Greensburg, 
4 was born at Nashville, Tennessee, October 30, 
| 1800. His parents, Jesse and Mary Tarkington, 
were natives of Tyrrel County, North Carolina, 

and of English descent. They went to Tennessee in 
1796, and settled near Nashville, where they engaged 
in farming. In 1815 they removed to Harrison’s Block- 
house—now Edwardsport, Knox County, Indiana—and 
the next year to Stanford, west of Bloomington. There 
they entered land and began its cultivation, They 
were obliged that year to bring their corn in sacks on 
horseback from Shakertown, on the Wabash, a distance 
of seventy-five miles, and then pound it in a mortar be- 
fore they could make bread. There were then only two 
school-houses within the territory, and very few books 
of any kind to be had; Joseph Tarkington’s opportu- 
nities for an education were consequently very limited. 
He spent his early years in labor upon the farm with 
his father. In 1820 he attended a camp-meeting five 
miles west of Bloomington, and was there converted. 
Soon after he was licensed as an exhorter, and in 1824 
was licensed to preach. Shortly afterward his father 
and mother, with a number of their neighbors, were 
converted under his preaching, and received into the 
Church. August 27, 1825, he joined the Illinois Con- 
ference, which met in an upper room in the house of 
James Sharp, in Charleston—Indiana and Illinois being 
at that time in one conference. He was sent that year 
to Patoka Circuit, in the Wabash District, which em- 
braced seven counties and twenty-eight appointments, 
with Rev, James Garner preacher in charge. Rev. 
Charles Holliday, afterward agent of the Western 
Methodist Book Concern, Walnut Street, Cincinnati, 
Ohio, was presiding elder. At the first quarterly meet- 


Holliday received thirty-seven and one-half cents, 
Joseph Tarkington fifty cents, and James Garner one 
dollar. The pioneer preachers did not receive large 
salaries: James Garner, being a man of family, received 
that year twenty-eight dollars; and Joseph Tarkington, 
a.single man, fourteen dollars; the amount being paid 
partly in money and the remainder in flax, leather, ete. 
They both traveled the whole year, visiting their homes 
but twice in that time. In 1826 Mr. Tarkington was 
sent to Sangamon Circuit, Illinois District, Rev. Peter 
Cartwright presiding elder. Springfield at that time 
had no church, school-house, or court-house, but had a 
jail built of logs, sheltered from the rain by a roof of 
prairie grass. This jail had one prisoner, who, while 
drunk, had killed his wife. He was tried, convicted, 
and condemned to be hanged; and the sentence was ex- 
ecuted in the presence of more than five thousand peo- 
ple. Rev. Joseph Tarkington and Rey. Richard Har- 
grave visited the criminal in jail, and attended him 
upon the scaffold. From 1825 to 1838 Mr. Tarkington 


72 


was continuously engaged as a circuit preacher within 
the bounds of the Indiana and Illinois Conference, dur- 
ing which time several important revivals of religion 
took place, and many united with the Church. In 
1838 he was at Lawrenceburg, being the first stationed 
preacher in the place. During .that year there was a 
great revival, and two hundred and thirteen were added 
to the Church membership, one hundred and seven of 
whom were baptized by sprinkling, and twenty-seven 
by immersion in the Ohio River. In 1839 he was sent 
to Richmond, and went from one station to another 
until 1843, when he was appointed presiding elder for 
Centerville District. He remained there two years; 
spent two years at Brookville, four at Vincennes, and 
two years at Greensburg. Then he was appointed agent 
of the Asbury University, at Greencastle, in which serv- 
ice he labored two years. From that time he was 
constantly engaged in the ministry until 1862, when, 
on account of failing health, he was placed upon the 
list of superannuated ministers, and retired to his beau- 
tiful home on his farm near Greensburg, where he still 
resides. As has been already stated, Mr. Tarkington 
in early life had access to but few books, and had 
little time or opportunity for study; but, by a dil- 
igent and intelligent use of the means at his command, 
he has become in the strictest sense a self-educated 
man. He has never omitted an opportunity of acquir- 
ing knowledge or of storing his mind with history or phi- 
losophy. When admitted to orders in the Church, he 
passed, without making a single mistake, a rigid exami- 
nation before a committee of the following ministers 
(all since deceased): Allen Wiley, Calvin Ruter, James 
Scott, George Lock, Thomas Hitt, and Samuel H. 
Thompson. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Roberts, 
and two years later elder by Bishop Soule. Mr. Tark- 
ington is a man of sound common sense, a safe coun- 
selor in Church or in state, and is a warm and devoted 
friend, He is one of the few who know how to grow 
old gracefully. His face is always full of sunshine, and 
years only add to his cheerfulness and good nature. If 
not in words, in all his conduct he says, ‘‘Say not the 
former days were better than these.” Rev. Joseph 
Tarkington married, September 21, 1831, Miss Maria 
Slawson, of Switzerland County, Indiana, who still 
lives to enjoy the esteem of her family and large circle 
of friends. They had seven children, six of whom are 
still living, four sons and two daughters: Hon. John S, 
Tarkington, lawyer, Indianapolis; Dr. Joseph A. Tark- 
ington, Washington, District of Columbia; William S. 
Tarkington, United States revenue service, Indianapolis; 
M. S. Tarkington, in charge of the beautiful home 
farm of two hundred and fifty-two acres, adjoining the 
city of Greensburg; Martha, wife of Doctor Stewart, 
druggist, Indianapolis; and Mary, wife of Doctor Alex- 
ander, of Milford, Indiana. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


PWN RISLER, J. RANDOLPH, superintendent of city 
schools, of Lawrenceburg, was born near Bethel, 
Clermont County, Ohio, August 30, 1844, and is 
the eldest of the nine children of Abraham and 

Christina (Davis) Trisler. Ilis father was of Pennsyl- 

vania Dutch and his mother of Irish descent, and the 

families of both were noted for longevity. They emi- 
grated to Ohio at an early day and settled on a farm, 

where, by industry and economy, they acquired a 

competence, sustaining a well-deserved reputation for 

honesty and unflinching integrity. J. Randolph Trisler 
was instructed in the English branches of learning, and 
early manifested a taste for study. He borrowed books 
from his friends and neighbors, in this way making up 
for the want of a home library. At the age of twenty 
years he engaged in teaching school, agreeing to teach 
three months for ninety dollars, twenty of which were 
to be collected by himself in subscriptions from his 
patrons. He taught in the same district two terms, 
spending all his available time in the study of scientific 
works. July 27, 1865, he married Miss Eliza M. Early, 

a lady of liberal education, and daughter of John and 

Rebecca Early. From that time he became even more 

eager for literary culture. Believing that better fields 

for development could be found, in October, 1866, he 
moved to Johnson County, Indiana, where he remained 
five years, teaching during the winter and performing 
manual labor in summer. His school was three miles 
from his residence, and he daily walked the entire dis- 
tance, while, in addition to his arduous school duties, 
he was obliged to chop wood and perform the various 
other labors incidental to home-life in the country. Soon 
after his removal to Indiana he began the study of 
higher mathematics, Latin, natural philosophy, and 
chemistry. In all his studies his wife advised and en- 
couraged his persevering efforts, giving him her active 
sympathy in every new undertaking. In 1871 he was 
placed in charge of a select school at Nineveh, Indiana, 
and in the following year was elected principal of the 
graded schools of Osgood, in which position he remained 
two years. In January, 1874, he was elected principal 
of the high schoo] at Lawrenceburg, and in 1876 was 
made superintendent of the city schools, which position 
he still occupies. He is a member of the Masonic Fra- 
ternity and of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, 
having attained the degree of Master in the former, and 
that of Noble Grand in the latter. His political prin- 
ciples are Democratic, but, as he votes without regard 
to party, he may be called an independent. Both he 
and his wife are members of the Christian Church. 

They have four childrén—Early Clinton, Nannie, Mil- ~ 

ton Hopkins, and Maude. Mr. Trisler still applies 

himself to study as vigorously as in his youth. He 
makes constant additions to his already large library of 
professional and scientific works, thus giving his chil- 


4th Dist.| 


dren a means of culture of which he was himself de- 
prived. He discharges the duties of his position with 
zeal and fidelity. His management of the schools under 
his charge gives universal satisfaction, and has breught 
those of Lawrenceburg to a high degree of excellence. 


$00 — 


RMSTON, STEPHEN ELBERT, of Brookville, 
a lawyer of that place, and Senator for the coun- 
6 ties of Dearborn and Franklin, was born in Ham- 
ilton County, Ohio, March 31, 1845. His father, 
Joseph Urmston, was an honest and faithful man, but 
did not achieve success in life. He was a local preacher, 
and also was a dry-goods merchant. 
he moved about a great deal, but finally settled in 
Brookville, where he still resides, but is now in a much 
better condition financially than during former years. 
The grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier. Stephen 
Elbert experienced all the hardships and privations dur- 
ing his early life known to self-made men, and his edu- 
cational opportunities were limited, in consequence of 
his time being necessary at home to help support the 
family. His mother died when he was but three or 
four years of age, leaving him without that instruction 
which ro one but a mother can’ give; but he struggled 
against poverty and these adverse circumstances, mak- 
ing his way until at last he was qualified to teach 
school. After this his progress was fast. The family 
moved to Brookville, the county seat of Franklin 
County, in the year 1860, and here Mr. Urmston entered 
college in the year 1866. In 1870 he began the study 
of law under the tutorship of Hon H. C. Hanna, who 
is well known throughout his district as an able lawyer 
and an eminent jurist. In 1872, after two years of 
preparation, he entered upon practice. In 1874 he was 
elected prosecuting attorney for the Thirty-seventh 
Judicial Circuit of the state of Indiana, and served two 
years, and since that year (1874) has filled the office of 
town clerk of Brookville. In 1878 he was elected to 
the state Senate from the counties of Dearborn and 
Franklin, by a majority of over three thousand. By 
his pleasing manners and legal abilities he has become 
widely known, and has secured for himself a lucrative 
practice. All of these facts evince the strength and 
power of the man, and, when taken in connection with 
his youth, show conclusively that he is rising, and will, 
undoubtedly, fill other and more important positions in 
our government in the future. He is decidedly a self- 
made man. In politics he is a Democrat. He has 
been true to his constituents, and has won the con- 
fidence and the respect of the public generally. His 
manners are easy, and in his demeanor you perceive the 
cultured gentleman as well as the able lawyer. He is 
a man who has made a host of friends. In September, 


In his earlier days 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


73 


1871, he was married to one of his school-mates, the 
accomplished and beautiful Miss Sarah Calwell, of 
Brookville. From this union they have one child, a 
bright little boy. Mr. Urmston and family are mem- 
bers in good standing of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 

800-0 — 


ARD, COLONEL WILLIAM D., of Vevay, 
Switzerland County, is a native of Ohio, where 


February 1, 1830. His youth was spent in work- 
ing on his father’s farm and attending school. When 
fourteen years of age, he moved with his parents, Jona- 
than B, and Mary A. (Hamell) Ward, to Jefferson County, 
Indiana, where, in September, 1849, he entered As- 
bury University, at Greencastle. He pursued his studies 
there until July, 1852, when, on account of impaired 
health, he was obliged to leave college. He then en- 
gaged in teaching school until April, 1855; and from 
that date until November, 1857, was passenger con- 
ductor on the Lafayette and Indianapolis Railroad, at 
the same time employing all his leisure in the study of 
the law. In November, 1857, he entered the senior 
class of the Law Department of Asbury University, and 
graduated the same year. On June 10, 1858, he went 
to Versailles, Ripley County, Indiana, opened a law of- 
fice, and practiced his profession until August, 1861. 
He then entered the army as captain of Company A, 
37th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which, after organiza- 
tion, was attached to the Fourteenth Army Corps, General 
Torchin’s brigade. His regiment was in the advance on 
Bowling Green, after which it passed on to Nashville, 
arriving there just before General Grant took possession 
of the place. After the engagement at Shiloh, the 
division was detached, and captured Huntsville, Ala- 
bama. From there the regiment advanced in front of 
Chattanooga, where they were engaged in skirmish duty. 
In Buell’s retreat before Bragg they fell back to Nash- 
ville, and Colonel Ward’s regiment was attached to 
General Negley’s division, and left to hold that city. 
In the subsequent advance his regiment was hotly en- 
gaged in the battle of Stone River, and lost very heay- 
ily. In this engagement Colonel Ward had his horse 
shot under him. He next participated in a skirmish at 
Bradyville; again at Eel River; crossed the Tennessee 
River, and was engaged for two days in a skirmish at 
Pigeon Gap. The regiment was engaged almost contin- 
uously, taking part in the battles of Chickamauga, Look- 
out Mountain, Mission Ridge; and, later, in the opera- 
tions at Tunnel Hill, Georgia, in the general advance on 
Atlanta, besides several minor engagements at Buzzard 
Roost, Resaca, etc. On May 27, 1864, Colonel Ward 
was wounded in the face in a skirmish near Newhope 
Church. He participated in all the battles of that cam- 


74 


paign, down to Jonesville, until the capture of Atlanta. 
His term of service expired October 23, 1864, and he 
was mustered out with his regiment at Indianapolis, 
having seen three years of almost continuous service, 
and participated in some of the most hotly contested 
battles of the war. He had been promoted to lieu- 
tenant-colonel before the battle of Stone River. At 
that engagement the colonel of the regiment was disa- 
bled, and in all the subsequent movements in the cam- 
paign he was in command of the regiment. After the 
war he returned to Versailles, and resumed his law 
practice. In October, 1874, he removed to Vevay, 
where he practiced in partnership with W. H. Adkin- 
son until the death of the latter, in April, 1878. Soon 
afterwards the law firm of Ward & Livings was formed, 
and at the present time enjoys the largest and most 
lucrative practice in the county. Colonel Ward is a 
Republican. He has never been a candidate for polit- 
ical honors, preferring to give his entire attention to his 
profession, in which he enjoys a reputation second to 
none. His powers of memory are wonderfully acute; 
and he possesses the faculty of grasping, almost at a 
glance, the points of a case. He is clear, logical, and 
convincing. He never loses his self-control, or becomes 
confused by the intricacies of a legal argument. There 
is not a case of any importance in the county in which 
the firm of Ward & Livings is not retained. Colonel 
Ward is a Mason, Past Master, and representative of 
Versailles Lodge, No. 7.- His religious connection is 
with the Christian Church. He married, May 11, 1853, 
Miss Sarah J. Todd, of Jefferson County. She died 
August 8, 1877, leaving a family of six children; four 
Although Colonel Ward’s 
residence in Vevay has been comparatively short, he is 
known throughout the county; and his genial nature 
and social qualities make him universally respected and 
deservedly popular. 


daughters and two sons. 


+30 — 


ATTS, HOWARD, M. D., pioneer, of Madison, 
was born near Lexington, Kentucky, October 8, 
) 1793, and diedjn 1876. He graduated in medicine 

from the Transylvania University, at Maysville, 
Kentucky, where he practiced the profession until within 
a few years of his death. He represented his county in 
the state Legislature for a number of years; was a 
member of the city council, and one of the first board 
of health in the city of Madison. He was public-spir- 
ited and generous, and a warm friend to the poor, en- 
joying in a high degree the confidence and respect of 
all who knew him. In 1818 he married Miss Prudence 
Collins, of Boone County, Kentucky, who died in 1865. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Three of their children are living—Mrs. Nathan Powell, | 


Mr. William C., and Mr, Henry Clay Watts, besides a 
number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 


[4th Dist. 
ea ELLS, JOSEPH P., attorney-at-law, Madison, was 
/, born in Jefferson County, Indiana, July 24, 1830. 
ate He is the son of John and Margaret Wells, a strict 
GS Methodist and a man of exemplary life. 

born in Pennsylvania, and went with his parents to Ohio 
when he wasa child. He married in Cincinnati, removed 
to New Albany in a canoe, and settled in Jefferson 
County in 1824. His occupation was that of a farmer. 
Joseph P. was one of a family of twenty-one children. 
He received a common school education, such as the 
times afforded. He made the most of his opportunities, 
applying himself with diligence, and acquired a good 
English education. When a boy he bent every energy 
to this end, so that he might be fitted for after life. On 
leaving school at the age of twenty, he sought employ- 
ment as a farmer, an occupation in which he continued 
until he was thirty-five, when he began the practice of 
law, having previously made it a study for eleven years. 
He settled in Madison, where he still remains, in the 
enjoyment of a lucrative income, being one of the lead- 
ing lawyers of the city. During the war he spent about 
six months in the 8th Indiana Volunteers, and for four 
years was Justice of the Peace at Madison. He is a 
communicant of the Methodist Church, joining it at the 
age of sixteen, under the influence of the preaching of 
the Rev. Mr. Simpson, who is now bishop, and*has re- 
mained a faithful member ever since. Mr. Wells has 
never sought to fill public.offices. He is a Democrat in 
politics, having before 1854 been a member of the old 
Whig party. He is a man who stands up for the prin- 
ciples of his organization, though not a strong poli- 
tician. In all local matters he is independent, voting 
for the best man, irrespective of other considerations. He 
was married, March 2, 1852, to Nancy J. Howell, daugh- 
ter of John Howell, a farmer of Jefferson County. They 
had nine children, three of whom are now dead. Mrs. 
Wells died the 9th of April, 1872, of consumption of 
fourteen years’ standing. On the gth of July, 1873, he 
married Mrs. Elizabeth Cope, of Kentucky, who, at the 
time, was superintendent of the State Baptist Orphans’ 
Home, Mr. Wells is a man of good personal appear- 
ance. He is eminent as a lawyer, and stands high in 
the estimation of his fellow-citizens. 


He was 


—2-$20-o— 


Fe: 
SFrruiaus, HUGH T., M. D., of Rising Sun, 
ex-Representative of the Forty-first Assembly 
Fe of the state of Indiana, was born in Breckin- 
“Ss ridge County, Kentucky, on the 27th of May, 
1812, and was the son of Rey. Otho Williams, a 
Methodist minister of some distinction, who emigrated 
from Virginia to Kentucky about the year 1802. His 


coadjutors in the ministry were such men as Rev. Doc- 
tor Jonathan Stamper, Marcus Lindsay, George Mc- 


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Nealy, George Locke, and Benjamin L. Crouch, all of 
whom attained eminence in the ministry. Doctor Hugh 
T. Williams received his education chiefly at home, 
there being no public schools at that day. When he 
had reached his twentieth year he commenced the 
study of medicine in the office of Doctor Holmes, of 
Hawesville, Kentucky. During the following year, 1833, 
his brother, William A. Williams, a merchant of Louis- 
ville, died, and he was compelled to abandon for a time 
the study of medicine and go to Louisville to settle up 
the business of his deceased brother. While there he 
engaged in the mercantile business with considerable 
success until 1837, when the crisis induced by Jackson’s 
war against the United States banks prostrated him, and 
he was compelled to close. He again turned his atten- 
tion towards obtaining a liberal medical education, and 
in the spring of 1840 entered the Louisville Medical In- 
stitute, from which he graduated with distinction in 
1842. During the summer vacation of 1841 Doctor 
Williams, together with Doctor Shumard, now of Penn- 
sylvania, Doctor James Jeton, of Texas, Doctor Vandal 
and Doctor Grant, of Kentucky, all of whom have since 
gained eminence in the profession, formed a private class 
with the celebrated Doctor Gross. In the latter part of 
the same year Doctor William: was elected resident stu- 
dent in the medical ward of the marine hospital of Louis- 
ville, receiving as compensation ten dollars per month, 
and paying twelve for his board and washing, making it 
exceedingly difficult for him to maintain himself in his 
position. But his indomitable will was of great help to 
him in his times of discouragement, and enabled him 
to secure some outside work and still provide time for 
the duties confided to him in the hospital, which were 
to keep a minute record of all the more important cases 
that came before the medical class for examination and 
treatment; and at the time of his death he still had 
several of these journals, reminiscences of his early pro- 
fessional life. Immediately after graduation he re- 
moved to Helena, Arkansas, and commenced the prac- 
tice of medicine, remaining there until the year 1845, 
when he removed to Rising Sun, Indiana, where he has 
since resided, having enjoyed a large and lucrative prac- 
tice until the year 1869. He then engaged in the lum- 
ber and milling business with some success until 1878, 
when he again turned his attention to medicine and 
opened an office with his son, Doctor Hugh D. Will- 
iams, and continued in the practice up to the time of 
his death. During the year 1846, with William M. 
French and S. F. Covington, he was appointed a com- 
mittee to draft a charter, and procure its enactment by 
the Legislature, for the city of Rising Sun. He has 
been largely identified with the growth and enterprise 
of Rising Sun, and, with the exception of five or six 
years, has been either a member of the city council or 
While a mem- 


school board ever since settling there. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


75 


ber of the city council the community was largely in- 
debted to him for the erection of the elegant school 
building which adorns this city, as well as other im- 
provements which have made it a desirable place of 
residence; and though his persistent efforts occasioned 
him many enemies, the successful results made him 
as many friends. Doctor Williams was a member of 
the Methodist Church and of its official board. He 
belonged to the Masonic Fraternity, by which order 
he was buried, and to the Independent Order of 
Odd-fellows, and was a member of the Grand Lodge 
of the state. During: the war he was a confidential 
friend of Governor Morton, and was appointed by him 
draft commissioner, and enrolling officer of his county, 
with the rank of colonel of militia. He participated in 
the chase of the rebel General Morgan through Indiana, 
and was afterward complimented by Governor Morton 
for the gallantry and skill displayed on that occasion. 
At the city of Vernon, Colonel Williams received from 
General Morgan, under a flag of truce, a demand to 
surrender the town and forces. The messenger was 
politely escorted without the lines with instructions to 
tell General Morgan that if he wanted the city or men 
he would please come and get them. A second demand 
being made through an officer who, though probably 
unintentially, violated the rules governing flags of truce, 
he was detained by Colonel Williams until instructions 
could be received from Adjutant-general Love, of Gov- 
ernor Morton’s staff. That officer directed his release, 
sending word to General Morgan that he could have 
the city if he could take it. Later in the day General 
Love directed Colonel Williams to present his compli- 
ments to General Morgan, asking two hours to remove 
women and children from the city. Colonel Williams 
had the pleasure of conversing in person with General 
Morgan, who gave him thirty minutes, to get home and 
prepare for action. In the mean time, however, the 
Confederates changed their course, making demonstra- 
tions toward Madison. They soon changed again to 
Cross Plains and into Ohio. Colonel Williams had in 
his possession the saber of General Morgan, presented 
to him as a testimonial of regard by General O’Neal, of 
Fenian notoriety. He served one term in the state Leg- 
islature, representing Ohio and Switzerland Counties, 
having been elected by a majority of twenty-four votes 
over Rich Gregg, Democrat, and John S. Roberts, 
American, and as a member of that body was always 
on the alert. Possessed of a strong intellect, he was 
never at a loss what course to pursue; no useless appro- 
priation ever received his vote; no burdensome laws or 
grievous taxes had his support; no measure which in 
any way abridged the rights of the people was coun- 
tenanced by him. His actions throughout won the ap- 
proval of his constituents. Doctor Williams was well 
informed on all subjects, a good conversationalist, and 


76 


for his. many superior qualities was highly esteemed. 
He was sixty-six years of age and had received his sec- 
ond sight at the time of his death. Doctor Williams 
was married three times and had one child, a son, by his 
second wife. His last wife was Mrs. Emeline Loring, 
widow of B. B. Loring. He died December 22, 1879, 
leaving an only son and a large number of relatives to 
mourn his loss. 
300 — 


Hffooor GABRIEL, late a merchant of 


Greensburg, was born in Shelby County, Ken- 
3 tucky, September 6, 1804. His grandfather, Rev. 

Gabriel Woodfill, was an eminent theologian, a 
Methodist minister of great power; he was born in 
Pennsylvania, January 29, 1758, of Welsh and English 
His father, Andrew Woodfill, was born in 
Pennsylvania, March 31, 1781. The family removed to 
Shelby County, Kentucky, about the year 1800, There 
Rev. Gabriel Woodfill was engaged in the ministry, 
and Andrew Woodfill in farming. <A few years later 
they removed to Jefferson County, Indiana, within about 
four miles of Madison. In this place Gabriel Woodfill 
labored for many years as a local preacher, while his 
son was occupied as an agriculturist. They both died 
in Jefferson County. Gabriel Woodfill, the subject of 
this sketch, was educated in the common schools, and 
spent his youth on the farm with his father. January 
28, 1824, he married Miss Eleanor Pullen, a lady of 
excellent Christian character and attainments. She died 
four years afterwards, leaving three children—W. S. 
Woodfill, Mrs. Mary Christian, and Andrew Woodfill, 
who died when eight years old. April 30, 1829, he 
married Miss Elizabeth Van Pelt, a woman greatly 
esteemed by her family and a large circle of friends. 
She died in 1866, leaving two sons and a daughter— 
Mrs. Catherine Crawford, James M. Woodfill, and John 
V. Woodfill, deceased. In 1830 Gabriel Woodfill came 
to Greensburg, and established a bakery and family 
grocery, in which business he was very successful. He 
then entered into the dry-goods trade with a small cap- 
ital, and in a very few years took a leading position 
among dry-goods merchants in that city. In the year 
1841, when nearly all other merchants in Greensburg 
either failed or suspended payment, Mr. Woodfill kept 
his credit good, met his engagements, and made money, 
supplying the trade for a large district of country. 
In 1846 he took his oldest son, W. S. Woodfill, into 
partnership, the firm becoming G. & W. S. Woodfill. 
In 1854 his next son, John V. Woodfill, having become 
of age, was added to the firm, which became G. Wood- 
fill & Sons. A few years before his death Mr. Woodfill 
retired from active business, lea@ing his store to his 
three sons. The firm of Woodfill Brothers was con- 
tinued until the death of John V. Woodfill, since which 


parentage. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


time the same business has been continued by W. S. & 
James M. Woodfill, as W. S. Woodfill & Co. The 
business has been prosperous through all these changes, 
and still retains its credit at home and abroad as the 
most reliable dry-goods house of the city. Their new 
and elegant store-room in the Woodfill Block, situated 
on the corner of Broadway and Washington Streets, is 
an evidence of good taste, and is in keeping with the 
solid trade which the firm has established. Gabriel 
Woodfill was a successful business man. He was upright 
in all his dealings. He never entered any outside spec- 
ulations, but confined himself strictly to his regular 
trade. He acquired a handsome estate in his active 
business life of nearly forty years, and his success is an 
instance of what can be accomplished by close and intel- 
ligent application to a legitimate business. He was an 
earnest Methodist, having united with the Church in 
1848. He was always punctual in his attendance upon 
Church meetings, and was very decided in his views 
upon the subject of religion, Church government, the 
manner of conducting the religious services, etc. When 
the Methodist Church of Greensburg divided some years 
ago, Mr. Woodfill was the first to join the organization 
of the Centenary Society, and was one of the largest 
contributors to the new church building. In politics he 
was a Whig, then a Republican. His faith in the purity 
of the party and the truth of its mission was un- 
bounded. So implicit was his trust that he could hardly 
tolerate any criticisms of its principles or its conduct. 
He was very hostile in his opposition to slavery, and 
during the war watched its progress with deepest inter- 
est. Great was his satisfaction when the institution was 
destroyed in the nation’s struggle for existence. 


LEASE — 
: ORKS, JOHN D., Representative in the state 
Legislature from Switzerland County, was born 
in Ohio County, Indiana, March 29, 1847. His 
father, James A. Works, is one of the oldest set- 
tlers of the county, and one of the oldest lawyers of 
the state, having practiced law since 1847. His mother, 
Phoebe (Downey) Works, is a sister of Hon. A. C. 
Downey, a prominent lawyer and judge, of Rising Sun, 
Indiana. Mr. Works was engaged in farm labor in his 
boyhood. When seventeen years of age he entered the 
army as a private in the 1oth Indiana Cavalry, and saw 
service at Mobile, Vicksburg, Decatur, Alabama, and 
other places. After the war he commenced the study 
of law, taking a very thorough course of reading with 
his uncle, Judge A. C. Downey, of Rising Sun. In 
1868 he was admitted to the bar, and entered into part- 
nership with his father, under the firm name of Works 
& Works. The firm has a very fine reputation in Switz- 
erland County, and does more than its share of the 


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LIBRARY 
OF THE ek 
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gth Dist j REPRESENTATIVE 
law business of that section. Mr. Works was a Repub- 
lican from the organization of the party until 1874, in 
which year he was chairman of the Republican central 
committee of Switzerland County. In 1878 he was 
elected to his present seat in the Legislature by a coali- 
tion of Nationals and Democrats, formed only ten days 
prior to the election. In the House he is a member of 
the Committee on Judiciary, chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Enrolled Bills, and member of the Committee 
on Military Affairs. He introduced the resolution, and 
was chairman of the committee, to investigate the state 
Auditor’s office. He joined in the minority report, 
which was adopted by the House. He was also ap- 
pointed member of the committee to investigate the 
Attorney-general’s office. At the close of the session he 
was appointed, by the speaker of the House, member of 
a commission to continue the investigation. Mr. Works 
married, November, 1868, Miss Alice Banta. They 
have three children, two sons and a daughter. Mr. 
Works has scarcely reached the prime of life. He isa 
young man of active temperament and strong mental 
powers; and the future historian of the state will doubt- 
less give him a prominent place if life and health are 
spared. In the Legislature he made an enviable record. 
He paid the closest attention to the business of the 
House, was never absent from his place, and, when he 
took part in debate, showed himself a correct, pleasing, 
and fluent speaker. At the bar he is remarkable for the 
facility with which he grasps the points of law covering 
a case, and the clearness with which he presents them. 
He is creating for himself.a reputation unsurpassed by 
any lawyer of his age in his part of the state. 


—~-50tG-o— 


ARDING, STEPHEN SELWYN, of Milan, ex- 
Governor of Utah Territory and ex-Chief Justice 
of Colorado Territory, the eldest son of David 
and Abigail (Hill) Harding, was born in Ontario 
At the Wyo- 


ee 
County, New York, February 24, 1808. 
ming massacre, in 1778, the Harding family, including 
the father and grandfather of our subject, were made 


prisoners by the Indians. The day before the battle of 
Forty-fort, David Harding, then twelve years old, was 
compelled by threats to turn a grindstone all day, while 
the Indians sharpened their spears, tomahawks, and 
scalping knives. In after years the recollection of these 
terrible scenes formed the subject of many evening con- 
versations,;which were listened to with devouring in- 
terest by the young lad. In 1820 Mr. David Harding 
emigrated to Indiana, and settled in Ripley County, 
where he entered eighty acres of land, and cleared off 
a farm. Here he resided until his death, which oc- 
curred October 6, 1837. At the time of their arrival 
in Indiana that portion of Ripley County where the 


MEN OF INDIANA. Hef. 
Hardings settled was an almost unbroken wilderness. 
The houses of the settlers were log-cabins of the rudest 
and most primitive construction, and the character of 
the people quite in keeping with their surroundings. 
Amid such scenes the boyhood of Stephen Harding was 
passed. The educational advantages were meager, and 
attainable only a few months in the year. He early 
exhibited a talent for oratory, and when but seventeen 
years of age was selected to deliver the Fourth of July 
oration at a local gathering of the settlers. This was a 
memorable day in the boy’s life; and, though the 
promise of those early years has been grandly fulfilled 
in the performances of his after life, it may be ques- 
tioned if any act of his subsequent career ever produced 
the same wild thrill of pleasure as that caused by the 
plaudits and congratulations of his rough, uneducated 
audience. His struggles to obtain an education, and 
the .difficulties he encountered in its pursuance, are 
identical with those of the self-made men of our day 
whose youth was passed in the backwoods of the then 
far West. He eagerly devoured every thing that could 
widen the scope of his knowledge, and at the age of 
sixteen he began teaching a country school, for the mu- 
nificent salary of seven dollars a month and board. 
Having determined on the law as the field best suited 
to his ability, he entered the office of William R. 
Morris, of Brookville, and was licensed to practice 
March 17, 1828. He was then but twenty years of age. 
He opened an office in Richmond, where he remained 
about six months, when he determined to go South, and 
soon after took passage from Louisville to New Orleans. 
Before starting he was provided with letters of introduc- 
tion from General James Noble, United States Senator 
from Indiana, addressed to Senators Cobb, of Georgia, 
and Sevier, of Arkansas, and one from the Governor of 
Indiana to the Governor of Louisiana. A trip to New 
Orleans at that time of slow travel was far different 
from the same trip in these days of lightning locomo- 
tion. Mr. Harding embarked from Louisville on the 
steamer ‘* Belvidere,” with a scanty though genteel 
wardrobe, and but sixty dollars in his pocket. The 
fare was fifty dollars, but Captain Bartlett, becoming 
interested in him, had learned of his impecunious cir- 
cumstances, and gave him a rebate of half the amount; 
so that he was enabled to reach his destination with 
nearly thirty-five dollars. The crowded marts, the cos- 
mopolitan character of the inhabitants, and the noise 
and bustle of the city, were like the opening of a new 
world to the backwoods lad. He proceeded at once to 
a fashionable boarding-house, where the executive of 
the state and a number of the Representatives were 
staying, and engaged board. Presenting his letter of 
introduction to the Governor, he was received by that 
gentleman with every courtesy. This was followed by 
an invitation to visit him at his plantation. Meanwhile, 


78 


as time passed on, his finances rapidly diminished until 
but a single dollar remained. He had exhausted every 
effort to obtain honorable employment, and was seated 
one evening in his room, a prey to the ‘ blues,” which 
were well-nigh rendering him desperate, when he was 
handed a note from Captain Bartlett, requesting him to 
call at the boat. Obeying the summons, he was over- 
joyed at being offered the position of clerk of the ‘ Bel- 
videre,”’ at a salary of seventy-five dollars per month. 
These duties he performed for a period of four months, 
when the boat changed owners, and he found himself 
once more adrift. He returned home, and soon after 
made a visit to the place of his nativity, in New York 
state, where he spent the summer in the neighborhood 
where Mormonism took its rise. Here he met Joseph 
Smith, the so-called prophet, and his dupes, Martin 
Harris and the scribe Oliver Cowdrey. MHarris was 
the only one of the original Mormons who possessed 
any means. He had been a thrifty farmer, and when 
he embraced the new religion was worth about ten 
thousand dollars. He became warmly attached-to Mr. 
Harding, and in company with Cowdrey followed the 
latter to Rochester, while on the way West, and stated 
that he had had a revelation from God which com- 
manded him to furnish the necessary funds and send 
Mr. Harding to London, where he would receive further 
instructions. Here was a temptation that was full of 
danger. He was young, and as free as the winds, but 
a moment’s reflection satisfied him that its acceptance 
would degrade him at the bar of his self-esteem, as a 
So anxious were these de- 
mented zealots that they refused to take no for an 
answer. They finally departed, after solemnly warning 
him that his disobedience would debar him from the ful- 
fillment of promise to the latter-day saints. In the light 
of the world’s experience since then, what if he had 
obeyed this divine (?) injunction? It would at least have 
made his foot-prints deeper in the sands of time. In the 
month of December, 1829, he opened an office in Ver- 
sailles, and, on the thirty-first day of the following Octo- 


hypocrite and a villain. 


ber, married Miss Avoline Sprout, of Chautauqua County, 
New York. Nine children were born to them, five 
sons and four daughters, all but two of whom—sons— 
survive. By the exercise of his talents, his income 
steadily increased. He found himself, when scarcely 
past his majority, a young man of marked promise, with 
a future before him rich in grand possibilities. In poli- 
tics he was a Whig until 1840, in which year he cast 
his last vote with that party. The signs of the political 
horizon were ominous; slavery had universal sway; all 
departments of the government were in the hands of the 
slave power; and the liberty of the press and of free 
speech was but a mockery. Mr. Harding early identi- 
fied himself with the liberty or anti-slavery party. 
With that zeal and bdldness which in all ages have 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[4th Dist. 


characterized the disciples of any innovation for the 
public welfare, he became a bitter antagonist of slavery, 
at a time when such utterances resulted in social ostra- 
cism, and an almost total withdrawal of one’s friends. 
In the month of June, 1844, he had an appointment to 
deliver an anti-slavery address at Versailles. He left 
home on horseback; and, when he arrived at Versailles, 
found the streets and commons filled with a motley 
crowd of men armed with shot-guns, rifles, and clubs. 
A black flag was hoisted over the court-house, and pieces 
of black muslin extended around three sides of the 
building, bearing, in large Roman characters, the words, 
“Treason! Treason! The Union dissolved this day 
by the Abolitionists!” Threats of violence were freely 
uttered at the first attempt to deliver the speech; but it 
became evident that they were mistaken in their man. 
Mr. Harding possessed in an eminent degree. the very 
qualities best adapted to the desperate occasion—nerve, 
coolness, and an unflinching determination. Proceeding 
to the court-house, he found the doors and windows 
securely fastened. Ascending the stone steps, he stood 
beneath the archway that crowned the heavy folding 
doors, and gazed around him. The entire space before 
the court-house had become filled with a crowd of des- 
perate-looking men. He began: 


‘“Who am I, and in what country am I? Why do 
you stand here with loaded guns in your hands, 
charged with missiles of death? Why do you look 
upon me as if I were a criminal and outlaw in my 
country? What have I done to challenge your hate 
and displeasure? It was not so once. I have partaken 
of your hospitalities at your own homes, and you have 
partaken of mine. Am I not an American citizen? 
May I not exercise the sacred rights that are secured to 
me by the Constitution of our country—the rights of 
liberty and of free speech? Contemplate the despotism 
that would cover all this land as with the pall of death 
if these sacred and God-given rights were stricken down. 
Is there a man before me who will stand idly by and 
see this wrong done to the humblest citizen?” 


He continued in this strain for a few minutes longer, 
when a young man disengaged himself from the crowd, 
and started on a quick run around the corner of the 
court-house. There was a sudden crash of broken glass, 
and then the quick strokes of some one beating down 
the barricade against the door. The hero of this daring 
deed was none other than the Hon. Jonathan W. Gor- 
don, of Indianapolis, who to-day stands pre-eminent 
among the great men of the West. As the doors swung 
back on their hinges, Mr. Harding entered, followed by a 
crowd who immediately packed the room to overflowing. 
By this time his nerves were stretched to their highest 
tension, and in an address of two hours the words fell - 
like coals of fire on the multitude. He had prepared a 
speech, but cast it aside as utterly unfit for the occasion. 
Tis utterances were extemporaneous, wrung from him 
by a sense of the great wrongs under which he was 


4th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
smarting, and were delivered with strong dramatic ef- 
fect. That day marked an epoch in the history of free 
speech in that part of Indiana. Well might it have 
been said; 

“And some who came to curse that day 

Went home, with better thoughts, to pray.” 

From this time he took an active part in the great 

movement that was being inaugurated. 
nated several times for Governor and Lieutenant-gov- 


He was nomi- 


ernor on the Liberal ticket. Of course, no one expected 
it to be elected, under such circumstances; but the party 
gained year after year, until at last it had the balance 
of power in many portions of the state. During the 
presidential canvass of 1852 he met the late Hon. Jesse 
D. Bright, then United States Senator, at a joint polit- 
ical mass-meeting at Manchester. The relations between 
the two gentlemen, despite their wide difference in poli- 
tics, had always been of the most friendly nature. Mr. 
Bright, before proceeding with his speech, turning to- 
ward Mr. Harding, said: ‘‘There is my old friend Hard- 
ing, as clever a gentleman as I ever met. 
without thinking what a pity it is that such a man should 


I never see him 


be foolish enough to spend his time, or sacrifice such pros- 
pects as he might have if he would quit paddling his lit- 
tle boat in the dirty goose-pond of Abolitionism.” Mr. 
Harding immediately arose, and rebuked the honorable 
gentleman for his ill-timed jest. ‘*The world moves,” 
he added; ‘‘politics is a revolving wheel; and he who 
is on top to-day will find himself at the bottom to- 
morrow.” His words were prophetic. On the 31st of 
March, 1862, Mr. Harding was appointed by President 
Lincoln Governor of Utah Territory, and confirmed by 
the Senate without a dissenting vote. At that time 
charges of disloyalty had been preferred against Mr. 
Bright, and his expulsion from the Senate chamber was 
demanded. His trial proceeded, and he was expelled 
from the United States Senate; and his fate as a politi- 
cian was sealed forever. In May, 1862, Mr. Harding 
started overland from Fort Leavenworth to assume his 
new and delicate duties as territorial Governor. The 
Secretary of War furnished an escort of one hundred 
mounted men to accompany him as far as Fort Bridger, 
and, if necessary, to Salt Lake City. Owing to the 
searcity of forage on the way, a number of the horses 
broke down, and at. Fort Laramie he dismissed his 
escort, and proceeded thence by stage. He arrived in 
the Mormon capital July 7, 1862, without any adventure 
worthy of special mention. It had always been the cus- 
tom for the newly appointed Governor to call on Brigham 
Young. This Mr. Harding refused to do, arguing, very 
sensibly, that as chief executive of the territory and 
the representative of the general government, it was 
obviously proper for the Mormon leader first to pay 
his respects. Whether this new departure from social 
custom was displeasing to Mr. Young will probably 


MEN OF INDIANA. 79 


never be known. It certainly convinced him at the 
outset that he was dealing with a man who understood 
the respect due to his position, and had the pluck to 
tacitly demand it, even in a matter apparently so trivial. 
The next day President Young, in company with Heber 
Kimball and Daniel H. Wells, called upon him at the 
Salt Lake Hotel. 
to attend a grand ball, a few evenings later, on the 
anniversary of the arrival of the Mormon emigrants in 
the ‘*Valley of the Mountains.” There Mr. Harding 
suffered the infliction of unlimited introductions to un- 
limited Mrs. Youngs. 
prettiest, whose beauty he describes in glowing terms, 
has since gained marked prominence in an exposé of 
Mormonism on the lecture platform. The arrival of 
General Connor, with a regiment of one thousand.-men, 
caused a revulsion of popular feeling. Previous to this 
the liberal views of Governor Harding had led the 
Mormons to believe that his policy would in no wise 
conflict with the temporal and priestly power of Brig- 
ham Young. In this they were grossly mistaken. 
When the Legislature convened, Governor Harding sent 
in his inaugural message. It was logical, concise, and 
He knew the nature of the men he was 


This was followed by an invitation 


One of them, the youngest and 


aggressive. 
dealing with, and felt that a temporizing policy would 
be dangerous. Not the slightest mention was made of 
it the next day in the Deseret Mews. It was, however, 
given a prominent place in the columns of the San 
Francisco and Eastern papers, particularly the New 
York Z7r2une. 
culated throughout the territory, to the mortification of 
Brigham and the disgust of his satellites. 


Thousands of copies of them were cir- 


There was 
but one expression in the public press in regard to it, 
and that was in its highest commendation. Perhaps no 
paper of the kind ever had a more universal circulation 
or more hearty indorsement at the hands of newspaper 
men, without regard to party affiliations. On the 23d 
of February, 1863, it was ordered by the Senate of the 
United States that ‘‘one thousand copies of the message 
of the Governor of Utah to the territorial Legislature 
be printed and sent to the Governor for distribution.” 
This, it is believed, is the only instance where the Senate 
had ever ordered the printing of such a document. It 
was further ordered, by Mr. Chase, that not one dollar 
should be expended by the secretary of the territory 
for legislative expenses until the Governor’s message 
had been fairly printed, and bound with the statutes 
of the territory. It is a matter of regret that not even 
a single excerpt from this able document can be given 
in this biography. It may, however, be found in full 
in the Miscellaneous Documents, No. 37, of the United 
States Senate, third session of the Thirty-seventh Con- 
gress. On the 16th of January a resolution was intro- 
duced in the Senate of the United States, instructing 
the Committee on Territories ‘‘to inquire and report 


> 


80 


whether the publication of the message of the Goyernor 
of Utah had been suppressed, and, if so, by what cause; 
and what was the message.” The report of the com- 
mittee, accompanied by a copy of the message, was less 
complimentary to the Mormons than the message itself. 
The following extracts will indicate the character of the 
report: 

‘The message, on examination, is found to contain 
nothing that should give offense to any Legislature will- 
ing to be governed by the laws of morality. . . . 
It is the opinion of your committee that the message is 
an able exposition of the manners and customs of the 
people of the territory, and as such brought down the 
censure of the leaders of the Mormon Church; and 
were it not for the animadversions therein contained it 
would not have been suppressed.” 


Each day the breach widened. As an evidence of 
the hatred and desperation of Brigham Young, some 
extracts from an address delivered by him in the Taber- 
nacle, before an audience of three thousand people, will 
be given. After some general remarks, in which he re- 
viewed from his own stand-point the course pursued by 
Governor Harding, characterizing him as a ‘nigger 
worshiper”’ and a ‘‘ black-hearted Abolitionist,” he said: 


“Do you acknowledge this man Harding for your 
Governor? [Cries of ‘*No; you are our Governor.”’] 
Yes, I am your Governor; and if he attempts to inter- 
fere in my affairs, woe, woe unto him. [Loud applause.] 
Will you allow such a man to remain in the territory ? 
[Voices from all over the room, ‘*No; put him out.’’] 
Yes, I say, put him out. If Governor Harding and 
Judges Waite and Drake do not resign, or if the Pres- 
ident does not remove them, the people must attend 
toate” 

In addition to these manifestations, a mammoth pe- 
tition was sent to President Lincoln, asking the removal 
of the Governor and the two objectionable Judges, on 
the ground of ‘strenuously endeavoring to stir up 
strife between the people of the territory of Utah and 
the troops now in Camp Douglas.” To this a counter- 
petition was sent to the President by General Connor 
and thirty-two commissioned officers of his command, 
denying these charges 2 foto, and indorsing the official 
acts of the Governor and Judges with the most unqual- 
ified praise. It must be remembered that these impor- 
tant events, so briefly alluded to, occurred during the 
All the energies of the 
government were devoted to crushing out the Rebellion. 
All troubles of a local nature were either overlooked or 
wisely disregarded, until the final supremacy of right 
against wrong should be firmly established. So strong, 
however, was the confidence reposed in the judgment and 
statesmanship of Mr. Harding, that the President, sec- 
onded by his Cabinet, refused to remove him, in spite 
of the pressure brought to bear by Brigham Young and 
his colleagues. Wearied, at length, with the unequal 
struggle between himself and the Mormon hierarchy, 


gloomiest period of the war. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA 


[4th Dist. 


receiving only the moral support of the administration, 
he resigned his office and returned to Washington. In 
an interview with the President and Mr. Seward, relat- 
ing to affairs in Utah, Mr. Lincoln expressed the great- 
est satisfaction with his administration of affairs, and 
said in conclusion that he had no idea of relieving him 
or accepting his resignation until he had a much better 
office to give him. It is necessary to add in this con- 
nection that, previous to his departure from the Plains, 
Governor Harding had received the appointment of 
consulate to Valparaiso, Chili, where the entire in- 
terests of the Pacific squadron were involved. On 
the eve of sailing from New York, he discovered 
that the health of his wife, and other domestic afflic- 
tions, rendered it impossible for him to leave home 
on so long a voyage, and for duties so far distant. 
The sacrifice was great, but he could not leave home 
under such circumstances; and he accordingly resigned 
the office, so much more desirable, in a financial view, 
than that of Governor of Utah. He asked for nothing, 
and was preparing, disappointedly, to return to Indiana, 
when a messenger from the Attorney-general’s office laid 
on his table an official envelope containing his commis- 
sion as Chief Justice of Colorado Territory. This posi- 
tion he accepted, remaining in Denver until May, 1865, 
during which time he passed through ordeals so trying 
in their nature, so replete with temptation, that to be 
encountered with safety required the greatest firmness 
of mind and strictest honesty of purpose. During his 
residence in Colorado it was agreed by the general gov- 
ernment that the admission of the territory to the Union 
as a state should be decided by popular ballot, and a 
board of examiners, consisting of the Governor, Chief 
Justice, and United States district attorney, was ap- 
pointed to examine the returns, and certify to their cor- 
rectness. Briefly stated, the situation stood thus: A 
certain class of politicians desired the territory’s admis- 
sion, because of the official power and patronage they 
would possess; and another class expected, in a subor- 
dinate degree, to share these political emoluments. It 
is proper to remark in this connection that the Gov- 
ernor was more desirous that the state party should 
have a majority by the certificate of the board of can- 
vassers, for in such case he would certainly be elected 
by the Legislature to the United States Senate from the 
state of Colorado. Opposed to these were thinking, 
conscientious men, like Harding, who objected on prin- 
ciple to allowing a state containing a population of 
twenty-five thousand an equal representation in the 
United States Senate with those having a population of 
After waiting unnecessarily long, the returns 
were all in, and the examination proceeded. Toa man 
of his clear intelligence and close observation it was 
apparent at the outset that the returns had been ‘‘doc- 
tored;” and the vigorous protest made by Mr. Harding 


millions. 


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4th Dist.] 


against this bare-faced swindle was such as to result 
in an almost personal encounter between the Governor 
and himself. Pending the examination, which lasted 
several days, excitement ran high. It was an open 
secret that with the concurrence of Mr. Harding in the 
correctness of the returns all obstacles to the admission 
of the territory would be removed. Before a decision 
had been reached, Mr. Harding was approached by a 
gentleman well known in military and civil circles, and 
his warm personal friend, who assured him that, if he 
would yield his objections to the returns and sign the 
certificate with the other members of the board, he 
had been authorized to say to him that he could have 
twenty-five thousand dollars in gold. This was to be 
paid to him under the form of some pretended legiti- 
mate business transaction, that would enable Mr. Hard- 
ing to defend himself, if necessary, against the charge 
of having taken a bribe, or committed other wrongs in 
the discharge of his official duties. It is but a frank ad- 
mission, in passing, that, like many other men of marked 
promise, Mr, Harding was comparatively poor. The 
acceptance of this bribe, which involved merely the 
signing of his name, would place him in comfortable 
circumstances the remainder of his life. «After all,” 
whispered the tempter, ‘‘there is nothing criminal in 
the act. It is merely sentiment, or, if you will, a matter 
of principle, that, in comparison with the reward, is 
slight indeed.” Mr. Harding sat for a moment stupefied, 
and then replied, ‘‘ General, that is more money than I 
ever had, or expect to have, at one time, but it is im pos- 
sible. No; if it were in your power to add to this sum 
all the gold in yonder mountain, minted into coin, then 
I would not do it. What benefit would it be to me? 
I could not flee from myself, and I would end my life 
in suicide.” The result of their deliberations at last 
ended in a disagreement, and a certificate to that effect 
was forwarded to the President; and, thus the state of 
Colorado vanished in a single hour, and, ‘like the base- 
less fabric of a vision, left not a wreck behind.” In 
concluding this sketch, which does but scanty justice to 
a man of his varied accomplishments, learning, and 
eminence, it may be proper to advert to the fact that 
Mr. Harding has written much in the way of metrical 
composition, which it is hoped at some future time 
will be published in book form. The following stanza, 
which expresses his religious creed, conveys a fair idea 
of his poetic genius: 


“T read, re-read the jarring creeds 
That teachers told me are divine, 
To satisfy my longing needs 
Through all life’s phases, cloud and shine; 
Then sat me down to ponder well, 
For what was truth I could not tell, 
And reason made me infidel. 
Not infidel to God, and his eternal good, 
But infidel to priest and prtestly word ; 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


And yet within my longing soul 
There was the need beyond control. 
Then darkness closed upon my sight, 

So dark there was no ray of light, 

When softly on my senses fell 

A voice, from whence I could not tell: 
‘Mortal, be merciful, be just, 

All else of creed is but as dust. 

Be this, not for reward of heaven, 

But for the love that God hath given. 

Be merciful, be just, 

And thou mayst hope and trust.’ ” 


ARDING, MYRON HOLLY, M. D., of Lawrence- 
burg, Indiana, is the second son of David Hard- 
8 ing and his. wife Abigail. He was born on the 
Cis seventh day of August, 1810, in the town of 
Williamson, Ontario County, state of New Vork. At 
the time of the intermarriage of his father and mother, 
the former was a widower with a family of seven chil- 
dren, one son and six daughters, by a former marriage, and 
the latter was the widow of Parley Hill, senior, and had 
five children, three sons and two daughters. The fruits 
of this second marriage were three sons and four daugh- 
Stephen S., Myron H., Latra Ann, 
Lorenzo D., Mary Ann, Minerva, and Almira. Laura 
Ann was a twin sister of Myron H. It is worthy of 
note that, with a single exception, all of these children 
constituted one family, and lived to see the youngest 
daughter grow to the estate of womanhood without a 
single break in their ranks. Nevertheless, at this 
writing, only three survive out of that numerous house- 
hold—Stephen S. Harding, Doctor Harding, and Mrs. 
Mary.Ann Williams. David Harding was the only son 
of Stephen Harding, who was the son of Stephen Hard- 
ing, who also was the son of Stephen Harding, a native 
of the state of Connecticut. It appears from these 
facts that the name Stephen had been patronymic for 
three generations at least in the Harding family. David 
Harding also was a native of the same state. Abigail 
Harding was a native of Cummington, Massachusetts. 
About the time of the 
breaking out of the Revolutionary War, the father of 
David Harding removed with his large family to the 
Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, and in 1778 was taken 
prisoner by the Indians under the command of the 
notorious renegade Brandt, and held in captivity for 
several days. It was during this time that David Hard- 
ing, then a boy only twelve years old, was compelled to 
turn a grindstone until he was nearly exhausted, for the 
Indians to sharpen their scalping knives, tomahawks, 
and spears, the day before the battle, or rather massa- 
cre, of Forty-fort. After the release of the family the 
father returned to Connecticut, where he remained until 


ters, as follows: 


Her maiden name was Brown. 


peace was restored, when he again returned to Wyom- 


82 


ing. .It was there that David Harding grew up to man- 
hood, and married a Miss Umphraville. He continued to 
reside in the beautiful valley until the beginning of the 
present century, when he emigrated to Ontario County, 
in Western New York. He purchased a piece of wild 
Jand, and by dint of hard work in a few years estab- 
lished himself in a comfortable home. His wife died, 
and, as stated above, he was left with seven children on 
his hands. It was under these circumstances that he 
married his second wife. After the breaking out of the 
war with Great Britain in 1812, Mr. Harding became 
involved in debt, thinking at the time that his transac- 
tions would be very profitable; the whole matter re- 
sulted in great pecuniary embarrassment, and the cold 
season that followed the close of the war made it im- 
possible to save the dear homestead, and necessity com- 
pelled him to seek a new home with his large family. 
The fields that he was compelled to abandon to stran- 
gers had been changed by his unceasing toil from a 
wilderness to a garden in the prime and strength of his 
manhood. But all that could avail nothing. At the 
age of fifty-three years he looked for the last time on 
his old home, and turned his face toward the setting 
sun. He sought the far West, and on the tenth day of 
May, 1820, settled down in Ripley County, Indiana, 
then almost an unbroken wilderness. He was unable 
to purchase a tract of Congress land until two years aft- 
erwards, and during that time rented some that had a 
small clearing, where a log-cabin was erected, into 
which the family moved. In the summer of 1822, he 
was enabled to purchase eighty acres of Congress land, 
at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. A more 
comfortable cabin was built for the family, and after it 
was ready for occupancy the clearing up of a-small 
field was begun by the father and his three boys 
with a hearty good will. Upon his arrival in Ripley 
County the whole neighborhood did not contain more 
than a dozen cabins. A school-house had not been 
erected, and even the site had not been agreed upon. 
In the fall of 1820 a log-cabin school-house was put up 
for the purpose of having a three months’ school the 
coming winter. Not a foot of plank lumber was used 
in its construction, nor a nail or pane of window glass. 
Nearly all of one end was filled up with a huge fire- 
place made of rough lintestone, large enough for all of 
the scholars to warm by at the same time. It was here 
that Doctor Harding attended the first school that ever 
was taught in that part of Ripley County. His two 
brothers, Stephen and Lorenzo, with one or two sisters, 
also attended the same. Doctor Harding never attended 
any other schools than those taught in this, his Alma 
Mater. It was the same with his brother Lorenzo. But, 
in order to make this part of the boyhood life of Doctor 
Harding complete, it is proper to return to the chopping, 
piling brush, and burning the same, in the clearing up 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gh Dist. 


of a new farm. Oftentimes when the weather was fair, 
and more especially on moonlight nights, these three 
brothers might have been found at work late and early, 
like so many beavers, chopping down the smaller trees 
and piling the brush. Itis but justice to the memory 
of the father tostate that the boys were not required 
to work at these unusual hours, but they sought to gain 
some extra time by which they would be permitted to 
work a day or two occasionally for a neighbor on their 
own account, when they would earn from twelve and a 
half cents to three fips per day, and could jingle the 
Such at that day was boyhood 
life in the woods of Ripley County. If, perchance, two 
men with bridles in their hands, on the hunt for stray 
horses, had passed by this clearing, and had stopped a 
moment to make the inquiry always at their tongues’ 
ends, ‘‘ Boys, have you seen any stray Horses pass along 
here?” and one of those persons had said to the other, 
‘‘Them’s small chaps to be clearing so early;” and had 
remarked at the time, ‘‘ The biggest boy there will be- 
come a lawyer, and be admitted to practice in the courts 
before he is of age, and will live to be a governor, a 
United States consul, and a Chief Justice, under the ap- 
pointment of the President and Senate of the United 
States; and them two little fellows will graduate in one 
of the learned professions in some big college ;’’ notwith- 
standing the wild extravagance of the self-appointed 
soothsayer, yet they both might have lived long enough 
to see the prediction verified to the very letter. The 
father of Doctor Harding lived on his little farm until 
his death, on the 6th of October, 1837, at the age of 
sixty-nine years. The mother lived to the advanced age 
of eighty-one years. Lorenzo D. Harding died on the 
twenty-second day of August, 1850. He was a regular 
graduate of the Ohio Medical College. Had his life 
been spared, there is not a doubt but he would have 
gained very high honors in his profession. It seems a 
mystery how the subject of this memoir acquired even 
the rudiments of the most ordinary education. His ops 
portunities before coming to Indiana were very limited, 
Nevertheless, when 


coins in their pockets. 


indeed, even for a boy of his age. 
he was eighteen years of age, he assumed the duties of 
schoolmaster himself, and became a decided favorite 
wherever he appeared in his new character. Suffice it 
to say, during all of these unpromising years he lost no 
time in the ordinary sports and games so common with 
boys, but might have been found in some secluded spot 
with book, and perhaps slate and pencil, mastering the 
difficult problems before him, oftentimes insoluble in 
the hands of other boys older than he, even with the 
assistance of the schoolmaster. Doctor Harding may be 
called, in every sense of the word, a self-made and self- 
Every day of his life added something to 
His moral conduct was founded 


educated man. 
his store of knowledge. 
in principles so high that they gave color to his very being. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY GF ILkIN@I< 


gth Dist.) 


At the age of twenty he entered on the study of medi- 
cine, under the tuition of Doctor Cornett, of Versailles. 
In securing so competent an instructor he was most for- 
tunate. After applying himself to his books for a few 
days, he asked to be examined by his tutors, who took 
a lively interest in the progress of the student. After 
reading about one year, he was thought to be able to 
stand an examination before the medical society of 
Dearborn County. In this he was not mistaken, and 
from that time practiced as a licentiate up to the year 
1837, when he graduated with full honors of M. D. at 
ihe Ohio Medical College. 
more than paid expenses. 


In the mean time he had 
In 1838 he married Miss 
Lucy S. Plummer, of Manchester, a young lady of fine 
abilities. By this marriage six children were born, 
three sons and three daughters. Of these only three 
survive, to wit: Isadore Robins, wife of Doctor Robins; 
Laura Ann Wymond, wife of W. Wymond; and David 
Arthur Harding. Lucy S. Harding died in 1864, and 
in 1865 the widowed husband was joined in marriage 
to Mrs. Mary Ann Hill, the widow of Doctor Parley 
Hill, junior, of Madison, Indiana. Doctor Harding has 
always had too many patients on his hands to engage 
in politics, otherwise he might have made some reputa- 
tion as a politician. For the last forty years he has 
resided in the city of Lawrenceburg, Indiana. His 
practice during this long period has been most exten- 
sive, and his skill and learning in his profession ‘have 
never been questioned. He has never found time to en- 
gage in authorship; nevertheless, he has written several 
articles of great interest to the profession, which have 
appeared in medical journals. In addition to his gen- 
eral business, he has served as United States pension sur- 
geon since his appointment in 1862, He was president 
of the Indiana State Medical Society in 1866, and deliv- 
ered a learned and able address upon ‘‘The Effects of 
Climate and Temperature upon Health and National 
Character.” He has also been president of the Dear- 
born County Medical Society, a member of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association since 1859, and is an honorary 
member of the California State Medical Society. He 
has taken a warm interest in the progress of medical 
Such are the outlines of the life of a self-made 
and self-educated man, whose indomitable will and un- 
blemished moral character deserved the success that has 
crowned the life of Doctor Harding. 


science. 


—+-400-— 


Ue O. P., of Aurora, president of the Aurora 
|) Iron and Nail Company, was born in Greene 
i2d) County, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1817. His mother, 
“2° Nancy Cobb, was the daughter of Colonel Will- 
iam Crawford, who did good service in the Revolution- 
ary War and in the War of 1812. He was of Scotch 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


83 
and German descent. His father, Joshua Cobb, was 
born in Vermont, of Welsh parentage, but removed to 
Pennsylvania, and was there married. In that state 
they remained until 1819, by that time having a family 
of six children. While a resident of that state he 
made six trips to New Orleans, as captain and pilot of 
keel-boats, one of which he cordelled and poled back 
to Pittsburgh. At the termination of two of the other 
trips he sold his boats in New Orleans, and made his 
way home on horseback; and on his last trip he walked 
the whole distance from that city to his home near Pitts- 
burgh. This was his last journey on foot, for when he 
arrived at Louisville her citizens were celebrating the 
memorable event of a steamboat having made the voyage 
up from New Orleans in some forty days. This boat de- 
parted from New Orleans on the same day that Joshua 
Cobb left there on foot, it thus appearing that steam 
then was not much superior in speed to the knee motor, 
otherwise pedestrianism. In 1819 Joshua and Nancy 
Cobb removed in a flat-boat from Pittsburgh to Aurora, 
Indiana, with their six children. O. P. Cobb, the 
youngest, was then eighteen months old. His parents 
were on a farm there a year and a half, when, by hard 
work, strict economy, and by selling their only cow 
and best bed and bedding, they obtained one hundred 
dollars, a sum sufficient to enable them to enter eighty 
acres of wild land. They found the locality by going 
back from the Ohio River some forty miles, to Decatur 
County, in what was then called the ‘‘ New Purchase.” 
This was far beyond any considerable settlement—so 
much so that his father, together with Colonel Hen- 
dricks and Colonel Wilson, had to blaze the trees and 
lay off the first trace, or road, from Napoleon to Indi- 
anapolis; and the same pathway, with very little change 
in course or location, eventually became the Michigan 
State Road. Colonel Wilson settled at Napoleon, Colo- 
nel Hendricks where Greensburg now is, and Mr. Cobb 
a few miles from there, on Sand Creek, on the land he 
had just purchased from the United States government. 
Here he built a log-cabin, without a nail, screw, or 
hinge, and without glass or putty. There were no 
planks except such as he made out of the trees he had 
cut down and shaped by his chopping and broad ax, 
augur, gimlets, and froe. To this building, thus wrought 
by his own hands, was his family brought when the 
subject of this sketch was but three years old. He can 
even now recall its dreary appearance, in the midst of a 
dense forest; the trees, ground, and log-cabin all covered 
with snow; no fire in the house, or neighbors to borrow 
it from nearer than seven miles, and then only two fami- 
les nearer than twenty-five miles. These difficulties, how- 
ever, did not seem to discourage his father and mother; 
for, with his steel and flint, Mr. Cobb had soon a roar- 
ing fire on the ground on one side of the cabin, and 
the mother went cheerfully to work to prepare supper 


84 REPRESENTATIVE 
in ‘*her own new house,” as she said, without,a word 
of complaint of smoking chimney, dirty floors, or open 
doors, although one was an opening through the clap- 
board roof, the second was on the ground, and the 
third a hole cut in the side of the cabin. It was their 
own home, and all felt happy. In that cabin, and an- 
other large one built later, the two forming an L, the 
parents fed, clothed, and educated eight children. Un- 
til the boy was twelve years of age he was without a 
school-house, teacher, or book, other than Dilworth’s 
and Webster’s spelling-books and a Bible. The latter 
was frequently in the hands of the inmates of the 
cabin and the travelers or emigrants to the far West 
that were there entertained. But in that little place O. 
P. Cobb received the most valuable part of his educa- 
tion; it was there he learned to be self-reliant and to 
husband his resources. When he needed any thing he 
was taught to work and make it. Buying any thing was 
out of the question; making it was the order of the day. 
Trees were chopped down, split into halves, one side was 
hewed, and then they were laid down for a floor in the 
cabin. His father with his froe rived out clapboards 
cut from timber six feet long, to make the doors to his 
cabins. These were laid on to the battens with wooden 
pegs, after boring holes with a gimlet, and the doors 
were hung with wooden hinges, and had a wooden 
latch. To lock the door merely required the latch-string 
to be pulled in. All the other work necessary at that 
time to maintain a family in the wilderness, such as 
making and mending ox-yokes, plows, harrows, wagons, 
etc., the boy saw his father do, and at a very early 
age himself learned, to give him self-reliance. His 
mother, whom he revered even more than he did his 
father, was earnest in striving to give her children a 
good education, theoretical and practical, both by 
precept and example. She would spin her thread on 
both the little and the big wheel, color the yarn with 
butternut bark, lay the warp, shoot in the filling, a 
thread at a time, to make cloth, and, after she had 
woven it into cloth, cut and make shirts, vests, panta- 
loons, and coats for each of her boys. Often he used 
to ask his mother when she was going to put another 
piece in the loom. Ilis anxiety arose from the fact that 
he generally had the privilege of handing in the chain 
to her through the gears, a thread at a time. This 
process gave the boy the exclusive benefit of his 
mother’s teaching for nearly a week together. She 
would sit on one side of the gearing, and he on the 
other, handing his mother the threads, while a spelling- 
book lay on the loom between them, she either spelling 
or reading, or’ giving out words to spell. The letters 
were named by the son, and she would pronounce the 
words thus: B-a, ba; b-e, be; b-i, bi; b-o, bo, etc. In 
this manner he learned to spell by sound, a principle 
that he has since advocated. 


MEN OF INDIANA, [ 4th Dist. 
are now of the same opinion. But that way was then 
adopted from necessity, not from choice of systems of 
education, or of teachers. His parents were his in- 
structors, and his light was not reflected from ‘ mid- 
night oil,” as is now said of modern students, but from 
hickory bark, that was gathered in the woods in the 
day-time to burn in the fire-place at night. He studied 
by its blaze while one parent was making sugar spiles, 
and the other knitting or sewing on garments for mem- 
bers of the family. That was the free school that O. 
P. Cobb attended, and to this day he can hardly pass a 
shell-bark hickory without tipping his hat to it. Such 
was the only education he received up to twelve years 
of age, excepting what he derived from the arguments, 
talk, and illustrations of traveling statesmen, Methodist 
preachers, and others who bivouacked for the night in 
his father’s house. Many a time were both of the 
cabins full to overflowing, at other times containing but 
a single person aside from the family. But the full 
house was the most interesting, for then it was that the 
arguments were most varied, particularly when mem- 
bers of the state Legislature, lawyers, doctors, and 
preachers were there, as they often were. Then each 
would discuss the bearings and importance of his pro- 
fession or calling: the representative the rights and in- 
terests of his constituency, the doctor the shaky condi- 
tion of his patients, the lawyer the innocence of his 
clients, and the minister the all-important subject 
whether or no his Church members could fall from 
grace. To all these discussions he listened with the 
most intense interest, especially the latter, but could 
never quite settle the question until a forcible illustra- 
tion was received. Then his mind was no longer in 
doubt. One night it chanced that the only man who 
put up with them was a Baptist preacher. He had be- 
fore this time presented some very weighty arguments, 
for he was a large man, as was also Mr. Cobb. The 
latter weighed over two hundred and forty pounds, but 
the preacher was the heaviest. When supper was an- 
nounced only the preacher, the father, mother, and his 
oldest brother sat down to the table, a small, falling- 
leaf affair, about three and a half by four feet in size, 
its small dimensions compelling the occupants to sit close 
together at the four sides. The rest of the children, 
there not being room at the table, were standing in the 
background, as still as mice, waiting for the preacher 
to say grace. This was properly said, when the fat min- 
ister attempted to hitch up his chair to the table. The 
floor, however, was made of puncheons, hewed on one 
side and round on the other. They had been laid 
when green and were now dried, and there were conse- 
quently large cracks between them. The hind legs of 
the preacher’s chair, as he drew it up to the table, exactly 
fitted one of these holes, into which it dropped. The 


Some learned professors | natural consequence resulted. He backslid to the floor, 


4th Dist.) 


kicking the table over as he fell towards Mrs. Cobb, 
until the falling leaf touched the floor, leaving the table 
standing at an angle of about forty-five degrees. The 
dishes all began on a sliding scale, and they went 
. to the level of the floored preacher, whose chair- 
legs had forced up the puncheon until it stood at the 
same angle as the table. Mr. Cobb, being ever ready 
to assist the fallen, sprang to help his prostrate friend, 
but stubbed his toe on the elevated puncheon and fell 
full length on top of the divine. The children, stand- 
ing by, could not repress themselves, and set up a little 
applause in the way of ‘‘Te-he-he-he! te-he-he-he!” 
But Mr. Cobb, having raised his companion in arms, 
shook his forefinger at the children, which they well 
understood to mean, ‘‘Stop that laughing!’’ It was 
somewhat checked, when one of the brothers laid his 
hand on his sister’s shoulders and queried: ‘Did he 
not fall from grace?” This opened up the chorus again, 
and even the father’s upraised finger could not repress 
the merriment. The mother by this time had caught 
the infection, and was laughing until the tears rolled 
down her cheeks. But in the end the preacher relieved 
them by saying: ‘‘Let them laugh at me. A heavy 
argument is against me, for I, at least, have fallen from 
grace.” From his earliest recollections Mrs. Cobb put 
forth her greatest efforts and spared no pains to teach 
her children sobriety, truthfulness, and honesty, and to 
avoid card-playing and deception. To illustrate to them 
the evil effects of such conduct she used, not a fabled 
story made up in book-form, but a bit of the history of 
the life of a boy grown to manhood within her recol- 
lection, and of whom they had heard something, so 
that the story was no myth to them: ‘The boy was 
bright, but his early associations were bad. His father 
owned a horse-mill; that is, a mill where each man had 
to furnish his own team to grind his own grist of corn, 
and oftentimes some of these countrymen had to wait 
for hours, both day and night, for their turn to grind. 
This boy, whose name was James, attended the horse- 
mill; his duty was to toll each man’s grist, one toll dish 
from each bushel, for the use of his father’s mill. This 
employed but a small portion of James’s time, and he 
became idle and restless, and, to pass away his leisure, 
he began to play cards with the customers of the mill. 
At first he played for fun, then for money, and then he 
began to steal little articles, going’from bad to worse, 
till finally he commenced stealing horses. This he car- 
ried on till he was married and had raised two or three 
children, when he was arrested, tried, and.sent to the 
penitentiary for horse-stealing. He escaped from the 
prison, however, and returned to his family, but was 
soon pursued by the officers and dragged from his home, 
his wife, and his children, regardless of the entreaties, 
tears, and shrieks of his family.” Mrs. Cobb explained 
to the children that this man brought his calamity upon 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


85 


himself and his family by first playing cards for fun to 
while away a leisure moment with his idle associates. 
““Don’t you see, my children, how easily he could 
have escaped all this if he had not begun it by playing 
cards? Now, my boys, will you ever try to learn to 
play cards?” ‘Never, as long as I live,” was the pledge 
then taken by them unanimously, and never broken by the 
subject of this sketch. From that day to this he has never 
allowed a pack of cards to be kept or played about any 
house, out-house, office, flat-boat, or steamboat that he 
has had charge of, with the exception of one pack he 
took home to his house when his eldest boys were six and 
eight years old, respectively. With these on hand he 
gave them a history of the card-playing of the boy James, 
and what it led to, as his mother had given it to him, 
with the pledges he had made her, and how faithfully he 
had kept them. Then he gave them the cards, and 
told them he brought them home to see what they 
would do with them after hearing the history of the boy 
James. By this time both boys and girls were in tears, 
and the cards were quickly dashed into the fire, with 
resolutions by all that they would never learn to play 
with them; and he has now good grounds for the belief 
that none of his family ever did, so that lesson, short 
as it was, has proved to be of great value. The other 
lesson given by his mother was previous to the one 
just mentioned. It was as follows: He had taken ad- 
vantage of his brother in a trade by lying and deceiving 
him as to what his father had said and done. 
but himself knew the fact; but then the boy knew he 
had committed a wrong both against his father and 
brother, in direct violation of all his mother’s teachings. 
His conscience troubled him day and night to devise 
some means to rid himself of his torments, but could 
not. He thought of all the good lessons he had been 
given by his mother, and was reminded that she had 
often told him that it gave her pain to punish her 
children, and would only do so for their own good, and 
therefore not beyond the possibility of working a refor- 
mation. Then he resolved to go to her, acknowledge 
his wrong doing, and receive what punishment she 


No one 


might think necessary to relieve him from a guilty con- 
science. 
truly repentant of his sins than was he at that time. 
So he went to her, threw himself into her‘ arms, wept 
bitter tears, and told her what he had done and what 
trouble it had caused him. What could be done to re- 
lieve him from such torments? She answered: ‘ Ac- 
knowledge your faults to your father and brothers, ask 
their forgiveness, and pledge yourself that you will 
ever be honest and truthful to all of them.” He 
promised it. She then inquired: «*Do you mean to 
t live up to your pledge?” ‘Oh, yes! as long as I live 
I will,” he replied. ‘* Who is your father and who are 
your brothers ?”? He answered: ‘ Joshua Cobb is my 


No poor sinner, he thinks, was ever more 


86 


father, and Willard, Dyar, John, and Elkanah Cobb are 
my brothers.” She then told the boy that God was his 
Heavenly Father, and all mankind were his brothers, 
and asked him if he thought he could and would ex- 
tend the pledge to all of them, even to the end of his 
days. He promised that he would, and the knowledge 
that he has always built upon and kept that pledge 
sacredly has been one of the greatest consolations of 
his life, for to that almost entirely does he attribute what- 
ever success he has had, by making his word as good as 
his bond. In this way he has led thousands of his fel- 
low-men, and borrowed and controlled millions of their 
money, so as to better the financial condition of the com- 
munity in which he lives, to their joint local and na- 
tional benefit, thus far without making a failure. This 
has been done with little instruction other than what 
At twelve years of age he began 
attending school. This was at a little log school-house, 
to which he walked two miles through the forest. The 
teacher that presided was only required by the trustees 
to be able to read, write, and cipher to the single rule 
of three. The boy attended until he was twenty for 
three months each year, unless sugar-making began be- 
fore the three months had passed, in which case his 
time was cut short. At twenty he was set free, or, in 
other words, was allowed to go to work for himself. 
His father gave.each of his boys a year to work for 
themselves before they reached their majority. This 
year of grace he hired to his father at thirteen dollars a 
month, and a dollar a day for one month during har- 
vest. He took full charge of the farm, led the harvest 
hands with a mowing scythe, did the teaming, and at- 
tended the wet weather saw-mill at night whenever it 
When his year was at an end 


has been narrated. 


rained enough to run it. 
he took his pay in poplar weather-boarding, at twelve 
dollars per thousand, with the use of the four-horse 
team to haul them to Aurora, where he had a contract to 
go down the river on a flat-boat as an oarsman, at thirty 
dollars for the trip, with the privilege of taking his lum- 
ber, on the floor of the boat, free of cost, to Natchez, 
Mississippi. On arriving at that city he had to wait 
until the hay was sold and: unloaded, but he obtained 
employment as salesman at thirty dollars per month, 
and boarded on the flat-boat until spring. When the 
hay was unloaded, he sold his weather-boarding at forty 
dollars per thousand, making more money on it than is 
ordinarily made on a boat load of hay. When he went 
home to his parents he was in buoyant spirits, for since 
leaving them he had made nearly a thousand dollars, 
and gained a pretty good knowledge of flat-boating and 
trade in the South, so that he resolved to continue in 
the business. But for general trade he found himself 
deficient in his education. To improve himself he took 
a three months’ course in the Greensburg Seminary, un- 
der Professor May, in writing and in Talbot’s arith- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4 Dist. 


metic, a work that gave all its examples in dollars and 
cents, not in pounds, shillings, and pence. He told his 
teacher that he had wasted too much time on pounds 
and shillings, and now wanted to learn to make calcu- 
lations in dollars and cents. So the British currency 
was dropped, and the Federal taken up. At the end 
of three months he was as far advanced as any of his 
former teachers had been—that is, up to the ‘single 
rule of three.” When he left Professor May his school 
days ended. Leaving the school-house, he stepped 
across the street and took a contract for making a dirt 
turnpike, being the lowest bidder per rod. He had 
worked with his father at that business before, and 
knew that he had a good contract; so he borrowed his 
father’s team, plows, picks, and scrapers, went to work, 
and in two months made more money than he had ex- 
pended in the previous three months while he was. 
schooling himself. In the fall he returned to Aurora, 
ready to go at flat-boating. He bargained with Weaver 
& Cobb (his brother John), who kept a dry-goods store, 
to buy for him a flat-boat load of produce, such as he 
should select, not to .exceed three thousand dollars’ 
worth, he paying down all the cash he had, about 
thirteen hundred dollars, and the remainder to be on a 
credit until the following spring. He then finished and 
loaded the boat himself, but was obliged to hire a pilot 
to steer the boat down the river, and unfortunately he 
got, as he thought, the most ill-humored and slowest 
old pilot on the river. He knew every thing, and Mr. 
Cobb could not control him in any thing. He ran when 
he pleased and laid up when he pleased, but finally 
succeeded in steering the boat safely into Natchez, after 
eleven weeks, half the time being spent in fighting ice 
in both the Ohio and Mississippi, the boat being in 
great peril. A number of boats were cut down, both 
above and below his, but he had taken the precaution 
to line his gunwale boards with hard wood before he 
loaded, and that probably saved his craft from the fate 
the others met with, On arriving at Vicksburg he 
found some of his fellow-boatmen from Indiana in great 
trouble. They were selling their produce and taking 
their pay in Mississippi state and local bank paper, 
which was all at a heavy discount, and was only con- 
vertible into silver or New Orleans bank paper, which 
was equivalent to silver, at a discount ranging from 
ten to ninety per cent. But the Mississippians seemed 
determined to give out nothing but their own paper, 
with which they would pay almost any price. The best 
of this currency, that issued by the Union Bank, gave 
no surety that it would be worth any thing in a week 
after it was obtained, Some of his friends had sold 
their hay at twenty-five dollars a ton in Union Bank 
paper, that being the best they could do, and he was 
told that he would find things worse than that at 
Natchez. This was not very encouraging, but he re- 


4th Dist.) 


solved to meet the emergency as best he could. He 
had a week to study the matter before he reached that 
place, and by that time the Union Bank had failed, 
leaving plenty more of the same sort at Natchez when 
he reached there. The only difference was that 
there was at the latter place a greater variety of 
shinplasters and bank paper, which was generally 
at a higher rate of discount, such as the Brandon 
Bank, Holly Springs, Mississippi Cotton Company, and 
many others. But the Hoosiers soon discovered that 
the Natchez merchants were shipping immense amounts 
of cotton to New Orleans, and then selling it, getting 
their pay in New Orleans bank paper or silver or gold, 
depositing it there, and buying Mississippi paper to pay 
out for produce in Natchez. To meet this emergency 
he suggested calling a meeting of all the flat-boatmen 
at the landing, which was done, and they resolved 
to take nothing but New Orleans bank paper or silver 
for any of their produce, at their price for hay at 
twenty-five dollars per ton, and all other commodities 
at proportionate prices, and to take Mississippi paper 
only at such a rate of discount each day as would bring 
their prices. To this resolution the buyers made great 
objections, and swore they would not buy if the boat- 
men would not take such money as they offered. They 
were told that the money would be taken at just what 
it was worth each day at the brokers’ office, and no 
more. The resolve was adhered to, and the buyers 
yielded. Good money became the currency at Natchez, 
while at Vicksburg the boatmen continued to deal in 
shinplasters for months subsequently. Trade at the 
latter point was unremunerative, and nearly all who 
took loads there lost heavily, while at Natchez there 
were large profits. This action of the boatmen was 
of great advantage to Indiana, as it insured her farmers 
a safe and cash-paying market. Mr. Cobb’s resolution 
proved of much value to him, as it made him a leader 
in his line of business, a position he afterwards main- 
tained with profit to himself and those associated with 
him. When he had sold out the produce he had shipped, 


he had many applications from both Western and 


Southern traders at Natchez for a partnership, or to 
work as salesman at one hundred dollars per month. 
He chose the latter for a few months only, and then 
returned to Aurora with a full determination to continue 
in the river trade. The next fall he superintended 
finishing and loading four flat-boats for hay—two for 
himself and two for J..W. Weaver and his brother 
John Cobb. The latter was to steer his own two 
boats, while O. P. Cobb determined to be his own 
pilot, although it was only his third trip down the 
river. He took great pains in rigging and manning his 
boats, then resolutely stepped upon his steering oar 
plank, called to his men to “Jet her go,” and to his 


oarsmen to ‘*go ahead on the starboard, back on the lar- 
A—I7 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


87 


board.” This was his first command, and he tried to 
give it with as confident an air as possible, for he did 
not think it best to let his men know that he was not 
an experienced pilot, and not at all dependent upon 
“Captain Conkling’s Navigator,” a guide-book for 
pilots, or upon following his brother. From the beauti- 
ful and prompt manner in which his commands were 
executed by his oarsmen as they rounded out and rowed 
his boats from the Indiana shore, he felt sure that he 
had made a good beginning with his men. But when 
he had gone but ten miles, to Rising Sun crossing, a 
point very difficult to run, he was put into trepidation 
by his brother, through his great anxiety to aid. John 
Cobb was just ahead of him with his two boats, and as 
he went into the riffle he hallooed to his brother: «O, 
P., you had better let Bolander [one of his hands] 
take hold of the oars to steer you through; it is very 
difficult to navigate.” At this the men stared at him, 
and he saw at once that this was a deathblow to his 
pilotship if not met promptly and resolutely, so he 
raised himself to his full size on the walk-plank, and 
shouted: ‘You attend to your boats and I will steer 
mine.” He then called to his oarsmen: «Move lively, and 
give us good headway till we get through here.”” When 
this was done, and they were well into the riffle, he called 
out: ‘Back on the starboard, and go ahead on the lar- 
board,” to help him straighten them up. «Now go 
ahead, all together; jerk her lively, boys.” This com- 
mand, well executed, took them through the riffle and 
into the main channel, while his brother’s boats flanked 
down into the slack water, and fell behind with his men 
in terrible confusion, whereas O. P. Cobb’s went through 
in high glee. This event seemed to satisfy both crews 
that the younger brother was the better pilot of the 
two, and he had no difficulty thereafter in managing 
his men. After this he generally took the lead until 
he reached Natchez, while John Cobb went on to New 
Orleans. Each struck a good market. O. P. Cobb 
had a good general variety of Western produce, well 
fitted for the retail trade, with the exception of ear 
corn. This was very low, but in good demand, and he 
thought “he could see some money in buying corn to re- 
tail with his hay and other produce; so he went into 
the market, and there found a brother Hoosier who 
offered to sell his load of corn for forty cents per 
bushel and throw in his boat gratis. This was very 
cheap, but the sale must be made, so that he could go 
home to raise another crop. This seemed all right, 
with the important exception that he had no money to 
buy it with. He went to a friend, stated the case and 
his prospects, and proposed that, if the latter would fur- 
nish the money, Cobb would do the buying and selling, 
and the profits and losses would be divided equally. 
The proposition was accepted, the money was advanced, 


and buying and selling was begun. He made more 


88 


money in that season’s trade than he did on the pro- 
duce he had shipped from home. At the end of four 
months he settled with his moneyed friend, paying over 
half the profits. The latter was so much pleased that 
he proposed a general partnership; but Mr. Cobb de- 
clined, preferring to paddle his own canoe, as he had 
then built up a good trade with the best citizens of 
Natchez, which he felt sure he could retain by fair dealing 
and a strict observance of the Golden Rule. He contin- 
ued in the Southern trade for some twenty years after 
that, until the Rebellion occurred. During the twenty 
years that he had traded down the river he had the 
‘well wishes and confidence of all good citizens, and 
they seemed to rejoice in his success in business. With 
his brother-in-law, Foulk, he at one time built one of 
the largest brick business houses to be found under the 
hill at Natchez, and also a large ice-house, and bought 
and owned eight or ten colored people, and in other 
ways ingratiated himself into good favor with the 
Southern people; so that each year he had orders from 
many of them for their entire year’s supply of beef, 
pork, corn, flour, and tobacco (nearly all of which he 
shipped from the North) ; in fact, all their wants, except 
whisky, which he did not deal in then, either at home 
or abroad. But when the Rebellion came, and he took 
sides with the Union, all this availed him nothing with 
his Mississippi friends; for his boats were ordered from 
the landing, the services of his slaves were appropriated, 
and his other property seized, until his attorney, ‘‘Un- 
cle Abe,” filed an injunction against them, and freed 
his property, by his agreeing to work for the United 
States during the war. At first Mr. Cobb differed from 
his attorney, ‘Uncle Abe,” when the latter issued a 
proclamation saying that the easiest and best way out 
of the difficulty was to free the slaves; for some of 
his had cost him as high as eighteen hundred dol- 
Still, he thought it would not be safe or hon- 
est for us to go back on the attorney we had em- 
ployed, and concluded to stick to him until he 
obtained judgment in the higher courts. In 1843, at 
the age of twenty-six, he married Caroline S. Foulk, of 
He had heard her described 
by a maiden aunt to his elder brother John. After men- 
tioning her high standing and excellent Christian quali- 
ties, and praising the family connections, the old lady 
concluded: ‘* But she is too young for you, John.” The 
junior listened to all the description with great interest, 
but, when it was announced that she was too young for 
his brother, he thought: ‘Then she is just the right one 
for me, and I shall be sure to fall in love with her at 
first sight.” He did so, although that first sight did not 
come for three years. When he finally saw her, he found 
another candidate for the lady’s hand, but, thanks to him- 
self and the aid given him by the maiden aunt, the inde- 
pendent ticket was elected by an overwhelming majority. 


lars. 


Dearborn County, Indiana. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


Since that time he has always been partial to independent 
candidates. Soon after marriage he bought a house in 
Aurora, Indiana, where he settled. That place had then 
only a few hundred inhabitants, two dry-goods stores and 
one grocery store, and no manufacturing establishment 
of any kind, save one of gingerbread. The roads lead- 
ing to the town were made principally of mud, and were 
laid out up the center of the ridges, without any regard 
to getting an easy grade; and the bridges were of hewn 
timber, without curve or stone abutments. These im- 
provements, such as they were, were becoming badly 
worn. There was much work to be done in order to 
build up a city there, and but few citizens to do it, 
while there were rival towns of far greater dimensions 
on all sides. Wilmington was on the hill back of them, 
Lawrenceburg above and Rising Sun below them on 
the Ohio River, and all in Dearborn County. But the 
residents of Aurora were enterprising, and by giving 
some lots succeeded in inducing T. & J. W. Gaff to es- 
tablish a flour-mill and distillery. Then Mr. Cobb, with 
his brother John, built a pork-house, and began packing 
pork and shipping South, still continuing his business 
in Natchez, under the supervision of his brother-in-law, 
Mr. Foulk. The greater part of Mr. Cobb’s time was 
devoted to buying and shipping to the South, and, in 
company with the Gaffs and his brother John, he spent 
much time in projecting and executing public works, 
such as free pikes, bridges, and joint-stock railroads, in 
that neighborhood. The other towns were in turn the 
county seat, and had besides been favored by legisla- 
tion, while Aurora had to depend upon her own citi- 
zens, meet the opposition, or else fall behind. This 
they were too ambitious to do, if it was in their power 
to help it. They built their own free pikes, bridges, 
and railroads, by the aid of outside subscriptions, and 
fifty thousand dollars in city bonds subscribed by the 
city. To accomplish this much hard work was needed, 
and Mr. Cobb was always placed in the front rank, 
without pay or allowances. His city has had his serv- 
ices ever since his first residence there, without a dol- 
lar’s charge, and with no benefit other than what was 
received by all other citizens. This time included also 
the dreadful cholera year (1847), when many of the in- 
habitants left, fleeing from the dreadful disease, even 
including lawyers, ministers, and doctors. Mr. Cobb 
stood by, with his wife and children, until the last man 
that died with the cholera was buried. This he did, 
not because he did not fear death, but because he could 
not bear the idea of leaving his friends there in distress. 
If he had gone to the country, he would have been in 
danger of carrying the disease to the residents there. 
Before this calamity was fairly over, and while one-haif 
the people were still out of town, Gaff’s mill was 
burned down, and later the pork-house was burned, 
while full of pork and lard of O. P. Cobb & Co., of 


4th Dist.) 


Natchez. The losses fell very heavily on their little 
city, as well as on the Gaffs and Cobbs; but the same 
spirit, the same determination to always do what they 
could to help themselves and their fellow-men, was left 
to each of them. They had the entire confidence and 
sympathy of all the good people of the surrounding 
country, and a disposition to help each other. Gaff’s 
mill was soon replaced with a larger and better one, 
and, when the time came for the Cobbs to rebuild their 
pork-house, they were encouraged in the same manner. 
The burned structure was replaced with a much larger 
one. There was, however, a greater difficulty. Whenthe 
fire occurred the Natchez firm had large contracts to fill in 
the South, to meet which it had nearly exhausted its 
means and credit, as was supposed. The pork was all 
burned except the barreled pork and lard saved from 
the flames by the almost superhuman exertion of 
friends, with five hundred hogs that hung in the 
slaughter-house, not fully paid for, and no insurance on 
any thing. No sooner had Mr. Cobb disclosed his situ- 
ation than he was given both sympathy and credit, and 
was bidden to go ahead. The farmers of his acquaint- 
ance came forward and offered him their fat hogs ona 
credit. His city friends volunteered to lend him money 
on his own name, and he was almost overwhelmed with 
kindness. Deeply moved by these manifestations, as 
well as encouraged, he called all his hands together and 
began again. A shed was built for his cutting blocks 
alongside of his lard house, which was saved from the 
flames, flat-boats were used for the purpose of packing, 
and in less than a week after the conflagration he was 
buying hogs and packing again. A year had not 
elapsed when the partners had made up all their losses, 
and were able to restore to their friends all that they 
had borrowed. Business was increased in Aurora and 
Natchez, and it was carried on very profitably in both 
places without interruption or change for years. Dur- 
ing this time he built a dwelling-house on his farm near 
Aurora, where he removed with his family, deeming it 
the best place to rear and educate his children properly. 
They then numbered six. When the South rebelled he 
was called upon to decide whether he would serve his 
country or his Southern brethren. It took him but a 
moment to decide, in spite of his large pecuniary inter- 
ests in Mississippi, and he has never regretted his action, 
although it has served to keep both his body and brain 
at work at their utmost capacity for nearly twenty years, 
in conducting and settling up the war business. Much 
of the burden still hangs upon him in the way of liti- 
gation for money due him from the government and 
from the Illinois Central Railroad. It was no easy task 
at first to obtain a unanimous sentiment among the 
people of his neighborhood for the Union, as they lived 
on the borders, and a large proportion of the inhabit- 
ants were boatmen, who, like himself, had their princi- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


89 


pal trade in the South. The matter was fully discussed 
and warmly contested, many times almost to blows, be- 
tween heretofore warm friends, and many otherwise 
good men hesitated. Mr. Cobb was naturally among 
the first called on to give his opinion as to whether the 
Union should be dissolved. He was known to have the 
largest financial interest in the South of any one in that 
vicinity, but he did not flinch. He answered, uncom- 
promisingly: ‘‘ Gentlemen, we had better fight until the 
last grown man of us is slain, and then depend upon 
our boys and women to repopulate and save this glori- 
ous Union of ours, than to think for one moment of 
allowing the rebels to succeed in dividing this great 
republican nation. I, for one, am in favor of sustain- 
ing the Union at all hazards.” Soon after this he gave 
some practical evidence that he meant what he said, by 
knocking down in the street with his fist the first man 
that he heard abusing the government and wishing that 
the rebels might succeed. This rash act drew the first 
blood in that locality, and brought about a division and 
taking of sides quickly, for the friends of the Union ral- 
lied, and sided with Mr. Cobb, while the opponents, 
almost to a man, swore vengeance against him. He 
received a vote of thanks from the ladies for his prompt 
action. Mr. Cobb promptly offered his services to 
Governor Morton, who asked him as to the best means 
of supplying the army with forage, as heeknew that Mr. 
Cobb was an old boatman, and the Governor had ob- 
served that up to that time the manner of transporting 
forage, particularly hay, was very expensive, and at- 
tended with great damage and loss from exposure to the 
weather, being shipped on steamboats and open barges 
on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennessee Rivers, at a 
high rate of freight, and then tumbled on the landings 
to await removal by army teams to its destination in the 
country. Sometimes it had to be reloaded on steamers 
for other points on the rivers. By this method the for- 
age was generally much damaged by exposure and bad 
handling, and this to such an extent that it was 
becoming alarming to the Union forces. Mr. Cobb 
made the following suggestion: That the government 
buy coal barges along the Ohio River in the hay dis- 


tricts, and roof and side them up so as to make floating 


forage warehouses of them, In this way the hay could 
be kept dry, and could be towed to any landing, as it 
was needed, by the government towboats, from place to 
place; and an immense saving would be the result, both 
to the government and the farmers, who were then re- 
ceiving only about fifteen dollars per ton for their baled 
hay from the speculators, while the United States had just 
offered a letting for hay delivered on the Upper Ohio 
River, payable in treasury vouchers, at which the 
lowest bid was forty dollars per ton, and not half 
enough to supply the demand was offered eyen at that 


price. He felt assured that by proper management the 


GO 
army could be well supplied at a much less rate from 
the farmers, giving the farmers at the same time a 
much better price than they had yet received. The 
government should furnish barges and lumber to finish 
them, employing agents to buy, load, and pay the 
farmers in currency for their hay, and setting its price 
from time -to time; Mr. Cobb then suggesting from 
twenty to twenty-five dollars per ton, and the agents to 
receive three dollars each ton for buying and loading 
the baled hay, payment to be made in government 
vouchers. By this method ten dollars per ton would be 
saved to the treasury, besides getting the hay to the 
army in better condition and with less expense of trans- 
portation. Governor Morton approved his suggestions, 
and they were reported to the chief quartermaster at 
St. Louis and Louisville (General Allen), who at once 
adopted the suggestion, and appointed Mr. Cobb quar- 
termaster’s agent to carry it out, fixing the price at 
twenty-five dollars to the farmers, and three dollars 
more per ton for delivering it to the government in 
barges, as above described. This was a larger under- 
taking than he had ever managed before, both finan- 
cially and in amount of work, but he accepted the 
situation, entering at once upon the discharge of his 
duties. His first step was the organization of a firm of 
ten men, selected from among the oldest hay merchants 
on the Ohio, and those whom he thought best suited to 
carry on the undertaking with him, under the firm name 
of J. & O. P. Cobb & Co, The members were Messrs. 
Greer, Small, Cheek, Blasdell, Folbre, Williams, 
Christy, Foulk, his brother John, and himself. From 
the very start they-met with terrible opposition from 
the hay speculators, from Gallipolis, Ohio, to Memphis, 
Tennessee, and from the latter point to St. Louis and 
above, from parties who had been furnishing forage 
up to that time at ruinous rates; but the new firm over- 
came all opposition so far as to keep the government 
well supplied for one year. This undoubtedly saved 
the United States millions of money during the war, 
although the contractors made less than eighteen thou- 
sand dollars for the year’s business, for the warehouse 
system of transportation on barges was kept up after 
that, not only for hay, but for other forage. After the 
first year, however, the opposition was so great that 
the government went back to the former system of sup- 
plying her demands principally by contract. That was 
very satisfactory to the new partnership, for they began 
to see that they had an elephant on their hands, After 
furnishing the government another year a large amount 
of forage supplies by contract at lettings, on which they 
did much better than in the agency business, the firm 
of J. & O. P. Cobb & Co. was: dissolved. Then, in 
order to enable him to furnish forage for the govern- 
ment in such quantities and in such places as they were 
likely to require it, in addition to his old. house of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[4th Dist. 


O. P. Cobb & Co., of Aurora, Indiana, he organized 
the firm of O. P. Cobb, Christy & Co., of Cincinnati, 
Ohio; the firm of John Christy & Co., of Louisville, 
Kentucky; and the firm of Cobb, Blasdell & Co., Cairo, 
Ilinois, in all of which he stood at the head. In 1863 
and 1864 he took large contracts for each house at Cin- 
cinnati, Louisville, and Cairo, for hay, oats, and corn, 
particularly for grain, at’ what he thought to be fair 
prices, being from a dollar and a quarter to nearly 
two dollars per bushel; their agreement being to de- 
liver a certain amount each month for six months, 
and being required to give a heavy bond to that effect. 
Soon after taking the contract and giving security for 
its faithful fulfillment, he was sent for by Captain 
McClung and Colonel McKim, who had been written 
and telegraphed to by General Allen, of Louisville, 
informing them that immense supplies for General 
Thomas’s army had been burnt up,at Johnsonville, Ten- 
nessee, and telling them of the great emergency then 
existing, and likely to exist, many animals being in 
danger of starving if every possible effort were not 
made to secure forage, even by seizing it. This infor- 
mation was to him both surprising and alarming, al- 
though he was fully up to the requirements of all his 
contracts. These had, however, several months yet to 
run, and he knew that if the government began seizing 
grain it would run the market up until it would ruin all 
of them, and all other contractors who had contracts 
yet running, as theirs was, and the government would 
not get as much grain as she was then receiving, and 
would thereby defeat her own object. The quarter- 
master was notified that Mr. Cobb would rather under- 
take to meet this emergency by doubling his contracts, 
at the same rates and terms per bushel, than to have 
the government go into the market to buy and seize 
forage. He was told to meet the emergency as best he 
could, at his last contract price, by every means within 
his power, until he was notified that the emergency was 
passed. Prompt action was what the government wanted, 
and every exertion was put forth in his power. Grain 
was soon started into Cincinnati, Louisville, and Cairo, 
by river, and by almost every line of railroad in the 
Western country, and the supply was kept up in that 
way until Richmond fell and the war ended. On the 
eleventh day of April they received written notice from 
the quartermasters, at their points of delivery, that they 
were ‘‘ordered by the chief quartermaster to receive no 
grain of any contractor after the tenth day of April, 
and you are hereby notified that no more grain will be 
received from you.” This he thought, and still thinks, 
the most unjust treatment he had ever received from 
the government or any body else in all the dealings of 
his life; for he had been almost forced into the contract, 
to relieve the government in her great emergency. 
They were left with nearly a million of bushels of grain 


gth Dist.] 


on their hands in Cincinnati, Louisville, Cairo, and in 
transit to those places, which they had bought for the 
government, and on which they had advanced a large 
amount of money. The government, regardless of 
this, had left them to their fate. A large portion 
of the grain they had purchased was loaded in cars, 
and switched off on side tracks in Illinois; and the 
shippers, holding bills of lading, began suit against 
the firms in the United States courts in Cincinnati and 
Indianapolis, and against Mr. Cobb, as the head of the 
several firms. This was a most formidable obstacle, and 
it required all the money he couid get and the courage 
he could raise to make the first start towards settling 
the matters by litigation and other means, for they were 
sued for more than a quarter of a million of dollars. In 
the mean time they had laid before Congress their 
claims for the grain that the government had refused to 
receive of them; but Congress did little for them until 
after the plaintiffs in their suits had prosecuted their 
claims to judgment. Then he compromised with them, 
giving in settlement his notes at one, two, and three 
years, with his brother John as indorser. This seemed 
like getting enough time to collect of the government and 
the railroad company; but before it had expired he found 
that he needed it all. He was obliged to get an exten- 
sion upon most of the notes, which was granted by his 
opponents for the purpose of enabling him to collect 
something from the United States. Judgment was ob- 
tained in the United States Court of Claims for two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and he obtained 
from the Illinois Central Railroad, by litigation and 
compromise, two hundred and twenty-eight thousand 
dollars. Thus he was enabled to pay all his outstand- 
ing notes. He has still two suits pending for money 
justly due his various firms, and he hopes soon to col- 
lect them. It is a singular fact that nearly all his 
financial troubles have been occasioned by his desire to 
give aid to the country in the time of its peril. He 
has served the public to the best of his ability, and 
now that old age is coming on he is filled with grat- 
itude for the success he has had through life. The 
last great enterprise that he has taken hold of is 
the Aurora Iron and Nail Company, which he was 
induced to help, not because he saw in it the means 
of making money, but almost solely for the reason 
that he recognized in it the means of saving the 
people of his city from great distress during the panic 
of 1873. When the railroad machine and repair shops 
had been removed from their place, and other shops 
and business ceased operation, Mr. Cobb was called 
upon by the people, and placed at the head of a com- 
mittee to devise ways and means of giving employment 
to the idle men and merchants. In pursuance of the 
recommendation of this committee, the city appropri- 
ated nine thousand dollars to secure the location of a 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


QI 


rolling mill at Aurora. The mill began business as the 
Aurora Iron Company, and for three or four years they 
paid out a large amount of money, which relieved the 
wants of their people very much; but at the end of 
that time the company showed but too plainly that it 
was losing money, and must soon stop if somebody else 
did not soon take hold of it. Up to this time none of 
the citizens of Aurora had either stock or office in the 
company. It was plain that something must be done, 
or the works would stop and be thrown on the city of 
Aurora, which had given the land, but could not con- 
duct the business; and, of course, with the stoppage 
the workmen would again be thrown out of employment. 
The old committee was again summoned to the relief 
of the city, and it recommended that a new company 
be formed, to buy out the Aurora Iron Company and 
the Haddock Nail Company’s patent nail machine, and 
carry on both together. This time the city was not 
asked for any thing, except to exempt the nail mill 
from city taxes for ten years. But the committee did 
ask the citizens to take stock in the new enterprise to 


the amount of fifty thousand dollars, at fifty cents on 


thé dollar, to half raise a working capital of at least 
one hundred thousand, but failed to obtain more than 
about three-fourths of that amount. Nevertheless, the 
Aurora Iron and Nail Company organized, and went to 
work on what had been subscribed. Mr. Cobb was 
elected president against his wishes, notwithstanding he 
had told the stockholders from other states that he had 
had no experience in the iron and nail business, and 
that they ought not to elect him. The stockholders 
from Aurora did not need to be told this. All insisted, 
however, on his accepting the office, and he has since 
filled it for four years, by re-election, without clearing 
a dollar for himself or the company. He has the con- 
solation of knowing, though, that he has been instru- 
mental in paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars 
to citizens of his place, during years when they most 
needed it; and he now has a fair prospect of bringing 
the company through four years of the hardest times in 
the iron and nail trade ever known in this country, 
and possibly of making some money. The mills have 
been running almost constantly, turning out each day 
some thousands of dollars’ worth of their products, con- 
sisting of bar, sheet, and plate iron, nails, nuts, and 
washers. To facilitate the work, Mr. Cobb invented 
and patented a nut lock; then a nail screen, or picker, 
which frees the nails from dust, slivers, and spalt so 
thoroughly that it saves to the consumer the price of 
from two to four pounds of nails to the keg, the metal 
being immediately returned to the puddling furnace, 
and again worked up. Another invention of his was a 
new mode of manufacturing nail plate and other plate 
iron at one heat, from old rails and other scrap iron, 
gathered from the railroads, farms, and shops of the 


Q2 


country in immense quantities, showing plainly that the 
iron wealth of to-day is not all to be dug from the bow- 
els of the earth. This is estimated to save the consumer 
of iron and nails at least five or ten dollars per ton, be- 
sides making a better iron and a home market for all 
waste wrought scrap-iron. It makes it practicable to 
erect nail mills without the necessity of having puddling 
furnaces or muck rolls. Another improvement is in a 
method for rolling or carrying car-wheels over splices 
of the rail bars without severe concussion or injury to 
the top end of the long rails. Mr. Cobb has personally 
reaped no advantage from these inventions, but he has 
the pleasure of knowing that this is, and has been, of 
great utility to the company. He has been looking 
through a long life for a period of leisure when he 
would not be required to do so much for the commu- 
nity, but could do more for himself. That time has 
not, however, come. A new difficulty confronted him 
this spring. A strike was ordered in the mill by the 
Amalgamated Association of Iron-workers. Their ob- 
ject seemed to be to break down the self-feeding nail 
machine, because it did away with any necessity for 
skilled feeders. To the committee who waited upon 
him his answer was: ‘I will pay you just the same that 
other mills pay their nailers, and no more, while there 
is a mechanic, or even a green hand, left in the 
government who is desirous of learning the trade of a 
nailer on our self-feeder. For I never will be a party 
that will tamely submit to such an imposition upon 
both the working-men and the manufacturers of the 
community in which I live.” The strike and demands 
of the eight men who were employed upon the ma- 
chines threw hundreds of men out of employment, and 
lessened the receipts of the people thousands of dollars 
per month. Here-was a new lesson to be learned in 
his old age. If the strike was not put down their 
patents were rendered useless, the company financially 
ruined, and much damage done both to the town and 
country. They would soon drive manufacturing out of 
this country, particularly in the iron business, which is 
only made possible in the United States by a protective 
tariff. The company had paid an immense sum of 
money to procure and put these patents successfully at 
work. 
demand of the National Amalgamated Union, which 
stopped all their works at a time when they had nearly 
two hundred thousand dollars’ worth of unworked 
stock on hand, bought at high prices. Most of the 
money used to pay for this metal was borrowed from 
bankers, and he determined to appeal to them, seven in 


These were to be rendered of no value by the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[gi Dist. 


number, and to his other creditors, for advice and help. 
The aid desired was readily obtained, and help was 
offered to protect their paper, which was indorsed by 
Mr. Greer and by John and O. P. Cobb. When the 
strike began there was another one going on in Pitts- 
burgh, Wheeling, and Cincinnati, and the manufacturers 
in these places telegraphed the Aurora Iron and Nail 
Company to ‘‘hold out,” theirs being an attempt by the 
puddlers and heaters to advance prices to five dollars 
and a half a ton. But these would-be allies soon suc- 
cumbed, signed the agreement with the puddlers, which 
gave the latter all they asked for, and left Mr. Cobb to 
fight the nailers’ strike alone. He was soon joined by 
the better part of the workmen and the community. 
With this, aided by the directors and creditors, and his 
own family, he kept up a constant struggle. Those of 
his own household who were familiar with the law 
prepared an abstract of the decisions on strikes, show- 
ing that in many of their phases they are unlawful, and 
that no good has come of them, either to workmen or 
manufacturers, but that many of both have thus been 
ruined. In three months the nailers were brought to 
Mr. Cobb’s terms, which were to take eighteen per 
cent of the cost of cutting nails, at card rates, for the 
use of the self-feeding patent nail machine. They 
agreed to the terms, and thus the manufacturers gained 
a victory. It is now possible for any company, by 
using the labor-saving devices patented by Mr. Cobb, 
and previously mentioned, to make nails of superior 
quality at much less cost than can be done by the old 
process, where the nail plate has to be turned over by 
hand once for each nail made, and a skilled laborer is 
required for each machine, while the Aurora self-feeders 
require but one to four machines. This was the secret 
of the animosity of the Amalgamated Engineers, and 
the reason why they ordered a strike, resulting in a loss 
to the working-men of Aurora of some forty thousand 
dollars, and a still greater one to the company, without 
advantage to any one. Mr. Cobb has always consist- 
ently refrained from the use of malt liquors, tobacco, 
cards, and all devices of gambling or trading in options, 
or from. taking any part in worshiping the rich or 
scorning the poor. Hence, whenever he has had an 
important work on hand he has been supported by the 
good people of the community in which he has oper- 
ated. Mr. Cobb is highly respected by his neighbors ; 
his word is his bond, and his hand is free in extending 
aid to those who have been less fortunate than he. 
His life has been a consistent one, and has nothing 
which does not reflect credit upon him. 


TLEHE 


FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 


€ 
a DAMS, JOSHUA G., of Danville, Judge of the 


7X, Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, composed of the 
C counties of Hendricks and Marion, was born in 

Hendricks County, Indiana, February 19, 1845, 
and is the sixth son of Solomon and Nancy (Griffith) 
Adams. His boyhood was spent on his father’s farm, 
his education consisting of a few months’ schooling dur- 
ing the winter months. September Io, 1861, he enlisted 
as a private in Company C, 51st Indiana Volunteer In- 
fantry; was made a non-commissioned officer, and re- 
mained with his regiment until the expiration of his 
term of service, when he re-enlisted, and served till the 
end of the war. He was captured by the enemy in 
May, 1863, and detained as a prisoner three months, 
when with others he was exchanged. Immediately on 
arriving at home he entered the Danville Academy, 
where he remained two years, and after two years more 
at Butler University, Indianapolis, he began the study 
of law, supporting himself by teaching school. In 
1872 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1874 received 
authority to practice in the Supreme Court of the state. 
He was elected prosecuting attorney for the district in 
1876, and in the autumn of 1878 was elected Judge of 
the Circuit Court for a term of six years. Mr. Adams is 
a member of the Christian Church, and is politically 
an uncompromising Republican. He was married, July 
2, 1873, to Augusta F. Brown, of Indianapolis, by whom 
he has two children, a son and a daughter. Mr. 
Adams is pre-eminently a self-made man, and, as the 
result of his untiring efforts, in the face of numberless 
discouragements—poor, alone, and unaided—he fills to- 
day the highest judicial office in his district, and stands 
at the head of his profession. He enjoys the respect 
and friendship of his fellow-citizens, and is the youngest 
man ever elected to a judgeship in the state. His ex- 
ample is worthy of emulation and imitation by the youth 
of the state. He has attained his present position by 
virtue of character and industry. 


eS 


versity, Greencastle, was born August 9, 1848, 
near Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York. 
He is the son of Ira Norton Bassett and Betsy 
Ann Bassett, whose maiden name was Babcock. His 
opportunities for early education were extremely limited. 
When but six years of age his parents moved from New 
York to the then wilds of Wisconsin, settling in Broth- 
ertown, Calumet County. 


{ ASSETT, THOMAS J., A. M., of Asbury Uni- 


When a mere boy he was 
compelled to do hard work upon a new farm, as his 
parents were farmers of small means. He attended 
school for a few years in the winter time, and worked 
upon the farm in summer. His progress in his books 
At the age of twenty he left home and 
taught school for one term, and then engaged for a time 
In the fall of 1869 
he went to his old home in Western New York, where 
he attended during one term the Rushville union 
school, taking three of the four cash prizes offered. 


was very rapid. 


as raftsman upon the Mississippi. 


One was for oratory, one was for general excellence in 
all studies, and one was for spelling. In the spring he 
again came West, but with a determination to obtain 
an education at whatever sacrifice. During the summer 
he worked on a farm near Hillsboro, [llinois, and in the 
fall of 1870 entered the junior preparatory class of In- 
diana Asbury University. He completed the six years’ 
course in five years, and took the classical honor of the 
class, numbering thirty-five members. Moreover, he 
literally worked his way through, earning all of the 
money required during the first two years by sawing 
wood, gardening, etc., working every day while others 
studied, and studying while they slept. Afterward he 
canvassed for books, and gave lessons in Latin and 
Greek. Upon graduating, in the class of 1875, he was 
immediately elected instructor of Latin and Greek in 
the preparatory department, Indiana Asbury Univer- 
sity, where he has remained for five years, up to the 


present time. In October of 1871 he united with the 


2 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


Phi Gamma Delta fraternity in Asbury; in 1876 he be- 
came a member of Greencastle Lodge, Free and Accepted 
Masons, and in April of 1879 he united with the Knights 
of Honor. During his junior and senior years he was one 
of the editors of the Asdury Review, a paper published 
by the literary societies of Asbury, which achieved a 
considerable reputation during those years, but was 
afterward discontinued. In the fall of 1878 he began the 
publication of the Asbury Monthly, a magazine of about 
fifty pages, devoted to the interests of Indiana Asbury 
University, and to education and literature. During its 
first volume it assumed a high rank among college jour- 
nals. During the summer vacation of 1879 he attended 
Doctor L. Sauveur’s summer school of languages at Am- 
herst, Massachusetts, and during the summer of 1880 
taught Latin and Greek in a summer normal of 
languages at Grinnell, Iowa. He and his wife are 
both Methodists. In politics he is a Republican. He 
was married, September 14, 1874, to Miss Anna E. Rid- 
path, daughter of Abraham Ridpath, and sister of Pro- 
fessor J. C. Ridpath, of Asbury University, and they 
have a family of three children, 


$006 


EEM, CAPTAIN DAVID E., attorney-at-law and 

»}) banker, Spencer, Owen County, Indiana, was born 
qa in Spencer on the 24th of June, 1837. He is a 
g son of Levi and Sarah Beem, who were of Ger- 
man ancestry. The former was a native of Kentucky, 
and the latter of Virginia. They were among the 
earliest pioneers of Owen County, having come to In- 
diana in 1816. Captain Beem received his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of his native town, and at the 
age of nineteen entered the state university, where, in 
1859, he graduated, after taking a classical course. He 
subsequently studied in the law department of the uni- 
versity; and in 1860 returned to Spencer and entered 
upon the practice of law, which, with the exception of 
the time spent in defense of the Union, he has ever since 
continued. In 1861, when the storm cloud -of civil war 
began to appear, Captain Beem was thoroughly alive to 
the necessity of maintaining the integrity of the Union, 
by coercion if necessary, and was among the first to 
answer the President’s call for volunteers. He wrote 
and circulated the first announcement of a meeting to 
raise a company in Owen County, and took an active 
part in its organization, at Spencer, on the 19th of 
April, 1861. More anxious to get to the front and bat- 
tle for what he believed a sacred cause than to secure 
his own advancement, he chose to go into the service 
as an enlisted man, and accordingly took the position 
of first sergeant in his company. The company was 
organized in response to the President’s first call, for 
seventy-five thousand three months’ troops, but, being 


[5th Dest. 


too late for that, was finally mustered into the three 
years’ service, and became Company H of the 14th In- 
diana, and went to the field with Colonel Nathan Kim- 
ball. Beem’s first service was with his regiment in 
Western Virginia. On the rth of July, 1861, at the 
battle of Rich Mountain, his regiment arrived in time 
to form the reserve force of General McClellan during 
that engagement. From this on, through the entire 
three years’ service, he remained with his regiment, 
except when on short leaves of absence, and _partic- 
ipated in all its marches, privations, and battles, In 
August, 1861, he was promoted to first lieutenant of 
the company, and in May, 1862, he became its captain, 
in which capacity he served until the expiration of the 
term of service, in June, 1864. Few regiments in the 
volunteer army of the United States experienced more 
exhaustive service, or bore a part in a greater number 
of bloody battles, than the “old 14th.” During the 
summer and fall of 1861, Captain Beem with his reg- 
iment was on duty in Western Virginia. After the bat- 
tle of Rich Mountain, the regiment was. stationed at 
Cheat Mountain summit, remaining there more than two 
months, where the soldiers suffered from a short supply 
of rations and clothing; and this station being on an 
outpost, almost in sight of the rebel forces, there 
was constant scouting, skirmishing, and frequent attacks 
by bushwhackers and guerrillas. Being relieved from 
duty here, where the regiment was at one time sur- 
rounded by several thousand rebels without being 
compelled to surrender, the 14th Indiana was finally 
transferred to the Shenandoah Valley, where, under 
the command of General Shields, and, later in the 
day, Colonel Nathan Kimball, it took a conspicuous 
part in the memorable battle of Winchester, on the 
23d of March, 1862. In this engagement, Captain 
Beem. was severely wounded, and, receiving a sixty 
days’ leave of absence in consequence, he returned 
home during this period. After the battle of Winches- 
ter, the 14th Indiana was engaged in active service in 
the Shenandoah Valley, and at Luray, Port Royal, 
near Port Republic, and other places, had frequent 
skirmishes with the enemy. During the months of May 
and June of 1862 this regiment was constantly on the 
march, and was under the fire of rebel guns sometimes 
every day for two weeks without intermissions On 
the 15th*of May, General Shields’s division, including 
the 14th Indiana, was ordered to join the army at 
Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock, but had no 
sooner arrived there than it was found that the rebels, 
taking advantage of the withdrawal of this force from 
the Shenandoah, began to press General Banks so closely 
that they were ordered back by hasty marches, when 
they again engaged in the lively occupation of chasing 
the enemy up and down the valley. Between the 
15th of May and the 16th of June the 14th Indiana 


sth Dist] 


marched an aggregate distance of three hundred and 
thirty-nine miles, frequently fighting, and often being 
short of supplies. About this time many of the sol- 
diers had completely worn out their shoes, and, it being 
impossible to procure new ones, the shoeless men of the 
regiment were each morning paraded in a separate squad, 
and were allowed to march out of ranks and choose 
their way as best they could. More than fifty men of 
this. regiment have been seen marching for days with 
bare and bleeding feet over the stony mountains of Vir- 
ginia. This command was finally ordered to join the 
Army of the Potomac, which it did at Harrison’s Land- 
ing, on the James River, July 1, 1862, meeting the army 
upon the completion of its celebrated change of base 
from the Chickahominy to the James River. From 
this time until the expiration of their term of service, 
the 14th Indiana participated in all the movements and 
battles of the Army of the Potomac. Captain Beem 
commanded his company in every engagement it was in 
up to the middle of February, 1864. At Antietam the 
loss of men in his company was very great, just one- 
sixth of those engaged being killed, or having died 
from wounds; and at Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Chan- 
cellorsville, and at the minor battles, the famous 14th 
fairly earned its reputation as a fighting regiment. The 
number of men killed in Captain Beem’s company in 
all its battles was seventeen, and the number wounded 
over sixty. With his command he was mustered out of 
the service in June, 1864. He has never held a public 
office in his life, excepting that of school trustee. He 
was one of the leading movers in establishing the Spen- 
cer graded school, which ranks second to none of its 
class in the state, and is noted for its efficient manage- 
ment and abundant success. He has ever been among 
the foremost in all the moral, religious, and progressive 
enterprises of his town and county. Being a Republi- 
can in every sense of the word, he is a prominent and 
useful member of his party, having served as chairman 
of the Republican county central committee for three 
campaigns with marked skill and entire satisfaction to 
the party. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in 1860, and has adhered to its principles and teachings 
ever since, being a live worker both in Church and 
Sunday-school. He is cashier of what was once the 
First National Bank of Spencer, but is now known as 
the banking firm of Beem, Peden & Co., having suc- 
cessfully and satisfactorily managed the business of the 
bank for many years, in addition to his extensive law 
practice. As an expounder of the law he has an en- 
viable reputation, and justly deserves the reward which 
his professional success has given him. He was mar- 
ried, on the roth of April, 1861, to Miss Mahala Joslin, 
daughter of Doctor Amasa Joslin, one of the pioneer phy- 
sicians of Spencer. He is the father of two children— 
one son, Levi A. Beem, and one daughter, Minnie M. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 3 


Beem. His handsome residence is beautifully situated 
on a commanding spot in the northern part of Spencer. 
His charitable disposition, energetic and well-spent life, 
and Christian habits have established for him a spotless 
reputation, and he truly lives in the enjoyment of a 
large circle of friends, a clear conscience, and the full- 


est pleasures of domestic happiness. 


—+ gate 


yy OSWELL, THOMAS HENRY, Spencer, Indiana, 
) was born in Statesville, Wilson County, Tennessee, 
CF, November 5, 1833. He was the oldest son of 
6S William F. and Malissa Boswell. 
was always a stanch Whig, invariably taking an ac- 
tive and lively interest in the political affairs of the 
country. He was a great admirer of Henry Clay, and 
it was the great desire of his life to see Mr. Clay ele- 
vated to the presidency of the United States. He be- 
lieved, as early as 1840, that a terrible conflict would 
take place between slavery and freedom; and from that 
time until his death—September 6, 1856—he lect no op- 
portunity pass to impress his children with the impor- 
tance of remaining true to the United States government. 
These early trainings and impressions took such deep 
root in the mind of his son, that, when the tocsin of war 
was sounded, and a dissolution of the Union seemed 
imminent, he did not hesitate, but took active and de- 


The former 


cided grounds in favor of the perpetuity of the govern- 
ment and the overthrow of the Rebellion. He received 
his education at the common schools of the country until 
he reached his nineteenth year, when, owing to the rigid 
economy practiced by himself and his father, he was en- 
abled to spend one year in college, at Clinton, Kentucky, 


George W. Ray being the president. During this year 


_W. F. Boswell settled in Dresden, Weakley County, 


Tennessee, where, at the close of the college year, 
his son obtained a position in one of the leading dry- 
goods stores of the place. Here he soon obtained the 
full confidence of his employer, and inside of three 
years had the full control of the large and lucrative 
business. He spent his leisure mostly in reading law- 
books, being furnished from the large library of Hon. 
Emerson Etheridge, who spared no pains to give him 
all the instruction he needed. It was not his intention 
to enter the legal profession, but he only intended to 
gain such knowledge as would be of service in the great 
battle of life. He, however, became so deeply inter- 
ested, that, had his father not been called away so soon, 
it is more than likely that his life would have been 
changed, and the law followed as a business. In Au- 
gust, 1856, he was given a one-third interest with his 
employers—W. W. Gleeson and Andrew Maloan—and 
in September, 1857, he bought out his partners, con- 
tinuing in business alone. He was noted for upright- 


4 REPRESENTATIVE 
ness and strict business integrity, and had no trouble | 
in commanding a large trade. When the late war was 
inaugurated, he was in a fair way of becoming one of 
the most successful and wealthiest men of that locality. 
During the hot political contest of 1860 Mr. Boswell 
took an active part. He ‘favored the election of John 
Bell, on the broad platform of ‘¢the Union, the Con- 
stitution, and the enforcement of the laws,” although 
the outlook was not at all. favorable to the election of 
Mr. Lincoln was elected. Then came 
Tennessee desired to stay in the 


his candidate. 
a most trying time. 
Union, and by an overwhelming vote declared her 
unflinching loyalty to the government. The true his- 
tory of the trials of the Union men of Tennessee has 
never yet been written, and perhaps never will be. 
The world does not know the number who, through the 
various influences which were brought to bear upon 
them, were rushed into the rebel army against both 
their judgment and will, and finally filled rebel graves. 
There were some, however—and they could be num- 
bered by the thousands—who had the nerve to resist 
every influence could be brought to bear. 
Among this number was Mr. Boswell. He took strong 
grounds against secession, and in favor of crushing the 
Rebellion. He was in favor of raising Tennessee’s quota 
to fill the first call mrade by President Lincoln, for 
seventy-five thousand men, but was opposed by such 
men as Emerson Etheridge, John A. Rogers, Wm. P. 
Caldwell, John Somers, and other leading Unionists of 
West Tennessee. But time showed that they took the 
wrong view, for less than twelve months elapsed when 
they saw their error and began to recruit a regiment 
for the United States army. Mr. Boswell went heart 
and soul into the work, and in a few weeks he had a 
full company, of which he was chosen captain. This 
was in July, 1862. He served faithfully until Septem- 
ber, 1863, when he was promoted to major—the regi- 
ment in the mean time being consolidated with the 6th 


which 


Tennessee Cavalry, and the men mounted. It was in 
constant and active duty in West Tennessee, participat- 
ing in almost every skirmish, raid, and battle that was 
fought in that section. It was an every-day business, 
for at that time General Sherman was moving his com- 
mand from the Trans-Mississippi Department to Knox- 
ville, Tennessee, for the purpose of extricating General 
Burnside and his army, which were in close quarters. 
Major Boswell was almost continually in the saddle, 
and displayed genuine courage and good management. 
In a most sanguinary and hotly contested fight at 
Salem, Mississippi, on the eighth day of October, 1863, 
after fighting from nine A. M. until about five P. M., he 
was severely wounded, receiving a minie ball through the 
right shoulder. From this wound he suffered for several 
months, but finally rejoined his regiment, at German- 
town, Tennessee, on the 20th of March, 1864. 


He was 


MEN OF INDIANA. [sth Dist. 
still unfit for active duty, but preferred to be with his 
command. On the 27th of March—although he was 
still suffering frém his wound, being unable to use his 
right arm—he led his regiment in one of the most ter- 
rible fights of the war. The enemy outnumbered them 
nearly three to one, and almost any other command 
would have surrendered. But the 6th Tennessee was 
not composed of that kind of material, and, while it 
was badly used up, and finally had to retreat, still the 
enemy was most severely punished and crippled, and 
did not follow. In October, 1864, Major Boswell, being 
unable to perform further active duty, and not desiring 
to still remain in the service, tendered his resignation, 
on a surgeon’s certificate of disability, and was honor- 
ably discharged on the eighth day of November, just 
thirteen months after receiving the terrible wound at 
Salem, Mississippi. After recruiting somewhat in gen- 
eral health, he entered into business in Memphis, Ten- 
He was reasonably successful until the spring 
of 1866, when, with a number of others, he was seized 
with a mania to make a fortune ‘‘ planting cotton” on 
a large scale. One year of this satisfied him, as well 
as a great number of others. 
‘¢planting ”’ about seven thousand dollars in Tishomingo 
County, Mississippi, and it remains planted there to 
this day. He returned to Memphis, Tennessee, and, on 
the organization of the Municipal Court of Memphis, 
he was appointed marshal by Governor Brownlow. 
This position he held with great credit. So well did he 
fill the office that at the géneral election, March 8, 
1868, he was rechosen by a majority of thirty-three 
hundred, outrunning his ticket over one thousand votes. 
This position would have been a lucrative one in some 
men’s hands—the income being about six thousand dol- 
lars annually—but Major Boswell was more intent on 
doing his duty faithfully than on accumulating money. 
In the Tennessee Legislature of 1869 a bill was intro- 
duced abolishing all the courts. The real intention 
was simply to get rid of those in office who had re- 
mained true to the Union. Major Boswell did not pro- 
pose to be legislated out of office. So, on the first day 
of December, 1869, before the passage of the above 
bill, he tendered his resignation. He had never wa- 
vered in his political opinions, being a solid and uncom- 
promising Republican. On the 16th of February, 1870, 
he was married to Miss Lida Hale, of Crawfordsville, 
the ceremony being performéd at the Sherman House, 
Indianapolis, by Rev. Robert Moore. He returned 
with his wife to Tennessee just long enough to arrange 
his affairs, when he moved to Greencastle, Indiana, 
where he led an active life, being one of the leading 
business men of that thriving city. On June 16, 1879, 
he made a business arrangement which called him to 
Spencer, Indiana, where he moved in August, and is 
now one of “its foremost merchants. In 1872 Major 


nessee. 


He simply succeeded in 


LIBRARY 
QF THE 
UNIVERSITY GF I-binetc 


= 
= 
= 


5th Dist. 


Boswell joined the Baptist Church at Greencastle, and 
has at all times since been an active worker, not 
He de- 
livered, in 1877, at the annual Sunday-school conven- 
tion, an excellent address on Sunday-school work, and 
he was again selected in 1878 to deliver an address to 
the same society. His theme was, ‘‘ Industry versus Idle- 


only in the Church, but in the Sunday-school. 


ness.” This subject he handled with great ingenuity 
and tact, and he had the satisfaction of being highly 
complimented by the president of the convention, Rev. 
R. N. Harvey. On the 6th of May, 1879, his Repub- 
lican friends of the first ward of Greencastle elected 
him councilman, over one of the most popular men in 
the city of the opposite party. On his return from the 
South, where he had been called for a time, he took a 
prominent part in the legislation of the city. Major 
Boswell, although very firm in his political and religious 
views, has always been liberal-minded, and invariably 
presses his peculiar ideas with due courtesy. He has 
never changed in either, and is to-day as firm a Repub- 
lican as ever, and as good a Baptist as the day he first 
joined the Church. Major Boswell is a gentleman of 
strict moral principles and rare intellectual attainments. 
Socially, he is kind, affable, and courteous, and has a 
name above reproach. He has the confidence and es- 
teem of a large circle of friends, who admire him for 
his many excellencies of head and heart. 


—~+-4006-— 


born in Monroe County, Indiana, on a farm two 

miles west of Bloomington, August 10, 1829. He 

was the son of Abraham and Ann Buskirk, who 
removed to Bloomington in 1831. Having finished his 
elementary education in the public schools of Bloom- 
ington while yet a lad, he was taken into the office of 
the clerk of the Circuit Court of Monroe County by 
David Browning, who then filled that position. Mr. 
Buskirk remarked that he was greatly indebted to David 
Browning for good and wise counsels, which gave him 
a proper direction in his boyhood. He entered the 
preparatory department of the state university, and com- 
pleted the freshman year of the collegiate department 
when the Mexican War broke out. He enlisted in the 
Ist Indiana Regiment, at Lafayette, but was transferred 
while at the rendezvous at New Albany to the 3d Indi- 
ana, under the command of Colonel James H. Lane. 
He remained with the regiment until it was mustered 
out of service at the close of the war. He took part 
in the hotly contested battle of Buena Vista, in which 
Santa Anna and forty thousand Mexicans were routed 
and defeated by a few thousand American volunteers. 
On his return he entered the printing-office of Jesse 
Brandon, who published a Democratic paper for many 


a USKIRK, GEORGE A., of Bloomington, was 
CF 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 5 


years in Bloomington. He continued in that office for 
two years, and became practically acquainted with all 
the details of the printing business. In 1848 he com- 
menced the study of law in the office of his brother, 
Hon. Samuel H. Buskirk, now deceased, who was after- 
ward a Judge of the Supreme Court; he also entered the 
Law Department of the Indiana State University, and 
graduated in 1850. He was soon after elected Justice 
of the Peace, which office he filled for several years. 
On the 25th of August, 1854, he married Miss Martha 
Hardesty. He entered into partnership with his brother, 
and practiced law until he was elected, in 1856, Judge 
of the Common Pleas’ Court, in the district embrac- 
ing the counties of Monroe, Morgan, and Brown. 
This office he filled with ability and success for four 
years. In 1860 the counties of Shelby and Johnson were 
added to this judicial district, and Judge Buskirk was 
re-elected without opposition, discharging his duties 
with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of 
the bar. At the close of his second term, in 1864, he 
again entered upon the practice of law. In 1867 he 
was elected by the Legislature agent of state, which 
was then regarded as the most responsible as well as 
the most honorable office belonging to the state of In- 
diana. As agent he was required to keep an office in 
the city of New York, and to assume the management and 
control of the funds of the state set apart for the payment 
of the interest on the state debt. This important trust 
he managed with skill and fidelity. In 1868 he was 
elected by the people of Monroe County to represent 
them in the Lower House of the General Assembly; 
and at the regular session of 1869 he was elected 
speaker, presiding with signal ability over the deliber- 
ations of that body. In 1871 he organized the First Na- 
tional Bank of Bloomington, and, owing to the ability 
he had displayed in managing a private bank, was chosen 
its president by the board of directors. During the 
last three or four years of his life he withdrew entirely 
from public life, devoting his attention to his private af- 
fairs. On the 16th of July, 1874, he attended a polit- 
ical convention at Brazil, from which he returned on the 
Friday following. On Monday and Tuesday he was not 
well; the next day he was seriously ill, but was able to 
walk about the room until about eleven o’clock P. M., 
when his strength gave way, and he fell under a stroke 
of apoplexy. In a few days more he would have com- 
pleted his forty-fifth year. He was closely identified with 
the growth and prosperity of Bloomington, and in many 
Ways aided in the development of Monroe County. As 
an attorney and judge he was held in universal esteem, 
and his rulings while on the bench were at all times 
wise, firm, and impartial. Qn the breaking out of the 
Rebellion, in 1861, Judge Buskirk, without a moment’s 
hesitation, declared himself in favor of putting it down 


by force of arms. His services were of immense value, 


6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


and: that they were highly. appreciated by Governor 
Morton is best evidenced by the fact that he was ap- 
pointed by him colonel in the Indiana Legion, in order 
that he might be able to render more efficient aid to 
the state in those perilous times. Subsequently, in 
August, 1864, he appointed Mr. Buskirk judge advocate. 
During the session of the Legislature of which he was 
speaker, he was an earnest advocate and was instru- 
mental in the ratification of the fifteenth amendment 
to the Constitution of the United States; and its ratifi- 
cation by the Indiana Legislature was mainly owing to 
his manly appeals in its favor. In his death the city of 
Bloomington mourned the loss of one of her most 
highly respected and useful citizens ; and the state was 
deprived of one of the few men who fill positions of 
honor and trust not only with credit to themselves, but 
to the entire satisfaction of the people at large. Judge 
Buskirk was a member of the Masonic Fraternity, anda 
charter member of the first lodge of Knights of Pythias 
ever organized in Monroe County. He 
siderate neighbor, an affectionate husband, and a kind 
father. His widow and five children survive him. Of 
his children, Anna is the wife of N. U. Hill, an attor- 
ney of Brazil; George is a merchant; and Mattie, 
Philip, and Lawrence are still at home with their 


Was a con- 


mother. 
—>-400-0— 

ides 

O() USKIRK, JOHN W., attorney-at-law, of Bloom- 
4 ington, was born in Bedford, Lawrence County, 
C*%, November 20, 1845, and is the son of John B, and 
6S Maria (Ritter) Buskirk. His father was one of 
Indiana’s pioneers, emigrating thither in 1818, and for 
many years was a prominent merchant. He is still liy- 
ing, and is now a resident of Bloomington. John W. 
Buskirk attended the common schools at Bedford, and 
in 1859 entered the State University at Bloomington, 
where he remained until 1861. In the fall of that year 
he enlisted as a private in the 49th Regiment Indi- 
ana Volunteers, serving until 1863, when he was dis- 
charged. During his term of service he participated 
in the Cumberland Gap campaign, under General Mor- 
gan, and was at the siege of Vicksburg, Chickasaw Bluff, 
On his return 


and the engagement at Arkansas Post. 
from the army, he re-entered college, where he remained 
until May, 1865, at which time he removed to New 
Albany and became a student in the office of Hon. 
James S. Collins. On arriving at his majority he was 
admitted to the bar, formed a partnership with Mr. 
Collins, and began the practice of his profession. At 
the expiration of one year he removed to Paoli, in 
Orange County, and engaged with his brother, Thomas 
B. Buskirk, in the practice of law. In 1868 he was 
elected prosecuting attorney for the Eighth Common 
Pleas District, which position he resigned in March, 


[sth Dist. 


1869. Removing to Bloomington, he formed a part- 
nership with his uncle, the Hon. S. H. Buskirk, with 
whom he continued until 1870, at which time his uncle 
was elected Judge of the Superior Court of the State. 
In 1871 Mr. Buskirk graduated from the law depart- 
ment of the state university. In 1876 he was the Dem- 
ocratic nominee for state Senator, and, although running 
largely ahead of his ticket, was defeated. In Novem- 
ber, 1866, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme 
Court. In political matters Mr. Buskirk has always been 
a Democrat, and is one of the leaders of that party in 
the county. He is not a member. of any religious de- 
nomination. As an attorney, he stands at the head of 
the bar in Monroe County; and in the Supreme Court 
of the state, where, although still a young man, he has 
considerable practice, he is fast winning his way to 
prominence. He married, December 29, 1869, Ella A. 
Broadwell, a sister of Jacob S, Broadwell, of Blooming- 
ton. After several years of married life his wife and 
two of his children died. He has still one child living. 
Mr. Buskirk is a highly respected and useful citizen, and 
is closely identified with the growth and prosperity of 
Bloomington and Monroe County. 


—>-9atl-<-—_ 


ie NATHAN T., of Columbus, was born on 
, ( the twenty-fifth day of December, 1833, in Steuben 
20) County, New York, and is the second son of Henry 
2 and Elizabeth (Tracy) Carr. 
extensive lumberman, and his mother a lady of fine 
literary talents, who, in her younger days, had a local 
celebrity as a writer. The’ subject of this biography 
received a liberal academic education, graduating in 
1851 at the Starkey Academy, in New York, at which 
time he began the study of law, mingling with it re- 
In 1854 he 
removed to Michigan, establishing himself temporarily 
at Vassar, Tuscola County, where, November 25, 1855, 
he married Martha A. Joslin. Two sons, Herman and 
Oma, constitute their family. In the spring.of 1858, 
he removed to Midland County, Michigan, where he 
entered upon the practice of law. In the fall of the 
same year he was elected, almost without opposition, 
by both political parties, to the Legislature of that state, 
and was the youngest member of the House. He served 
with no little distinction, and to the entire satisfaction 
of his constituents. During this session was passed the 
then famous personal liberty bill, the first of a series of 
acts by several of the anti-slavery states adverse to the 
fugitive slave law, then the subject of intense political agi- 
tation. This bill he opposed, and in an earnest speech 
warned his colleagues that such legislation would cer- 
tainly plunge the country into a fearful sectional war. 
His predictions were verified in less than two years 


His father was an 


rearches into many of the other sciences. 


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» sth Dist.] REPRESENTATIVE 


afterward. During the same session he worked for, 
and in conjunction with others procured, the abolition 
of the grand jury system, a reform which has since been 
followed by several other states. In 1860 he was re- 
nominated, but declined to accept; and the same year, 
without opposition, he was elected recorder of the 
county. This position he held until the spring of 1862, 
when, as first leutenant, he raised a company and 
joined the 28th Michigan Volunteer Infantry. Owing 
to ill-health, in July, 1863, he resigned, and settled at 
Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana. 
chased the Brookville Democrat, and continued to pub- 
lish it until the spring of 1867. In the spring of 1864 
the office of the Democrat was attacked by a company 
of armed soldiers, made drunk and incited to the act 
by base local politicians. 
shotgun and revolver, he drove back the mob, seriously 
but not fatally wounding three of its members, while he 


Here he pur- 


Single-handed and alone, with 


escaped unhurt, and saved the office from destruction. 
In the spring of 1867 he removed to Columbus, Indiana, 
his present home, and established the Columbus Azdlleton, 
which he published until 1870. In the mean time he 
had resumed the practice of law, and in 1870 was elected 
prosecuting attorney for the counties of Bartholomew, 
Shelby, Johnson, and Brown, creditably meeting some 
of the most distinguished legal talent of the state. In 
1871 he resigned this position, to accept that of legal 
adviser to the city of Columbus, an office he held until 
elected judge of his circuit. 
in 1876 he.was chosen to represent the Third District 
in Congress, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death 
of Speaker M. C. Kerr. The second session of the 
Forty-fourth Congress, of which he was a member, was 
rendered the most important and exciting since the 
commencement of the Civil War by the presidential 
contest between Tilden and Hayes. Although a new 
member, Mr. Carr had the floor in debate on five differ- 
ent occasions, and each time delivered speeches which 
attracted public attention. His first effort was in deliv- 
ering the closing eulogy upon the late Speaker Kerr, and 
in offering the resolutions of respect. He opposed the 
Electoral Commission from its inception, upon constitu- 
tional grounds and as a matter of party policy. In an 
elaborate argument in the House, before the passage of 
the bill, he warned his Democratic colleagues that the 
commission would be a partisan tribunal, which upon 
purely party considerations would declare Mr. Hayes 
to be the President elect, and thus authenticate his title 
to the office. His warnings were unheeded, and the 
mistaken Democratic majority forced the bill to its 
passage. After the decision of the commission on the 
Florida case was reported, and while those who forced 
the adoption of the commission were bitterly condemn- 
ing it, Mr. Carr delivered a speech in which he charged 
the wrong upon the stupidity of the Democratic mana- 


At the general election 


MEN OF INDIANA, if 
gers, who forced upon the country the commission and 
the law governing it, from which no other result could 
reasonably have been anticipated. Perhaps no speech 
made in-Congress for years has been more universally 
published and commented upon than this. He was one 
of only eighteen Democrats in the House who refused 
to follow mistaken leaders, and worked and voted against 
the bill. In 1878 he was elected Judge of the Ninth 
Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Bartholo- 
mew and Brown. He is an eloquent orator on both 
political and legal questions, maintains a high position 
among the members of his profession, and is much es- 
teemed by all who know him. In politics he is truly 
Democratic; in religion he is perhaps most strongly in- 
clined towards the Presbyterian denomination. 


— >-3906<-— 


tOLE, JAMES WASHINGTON, of Greencastle, 
was born in Dearborn County, Indiana, February 
50 2, 1820. He is the eldest son of Solomon and ~ 
Sarah (Remy) Cole. His father was a native of 
Maryland, and died at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in 1860, 
at about seventy-six years of age. His mother is still 
living, at the venerable age of eighty-two, and is 
amply provided for and watched over by her sons in 
her declining years. The paternal grandfather was one 
of a large English family. Coming to America he 
settled in Maryland, and worked at his trade of black- 
smithing, for a time at least, as he had the credit of 
shoeing General Washington’s horses. He afterward 
became a considerable land-holder, but finally leased 
his estate for a term of years, and died before the lease 
expired. In the mean time, the records having been 
burned, the heirs were deprived of the valuable property. 
That he was a man of considerable means is proved by 
the fact that he shipped the brick for his dwelling from 
England. Mr. Cole’s paternal grandmother was of 
German descent. Solomon Cole, his father, moved 
from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Indiana early 
in the present century. He was not only a practical 
farmer, but was a man of much intellectual culture and 
general information, and devoted some time to teaching. 
In 1819 he married Miss Sarah Remy, by whom he had 
nine children, one of whom died in infancy. Her 
father was an intelligent and well read farmer of 
Franklin County, Indiana. Her progenitors were of 
French descent, and were related to the Clouds and 
Nardins, of the Old Dominion. James Washington 
Cole, the immediate subject of this sketch, was reared 
to a life of toil, and his opportunities for acquiring an 
education were very limited. When he was about fif- 
teen years of age his father became partially helpless, 
and, being the eldest son, the responsibility of directing 
matters at home devolved largely upon him. Shortly 


8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


after, the father sold the homestead, and lent the pro- 
ceeds to parties whom he regarded as solvent; but the 
panic of 1837-9 swept away the fortunes of the bor- 
rowers and their security, and left Mr. Cole compara- 
tively destitute, his health undermined, and a wife and 
eight children to support. Two farms were rented ; 
one of a distant relative, in Dearborn County, for 
two years, and one for one year in Hamilton County, 
Ohio. In the spring of 1840, when twenty years old, 
James W. Cole went to Iowa, and, having made the 
many arrrangements, returned, and removed with the 
family to Henry County, where, the year following, 
two hundred and fifty acres of land were purchased, 
mostly on time payments. One-half of this land was 
in the name of the parents, and one-half in the name 
of James W. Cole and his next younger brother, 
Robert S. Cole. They first turned their attention to 
making the family comfortable, building a house and 
fences, putting in crops; and, at the close of the third 
or fourth season, they concluded to leave the home- 
stead in charge of another brother, and devote their 
time to improving their share of the property. In a 
short time, however, for family reasons, and that the 
younger children might have the advantage of good 
schools, it was deemed advisable that the parents 
should remove to Mount Pleasant, while James W. and 
Robert assumed control of the farm, purchasing their 
parents’ share and allowing them a generous price that 
secured them a support. As the years passed, the sons 
saw that their parents never needed such comforts 
as they desired, and also contributed liberally toward 
the education of the children, for by this time their 
father had become a confirmed invalid. At the age of 
twenty-six or twenty-seven, James W. Cole sold out to 
Robert—if that can be called a sale which was a mere 
verbal agreement to give and take. It is a fact worthy 
of note that these brothers were engaged in business 
nearly a quarter of a century before they came to a 
settlement. They had but one purse; their transac- 
tions ran up to tens of thousands of dollars; their busi- 
ness was wide-spread and complicated, and had either 
died prior to 1864 no scratch of a pen was there to indi- 
cate the condition of their personal affairs. Nevertheless, 
a few hours more than sufficed for an amicable settlement; 
and now the brothers transact their business with a 
rigid adherence to commercial rules that would meet 
the approval of an Astor or a Vanderbilt. James W. 
Cole, after selling to Robert, attended an academy in 
Mount Pleasant two years, and taught a year or more 
in Lee County. He then renewed business relations with 
his brother, opened up farms, traded in lands and stock, 
and in 1849 the brothers took the first step in a business 
which has since assumed vast proportions. Making a 
temporary loan of fifty dollars, they sent it by mail in 
payment of lightning-rods. The money was lost on the 


[sth Dist. 


way, but the rods came, and were soon, like Ajax, defying 
the thunderbolts. This business steadily increased until 
1857, when came the financial crisis. The brothers did 
not yield to it, however, until 1859, and then but par- 
tially. Their business involved giving credit on small 
amounts widely scattered. Their assets and bills receiy- 
able were not available, and they consequently were 
embarrassed. But their creditors had confidence in 
them; granted them full time to pay every dollar, and 
ten per cent additional; and by 1862 the credit of the 
Cole Brothers was better than ever, and practically un- 
limited. Business integrity, square dealing, and steady 
purpose had conquered every difficulty. From 1860 to 
1865, Mr. Throop, a former employé, had an interest 
with the brothers. In 1863 James Cole, in company 
with Mr. Brockway, another employé, came to Green- 
castle, and added the manufacture of pumps to that of 
lightning-rods. Mr. Brockway, however, had but a fifth 
interest in the former, and none in the latter.. He re- 
tired from the firm at the close of the fiscal year 1874. 
In 1865 the four brothers, James W., Robert S., Will- 
iam R., and John J. Cole, organized a company incor- 
porated for a period of ten years, under the laws of 
Iowa, with headquarters at Mount Pleasant, with a paid- 
up capital of thirty thousand dollars, for the manufac- 
ture and sale of lightning-rods and pumps. They began 
to form limited partnerships, mostly with former em- 
ployés who had accumulated more or less money, and 
located agencies or depots at different points, disposing 
of their rods and pumps in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, 
Illinois, Nebraska, and Indiana, until they had not less 
than fourteen branches in the territory designated. 
Their extensive operations required, in all departments, 
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men, and 
from seventy-five to one hundred teams, and in some 
seasons more. In 1875 the time of the original organi- 
zation expired, and the brothers were enabled to reor- 
ganize with a paid-up capital of two hundred thousand 
dollars. Since 1875 it has been thought advisable to 
curtail the pump business somewhat, in consequence 
of the general depression, to reduce the number of 
branches, and modify the business generally ;-but, after 
all the vicissitudes of these many years, and the frequent 
fluctuation of values, the company have continued to 
do an extensive trade, and now think of enlarging their 
business again, if the future outlook is as bright as it 
now promises to be. It is worthy of remark in this 
connection that, despite financial reverses and panics, 
and the almost universal lack of confidence, this com- 
pany has always been able to command all the funds it 
required from banks and private parties without security 
of any kind further than the indorsement of some one 
of the company, in compliance with the usages of 
banks. It is their inflexible rule to give no other 
security than their names. It should be remarked here 


5th Dist.) 


that, in addition to the investment of the brothers, the 
limited partnerships at the different depots will reach a 
large additional sum. James W. Cole has been presi- 
dent of the company since its organization. The 
by-laws require him to have supervision of the entire 
business, and in addition to this he has sole charge of 
the manufacturing department, as well as of his private 
affairs, which have occupied much time and attention. 
Mr. Cole is not so thoroughly devoted to his own imme- 
diate business, however, that he can not find time to 
give to matters of public interest. From a mass of pub- 
lished matter furnished to his biographer, it is found 
that he has been a liberal contributor to the press upon 
the subject of finances, which he seems to look at 
from a purely business stand-point, and in its relations 
to the wants of society. He denies the existence or 
possibility of such a thing as a ‘‘world’s money,” a 
universal legal tender. The power of money does not 
depend so much on the material of which it is com- 
posed as upon its legal endowment by the government. 
It is impracticable for any nation to regulate its mone- 
tary system in union with the monetary system of all 
others. Mr. Cole sees and acknowledges the difficulty 
of fixing the quantity of money required by a state or 
nation; but, that quantity once fixed, any great increase 
or diminution of the circulation, without a correspond- 
ing increase or diminution of the aggregate business, is 
unjust and impolitic. He takes ground that the value 
of money depends largely on the rate of interest it will 
uniformly bring, and from this shows the injustice of 


frequent changes by law of the rate of interest. The 
Cole Brothers have managed their large business 
with sound judgment and commendable skill, and 


if there is any one thing which more than an- 
other commends them and their work, it 
their best field of labor where they are best 


To be a “lightning-rod man” is regarded in 


is 
1s 
known. 


many communities as a reproach; but for nearly a third | 
of a century, year after year, their employés and their | 


teams have traversed the same states and counties, add- 
ing new territory to old, and making the rod put up in 
previous years the best argument for putting up one on 
a neighboring farm. During all these years, though the 
Cole Brothers have erected hundreds of thousands of 
lightning-rods, no one has been killed or even injured 
in a building protected by them; and in the single case 
where a rod has failed to protect it is reasonable to 
suppose that it was owing to some accidental injury to 
the rod, rather than to any defect in its manufacture. 
Where they canvassed twenty-five years ago their sales- 
man still goes his annual round; the Franklin rod, that 
has protected his neighbors’ homes for a quarter of a 
century, is good enough for the new-comer; and a firm 
who never have been guilty of the trickery and sharp 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| a cost of about twenty-five thousand dollars. 
thirty 


practice, of late too common in the business, are cer- , 


S) 


tainly worthy of confidence. The citizens of Mount 
Pleasant, Iowa, are justly proud of this house, which 
has its headquarters there, and no names stand higher 
for business integrity and commercial worth than those 
of the Cole Brothers. The same excellency character- 
izes their pumps. These are sold in vast numbers over a 
large extent of territory, and have the merit of stability, 
efficiency, and simplicity. They are made of only the 
best materials, and have attained a wide-spread popu- 
larity throughout the West. Of Mr. Cole, president of 
the company, we have spoken at length. John J. Cole, 
St. Louis, Missouri, is a public-spirited citizen, a man 
of intelligence, of sound business habits, and is devoted 
to his family and friends. Robert S. Cole, for so many 
years associated with his brother prior to the incorpora- 
tion of the company, is a respected business man of 
Mount Pleasant, a devout and zealous Baptist, and still 
has the same industry that he possessed nearly forty 
years ago. ‘The remaining member of the firm of Cole 
Brothers is Rev. William R. Cole, of Mount Pleasant, 
who is unselfishly engaged in promoting any good work 
in the way of inculcating the principles of temperance 
and religion. We say unselfishly, because he asks no 
salary, and accepts none, for his ministrations. The 
history of these four brothers is full of instruction. 
They have weathered one financial storm after another, 
losing largely at times; but they now stand with credit 
unimpaired, with a business whose ramifications embrace 
whole states and territories, and with a reputation for 
integrity unsurpassed by any firm in the West. They. 
have won success by deserving it. In 1872 and 1873 
James Cole erected, on East Washington Street, Green- 
castle, the handsomest residence in Putnam County, at 
It is built 
substantially of brick, is furnished in excellent taste, 
with no attempt at display , and here Mr. Cole and his 
wife dispense a generous hospitality to their circle of 
friends. Mr. Cole isa Knight Templar, an Odd-fellow, 
a Republican, and inclines to Universalism in theology. 
Mrs. Cole is attached to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. They were married at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, 
December 22, 1853. Mrs. Cole’s maiden name was 
Susan O. Mathers, and she is the daughter of Thomas 
Mathers, formerly of Newville, Cumberland County, 
Pennsylvania, but at the time of the marriage of Mount 
Pleasant, Iowa. They have no living children. 


—+ $00-o— 


OOPER; GEORGE *W., A; B:,-B. L., mayor’ of 
Columbus, Indiana, was born May 21, 1851, and 


Mr. Cooper acquired the rudiments of his education at 
the common schools of Columbus, and fitted himself 


/ 


10 


for college under Amos Burns, his present law partner. 
He entered the State University at Bloomington, Indi- 
ana, September 16, 1868, and graduated in June, 1872. 
During his term at college his means were limited, and 
he studied in advance of his class; thus by hard night- 
work he was enabled to graduate from the departments 
of literature and law at the same time. On leaving 
college he returned to Columbus, Indiana, and that fall 
was elected prosecutor for the Court of Common Pleas 
for the counties of Bartholomew, Jackson, Jennings, and 
Lawrence. The winter following, the Common Pleas 
Court having been abolished by the Legislature, he was 
appointed prosecutor for the Circuit Court for the coun- 
ties of Bartholomew and Brown, which position he filled 
until the fall of 1874, when he resumed his practice at 
Columbus. This he followed until May, 1877, when, 
by the largest majority ever received by any candidate 
for the same position, he was elected to the office of 
mayor of the city. November 28, 1872, he married 
Sina E. Green, one of his classmates at college, the 
daughter of Solomon Green, of Monroe County, Indi- 
ana. They have had four children. He was reared a 
Methodist, and is now a member of that Church. In 
politics he is a Democrat, is an acknowledged leader of 
the party, and is regarded as a man of great promise by 
the Democracy of this district. In 1878 he was selected 
by the state central committee to canvass the state in 
the interests of the party, and was chaifman of the con- 
vention that nominated Hon. George A. Bicknell for 
Congress. During the canvass the Indianapolis ‘evdze/ 
contained the following: 


‘«The speech delivered here on the 2d by Hon. G. 
W. Cooper did a vast amount of good, and the seed 
sown on the 2d will be gleaned on the 8th. That part 
of his speech referring to the infamous gerrymander, 
in which he showed up the disfranchisement of so many 
citizens of the state, had a telling effect. Mr. Cooper 
handled the finance question like an old ‘wheel horse.’ 
Though a young man, he seems to be a veteran in pol- 
itics, and handles all his subjects to the best advantage. 
We predict for him a glorious future.” 


® 


—+-4006-— 


IJUNNING, PARIS C., attorney-at-law, of Bloom- 
"| ington, Indiana, was born near Greensboro, the 
county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, 
on the 15th of March, 1806. He was educated at 
an excellent academy at Greensboro, where he was pre- 
paring to enter the State University at Chapel Hill. It 
was the desire of his father that he should, after receiv- 
ing an education, enter the office of Judge Ruffin as a 
student of law, but this was prevented by the early 
death of his father, and the removal of his mother and 
older brother and himself to Indiana. On the 14th of 
February, 1823, they located at Bloomington, in that 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[sth Dist. 


state, then only a village with perl.aps three hundred 
inhabitants, where he has resided ever since, except 
when engaged in public duties. He read law with Goy- 
ernor Whitcomb, General T. A. Howard, and Judge 
Craven P. Hester, all of whom treated him with the 
utmost kindness, and did all in their power to instruct 
him in his chosen profession. He was licensed to prac- 
tice law by Circuit Judges Kinney and Porter, after ex- 
amination by a committee of the bar, as was then 
required by law, and began in his profession at Bloom- 
ington. In 1833 he was elected to represent Monroe 
County in the state Legislature, and was re-elected three 
years successively; and in 1836 was elected to the state 
Senate, representing the district composed of Monroe 
and Brown Counties, as the successor of Governor Whit- 
comb, who had been appointed register of the general 
land office at Washington City. He remained in the 
Senate until 1840, and then voluntarily retired. In 1844 
che was, by the action of the Democratic convention, 
placed on the ticket as a presidential elector, a position 
to which he was chosen, and voted for Polk and Dallas. 
During this memorable campaign he made one hundred 
and forty-seven speeches, many times having for an op- 
ponent the lamented Hon. George G. Dunn, often 
speaking twice and three times each day. In the year 
1846 he was nominated by the Democracy as their can- 
didate for Lieutenant-governor, on the ticket with Mr. 
Whitcomb for Governor, and was elected; and when 
Governor Whitcomb was elected to the United States 
Senate succeeded him as Governor. In 1850 he re- 
turned home to his profession, continuing its practice 
until 1854 or 1856, when he was, without solicita- 
tion, from a strong Democratic district, nominated for 
Congress, but declined the nomination for reasons unsat- 
isfactory to his friends. He continued the practice of 
law, and occasionally attended conventions of his party, 
and in 1860 attended the Democratic state convention, 
taking an active and decided stand for Stephen A. 
Douglas, and against the administration of James 
Buchanan on the Kansas question, and was appointed 
a delegate to the Charleston convention. In that body 
he was a member of the committee on resolutions, 
voting on every ballot for Douglas; and, on the reassem- 
bling of the convention at Baltimore, voted for him 
there until he was nominated, and after his nomination 
advocated his election in the state, taking an active 
part in the campaign. In 1861, on the breaking out of 
the Rebellion, without one moment’s hesitation, the 
Governor declared himself in favor of the Union and 
the suppression of secession, by force of arms if neces- 
sary; and he delivered many speeches in various coun- 
ties of the state, and by so doing rendered material aid 
in the raising of the quota of troops allotted to be raised 
by Indiana, In 1861 he was, without distinction of 
party, elected to the state Senate, but was not required 


sth Dist.) 


to act, and in 1862, at the regular election for Senator 
for the full term, was nominated by the Democracy at 
their convention; and the Union men on the assembling 
indorsed his selection. He 
ceived at the election a full and flattering vote from 
both parties, and in January, 1863, on the assembling 
of the Legislature, was elected president of the Senate. 
At the next regular session of the Senate, Lieutenant- 
governor Baker, who had been elected on the ticket 
with Governor Morton, was inaugurated, and presided 
one session; and when Governor Morton went to Europe 
Mr. Baker assumed the office of Governor, and Gov- 
ernor Dunning, still a member of the Senate, was 
elected president of that body, and served until the 
expiration of his term. He was renominated for the 
same position, but declined, and was subsequently 
chosen by the primary vote of the people for Repre- 
sentative, but declined the nomination. During the 
Governor’s last senatorial term, he served by appoint- 
ment for three years as chairman of the State Military 
Auditing Committee. He was married to Sarah, daugh- 
ter of James and Sarah Alexander, who resided in the 
immediate vicinity of Bloomington, on the sixth day 
of July, 1826. Governor Dunning’s father, James 
Dunning, and his mother, Rachel (North) Dunning, 
were natives of the state of Delaware, and emigrated 
to North Carolina soon after their marriage and located 
at Guilford, where they raised a family of six sons, of 


of their convention re- 


whom the Governor was the youngest, and where they 
continued to live until the death of the husband and 
father. On the nineteenth day of May, 1863, in the 
city of Bloomington, his wife died, and on the twenty- 
seventh day of September, 1865, in the city of Evans- 
ville, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Ellen D. 
Ashford, daughter of Doctor Daniel S. Lane, surgeon of 
the 2d Regiment of Mexican Volunteers, and a first 
cousin of the Hon. Henry S. Lane, formerly Governor 
of the state., To this marriage one son has been born, 
Smith Lane Dunning, who is with his parents, and is 
attending school at Bloomington. Governor Dunning 
has been closely identified with the growth and pros- 
perity of the state of Indiana from its infancy, and has 
filled the many and various positions of honor and trust 
conferred upon him by the people of the state with 
great credit to himself-and to the entire satisfaction of 
the citizens of Indiana. He is regarded as one of the 
leading attorneys of the state, and is still engaged in 
the practice of law in Bloomington, and it can be truly 


said that the Governor is one of the eminent and self- 
made men of the state of Indiana. Governor Dun- 


ning was a member of the board of trustees of the 
Indiana State College at one time, and also a charter 
member of the board of trustees of the Indiana State 
University, in both of which bodies he held the posi- 


tion of president. 
A—18 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


II 


ISK, REV. EZRA WILLIAMS, D. D., president 
of the Female College ot Indiana, Greencastle, was 
C born in Wilmington, Windham County, Vermont, 
G 6 May 29, 1820. Of his ancestry, there are many 
well authenticated facts, some of which are worthy of 
note. His paternal grandfather was the youngest of 
seven sons, and his six brothers were soldiers in the Revo- 
lution. One, Ebenezer, was with Ethan Allen at the 
capture of Ticonderoga; two others, Levi and John, 
were in the battle of Bennington; and four of the broth- 
ers were present at the surrender of Burgoyne. Mr. 
Fisk’s paternal grandmother was a Whitcomb, and was 
a cousin of Major-general Warren. Her brother, Peter 
Whitcomb, was killed at Bunker Hill with Warren; 
Ebenezer, another brother, went through the entire war, 
was away from home eight years, and died at the ex- 
treme age of one hundred and thirteen years, at his 
residence near Boston. 


Mr. Fisk’s mother was Susanna 
Williams, who was a great-great-granddaughter of the 
celebrated Roger Williams—the companion of John Mil- 
ton, the friend of Oliver Cromwell and John Hampden— 
founder of the colony of Rhode Island. Her father was 
Rev. Henry Williams, of Leverett, Massachusetts. Jon- 
athan Fisk, father of Ezra Fisk, moved from Vermont 
to Goshen, New York, when the latter was not quite 
five years old. After remaining there nine years he re- 
moved to Coshocton, Ohio, where he resided fourteen 
years. In Goshen he was compelled to sacrifice his 
property to pay security debts; and when legally ad- 
vised that by a quibble he might save his fortune his 
reply was: ‘This world does not hold enough to in- 
duce me to lie!” A younger brother of Ezra Fisk, 
Jonathan by name, a bachelor of some means, served in 
the Mexican War, and in the late war for the Union 
persistently refused promotion, even while it was thrust 
upon him. In spite of his modesty he was always 
placed in command, and his colonel once exclaimed to 
a group of his fellow officers: ‘*Gentlemen, here is a 
man who passed through the war, never missed a battle, 
never swore an oath, never told a lie, never took a 
drink of whisky, and never shirked a duty.” He died 
April 6, 1879. Henry, another brother, is a Presbyte- 
rian minister, near Rock Island, Illinois. The father re- 
moved from Ohio to Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1850, and 
died there in 1853. Ezra Fisk, after attaining his ma- 
jority, engaged in miscellaneous pursuits for several 
years, and by energy and perseverance acquired the 
means necessary to prosecute a college course. By 
thorough preparation he was enabled to enter the sopho- 
more class towards the middle of the college year, at 
Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated in 1849. At the 
completion of his studies for the ministry, he was stricken 
down by disease, and for three years was prostrated, 
passing two entire years in bed. After his recovery he 
came West to visit his father and friends, and preached 


;2 


occasionally, on one-occasion filling an appointment for 
a friend at Greencastle as.a personal favor. This re- 
sulted in a permanent settlement, and in his assuming 
the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church, which he re- 
tained for eighteen years. During this time he saw the 
Old and New School Churches united, the once separated 
congregations bowing .at the same altar, and his own 
Church increased in membership from eighteen to two 
hundred and eighty-eight. In 1872 he resigned this 
pastorate to accept the position of president of the Fe- 
male College of Indiana, which trust he still fills, de- 
voting, however, much time to preaching in the neigh- 
boring towns, and building up and strengthening the 
feeble Churches, in which field his labors have been 
signally blessed. Mr. Fisk is a portly gentleman, weigh- 
ing over two hundred and twenty pounds, five feet nine 
and a half inches in height, brimful of vitality, physically 
and mentally. He is a splendid conversationalist, his 
mind being a storehouse of anecdotes and reminiscences, 
and all aglow with vivid pictures of life and history. 
His familiar talks about Presidents Harrison, Adams, and 
Jackson, Lewis Cass and T. H. Benton, Tom Corwin, 
and others, are of intense interest, and are but a tithe of 
the intellectual feast to which his intimate friends and as- 
sociates are often invited. He is an earnest man, and yet 
pre-eminently social, and in general companionship de- 
lights to seek temporary relief from the severity of study. 
Such is the versatility of his talent, the extent of his. 
information, and the retentive power of his memory, that 
on hearing him speak upon a given subject the listener 
is led to believe that particular subject to have been the 
study of Doctor Fisk’s life. He once surprised a dealer 
in horses by crowding into a half-hour’s talk a fund of 
knowledge on this subject that flowed as from an inex- 
haustible source. The same is true of him in regard to 
other kinds of stock, and with the multiplied and ex- 
tended interests of agriculture his familiarity is equally 
great. To hear him discourse on the philology of the 
sacred Scriptures, one would think he had had no time 
to study aught else. The treasures of history are so 
completely at his command that he draws from them 
as occasion requires, to enrich his conversation by way 
It is not to be wondered at that he has 
been consulted with a view to his occupation of the 
presidency of five leading collegiate institutes in Indiana 
and other states. His intellectual status at Greencastle 
is best exemplified by the fact that the citizens .uni- 
formly refer to Doctor Fisk as the leading mind of the 
city, and one of the foremost in the West. His sermons 
are models of English undefiled; sufficiently ornate to 
make them attractive to the general public; sound in 
argument, and invariably based on the teachings of God’s 
word. On his first public appearance in Greencastle, he 
noticed, sitting nearly in front of him and intently listen- 
ing, an elderly lady, arrayed in antique costume severely 


of illustration. 


Z REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[sth Dist. 


simple. On his second, third, and fourth appearances 
the elderly lady occupied the same seat, listened in- 
tently, and at the close of the fourth sermon seemed de- 
sirous of speaking to the young preacher. He’shook 
her hand, and remarked: ‘‘I am unable to call your 
name.” ‘*Oh,” was the reply, ‘‘you know nothing of 
me; but that ’s no matter. I want to shake hands with 
the man who preached that sermon,” ‘*I am glad if it 
was acceptable to you,” replied the preacher. ‘I do 
like to hear you preach,” said the old lady, ‘for you 
preach the Bible; and I must say a word to you. You 
are young yet, and may be vain. They say you are 
mighty smart. I know nothing about that; but you 
preach the Bible, and I want to say to you, Stick to it! 
Preach the Bible, and nothing else. It is God’s word 
to perishing sinners.”” This advice fell from the lips of 
Mrs. Catharine Gillespy, now a saint in heaven. Doc- 
tor Fisk says he never sits down to write a sermon with- 
out recalling her advice and profiting by it. Doctor Fisk 
belongs to a family well known as having furnished to 
the country some powerful and leading minds in the va- 
rious walks of life. His father, Jonathan Fisk, served 
with distinction as a captain in the War of 1812, with 
Ingland; and his brothers were highly distinguished in 
their professions. The Rev. Ezra Fisk, D. D., for whom 
the immediate subject of this sketch was named, was 
regarded as one of the most learned and profound theo- 
logians, as well as one of the most eloquent preachers, 
of his day. He was for twenty years pastor of the Pres- 
byterian Church in Goshen, Orange County, New York. 
He received in 1830 the high honor of being elected 
moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church. In 1833, by act of the General Assembly, he 
was placed at the head of the Alleghany Theological 
Seminary, Pittsburgh, and, while preparing to enter upon 
his duties there, died in Philadelphia, December 3, 1833, 
deeply lamented throughout the Church. It was fre- 
quently said, that, as preachers and theological writers, 
Doctor Alexander, of Princeton; Doctor J. H. Rice, of 
Virginia; and Doctor Ezra Fisk, of New York, stood at 
the head in America: The other brother, Peter Fisk, 
was a physician and surgeon of celebrity in Northamp- 
ton and Greenfield, Massachusetts, and in the prosecution 
of his profession was led to Havana, Cuba, where he 
died of an epidemic in 1824. Simeon Fisk, Governor 
of Vermont; Rev. Pliny Fisk, the first missionary to Pal- 
estine; Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D. D., founder of the Wesleyan 
University at Middletown, Connecticut, who was twice 
elected, but never ordained, Bishop of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church; Jonathan Fisk, of Newburg, an emi- 
nent lawyer, the compeer and rival of Alexander Ham- 
ilton, Aaron Burr, and Martin Van Buren; Rev. Joel 
Fisk, an eminent Congregational clergyman of Canada 
and Vermont, and the father of Harvey Fisk, of the 
banking firm of Fisk & Hatch, New York City; Rev. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY GF IeEINet< | 


5th Dist.) 


Ilarvey Fisk, who was the pioneer, the very first person 
to commence the publication of our Sabbath-school liter- 
ature, now grown to such amazing proportions and im- 
portance—all these were the cousins of Jonathan Fisk, 
father of the subject of this biography. Doctor Fisk 
has himself been twice a member of the General Assem- 
bly on occasions of momentous interest to the Church, 
and at one time, as chairman of one of the most impor- 
tant committees, was enabled to so control certain dis- 
turbing elements as to ward off what might have been 
a prolific source of. dissension. He impresses all who 
approach him as a man of superior intellectual force, 
which is under complete control of his will. He is not 
only an earnest Christian worker, but a sincere friend, a 
kind neighbor, and a good citizen. 
May 22, 1855, to Miss Mary Van Dyke, niece by mar- 
riage of the then president of Princeton (New Jersey) 
College, James Carnahan, D. D., LL. D., and a near 


relation of Henry J. Van Dyke, D. D., of Brooklyn, 


New York. 

G&G 

| 

| was born in Eaton, Ohio, on the 7th of June, 
(GC 1834. He is the son of John and Sarah Fowler, 
249 the former of Scotch-Irish lineage and a native 
of Virginia; while the latter was a native of Ohio and 
of German ancestry. His father came to Indiana in 
1836, settling in Tippecanoe County, where he remained 
only a short time, and then removed to Louisa County, 
Towa, where, in 1839, he died. After the death of his 
father his mother returned to Indiana, and settled on a 
farm in Clinton County. So well did Mr. Fowler avail 
himself of his educational advantages that, meager as 
they were, at the age of twenty he was enabled to enter 
Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, After 
taking a literary course in that institution, he engaged 
in teaching. Although he began in the district schools, 
his success was so great that he was placed in charge 
of the schools at Martinsville, Indiana, and later was 
principal of those at Spencer. In 1858 he removed to 
Owen County, where he has ever since resided. In the 
fall of 1859 Mr. Fowler entered the clerk’s office of the 
Owen Circuit Court as deputy, under Basil Meek, where 
he remained two years. While thus employed he ap- 
plied himself zealously to the studying of law. Feb- 
ruary 20, 1862, he entered upon the discharge of his 
duties as clerk of the Owen Circuit Court, to which he 
had been elected the previous year. In 1865 he was 
re-elected to the same office, serving in all nine con- 
secutive years, retiring therefrom on the 28th of Oc- 
tober, 1870. Immediately on leaving the clerk’s office, 
he entered the Law Department of the Indiana State 
University at Bloomington, Indiana, where he graduated 
After his graduation he returned 


He was married, 


$00 


OWLER, INMAN H., attorney-at-law, Spencer, 


Indiana. 


in the spring of 1871. 


~ 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


13 


to Spencer and entered upon the practice of law, in 
partnership with Hon. John C. Robinson. This part- 
nership continued until Mr. Robinson’s election as 
Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, in the autumn 
of 1876, since which time Mr. Fowler has practiced 
alone. In October, 1876, he was elected to the state 
Senate from the district composed of the counties of 
Owen and Clay, serving in the regular and special ses- 
sions of 1877 and 1879. During the sessions of 1877 
he was an efficient member of the Committee on Fees 
and Salaries, and chairman of the Committee on State- 
prisons; and, in the regular and special sessions of 
1879, he was placed at the head of the Committee on 
Benevolent and Reformatory Institutions, and was also 
a member of the Committee on Education and Rail- 
roads. Senator Fowler’s course in the Senate has been 
most praiseworthy and efficient. With scrupulous vigi- 
lance he has guarded the interests of the laboring 
masses in the state, and has been instrumental in secur- 
ing the passage of several important measures for their 
relief and protection. Among the more important bills 
introduced by him, and made laws in 1877, are Senate 
bill No. 13, ‘*An act requiring surviving partners to 
give bond, file inventory and appraisement, and report 
liabilities of the firm;” and Senate bill No. 36, «An 
act to authorize the signing and filing of bills of excep- 
tion beyond the term of criminal prosecution.”? Several 
important resolutions were also introduced by Senator 
Fowler during the sessions of 1877, and he warmly sup- 
ported the following House resolution: 

‘¢ Resolved, That the Committee on Education be 
requested to examine into the propriety of requiring 
county superintendents of public instruction to obtain 
certificates of qualification from the state superintend- 
ent of public instruction, before such county superin- 
tendents shall be eligible to such office; and that said 
committee report by bill or otherwise.” 

Through his instrumentality it passed the Senate, 
where it had been defeated for four consecutive sessions, 
but finally became a law, and is now to be found on the 
statute-books. During the sessions of 1879, Senator 
Fowler was none the less active and vigilant. He intro- 
duced the following, which is now a law of the state: 
‘«*An act regulating the working of coal mines, and 
declaring a lien upon the works and machinery for work 
and labor in mining coal, and providing penalty for 
violation thereof, and. providing for the appointment 
and qualification’ of a mine inspector, prescribing his 
duties and declaring an emergency.”’ Also a bill on com- 
pulsory education, ‘‘ requiring children between the ages 
of eight and fourteen to attend school, or receive instruc- 
tion at home, for at least fourteen weeks in each year, and 
providing penalties for violation thereof.’’ This bill was 
referred to the Committee on Education, which reported 
recommending its passage; but, in the order of busi- 
ness, it was never after reached. Another bill, which, 


14 


upon reaching the Senate, was taken in charge by Sen- 
ator Fowler, as chairman of the Committee on Benev- 
olent and Reformatory Institutions, and which passed 
that body, and upon the signature of the Governor be- 
came a law, read as follows: ‘‘An act providing for the 
entire reorganization of all benevolent and reformatory 
institutions of the state.”? In addition to his member- 
ship of the committees heretofore mentioned, Senator 
Fowler was a member of a committee of thirteen from 
his congressional district, the purpose of which was to 
re-apportion the state into congressional districts. His 
marked decision of character, and able advocacy of bills of 
importance and benefit to the public, render him already 
a leader in the Senate. Senator Fowler is wholly self- 
educated, and thoroughly independent in thought and 
action; he possesses an analytical turn of mind, and is a 
close student and observer of human nature. In 1879 he 
was appointed president of the school board of Spencer, 
an office which he still retains. Among the local enter- 
prises with which he has been connected is the Ex- 
change Bank, which was organized in 1875. Soon after 
its organization he was elected vice-president and attor- 
ney of this corporation, and still holds the same posi- 
tion. Senator Fowler joined the Free and Accepted 
Masons in 1859, and is an honored member of that soci- 
ety, having occupied at different times all the offices 
of the order, and having been for many years Wor- 
shipful Master. He is also a charter member of Royal 
Arch Masons, in Spencer, of which he was High-priest 
for many years; a member of Raper Commandery, 
No. 1, Indianapolis, and of the order of High-priest- 
hood. He is a consistent member of the Presbyte- 
rian Church, and a Democrat of the Jefferson school. 
On the 20th of September, 1866, Senator Fowler was 
married to Miss Vina H., daughter of A. A. Hollembeak, 
of Spring, Crawford County, Pennsylvania. They have 
had four children, only two of whom are living. Per- 
sonally, he is kind and affable, dignified and refined, 
always presenting the characteristics of a gentleman of 
honor and true culture. 


RANKLIN, WILLIAM M., attorney, Spencer, In- 
diana, is a collateral descendant of Benjamin Frank- 
lin, the illustrious statesman and philosopher. In 
the year 1816 his parents emigrated from North 
Carolina and located in Monroe County, where, on the 
13th of February, 1820, the gentleman whose life forms 
the subject of this sketch was born. Indiana at that 
time was literally a howling wilderness, infested with 
wild beasts and wilder men. At the age of eighteen he 
entered Asbury University, where for three years he 
took a literary course. As a boy he was studious and 
thoughtful, caring less for the frivolous amusements of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[5th Desi. 


his companions than for the society of older and wiser 
people. He applied himself industriously to his books, 

and speedily gleaned from them all that was valuable or 
noteworthy. On leaving college he began the study of 

law, supporting himself meanwhile by school-teaching 
and farm labor. At the age of twenty-four he was ad- 
mitted to the bar, and, locating in Spencer, began at once 
the practice of his profession. Unlike the majority of 

young aspirants for legal honors, who starve as _brief- 
less barristers for a certain number of years, he was 
successful from the outset in a marked degree. Five 
years from the period which marked his entry into 
Spencer found him representing his county in the Leg- 
islature. In that body his services were of such a 
nature as would have been creditable to an older and 

more experienced member. This was the beginning of 

a public career that extended over a quarter of a cen- 

tury. On his refirement from the Legislature he was 

elected prosecutor of the Seventh Judicial Circuit. Two 

years later he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas 

Court for the district composed of the counties of 

Greene, Owen, Sullivan, and Clay, serving four years. 

In 1860 he was again elected to the same position, and in 

1870 elected Circuit Judge, his district—the Fifteenth— 

comprising the counties of Greene, Owen, Clay, Put- 

nam, Morgan, and Monroe. This term lasted six years. , 
In addition to aiding all the local enterprises of his 

town and county, Judge Franklin was one of the pro- 

jectors of the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad, 

and gave material aid in securing donations and the 

right of way for that purpose. He superintended its con- 

struction, and for several years was its president. He 

has never been a member of any secret organization. 

He has at different times visited nearly all the Atlantic 

States, and has made one trip to California. He united 

with the Christian Church in 1841, and is still a devoted 

and zealous member. He is a life-long Democrat, of 

the Jeffersonian school, and in 1856 was a delegate to 

the national convention that nominated James Buchanan. 

He was married, May 6, 1844, to Miss Mary D. Ritter, 

of Jessamine County, Kentucky. Four daughters and 

two sons, with their parents, constitute the family. As 

a jurist, Judge Franklin ranks with the ablest men of 

Indiana. But it is not alone in law that he excels. 

His labors in behalf of his party as a public speaker 
have been earnest and successful. On the stump he is 
eloquent and logical, and is exceedingly popular with the 
masses. He is a man of high honor and untarnished 
reputation. It is his boast, he never has been intoxicated 
nor has used a profane oath. He is now the senior 
member of the law firm of Franklin & Pickens. The 
latter gentleman is his son-in-law, and the present pros- 
ecuting attorney of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and 
is also the attorney of the Indianapolis and Vincennes 
Railroad, and a young man of great promise. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
YNIVERSITY OF WHANOK 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY QF ILLINOI< 


Via ~27)-97 


wal 


(Pp? 


ENT, THOMAS, miller, of Columbus, was born 
Vw February 15, 1815, in Baltimore County, Maryland, 
* and is the son of William C, and Mary (Gousouch) 
wC Gent. His father was a farmer. His means of 
education were limited, but by energy in later years he 
has become a good English scholar. In 1833 he left 
home and went to Ohio, where he worked in a flour- 
mill, and has followed this business all his life. In 
1836 he rented the Baldwin Mills at Youngstown, Ohio. 
In 1839 he purchased a flour-mill in Belmont County, 
Ohio, which he ran until 1852, when he sold out, moved 
to Columbus, Indiana, and purchased an interest in the 
Lowell Mills, four miles from Columbus. In 1856 he 
and his partner, Amos C. Crane, built the Railroad 
Mills at Columbus. The following year he sold the Co- 
lumbus Mills, and, with Moore and Larkin, bought 
Crane’s interest in the Lowell Mills; soon after he sold 
his share to his partners, and moved on to his farm. In 
the winter of 1859 he repurchased the Railroad Mills 
in Columbus, which he ran until 1865, when he again 
sold, and spent the next two years in traveling and visit- 
ing. He then purchased an interest in the McEwen, 
Gaff & Gompany Mills, located in Bartholomew County, 
of which he became superintendent and manager. In 
1874 he retired from the firm, and immediately erected 
a new mill in Columbus, and also remodeled one in In- 
dianapolis. In 1877 he disposed of them and erected 
that which he now owns. October 16, 1834, he mar- 
ried Martha Wilduson, of Baltimore County, Maryland. 
They have had six children, of whom two sons and 
three daughters are living. Joseph F., the eldest son, 
acquired a good English education in the public schools 
of Columbus, and has always been closely connected 
with mills. He is considered the most successful mill 
builder and remodeler in the United States, and has 
been invited to visit Europe and remodel the largest 
mills on the Continent. He has invented many useful 
appliances in mill machinery, and his papers on milling 
are read and highly appreciated by all the milling 


associations in this country and Europe; while the peo- 
ple of Columbus claim him to be the best known miller 
in the world. John R., the second son, obtained a fine 
English education at the schools here, and at the State 
University at Bloomington. He also is identified in the 
milling business, and is his father’s partner, under the 
firm name of John R. Gent & Company. Indiana is 
greatly indebted to Mr. Gent and his sons for the vast 
improvement made in mill machinery and the modeling 
of mill buildings. The progress made in this industry 
has been very great in the last twenty years. The old 
and unscientific methods have been abandoned, and the 
changing of grain into flour has become a fine art. 
Mr. Gent and his son, John R. Gent, are Republicans; 
Joseph F. Gent is a Democrat. They are highly re- 
spected as citizens of this community. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


15 


IX ROVE, JOHN B., of Columbus, was born in Au- 
(F gusta County, Virginia, on the 2d of August, 1829, 
and is the son of Adam and Anna S. (Rankin) 
Grove, well-to-do farmers of that state. He re- 
ceived an academic education at Shemariah Academy, 
in Virginia, and at the age of seventeen began the 
study of medicine under a private tutor. In 1846 he 
entered the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated 
in 1849, receiving a premature examination, to enable 
him to remove to California. He took his departure 
on the third day of May, acting as surgeon of the vessel, 
and sailed around Cape Horn, visiting several of the 
South American states, and arriving at San Francisco 
November 6, 1849. Here he immediately entered upon 
the practice of his profession, which he continued until 


tthe next spring. He then accepted the position of in- 


spector in the custom-house at San Francisco; but this 
proving less lucrative than he had anticipated, he re- 
signed the office in 1850. Allured by the ‘‘gold fever” 
into the interior, he removed to Long Bar, on the Yuba 
River, in Yuba County, where he engaged in the prac- 
tice of medicine and in mining operations. In 1851 he 
was made the Whig candidate for the Lower House of 
the state Legislature, and, although his party was in the ~ 
minority by six hundred, his personal popularity was 
such that he came within eighteen votes of receiving 
the election. In 1854, the Whig party having attained 
the majority, its nomination became equivalent to an 
election, and his friends urged his name for the office 
of county treasurer. In the convention they were uni- 
versally admitted to be largely in the majority, but so 
corrupt were political affairs in those primitive days that 
one of his opponents, in open market, shamelessly pur- 
chased enough delegates to secure the nomination. In 
the spring of 1856 he received the appointment as res- 
ident physician of the Yuba County Hospital, a position 
of honor and trust, which he held for a period of eight- 
een months. At the end of that time he resumed the 
practice of medicine at Marysville, and continued it 
until the spring of 1858, when he returned to the States, 
and in the fall of that year settled at Marshall, Saline 
County, Missouri, where he married his first wife, Miss 
Kate Wilson, daughter of Judge William A. Wilson. 
In the spring of 1862 he received the important appoint- 
ment of post surgeon for the Union army at Marshall, 
the duties of which position he discharged with skill, 
and to the entire satisfaction of all who came under his 
care. That part of the state, becoming the field of 
operation for both the contending armies, was neither 
safe nor pleasant as a residence, and in 1864, when Gen- 
eral Price overran the country with his devastating army, 
Dr. Grove determined to seek a more peaceful locality. 
He accordingly removed to Columbus, Indiana, where 
he still resides, and where he soon acquired a large and 
remunerative practice. On the 25th of January, 1866, 


16 


he met a sad misfortune in the death of his estimable 
wife, who left two children—Ada and Florence. June 
6, 1868, he married Louise Westfall, by whom he has 
two sons—Albert Sidney and John Clifford. In 1872 
he was elected a member of the city council, a position 
which he so ably filled that, in the spring of 1874, he 
was nominated as state Senator for the counties of 
Bartholomew and Brown, by the Democrats of the dis- 
After a hot contest against a combination of Re- 
and Green- 


trict. 
publicans, Grangers, Temperance men, 
backers, in which nearly the entire Democratic ticket 
was defeated by heavy majorities, he was triumphantly 
elected. The three sessions of which he was a member 
were the most important and exciting that had been 


held for years. At this time the temperance question, 


which had been an exciting issue among the people,: 


was pacifically adjusted by the repeal of the so-called 
‘Baxter law,” and the enactment, in its stead, of the 
present well devised, closely guarded, and satisfactory 
license law. In bringing about this result, none were 
more active and influential than Senator Grove, whose 
effective speeches were largely commented upon by the 
press. At this time, also, the gravel road question was 
_ attracting considerable attention, and many important 
measures in regard to it were brought before the Legis- 
lature. So conflicting and intense were these interests 
that the clearest judgment was required to insure just 
and proper legislation. The responsibilities resting upon 
Senator Grove were delicate and arduous, and yet, with 
tact of no ordinary kind, he discharged this duty to his 
constituents in so able a manner as to receive the 
warmest commendation of all. Through his instrumen- 
tality some meritorious laws were enacted upon this 
subject, and some very bad measures were effectually 
defeated. No legislator can do all that he hopes. The 
selfishness of mankind, the greed of corporations, the 
sluggishness with which new impressions are received, 
are so many barriers in the way of a really painstaking 
law-maker. At the close of his term, his constituents in 
Bartholomew County were unanimous for his return; 
but party usages had alternated the office between the 
two counties composing the district, and, with a mag- 
nanimity truly commendable, he refused to break in 
upon this custom, and peremptorily declined the nom- 
ination, Doctor Grove sympathized with the old na- 
tional Whig party in his earlier days, and up to its 
abandonment; afterward he supported Fillmore, and, 
at the next election, Bell and Everett. In 1863 he be- 
came identified with the Democratic organization, of 
which he has since been an earnest and consistent meni- 
ber, taking a deep interest in its welfare, and contribut- 
ing largely to its successful management. As a physi- 
cian he stands at the head of the profession. In 
religious faith he is an Episcopalian, and gives that 
‘denomination his aid and support. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[sth Dist. 


Franklin, Indiana, was born in New York state, 
September 11, 1830, and is the third son of Jus- 
tice and Rachael (Gibbs) Hall. His ancestors were 
of sturdy colonial stock. His father was a soldier in 
the War of 1812, his grandfather a soldier in the 
American Revolution, while one of his great-uncles was 
a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His ma- 
ternal grandfather was a very prominent physician. At 
the age of fifteen years, Wesley Hall entered Alleghany 
College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he spent three 
years, completing a scientific course of study. In the 
year 1849 he entered the office of Doctor I. H. D. 
Rodgers, of Madison, Indiana, and began the study of 
medicine. He subsequently studied at the Louisville 
Medical College, and in 1855 attended his last course of 
lectures, in the Starling Medical College, of Columbus, 
Ohio. Removing to Jefferson County, Indiana, he be- 
gan medical practice, remaining until 1862, when he 
enlisted as a private in the 82d Regiment Indiana Volun- 
teer Infantry. He was shortly afterward transferred to 
the 17th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and com- 
missioned a surgeon, Returning from the field, he 
established himself in Franklin, where he has since re- 
sided. He has devoted all his time and energies to his 
profession, and has succeeded in building up a larger 
practice than any physician in the county. Doctor 
Hall, although repeatedly solicited by his friends to be- 
come a candidate for various political offices, has always 
refused the honor, preferring to confine his attention to 
professional duties. He was, however, president of the 
board of health of Franklin County during .1875 and 
1876. March, 1858, he was married to Malvina C. Til- 
ford, Hanover, Indiana, the daughter of a well-known 
farmer of that place, and niece of the owner of the In- 
dianapolis Journal. Doctor Hall attends the Christian 
Church, of which his wife is a member. In politics, he 
is a Democrat. He is one of the class of enterprising, 
energetic citizens who, having the public interest always 
in view, exert a marked influence for good in the com- 
munity. 


—~-400H-— 


ANNA, THOMAS, of Greencastle, who is now the 
Republican candidate for Lieutenant-governor, was 
born in Lawrence County, Indiana, on the 24th 
of August, 1841, and is consequently a little over 

thirty-eight years old. His father, who was a farmer, 

removed from Lawrence County to Greene County in 

1854, when his son was but a little over thirteen years 

of age. The next seven years were spent at hard work 

upon the paternal acres, but improving every moment 
for study. In 1861 he had attained sufficient proficiency 
to enter Asbury University, together with a younger 
brother. Their father could spare them little money, 


@ J 


Vio 


5th Dist.) 


and they were obliged to practice the closest economy, 
cooking their own meals and making their own beds. 
They did odd jobs about the college, and were glad to 
get such labor as could be obtained in the town. 
this way he stayed for two years, when the patriotic 
fever was too strong to be resisted, and he enlisted in 
Company C, 115th Indiana Volunteers, and soon after 
became first sergeant. The regiment was constantly 
on duty, marching and fighting. 


In 


Longstreet’s army 
was in opposition, and the two bodies perpetually 
menaced each other. The commissariat was very 
badly supplied, their shoes and clothing were insuf- 
ficient, and they were in danger of perishing from 
lack of food. The regiment lost more than a hundred 
men from disease occasioned by defective supply of 
nutriment. The next year he returned home, and entered 
the freshman class at Asbury, where he remained until 
1868, then graduating. Judge F. T. Brown was favor- 
ably impressed by him, and received him into his office 
as a student of law, and two years later took him into 
partnership. In 1875 he was made city attorney of 
Greencastle, remaining in that position until 1879, and 
displayed in the discharge of his duties great abilities, 
and a conscientious endeavor to fulfill the requirements 
of the law. During the heated political campaign of 
1876, when Indiana was the great battle-ground between 
the two parties, he served as chairman of the Putnam 
County Republican central committee, showing high 
talents, and succeeding in making a break in the Demo- 
cratic ranks. He has lately formed a partnership with 
S. A. Hays, a graduate of Asbury University; his 
former associate, Judge Brown, having been compelled 
to retire from active business on account of ill-health. 
Mr. Hanna’s character stands high. He is an active 
politician, sustaining his views on the stump and with 
the pen; and his Republicanism is of the most un- 
doubted kind. His success as a lawyer has been great, 


and he now obtains a large proportion of the most dif- |. 
He is a member of the Methodist Episco- | 


ficult cases. 
pal Church. 
et ee 


G5) 


J) 


Hege. His father was a farmer; and in the spring of 
1826 removed with his family to Fairfield County, Ohio. 
Samuel Hege, being kept steadily at work on the farm, 
had no opportunity of attending school, but after attain- 
ing the years of manhood he acquired by his own efforts 
a fair English education. At the age of seventeen he ap- 
prenticed himself to a bridge-building firm of Circleville, 


Ohio, working the first two years for twelve and a half | 


cents a day, and clothing himself out of these wages. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


17 


In the spring of 1844 he went with the firm to Harris- 


| ing the winter. 


_ burg, Pennsylvania, and was promoted to the position 


of foreman of a gang of men, his wages being increased 
to fifty cents a day. In 1845 he returned to Ohio, and, 
having completed his apprenticeship, was appointed su- 
perintendent by the firm. For the next eight years he 
remained with them, building all the bridges on the 
Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, and 
also on other roads in the Middle and Western States. 
In 1853 he removed to Columbus, Indiana, and began 
business on his own account, which he still continues. 
Mr. Hege has done much towards improving the city 
and county in which he lives, having built-all the 
bridges in the county except two, and all the leading 
business houses and residences in Columbus. He also 
built and owns the conservatory of music, the pride of 
the city. In politics he was reared as a Democrat, and 
then joined the Whig, and finally the Republican, party. 
He has often been solicited to permit nomination for 
office, but never accepted any position save that of coun- 
cilman, which he has filled seven years. December 17; 
1850, he married Cynthia Hill, of Carthage, Indiana, 
an orphan daughter of a farmer of that place. Five 
children have been born to them, of whom two boys 
and one girl are now living. Charles, the eldest son, 
is his father’s bookkeeper; William works for his father 
in the mill; Alice married William F. Kendall, his 
chief lumber foreman. Mr. Hege’s wife died December 
16, 1863, of consumption. He matried, the following 
year, Mary E. White Chenoweth, a widow. They have 
three children. Mr. Hege was brought up in the faith 
of the English Lutherans, but, with his wife, is now a 
member of the Christian Church. He is regarded by the 
people of Columbus as having done more towards ad- 
vancing the interests of the city than any other man in 
this community. 


—>Fo0e-<—§ 


ERNANDES, DANIEL H., M. D., Edinburg, 
was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, September 25, 
1854, being the eldest son of Joseph and Mary 
(Gomez) Fernandes. 


His early life was passed on 


'the farm of his father, assisting in the labors of the 


summer months, and attending the district schools dur- 
At the age of seventeen, however, he 


_entered Whipple Academy, where he remained two 


years. Having a decided taste for music, he improved 
his vacations by studying at the Conservatory of Music 
at Jacksonville. He entered Hanover College, at Han- 
over, Indiana, in 1874, where he spent two years. 
Having decided to make medicine his profession, he 
became a student in the Illinois School of Medicine, 
afterward graduating in the Indiana Medical College at 
Indianapolis. Upon his graduation, he removed to 
Edinburg, where he has since been actively and success- 


18 


fully engaged in his profession. 


man, Doctor Fernandes has already attained an enviable | 


position in his profession; and by untiring industry and 
hard study is making his way rapidly toward the front 
rank among the medical fraternity. He was married, 
June 19, 1878, to Miss Clara M. Robertson, daughter of 


a well known and well-to-do farmer of Jefferson County, | 


Indiana. Doctor Fernandes is a man of sterling ability. 


His influence is felt in every moral and philanthropic. 


enterprise in the town of his residence. He is an at- 
tendant of the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an 
honored member. Politically he belongs to the Repub- 
lican party, and gives that organization an earnest and 
hearty support. As a citizen and member of society he 
has the confidence and respect of the community; and, 
with youth and talent to aid him, will doubtless attain 
distinction in his profession. 
dustry, and is clear-sighted and painstaking. 
representative and self-made man, who is popular in his 
town, and is esteemed highly by the members of his 
own profession, who know him best. 


He isa 


+400 


4: {/ born November 24, 1835, and is the son of Francis 
Gi T. Hord, a prominent attorney of Maysville, Ken- 
4s tucky, and Elizabeth S. (Moss) Hord. Mr. Hord 
never attended the common schools, but acquired his 
education at the seminary of Rand and Richeson, at 
Maysville, where he graduated in the summer of 1853. 
Immediately upon leaving school he commenced the 
study of law with his father. He was admitted to the 
bar in 1856, and commenced the practice of his profes- 
In the spring of 1857 he removed to Indiana, 
and settled in Columbus, Bartholomew County. In the 
fall of the same year he was admitted to practice in the 
Supreme Court of the state; and in the fall of 1858 he 
was elected prosecuting attorney of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, embracing Bartholomew, Jackson, and Jen- 
nings Counties. At the expiration of his term of office, 
in 1860, he was appointed attorney for the county,which 
position he now holds. 


sion. 


to the state Senate, to represent Bartholomew County; in 
the fall of 1866 he was renominated by his party for 
the same position, but declined the nomination. He 
married, August 16, 1859, Miss Emma Banfill, daughter 
of a prominent miller of Columbus, Indiana. They 
have had seven children, five of whom, three sons and 


two daughters, are now living. The eldest son, William | 


B., is a law student in his father’s office. Mr. Hord 
was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, but is not 
now connected with any religious denomination. He 


was reared in the school of the Jacksonian Democracy, 
and has always been in sympathy with its interests. He 


He is a man of great in- | 


JHTORD, FRANCIS T., of Columbus, Indiana, was | 


In the fall of 1862 he was elected | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Although a young | is an acknowledged leader in the county. 


| 


[sth Dist. 


He was tem- 
porary chairman of the Democratic state convention held 
in Indianapolis in June, 1880, and served as delegate to 
the National Convention which nominated Tilden and 
Hendricks at St. Louis in 1876. He was the Democratic 
elector for Hancock and English in the Fifth Congres- 
sional District in the year 1880. He is one of the lead- 
ing members of the bar in this county, and enjoys the 
esteem and kind feeling of his fellow-citizens. 


—-C60-o-— 


UNTER, MORTON C., of Bloomington, was born 
| at Versailles, Indiana, February 5, 1825. He re- 
SAF ceived his education in the common schools, and 
“6 at the state university of Indiana, from the law 
department of which he graduated in 1849. He then 
entered upon a successful practice, which he continued 
until 1858, when he was elected a member of the House 
of Representatives of Indiana from Monroe County. 
He entered the army at the beginning of the Civil War 
as colonel of the 82d Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He 
commanded this regiment until the fall of Atlanta, when, 
for meritorious services, he was breveted brigadier-gen- 
eral. From that time until the close of the war he 
commanded the First Brigade, Third Division, Four- 
teenth Army Corps. He was in Sherman’s march to the 
sea, and participated in the great review at Washington, 
after the termination of hostilities. 
the Fortieth, Forty-third, and Forty-fourth Congresses, 
and was re-elected to the Forty-fifth, as a Republican, 
securing fourteen thousand two hundred and sixty-five 
votes, against thirteen thousand one hundred and sixty- 
five for Mr. McLean, the Democratic candidate. 


He was elected to 


—>-§o06<— 


\GLEHART, FERDINAND COWLE, pastor of 
All the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Evansville 
“\ was born in Warrick County, December 8, 1845, 
583 and is the son of Asa and Ann (Cowle) Iglehart. 
His father, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere in 
this volume, is a member of the Evansville bar, the 
author of several standard legal works, and a lawyer of 
national reputation. Ferdinand Iglehart received a 
good preparatory training for college at the public 
schools of Evansville, and at the age of seventeen en- 
tered the freshman class of the Asbury University,. 
graduating four years later. He early manifested a 
fondness for reading and study, taking especial interest 
in such works of a solid character as came within his 
reach. It was at one time his intention to study law, 
but, being led conscientiously in another direction, he 
abandoned the purpose, and began preparing himself 


for the ministry. In the autumn of 1869 he was li- 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY GF tLitmar< 


5th Dist.| REPRESENTATIVE 
censed to preach by the Quarterly Conference of Trinity 
Methodist Episcopal Church of Evansville; and a year 
from that time was admitted on trial in the traveling 
connection by the Indiana Conference, in session at 
Bloomington. His apppointments since then have been, 
Sullivan, New Harmony; John Street, New Albany; 
Salem; Locust Street, Greencastle; and Trinity, Evans- 
ville. Revivals have attended his labors, and there 
has been an average of a hundred accessions to each 
Church he has served. Fie was married, October 12, 
1869, to Miss Nannie Stewart, of Maysville, Kentucky, 
He is 
a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and a Republi- 
Mr. Iglehart is somewhat under the medium stat- 


by whom he has had four sons, all now living. 


can. 
ure, rather slender, of grave and thoughtful appearance. 
His manners are agreeable, and of a character de- 
noting sincerity and frankness. These qualities make 
him attractive, both as a pastor and a friend. In pub- 
lic he is a man of more than usual influence for one 
of his age, and this influence he has always exerted 
in behalf of the best interests of the community in 
which he resides. He is a hearty advocate of tem- 
perance and political reform, speaking much and boldly 
on these and kindred subjects. 
ous in all his sentiments, taking little counsel of what 
shall result from the utterance of the truth. As a 
speaker, in the pulpit and on the platform, he is forci- 
ble, energetic, and exact. As a writer, he has also, 
achieved distinction, having contributed to several lead- 
ing magazines articles which have attracted much at- 
He occupies a front 


He is a man courage- 


tention and favorable comment. 
rank among the ministers of his conference. 


‘ 


— Fate 


2 
ee JOSEPH I., banker and merchant, of 
4’ Columbus, Indiana, was born near Columbus, In- 
@\ diana, August 6, 1824, and is a son of John and 
XQ Vilinda (Fenly) Irwin. His father was a farmer. 
His means of education were very limited, being only 
those afforded by the country schools—three months 
each winter until he attained the age of fifteen—as he 
was compelled to assist his father on the farm during 
the summer months; yet now he is a gentleman of fine 
English education and business ability. Ten years of 
his life, previous to attaining his majority, he resided 
near Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana, with his par- 
ents, who had removed there. At the age of twenty- 
one he left home and started out in life for himself, his 
mother handing him thirty cents to pay his fare from 
Edinburg to Columbus; but he concluded to walk, and 
thereby started life with a capital of thirty cents. He 
came back to Columbus, and entered the store of Snyder 
& Alden as a clerk, and remained with this firm three 
years. In this time he saved one hundred and fifty 


MEN OF INDIANA. Ig 
dollars, and built up such a reputation for sobriety and 
economy that, in conjunction with Western W. Jones, 
he was enabled to purchase a tract of thirty acres of 
land, adjoining Columbus, almost entirely on credit, and 
had no trouble‘in procuring personal security to insure the 
deferred payments. As soon as this ground was laid off 
in lots they effected the sale of one of them, containing 
one-fourth of .an acre, for four hundred dollars in cash. 
The thirty acres cost fifteen hundred dollars, and it took 
but a short time to realize this amount, leaving almost 
the entire tract in their hands as profit on the invest- 
ment. Mr. Irwin continued to purchase until he had 
accumulated one hundred and five acres in the then 
suburbs, which is now in the best part of the city. He 
began mercantile life on his own account about Jan- 
uary I, 1850, and has been in business almost the entire 
time since. He commenced the banking business in 
1874, and is still carrying it on. 
reared a Whig, and upon the dissolution of that party 


In politics he was 


he helped to make and build up the Republican party. 
He was a strong advocate of the preservation of the 
Union, and, although.he did not enter the army, yet he 
contributed largely of his means in many different ways. 
A soldier’s wife or widow never appealed to him for 
help in vain. When the Soldiers’ Home was talked of 
he was chosen as a director to represent the Third Con- 
gressional District, and was instrumental in locating 
the Home at Knightstown, Indiana. In 1869 he was 
appointed by Governor Baker as one of the directors of 
the state Female Reformatory, which position he held 
five years. He has been a director of the North-western 
Christian University, now Butler University, located at 
Irvington, Indiana. In 1867 he commenced the im- 
provement of roads around Columbus, and has built 
and helped to build about fifty miles of turnpike, of most 
of which he is now the owner. He was a member of 
the town council in 1856. August 15, 1850, he was 
married to Harriet C. Glanton, to whom six children 
have been born, two of whom are now living: William 
G., twelve years of age, now attending school; and 
Linnie, wife of the Rev. Z. T. Sweeny, of the Chris- 
tian Church, of Columbus. Mr. Irwin’s grandfather 
was a native of Ireland, and, having emigrated to this 
country with his father, settled at Louisville. Mr. Ir- 
win’s great-grandfather is said to have been the first 
white man buried at Louisville. His grandfather set- 
tled on what was known as the Cane Spring Plantation, 
in Bullitt County, Kentucky. He was a friend of the 
Rowans and Hardins of Kentucky. Mr. Irwin joined 
the Christian Church at the early age of fifteen, and it was 
chiefly through his liberality that the magnificent edifice 
of that denomination at Columbus was built. He and 
his wife and two children are members of this Church. 
Mr. Irwin is regarded as one of the most genial and 


liberal-hearted citizens of this city. He has helped 


20 


several worthy young men to situations of honor, and 
has done more toward the development of the city and 
surrounding country than any other man in this com- 
He is a man of large wealth, and his home 
During 


munity. 
is one of elegance, comfort, and refinement. 
the life of Governor Morton, he regarded Mr. Irwin, on 
account of his sterling integrity, as a friend upon whom 
he could rely in any emergency. > 


—>- FOO 


OHNSON, JARVIS J., physician and surgeon, 
of Martinsville, was born in Bedford, Lawrence 
Gx, County, Indiana, March 4, 1828, being the second 
GY) son of Jesse and Sarah (Pleasant) Johnson. His 
father was one of the pioneer farmers of Lawrence 
County, and is still living, a sturdy, vigorous man, con- 
trolling and personally managing his large farm of six 
hundred acres, and has the pleasure of having with him, 
under the old roof-tree, all of his children except Doc- 
tor Johnson. The family came originally from Virginia, 
and trace their ancestry back to the early days of ‘the 
state. The boyhood of Jarvis Johnson was spent on the 
farm, but at the age of sixteen he entered the Asbury 
University, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he spent four 
years in diligent and faithful study. At the end of that 
time he resolved to make medicine his profession, and 
accordingly in 1849 he commenced a course of study 
in the office of Doctor W. Foot, in Bedford. The same 
year he attended the Louisville University of Medicine 
during one course, and commenced his practice in Mor- 
ganstown, where he remained until 1854. Desiring to 
further perfect his education, he returned to the univer- 
sity, and graduated in the spring of 1855. He has since 
attended a full course of lectures in the Kentucky School 
of Medicine, and received from that institution the ad 
eundem degree in 1858. He practiced with ‘success in 
Morgantown until 1869. Upon the breaking out of the 
Civil War he tendered his services to his country, and 
by his personal efforts raised a company of volunteers— 
afterwards Company G, of the 27th Indiana Volunteer 
Infantry—of which he was chosen captain. Before 
entering the field, however, he was commissioned sur- 
geon of the regiment, and as such accompanied it for 
eighteen months. He was severely injured by the fall 
of his horse at the battle of Winchester, and compelled 
to resign soon after the battle of Cedar Mountain. Be- 
fore his return from the field he was, in 1862, nominated 
by the Republican party as their candidate to the Leg- 
islature, and was elected in the fall of that year. He 
served with marked ability during the special and reg- 
ular sessions of his term, and was chairman of the Mil- 
itary Committee in those dark days when that was the 
all-important interest in the state and throughout the 
nation. In the fall of 1863 he was elected clerk of the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[sth Dist. 


Circuit Court, and after serving one term returned to 
the practice of his profession in Martinsville. In the 
spring of 1875 the ad eundem degree was conferred upon 
him by the Belleville Hospital College, of New York. 
Since his return to his profession he has been.a devoted, 
laborious. practitioner, varying his labors, however, in 
1878, by a much needed and protracted trip through 
the South and West, in search of health and pleasure. 
Mr. Johnson was married, March 30, 1851, to Miss 
Catherine H. Griffith, daughter of a well-known attor- 
ney of Morgantown. This union has been blessed with 
seven children, of whom five are living. The eldest 
son, Goldsmith Johnson, is the leading druggist in 
Martinsville, having the finest store in the town. The 
eldest daughter, Marietta, is the wife of James P. 
Baldwin, also a druggist of Martinsville. The second 
daughter, Sallie C., married James G. Blain, editor and 
proprietor of the Morgan County Repudiican. The other 
two children are still at the home of their father. 
Doctor Johnson is a member of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. He has been an active Republican since 
the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861; previous to that 
time he voted with the Democratic party. By his abil- 
ity and zeal he has secured the leading position in his 
profession; and, by reason of his social and sterling 
characteristics, has the respect and confidence of the 
community in which he has so long resided. 


——$- Fe — 


EITH, COLONEL JOHN A., attorney-at-law, of 
Columbus, Indiana, was born May 29, 1832, at 
Germantown, Mason County, Kentucky, and is 
the eldest son of Isham and Diadema (Frazee) 
Keith. His father is now a hardware merchant in Co- 
lumbus. Colonel Keith received a liberal education at 
Fairview Academy, Fairview, Indiana, after which he 
commenced reading law with Hubbard & Sexton, of 
Rushville. He completed his studies in their office, 
and, being admitted to the bar in 1853, remained in the 
same office, and began the «practice ‘of his profession. 
In 1854 he went to Iowa, but on account of sickness re- 
turned to Columbus, Indiana, where his parents had 
settled, and practiced law until the breaking out of the 
Civil War. In April, 1861, he raised the second cavalry 
company raised in the state, which, however, was not 
accepted. In July, 1861, in conjunction with Colonel 
McMillan, he raised and organized the 21st Regiment 
of Indiana Volunteers, and was commissioned its lieu- 
tenant-colonel, July 23, 1861. Late in July the regi- 
ment was ordered to Washington City; but was stopped 
by Major-general Dix, and ordered to Locust Point to 
support Fort McHenry. Companies E and G were then 
transferred to Fort McHenry, and taught artillery serv- 
From Locust Point they were ordered to Fort 


ice. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
YNIVERSITY OF THINK 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY GF fittmarc 


5th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
Marshall on garrison duty; and, in a short time, to 
Newport News, to report to General Butler. Upon the 
organization of the New England division the troops 
set sail under General Butler for New Orleans; a por- 
tion of the 21st Regiment, in boats, landed in the rear 
of Fort St. Philip; and the colors of the fort were then 
struck. They landed at New Orleans May 1, 1862; the 
21st was transferred to Algiers, and went into camp in 
the Opelousas Railroad depot. General Butler, upon 
hearing of the murder of two sick soldiers at Houma, 
‘Terrebonne Parish, detailed Colonel Keith, with six of 
his companies, to proceed to the town of Houma and 
discover the perpetrators of the murder, if the hanging 
of every man in the parish was necessary to accomplish 
it. He destroyed two millions of property; arrested 
eighteen of the leading citizens, whom he took to New 
. Orleans ; and compelled the people to disinter the mur- 
dered bodies, wrap them in United States flags, furnish 
coffins, and give them decent burial. At the battle of 
Baton Rouge, late in the action, on the fifth day: of 
August, he was severely wounded. 
the regiment manned some of the guns captured from 
the enemy; and the lieutenant-colonel was compli- 
mented for his gallantry by General Butler, and heartily 
recommended to Governor Morton for a colonelcy. 
Upon the recommendation of General Banks, the War 
Department transferred Colonel Keith’s regiment into 
the heavy artillery service. On account of wounds 
Colonel Keith made an application for leave of absence, 
which was indorsed by General Butler in the following 


One company of 


words: 


‘‘Granted. Colonel Keith’s services to the govern- 
ment have been most valuable. His gallantry and cour- 
age are honorably mentioned. 

‘« (Signed) B. F. BUTLER. 

“R. P. Davis, Captain, A. A. A. General.” 


March 22, 1863, he was commissioned as colonel of 
the 21st Regiment of Indiana, First Heavy Artillery, to 
fill a vacancy caused by the. promotion of Colonel Jas. 
W. McMillan. He rejoined the regiment in May, 1863, 
and was ordered with seven batteries to Port Hudson, 
where he was engaged in the siege, remaining until the 
capitulation. He was then ordered to Baton Rouge, 
where he remained some time; and then to New Or- 
jeans. From here the regiment returned to Indianapolis 
to recruit its depleted ranks. February 2, 1865, on ac- 
count of his wounds, Colonel Keith was compelled to 
resign his commission; and he again resumed the 
practice of law at Columbus, Indiana. He married, 
in 1859, Melissa Crisler, of Fayette County, Indiana, 
who died in 1861, leaving one daughter. 
Keith is one of the leading Republicans of the 
county. He is urbane and pleasant, and is direct 


Colonel 


and straightforward. His manner puts you at ease at 
once. He is a gentleman of wealth; has done much 


MEN OF INDIANA. 21 
to advance the interests of the city; and is a highly re- 
spected and useful member of the county of Bartholo- 
mew and state of Indiana. 


—- te <—_ 

Ci 7 EITH, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SQUIRE L., 
; of Columbus, was born November 30, 1837, at 
\} Dover, Mason County, Kentucky, being the son 
c of Isham and Diadema (Frazee) Keith. In May, 
1842, he removed with his parents to Fayetteville, Fay- 
ette County, Indiana, where he received the rudiments 
of his education at the village schools. In 1848 his 
father removed to a farm, and young Squire pursued the 
avocation of a farmer until the removal of Mr. Keith to 
Columbus, in 1854, when for a while he was clerk in his 
father’s store, after which he was sent to the North- 
western Christian University, at Indianapolis, where he 


remained one year, and on his return to Columbus was 
taken into partnership with his father in the hardware 
business, in which he continued successfully until the 
breaking out of the war and the call of the nation to 
arms. On hearing of the fall of Fort Sumter and the 
call of the President for troops, he was one among the 
first to enlist in Captain Abbott’s Company B, 6th In- 
diana Volunteer Infantry, the second company raised 
and reported in the state, in April, 1861. Captain Ab- 
bott having enlisted more men than necessary for his 
company, the rest, under Mr. Keith, consolidated with a 
part of a company from Jennings County, under charge 
of Captain Hiram Prather; but, the President’s requisi- 
tion being filled, this company was not mustered. Sub- 
sequently, Captain Keith recruited a company known as 
Company G, 22d Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The regi- 
ment was organized and mustered at Madison, Indiana, 
August 15, 1861, under command of Colonel (afterwards 
General) Jeff. C. Davis. On the 17th of August it 
moved to St. Louis, where it joined the army under 
command of General John C. Fremont, and was soon 
after sent up the Missouri River to the relief of Colonel 
Mulligan at Lexington. While on the way, near Glas- 
gow, on the 19th of September, through some mistake 
‘portions of the Federal troops became engaged against 
each other, and Major Gordon Tanner, of the regiment, 
was killed. His regiment was marched from Glasgow 
to Springfield, and back again as far as Otterville, whence 
it moved in December to join other troops, and partici- 
pated in the capture of thirteen hundred men at Black- 
water. Colonel Davis about this time was appointed 
brigadier-general, the 22d was attached to his division, 
and marched, January 24, 1862, with General Curtis’s ex- 
pedition against General Price, at Springfield, which re- 
sulted in the retreat of the latter from that place, and 
eventually in the great battle of Pea Ridge. In this 
battle the 22d bore a conspicuous part, losing forty-one 


22, 


killed and wounded, among them Lieutenant-colonel 
John A. Hendricks. In this battle the subject of this 
sketch particularly distinguished himself. The regiment 
then crossed the state.of Arkansas to Batesville, and 
thence, on the 10th of May, to Cape Girardeau, on the 
Mississippi River, where it embarked, and joined the be- 
sieging army at Corinth, Mississippi. It united in the 
pursuit under Pope, going as far as Booneville, and after- 
ward was stationed at different points in Northern Mis- 
sissippi until the 17h of August, when it joined Buell’s 
army, and marched with it through Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky to Louisville, reaching there September 27. In 
the mean time Captain Keith had been promoted to ma- 
jor of the regiment, and a few days after was again pro- 
moted to lieutenant-colonel. His last commission, though 
issued some time prior, was not received by him until 
September 30, 1862, when at Columbus on leaye of ab- 
sence of twenty-four hours to visit his brother, who was 
lying there dangerously wounded. He marched in com- 
mand of his regiment in pursuit of Bragg’s army, and 
took a conspicuous part on the 8th of October in the 
bloody engagement at Perryville, or Chaplin Hill, losing 
fifty per cent of his men engaged and his own life. Thus 
ended the race of one of our brightest and most active 
young officers. His career was short and brilliant. A 
patriot and a hero, his loss was mourned not only by his 
own family, but by an innumerable multitude of friends, 
for he was much esteemed and beloved. In a historical 
sketch of his regiment, one of the officers, R. V. Mar- 
shall, pays the following tribute to his memory: 


‘IT saw the brave Lieutenant-colonel Keith, who com- 
manded the regiment, fall from his horse, shot through 
the chest. He requested to be carried to the rear, and 
died in a few moments. Colonel Keith was a patriot 
not only in sentiment, but also from a sense of duty. I 
have heard him say that he considered it the duty of 
every man to be loyal, and to defend his country against 
all foes, whether foreign or domestic. He died young, 
but lived long enough to develop the true principles of 
manhood and the highest capacity for usefulness.” 


—~ Gote-<-—_ 
op: 
A ING, E. DOUGLASS, proprietor and editor of 
é ‘\ the Hendricks County Democrat, Danville, was 
Cey born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1837, 
& and is the youngest son of Allen and Eliza 
(Douglass) King. His father was a carriage manu- 
facturer; and-his maternal grandfather, E. Douglass, 
was an officer in the Revolutionary War, serving the 
entire period of seven years, and rising to the rank of 
aide-de-camp on General Lincoln’s staff. After the con- 
clusion of peace, he was for many years brigadier-gen- 
eral of the state militia of Pennsylvania. Mr. King 
entered a printing-office at the early age of nine years, 
where he remained until 1853, and then removed to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[5th Dost. 


Canton, Kentucky, where he commenced publishing the 
Canton Odserver.. He sold this paper at the end of one 
year, and, removing North, settled in South Charleston, 
Ohio. Here, for six months, he published the Charles- 
ton Recorder, and then moved it to London, Madison 
County, and established the Democrat. This was the 
first Democratic paper ever published in the county. 
He next published the DeWitt County Democrat, at Clin- 
ton, Illinois. Again selling out, he returned to South 
Charleston, and associated himself with the Ohzo Press, 
at Springfield. In the spring of 1859 he went to Nash- 
ville, where he became connected with the Baptist Pub- 
lishing House, and at the opening of the campaign of 
1860 became one of the editors of the Nashville Morn- 
ing Democrat. One year later came the secession of the 
Southern States. Party feeling ran high, and the editors 
of the Democrat, indorsing the Union principles of « 
Stephen A. Douglas, were notified to leave the city 

within forty days. Mr. King next had charge of the 

Marietta (Ohio) Register. In May, 1862, he enlisted in 

the 87th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Four months later 

he was taken prisoner at the battle of Harper’s Ferry, 

and was soon afterwards paroled and sent to camp at 

Delaware, where he was discharged. He re-enlisted in 

the spring of 1864, in the 154th Ohio Volunteer In- 

fantry, as a private, and served four months in Virginia. 

He returned to Nashville in January, 1865, and engaged 

in publishing King’s Directory until 1871. During this 

time he filled the position of city editor on the Union 

American. Removing to Fort Wayne, Indiana, he be- 

came for a time city editor of the Senéine/, and also pub- 

lished a city directory. The next five years he spent in 

Indianapolis on the Journal and News, besides acting as 

correspondent of various out-of-town papers. In Febru- 

ary, 1878, he started the Democrat at Danville, the only 

Democratic paper in the county, which he still con- 

tinues to manage. It has a circulation of over one 

thousand copies, and the subscription list is rapidly in- 

creasing. By the skillful management of this paper 

Mr. King has added largely to the Democratic vote of 

the county. The leading articles are able, very aggres- 

sive and uncompromising, and exert a wide and com- 

manding influence in the county. Mr. King was mar- 

ried, March 30, 1858, to R. Anna Warner, of South 

Charleston, Ohio, by. whom he has six children living— 

two boys and four daughters. Wm. A. and E. Douglass 

King are, respectively, assistant editor and compositor in © 
their father’s employment. The daughters reside at 

home. In summing up this record of the busy life of a 

man who began the world alone at the tender age of 

nine years; who received no education save what could 

be gained during the brief respite from daily toil—there 

is much to admire, more to commend to the youth of 

the rising generation, and nothing to condemn. His 

part of the duties of life has been well discharged. 


5th Dist.) 


fz xwoon, PROFESSOR DANIEL, LL. Di, 
- ), the sixth son of John and Agnes (Hope) Kirk- 
e \ wood, was born in Harford County, Maryland, 
G& September 27, 1814. His ancestors emigrated 
from the north of Ireland about 1731, landing at New- 
castle, Delaware. In 1768 his grandfather, Robert 
Kirkwood, removed from Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
to what was then the northern part of Baltimore County, 
Maryland. The county of Harford was set off from 
this part of Baltimore County in 1773. John Kirkwood 
became the owner of a small farm adjacent to his fa- 
ther’s near the close of the last century, where he died 
in 1822, leaving a large family in very limited circum- 
stances. Daniel was then but eight years old. The 
necessities of the family required what assistance he 
could give on the farm during his boyhood, and the 
opportunities of obtaining even an English education 
were extremely narrow. They were improved, how- 
ever, to the best advantage; and when but a youth Mr. 
Kirkwood commenced teaching a country school. The 
means thus obtained enabled him to enter the York 
County Academy, at York, Pennsylvania, in April, 1834. 
Here he remained the greater part of the time for nearly 
ten years; first as a student, and afterward as a math- 
ematical tutor. In November, 1843, Mr. Kirkwood was 
chosen principal of the Lancaster City high school. He 
soon found the duties of this position too laborious for 
his strength, and, warned by failing health, he resigned 
in March, 1848, to accept a place in the Pottsville Acad- 
emy. In 1849, while residing in Pottsville, Mr. Kirk- 
wood discovered and announced his ‘‘ Analogy between 
the Periods of Rotation of the Primary Planets.” In 
1851 he was elected to the chair of mathematics in 
Delaware College, at Newark, Delaware, and entered 
immediately upon the discharge of its duties. From 
that time to the present (1880) he has been constantly 
occupied as professor of mathematics; first in Dela- 
ware College, afterward in Jefferson College, Pennsyl- 
vania, -and lastly, for more than twenty years, in the 
State University of Indiana. Professor Kirkwood’s 
“‘Meteoric Astronomy” was published by J. B. Lippin- 
cott & Co. in 1867, and his ‘*Comets and Meteors” in 
1873. He has been a frequent contributor to newspa- 
pers and periodicals, and the following may be named 
as his principal papers: ‘On the Nebular Hypothesis 
and the Approximate Commensurability of the Planetary 
Periods.”—Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical 
Society of London, Vol. XXTX. ‘The Formation and 
Primitive Structure of the Solar System.”” (Read before 
the American Philosophical Society, October 6, 1871.) 
‘*The Meteors of November 14.”— Mature, June 3, 1875. 
*‘On Eight Meteoric Fireballs seen in the United States 
from July, 1876, to February, 1877.” (Read before the 
American Philosophical Society, March 16, 1877.) «On 
the Relative Ages of the Sun and Certain of the Fixed 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


23 


Stars.” (Read before the American Philosophical Soci- 
ety, April 6, 1877.) ‘*Meteoric Fireballs seen in the 
United States during the Year ending March 31, 1879.” 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, May 
16, 1879.) ‘On the Cosmogony of Laplace.” (Read 
before the American Philosophical Society, September 
19, 1879.) Professor Kirkwood received the honorary 
degree of A. M. from Washington College, Pennsylva- 
nia, in 1849, and that of LL. D. from the University of 
Pennsylvania, in 1852. 


—+- $80 — 


AD) 

2 Pe ANDREW MALONE, was born in 
qi Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, March 30, 1814, and is 
5) of Scotch-Irish descent. His father, Robert Lock- 
£) ridge, was born in Virginia, May 20, 1784; and 
his mother, Elizabeth Malone, in South Carolina, Octo- 
ber 1, 1786. .When Andrew Lockridge was but twelve 
years of age his father died, leaving the mother with a 
large family of children, of whom he was the eldest 
son. He remained with his mother, assisting in sup- 
porting and rearing the family, and having naturally 
but very limited educational advantages. In 1835, at 
the age of twenty-one, he removed with his mother to 
the northern part of Putnam County, Indiana. In 1846 
he removed to Greencastle, in the outskirts of which 
city he now has an elegant home. Mr. Lockridge has 
led a busy, laborious life, and is an extensive land- 
holder; his estates in Putnam County embracing over 
two thousand acres, all first-class and available. He is 
one of the heaviest and best known dealers in fine beef 
cattle in the state. His brother, Robert Lockridge, re- 
siding near Greencastle, is also a heavy dealer and ex- 
tensive land-holder. In 1843 Mr. Lockridge married 
Miss Elizabeth Shore Farrow, daughter of Colonel 
A. S. Farrow, a sketch of whose life appears below. 
Of this union have been born four sons, the eldest of 
whom is dead. Simpson F., the eldest living son, is a 
heavy dealerin and breeder of short-horns; and has been 
for five years past secretary of the American Association 
of Breeders of Short-horns, organized in November, 1872, 
at Indianapolis, and holding its annual meetings at 
different points in the States and British Provinces. The 
other sons, Alexander and Albert, are both married, and 
are prosperous farmers and cattle breeders in Putnam 
County. Mr. and Mrs. Lockridge are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Lockridge is one 
of the trustees. Republican in politics, he took a deep 
interest in the success of the Union forces during the 
war. He is a man of incorruptible integrity, and is 
honored and respected by his friends and neighbors in 
all the relations of life. Mrs. Lockridge was born near 
Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, November 24, 1826. This arti- 
cle would be incomplete without a short biography of 


24 


her father, Colonel Alexander S. Farrow, who died at 
Greencastle, March 31, 1877, in the eighty-third year 
of his age, after a week’s illness. He was buried nine 
miles north of Greencastle, on land he had first culti- 
vated, and in sight of a Church he had organized in 
early manhood. Colonel Farrow was born near Grassy 
Lick, Montgomery County, Kentucky, April 21, 1794. 
His father, William Farrow, was of Scoth-Irish descent, 
and early emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky, where 
father and son became inured to the toils and dangers 
of pioneer life. In August following the declaration of 
war against Great Britain, in 1812, three regiments of 
volunteer infantry and one of regulars left Georgetown, 
Kentucky, for the relief of Detroit. Colonel Farrow, 
then a youth of eighteen, accompanied this detachment 
in the command of Captain Samuel L. Williams. At 
the crossing of the Ohio they received news of Hull’s 
surrender of Detroit, but continued their march to Fort 
Wayne, under General Harrison, where they destroyed 
the enemy’s growing crops along the Wabash, burning 
their cabins and desolating their homes. Returning to 
Fort Wayne, the entire army continued its march along 
the Maumee River, building forts here and there as 
bases of supply, until winter overtook them. Then 
followed scenes of suffering not surpassed by those of 
Valley Forge during the Revolution. The intense cold 
froze the river, rendering its navigation impossible; 
deep snows fell; clothing was growing scarce, many had 
no shoes; promised supplies of food failed to reach 
them, and at one time for seventeen days the troops 
were without bread, and subsisted entirely on fat pork. 
Through hunger and fatigue horses fell to the ground 
and were abandoned, while men took their places, and 
drew baggage and provisions through the snow. The 
sufferings from frosted limbs and acute rheumatism were 
fearful; and in January the snow fell to the depth of 
two feet, making marching slow and painful. Under 
such circumstances the little army reached the rapids 
of the Maumee. Here a runner brought them news 
of the investment of Frenchtown, on the River 
Raisin, by the British and Indians. A detachment 
of five hundred men pushed forward, marching on the 
ice of Lake Erie, and, January 18, arrived in front of 
the village. A brief but severe conflict ensued; the 
Kentuckians drove the British and their savage allies 
across the river, entered the town in triumph, and were 
soon joined by a reinforcement’ under General Win- 
chester. But the allies also were mustering their troops, 
and, accompanied by a large force, including artillery, 
General Proctor, under cover of night, advanced on 
Frenchtown, and attacked the half-aroused camp. His- 
tory has long since recorded the fierce struggle that fol- 
lowed, and how General Winchester was compelled to 
surrender his command prisoners of war to an over- 
powering force, with the stipulation that the wounded 


RIPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[sth Dist. 


should be cared for and protected from the merciless 
savages. The solemn promise was broken; the British 
abandoned the town, leaving the sick unguarded, and 
on the next morning the Indians appeared, selected a 
few of the most able-bodied of the wounded as prisoners, 
tomahawked and scalped the rest, and gave them to the 
flames, making the massacre of the River Raisin forever 
infamous in history. Colonel Farrow was taken to Mal- 
den with his fellow prisoners, where they were fed on 
bread alone, and, in the dead of winter, had no fire. 
After a two weeks’ march through Canada they were 
paroled, taken over the line, and then followed a march 
across the country to Pittsburgh, whence they went by 
water to their Kentucky home. Shortly after his re- 
turn, Colonel Farrow married, and engaged in farming. 
Just after he had attained his majority he was commis- 
sioned, May 26, 1815, by Governor Isaac Shelby, adju- 
tant of the 31st Regiment Kentucky Militia; and in 
December, 1820, by Governor Adair, he was appointed 
brigade inspector of the Fifth Brigade. He was chosen 
to represent his county in the Legislature, and made a 
series of lucid and effective speeches in defense of the 
policy of the Whig party, and its idol, Henry Clay. 
He served one or more terms, being barely eligible at his 
first election. In 1830 Colonel Farrow, with his young 
and growing family, removed to Putnam County, Indi- 
ana, and settled nine miles north of Greencastle, on 
lands purchased in part of the original pre-emptors. 
He at once took a leading and active part in develop- 
ing the resources of the county, introduced Kentucky 
grass among the farmers, sowing it extensively, and 
brought valuable breeds of cattle and horses from Ken- 
tucky and Ohio. Two years after reaching Indiana his 
merits were acknowledged by his appointment as colonel 
of the 56th Regiment of Militia by Governor Noble. A 
religious man from deep-seated conviction, he felt the 
necessity of Church association, and, in the absence of a 
house of worship, he united with his neighbors and or- 
ganized a Church beneath his own roof, the first in that 
part of the county. In 1851 Colonel Farrow was elected 
a member of the constitutional convention, and, during 
its four months’ session, he was ever in his seat, always 
voted, was outspoken as to his views on all matters of 
public interest. He early saw the increasing evils of 
drunkenness, and was so far in advance of public senti- 
ment as to banish the use of intoxicants from his own 
family and from the harvest field, and lived to see 
many of his slower neighbors indorse his views and imi- 
tate his example. Colonel Farrow, from his youth, 
seems to have always had the courage of his convic- 
tions; was a public man without suspicion of wrong- 
doing; an active, earnest, zealous Christian; guiltless of 
any evil intent himself, he was, perhaps, too slow to 
suspect it in others. Open-hearted, with nothing to con- 
ceal, he expressed his own views with force and free- 


oth Dist.] REPRESENTATIVE 
dom, and was always glad to meet a foeman worthy of 
his steel. He hated corruption in politics, and was dis- 
gusted at the sad degeneracy of later days. The foun- 
dation of his religion was laid early and deep, and it 
grew with his growth, and impregnated his whole life. 
How thoroughly he must have been impressed with the 
necessity of Divine wisdom and guidance is powerfully 
exemplified by the fact that on his marriage, although 
not a Church member, he at once erected a family altar 
for morning and evening prayer. After this it is super- 
fluous to add that he was a model husband and father. 
lle was twice married, and was the father of six sons 
and four daughters, all by his first wife. Of these, 
eight are still living. Of his grandchildren, fifty are liv- 
Of his twenty great-grand- 
The total number of his 


ing and sixteen are dead. 
children, eighteen survive. 


descendants at the time of his death, living and dead, 
was ninety-six. 
well.” 


«After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps 
pies ees 


ARTIN, ALEXANDER, D. D., LL. D., president 
of Indiana Asbury University, was born in the 
AN city of Nairn, Scotland, 1824. He is the fourth 
‘SY’ of four sons and two daughters, who constituted 
the family of James Martin and Janet Urquhart. His 
parents were people of more than ordinary education 
and character, even in a land where learning and worth 
are so highly prized. LEcclesiastically, they were mem- 
bers of Doctor Brewer’s Church, in the city where the 
subject of this sketch was born; and, socially, they be- 
longed to that large and valuable class of yeomanry, 
equally removed from the extreme of affluence or pov- 
erty, which constitute the best element of citizenship in 
any land. On the mother’s side the family was, not re- 
motely, related to the Urquharts of Cromarty. Doctor 
Martin’s early school days were passed in the village 
of Invergordon, a few miles above Cromarty, near which 
his father was engaged in agricultural pursuits. In the 
home, at a dame’s school in the village, and under Mr. 
Charles Rose, the parish schoolmaster, his advancement 
in learning was thorough and rapid. While yet less 
than fourteen years of age he had mastered the ordinary 
branches of education, and was getting well on in the 
study of the languages and of mathematics. About 
this time, in 1836, his eldest brother and sister came to 


visit their cousins in this country, expecting to return 
home the next spring. So greatly pleased were they, 
however, with their reception, that they joined their 
influence with that of other members of the family, 
some of whom had been here many years—Mr. Robert 
Urquhart, their uncle, having been an officer in the 
American army during the War of 1812—and induced 
their parents to dispose of their interests in the old 
country and remove to America. A characteristic inci- 


MEN OF INDIANA. 25 
dent is related concerning the father, that on the even- 
ing of embarkation, and before sailing from Greenock, 
he gathered his family, as his custom was, and invited 
those occupying the same cabin to unite with them in 
evening prayers. While reading the Scriptures out of a 
small pocket Bible, three gentlemen, tired of promenad- 
ing the deck, seated themselves on the edge of the 
gangway which led to the cabin, and unwittingly ob- 
scured the light, so that he could not see to read. To 
a polite request that they would enter or retire, they 
responded by at once taking their places among the 
little company of worshipers. 
them, a merchant of Greenock, and part owner of the 
vessel, presented Mr. Martin with a finely bound, large 
type copy of the Bible, desiring him to keep it as a 
token of his respect for a man whose family altar was 
not neglected among strangers, nor amid the inconven- 
iences of unfavorable surroundings. It need only be 
said that daily prayers, in which a number of the pas- 
sengers, and at times some of the officers and crew, 
united, were maintained during the voyage. The family 
settled in Jefferson County, Ohio, which county and the 
adjoining parts of Columbiana County contained so 
many from the old country as to be called the ‘*Scotch 
Settlement.”’ The chief congregations were the Asso- 
ciate Reformed, afterward the United Presbyterian, 
Church, of which Rev. John Donaldson was pastor, 
and Mr. James Martin a ruling elder; the Presbyterian 
Church, of which Rey. J. B. Graham was the minister ; 
and the ‘*Red Hill Church,” in which at an early day 
services were held in both the Gaelic and the English 
language. In the adjoining town of Wellsville, Alex- 
ander Martin spent three years of an apprenticeship to 
the tanning and leather-dressing business. As soon as 
Judge Riddle, who carried on the business, became aware 
of the ability and worth of his apprentice, he volun- 
tarily offered to release him from the indenture and aid 
him otherwise, if he desired to complete a course of 
liberal study. The sturdy Scotch element, however, 
asserted itself in the young man, who determined to 
learn the trade, and become a really superior workman ; 
though the very next week after his term expired he 
was employed at a fine salary to teach school in the 
same village. From Judge Leavitt, of Steubenville, a 
few weeks later, he received a teacher’s certificate; and 
in this occupation, chiefly near his father’s home, in 
the locally famous ‘‘old log school-house,” he earned 
enough to support him nearly two years in Alleghany 
College. From this institution he graduated in 1847, 
with the first honors of a class containing such men as 
S. H. Nesbitt, D. D., for twelve years editor of the 
Pittsburgh Christian Advocate; W. A. Davidson, D. D., of 
the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church; Sanford Hunt, D. D., agent of the Methodist 
Book Concern, New York, and several other scarcely less 


Next morning one of 


26 


eminent preachers and laymen. The same year he was 
received into the Pittsburgh Conference, and appointed 
as professor in the North-west Virginia Academy, being 
declared by Bishop Morris, who presided at the confer- 
ence in Uniontown where he was received, as the first 
one in the history of the Church who, while yet a pro- 
bationer in the conference, was appointed to teach 
in an institution of learning. Part of the previous year 
he had charge, as principal, of Kingwood Academy, 
Preston County, Virginia. In 1849-51 he was stationed 
in Charleston, Virginia, during which years a valuable 
church property was relieved of a vexatious suit and a 
heavy debt. The. work so enlarged that Rev. Gordon 
Battelle, D. D., was appointed to succeed him in 
Charleston, and Rev. T. B. Taylor in Malden, a mis- 
sionary appointment, seven miles away, that under his 
charge and ministry had meanwhile grown into a self- 
sustaining congregation. At the close of his term there 
he was induced to return to Clarksburg, as principal of 
the Conference Academy. Under his administration 
this school became the leading institution of learning 
in the trans-Alleghany portion of Virginia. In 1854 he 
was stationed at Moundsville, and during the same year 
was elected professor of the Greek language and litera- 
ture in Alleghany College. Here, in 1863, he received 
the honorary degree of Doctor Divinitatis from the 
Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1864-67 he had charge 
of Fourth Street Station, Wheeling; during which time 
he was also president of the West Virginia Branch of 
the Christian Commission; and, on the field and in the 
hospital, did much, with his assistants and the almost 
unlimited supplies sent him from Wheeling and the ad- 
joining parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio, to alleviate the 
sufferings of our sick and wounded through the hills 
and valleys of that war-traversed state. Once, when ar- 
rested by Mosby’s guerrillas, near Winchester, he was, 
because of known kindness to some Confederate pris- 
oners, allowed to go on his way unmolested. His re- 
lation to the army was not permitted to interfere with 
pastoral work and oversight. The three years of his 
labors in Fourth Street were years of unusual prosperity. 
Their fine church edifice was rebuilt ; Thompson Chapel, 
on the Island, Zane Street Church, and Fifth Street 
(colored) Church, became independent, self-sustaining 
congregations. They were sent out with prayer and 
blessings during an administration of three busy years 
as promising offshoots of the grand old Church, and all 
have continued strong and prosperous. Even during 
the year when, for want of a more suitable place of 
worship, Sabbath services were held in the theater, 
scarcely a week passed without conversions, and acces- 
sions to the number of Christ’s followers. Doctor 
Martin has often spoken of the men and women of that 
congregation as among the grandest people God ever al- 


lowed a man the honor of serving as pastor. In many 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[5th Dest. 


ways, then and since, they have taken occasion to express 
attachment to himself and family. In 1867 he was at 
Parkersburg, but had scarcely entered upon his work 
when he was unanimously elected president, and ap- 
pointed to organize the work, of the West Virginia Uni- 
versity. During his administration this institution made 
rapid progress in the elements that give success and 
character to a seat of learning. Its courses of study 
were made to conform to those of the most advanced 
American colleges. Its students increased from zero to 
one hundred and seventy-one. Its graduates, after the 
first three years, were at the rate of one, two, four, thir- 
teen per year. In the corps of professors he was fortu- 
nate in having such men as Doctor John Scott, formerly 
president of Washington College, Pennsylvania, Doctor 
Henry W. Harmon, of Dickinson College, and Robert 
Berkeley, in the chair of languages; Colonel J. Riley 
Weaver, now minister at Vienna, and Captain Henry H. 
Pierce, United States army, in the chair of mathematics; 
Professor G. S. Stevens, of Dartmouth, and William 
Maury Fontaine, of the University of Virginia, in the 
chairs of natural philosophy and chemistry; and other 
able scholars and teachers. The funds, buildings, col- 
lections, and appliances of instruction, under the direc- 
tion of such regents as ex-Governors Boreman and Ste- 
venson, Doctor T. H. Logan, Charles J. Faulkner, and 
others, largely increased; and the university had already 
attained a recognized standing among American colleges, 
when, in September, 1875, Doctor Martin left it to take 
charge of the Indiana Asbury University. Of his admin- 
istration here, Doctor Philander Wiley, in a contribution 
to the National Repository, says: 

‘Alexander Martin, formerly professor of Greek in 
the Alleghany College, and more recently president of 
the University of West Virginia, whose general and 
thorough scholarship fits him for any department, was 
chosen as the successor of Doctor Andrus. His long 
experience as an educator, and his eminent executive 
ability, won at once entire confidence, so that perfect 
harmony has existed; and, without the demand for the 


exercise of discipline, order and marked advancement 
have thus far characterized his administration.” 


In 1878 the honorary degree of LL. D. was bestowed 
upon him by his Alma Mater. President Martin’s life 
has been one of great industry and usefulness. He was 
chairman of the committee on correspondence at the Gen- 
eral Conference of the Methodist Church at Chicago, in 
1868. He was chairman of the committee of education 
at the General Conference at Brooklyn, in 1872, and was 
largely instrumental in securing the formation of the Edu- 
cational Society of his Church. He also was called to pre- 
side at the convention of teachers and friends of education 
at Cincinnati, in 1880. In 1867 he delivered the address 
at the semi-centennial of Alleghany College. During the 
eight years that Dr. Kingsley edited the Western Christian 
| Advocate, Dr. Martin was a regular contributor to its ed- 


. 5th Dist.) 


He has also written for the Zadzes’ Re- 
posttory and other periodicals. 


itorial columns. 
Besides the above, among 
his published addresses might be mentioned one on be- 
half of the Christian Commission, one on the relation of 
education to agriculture and the mechanical arts, one on 
the relation of the Church to education, his inaugural 
when elected president of the West Virginia University, 
his inaugural at the first commencement after taking 
charge of the Indiana Asbury University, and a few 
sermons and addresses before friendly and benevolent 
orders. He also took a liberal part in the formation 
of the Church Extension Society of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, and served as a member during the first 
four years of the general committee on Church exten- 
From 1872 to 1876, after the withdrawal of Doc- 
tors Carlton and Lanahan, he served as a member of the 
General Book Committee. For many years he has been 
a life director of the American Bible Society, and also a 
life director of the Missionary Society of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. In 1853 he married Miss C. C. Hur- 
sey, of Clarksburg, Virginia. They have been blessed 
with four sons and one daughter: James V., superin- 
tendent city schools, at Boonville, Indiana; John E., 
attorney, of -Evansville. Three others, Charles A., 
Edwin L., and Anna J., are still members of the home 
family. 


sion. 


FOC — 


tractor and builder, was born March 27, 1842, in 
'\ County Clare, Ireland, within two miles of Lim- 
‘ erick, and is the son of John and Mary (O’Neal) 
McCormack. His father was a freehold farmer; he was 
an educated man, a great lover of his country, and a 


participant in the rebellion of 1848, for which he was 
cast into prison. Immediately upon his liberation he 
emigrated to America, and settled in Nashville, Tennes- 
see, where Patrick McCormack attended the public 
schools until he was seventeen years of age. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


He was | 


then apprenticed to a marble cutter, with whom he | 


served his time. Immediately after the capture of 
Nashville, in 1862, he was appointed by the government 
as foreman of a gang of track layers, and was engaged 
in repairing railroads in Tennessee until the close of the 
war, in 1865. He then went to work for Nash, Flan- 
nery & Company, who were building the wire bridge at 
Nashville; he was appointed superintendent of their 


stone quarries, and in 1867 had entire charge of the | 


stone work of the Ohio River bridge, at Louisville, for | 
| of Maryland, born prior to the War of the Revolution, 


the same firm. In April, 1868, he formed a partnership 

with P. H. Sweeney, under the firm name of McCor- 

mack & Sweeney, and commenced business by contract- 

ing for and building the Johnson County jail, at Frank- 

lin, Indiana, and the high school building at the same 

place, completing both in 1870. In April, 1871, they 
A—19 


27 


received the contract for building the court-house at 
Columbus, Bartholomew County, at one hundred and 
fifty-five thousand dollars, which was completed in 1873. 
In April,-1872, they contracted for and built the court- 
house at Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana. 
This was finished in 1874, at a cost to the county of one 
hundred and thirty thousand dollars. In July, 1873, 
they commenced the erection of the Chauncey Rose 
Polytechnic Institute, at Terre Haute, Indiana, said to 
be the finest institution of its kind in the United States, 
completing it in the fall of 1874, for which they received 
eighty-four thousand dollars. In the spring of 1876 
they received the contract, at seventy-eight thousand 
dollars, for the erection of the Daviess County court- 
house, at Washington, Indiana, and completed it in the 
spring of 1879. The next winter they built the court- 
house at Ann Arbor, Michigan, at sixty-five thousand 
dollars. They now have under contract the building of 
the court-house at Clarksville, Montgomery County, Ten- 
nessee, for sixty thousand dollars. They have also built 
many of the iron and stone bridges of the county and 
state, and are now constructing an iron bridge over 
White River, near Columbus, at a cost of twenty thou- 
sand dollars. They were one of the parties who bid for 
the erection of the state-house, but failed to receive 
the contract. Mr. McCormack married, May 25, 1867, 
Maggie Clark, of St. Mary’s, Kentucky, daughter of a 
merchant. In the spring of 1868 he removed to Frank- 
lin, Indiana, and in the spring of 1872 to Columbus. 
In October, 1876, he lost his wife, who left him two 
children—one son and one daughter. September 14, 
1877, he married his present wife, who was Maggie 
Ferrall, daughter of a railroad contractor; one child has 
been born to them. Mr. McCormack was reared a 
Catholic, and attends that Church. He was brought up, 
as it were, under the eye of General Jackson, and calls 
himself a Jacksonian Democrat in deed and in truth. 
The citizens of Columbus point with pride to their court- 
house, and say the contractors complied with their con- 
tract in every particular. They are the heaviest con- 
tracting firm in Indiana. Mr. McCormack is a very 
pleasant gentleman, and enjoys the esteem of the citi- 
zens of Columbus. 


EEK, JAMES S., attorney-at-law, Spencer, In- 
diana, was born in Wayne County, Indiana, on 
the 17th of August, 1834. He is a son of John 
and Salina (Stinson) Meek, the former a native 


who died in 1849, aged eighty; the latter was a na- 
tive of Tennessee. His father was one of the earliest 
pioneers of Wayne County, and at one time owned a 
tract of land on which a portion of the city of Rich- 


mond, Indiana, now stands. Young Meek was brought 


28 


up on a farm under the usual circumstances of pioneer 
life. In 1843 his father removed to the northern part 
of Owen County, where he located on a farm. The 
early education of Mr. Meek was only such as was 
afforded in the common schools of Wayne and Owen 
Counties. After leaving them he began teaching, which 
continued until 1855, when he went to Indianapolis and 
secured a position as commercial traveler with one of 
the wholesale houses of that city, exchanging it for a 
similar position in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1859, remaining 
there until 1862. On the 17th of June, 1858, he was 
married to Miss Mary Joslin, daughter of Doctor Amasa 
Joslin, of Spencer.. In 1862 Mr. Meek was the nominee 
of his party for sheriff of Owen County, and, although 
his election would have been certain with a usual party 
majority of six hundred, he enlisted in the military 
service of the United States, vacating his place on the 
ticket, and attaching himself to Company H, 97th 
Regiment Indiana Volunteers, as a private. Upon the 
organization of the regiment he was commissioned first 
lieutenant, and was mustered into the service at Terre 
Haute, Indiana, August, 1862, and immediately ordered 
to the field, joining General Sherman’s command at 
Memphis, Tennessee. He was with that army wherever 
it moved until it reached Moscow, Tennessee, where, at 
the end of his first year’s service, he was made quarter- 
master of the brigade commanded by Colonel J. R. 
Cockerel; and in January, 1864, he was promoted to be 
quartermaster of General Ewing’s division, at Lotsbor- 
ough, Alabama. In September, 1863, Lieutenant Meek 
was commissioned captain of Company H, but was 
retained on staff duty. In May, 1864, he was assigned 
the duty of property quartermaster of the Fifteenth Army 
Corps. Upon the organization of the campaign at At- 
lanta, Georgia, he was ordered to report to Colonel 
Conkling, who was chief quartermaster of the Army of 
Tennessee, and who assigned Captain Meek to a place 
as property quartermaster for the department. He re- 
mained on duty in this position until the arrival of the 
force at Savannah, Georgia, where, at the instance of 


General Sherman’s chief quartermaster, General Easton, 
he was detailed to the fleet in the Savannah River, - 


taking charge of the transfer of stores from the river to 
the city through formidable obstructions. This task was 
completed in good time, after which he discharged the 
entire fleet. He was subsequently assigned to duty as 
quartermaster in charge of all the hospitals in Savan- 
nah, where he remained till after the surrender of Lee, 
when he was sent to Washington City—being present at 
the grand review which occurred soon after—and then 
to Indianapolis, where, on the 4th of June, 1865, 
he was mustered out. During all his military service 
Captain Meek was noted for the thorough attention 
he paid to his duties, many of which were exceedingly 
difficult of execution and of the utmost importance. He 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[5h Dist. 


| had the confidence of both inferiors and superiors, on 
account of his devotion to the cause, and the dispatch 
and efficiency with which he executed every require- 
ment. Immediately after the close of the war he re- 
turned to Cincinnati, where, for the second time, he 
took a position as traveling salesman, but in the follow- 
ing year (1866) he went to Gosport, Indiana, where he 
engaged in mercantile pursuits for himself. This con- 
tinued till his election, in 1870, as clerk of the Owen 
Circuit Court, when he came to Spencer. In 1874 he 
was re-elected to the same position, filling the office for 
eight consecutive years, and for six years of the time he 
was chairman of the Democratic county central com- 
mittee. Since retiring from the clerk’s office, October, 
1878, he has been engaged in the practice of law, 
which has been attended with flattering success, and 
has a very promising outlook for the future. He joined 
the Masons in 1856, and has taken all the degrees in 
Masonry, including Royal and Select Masters. He has 
filled nearly all the subordinate positions in the several 
lodges. Mr. Meek joined the Methodist Episcopal | 
Church in 1858, and is still a member of that religious 
organization. He is the father of six interesting and 
intelligent children. In a business sense, Mr. Meek’s 
life has been successful; although he began without the 
least pecuniary help from any one, he has by applica- 
tion and attention to his private affairs amassed a com- 
petence. This has been the result of individual effort, 
and he is therefore a fitting example of self-made men. 
Aside from his success in a commercial point of view, 
few men in Indiana possess his tact and judgment as a 
local party manager. However active and persistent he 
may be in behalf of his party, he has too much judg- 
ment to allow his political convictions to be a barrier to 
personal friendships, and as a result he is respected and 
even popular with the opposition. He is watchful and 
shrewd in driving a trade, always careful to take care 
of number one, but never stooping to a mean or dis- 
honorable act. He is kind and obliging, taking special 
delight in conferring favors upon his personal friends. 
Few men take such an exalted view of personal honor 
and integrity as he. He is a kind and considerate hus- 
band and father, and in every way a most estimable 
gentleman. 
+800 


| IERS, R. W., attorney-at-law, of Bloomington, 

iJ} was born, January 27, 1848, on a farm, seven 
| miles west of Greensburg, Decatur County, In- 
LOY diana, and is a son of Thomas S. and Mahala 
(Braden) Miers. His father is a farmer, and a native 
of Indiana. He remained on the farm until he arrived 
at his majority, assisting his father during the summer 
and attending the common schools in winter. He also 
attended Hartsville Academy, and taught school three 


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5th Dist.| 


winters in the vicinity of his home. In the fall of 1867 
he entered the sophomore class in the State University at 
Bloomington, graduating from the collegiate course in 
1870, and from the law department in 1871. He then 
entered the office of Judge Hughes, of Bloomington, 
being admitted to the bar in the spring of 1872, formed 
a partnership with Judge Eckels, and began the practice 
of law, which he has continued ever since. In 1874 he 
was elected prosecuting attorney of the Circuit Court. 
He discharged the duties of this position to the satisfac- 
tion of the people; was re-elected in 1876, and, after 
serving three years with great credit to himself, received 
the Democratic nomination as Representative ; and, not- 
withstanding that he resided in a Republican county, 
was elected by a handsome majority. During the ses- 
sion he was chairman of the Committee on Education, 
and also a member of the Committee on Judiciary Fees 
and Salaries. In political matters Mr. Miers has always 
been a Democrat, and, although comparatively a young 
man, is regarded as one of the leading Democrats of 
Monroe County. By giving strict attention to his pro- 
fession and devoting his leisure time to its study, he is 
fast winning a way to a position of prominence at the 
bar, and his practice is increasing in a proportionate 
ratio. He is a highly respected and useful citizen, and 
is a clever, courteous, and genial gentleman. He was 
married, on the ninth day of May, 1871, to Miss Belle 
Ryors; two children have been born to them. 


—+-$006-o— 


ITCHELL, SAMUEL M., farmer, merchant, and 
banker, Martinsville, was born in Charlestown, 
Indiana, July 7, 1814. He is the son of Giles 
and Mary (Moore) Mitchell, the former a na- 
tive of Virginia, and the latter of Kentucky. His ma- 
ternal grandfather, while engaged in defending the 
settlers of his locality against the encroachments of the 
marauding Indians of Kentucky, was taken prisoner, and 
subjected to all the trials and privations known to their 
fiendish customs. However, his athletic feats and ex- 
pertness at games soon made him a favorite with his 
captors, and, in consequence, his liberties were extended. 
At an opportune moment he made his escape and re- 
turned home, having been a prisoner for three years. 
Mr. Mitchell’s paternal grandfather was a soldier in the 
Revolution, serving until the close of that contest. He 
is one of a family of six children, all of whom are dead 
except his brother, James M. Mitchell, who is also a 
merchant of Martinsville. His parents came to Indiana 
in 1810 and settled at Charlestown. In 1821 they re- 
moved to a farm in Bartholomew County, where, in 
1828, his mother died. They were among the earliest 
At the age of four- 
Samuel 


pioneers of Bartholomew County. 


teen, with but few educational advantages, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


29 


Mitchell entered the employment of his brother-in-law, 
John M. Givin, at Columbus, Indiana, as store boy, 
where he remained four years, with the exception of one 
term in school at Bloomington, Indiana, in 1830. In 
1832 he engaged as clerk in his brother’s store at Mar- 
tinsville, at a salary of ten dollars per month, remain- 
ing there one year. He then determined to increase his 
literary knowledge, and, with that purpose in view, en- 
rolled himself as a pupil at the Salem Academy, one of 
the best institutions of learning in the state, and at that 
time conducted by the eminent educator and philanthro- 
pist, Hon. John I. Morrison, now of Knightstown, In- 
diana. He was a persistent student in this institution 
for one year. He spent the next twelve months in 
Madison, where he secured a position as second clerk 
on the steamer ‘‘ Livingstone,” which, during the sum- 
mer and fall, plied between Cincinnati and New Or- 
leans, and in the winter was engaged in the cotton 
trade between New Orleans and Yazoo City. In the 
spring of 1837, in consequence of needing repairs, the 
steamer was sent to Cincinnati. Mr. Mitchell availed 
himself of the opportunity to visit his home at Martins- 
ville. While there he was persuaded to remain, and 
has since made that his place of residence. He imme- 
diately formed a partnership with his brother, James M. 
Mitchell, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. This 
partnership continued pleasantly for thirty consecutive 
years, without any written articles of agreement or 
other legal papers. During all this time they owned 
property in common, and, at the dissolution of the 
partnership, February, 1867, a complete and satisfactory 
division of all property and money was made without the 
expense and formality of legal proceedings. Since that 
time Mr. Mitchell has conducted his business alone. In 
1868, in addition to farming extensively, and carrying on 
one of the largest dry-goods stores in Morgan County, 
Mr. Mitchell opened a private bank, of which he is the 
exclusive capitalist and manager. He has never sought 
or held public office in his life. In his travels on busi- 
ness he has visited all the larger cities of the East and 
South. On the 28th of January, 1840, he was married 
to Miss Jane M. Dietz, daughter of David Dietz, of 
Columbus, Indiana; and on the 18th of December, 
1849, he married Mrs. Ann Eslinger, daughter of Jere- 
miah Sandy, of Gosport, Indiana. He is the father 
of ten children, seven of whom are living; his oldest 
son, William C. Mitchell, being a partner in the busi- 
ness. Mr. Mitchell is a consistent member of the Chris- 
tian Church, and is a stanch Republican. He has never 
been a member of any secret organization or order of 
any kind. He is purely a self-made man, and as such 
has arisen from an humble station in life to be one of 
the most prominent and influential citizens and capital- 
ists in Indiana. Mr. Mitchell still personally superin- 
tends his extensive business. His large fortune has been 


30 


accumulated by his own unaided efforts. He has per- 
formed more than his share of physical labor, and has 
undergone all the hardships incident to the early settle- 
ment of Indiana, the results of which he now enjoys. 
He has preserved his health and youthful appearance to 
a remarkable degree, and appears to be not over forty 
years of age. He has always aided in what he con- 
sidered deserving charities, but has never allowed him- 
self to become a victim to wholesale swindles or pro- 
fessional beggars. He is a man of the strictest personal 
honor and integrity, and enjoys the confidence and 
esteem of his fellow-men. 


—<-Soth-o— 


OORE, MARSHALL A. AND GRANVILLE 
C., who form the firm of Moore Brothers, co- 
partners in the practice of law, Greencastle, In- 
diana, and Elizabeth 
Moore (zée Nugent), and were born in Hawkins County 
in the state of Tennessee; the former on December 
16, 1831, the latter on May 4, 1833. Their parents 
came with their children to Putnam County, Indiana, in 
April, 1834; and here the family have since resided. 
The father, Thomas A. Moore, died May 4, 1853. He 
was the second son of Thomas and Nancy Moore (née 
Walker), of Caroline County, Virginia; was born Decem- 
ber 16, 1799, and resided in Henry and Campbell 
Counties, Virginia, until manhood. In 1821 he re- 
moved to Hawkins County, Tennessee, where he mar- 
ried Miss Jane Cox in 1827. The fruit of this marriage 
was one child, a daughter, now Mrs. Harriet G. Willis, 
of Putnam County, Indiana. Jane died in 1829. In 
1831 he was again married, to Miss Elizabeth Nugent, 
who survives him. His father, Thomas Moore, was the 
youngest child of Samuel and Nancy Moore, who were 
married in Ireland, about 1760, and immediately re- 
moved to the colony of Virginia; although the point of 
their original settlement there is not known. Samuel 
died prior tosthe American Revolution, but his son 
Thomas was a soldier of the patriot army for the last 
five years of that memorable struggle, and also a soldier 
of the War of 1812. He died in 1822, and sleeps quietly 
in a grove of young pines in Hawkins County, Tennes- 
see, by the side of his wife. Two of his children sur- 
Elizabeth Mason, of London, Kentucky, the 
eldest; and Catharine T. Dickinson, of Jonesville, Vir- 
He left eight children, 
three sons and five daughters. Samuel W. Moore, 
M.D., of Texas; Thomas Moore, of Cumberland County, 
Jane Lloyd, of Lee County, Virginia; 
Thomas A. Reynolds, of Fayetteville, Arkansas; and the 
Masons, of Laurel County, Kentucky, are among his 
numerous descendants, Thomas A. Moore, father of the 
subject of this sketch, was a farmer, and loved his voca- 


are sons of Thomas A. 


vive: 


ginia, the youngest daughter. 


Tennessee; 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[5th Dist. 


tion; a devout Christian, of spotless life, superior intel- ~ 
lect and influence, and a life-long advocate of total 
abstinence. He, with his wife Elizabeth, came to In- 
diana that their children might have a home and the 
advantages of a free state. She yet resides on the 
‘family acres” which he subdued, situated about four 
miles south-east of Greencastle, Indiana. Her father, 
James Nugent, was born in Ireland, and emigrated to 
America about 1775, first settling in Virginia. He was 
a mill-wright, and, following his trade, came to Tennes- 
see. He made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Jen- 
kins, of Shenandoah County, Virginia, who became his 
wife. He died on his farm in Hawkins County, in 18109, 
and she at the same place in 1841. Elizabeth Moore 
was a devoted wife and mother, and survives to enjoy the 
comfort and love of all her children. There were born to 
Thomas A. and Elizabeth Moore nine children, all of 
whom are’ living; namely, Marshall A., Granville C., 
James V., Lorenzo F., Theresa L., Athalia J., Cordelia 
C., Orlena C., and Thomas T. James is a minister of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a member of the 
Indiana Annual Conference. Lorenzo is a farmer, and 
with his mother and two sisters resides on the family 
farm, which, to the credit of all concerned, has never 
been subdivided, though the father has been dead 
twenty-six years. Two of the girls are teachers— 
Athalia J. having charge of the intermediate depart- 
ment of the second ward school in Greencastle, Indiana. 
Thomas is the junior partner of the law firm of Miller & 
Moore, of Greencastle, Indiana. Marshall A. Moore and 
Granville C. Moore had in early life only such meager 
facilities for education as were afforded by the common 
schools of that early day, and their own indomitable 
energies supplied; their studies being pursued often to 
late hours by the light of a bark torch. Though after 
maturer years each attended, for limited times and at 
irregular intervals, the Indiana Asbury University, the 
death of their father in 1853 left to them the care of a 
large family, and they gave up the idea of a thorough 
collegiate education. For the next seven years they 
farmed in summer, taught in winter, and snatched the 
time now and then for a session in college. They be- 
came eminently successful as teachers in the common 
schools, and fitted themselves for life as best they could. 
In 1860 Marshall A. Moore graduated from the Law 
Department of the Indiana Asbury University, John A. 
Matson in charge. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in 
the original roth Indiana Volunteers. Having served 
for the full term of his enlistment, he in 1862 returned 
to Greencastle, and in May of that year was elected 
mayor of the city. In May, 1864, he was again elected 
to that office, the duties of which he discharged with 
ability and diligence. Under his administration the 
city cemetery was established, and the beginning made 
of that system which has resulted in the general public 


sth Dist.) 


improvements of the city. He found the city largely 
indebted, and when his second term expired, in 1866, 
he left an overflowing treasury. Since 1864 he has not 
at any time been a candidate for office, yet has at all 
times been active in public matters. 
secured the passage of the Indiana law under which 
cities and towns have been able to build the magnificent 
school-houses that adorn them. Three of these build- 
ings grace the city of Greencastle. He it was who 
drafted the act of the Indiana Legislature of 1879 con- 
cerning foreign corporations, which lately caused so 
much comment in Eastern cities. On February 21, 
1864, he married Miss Harriet Ragan, fourth daughter 
of Reuben Ragan, whose biography appears elsewhere 
in this work. She is a lady worthy of the family and 
father from whom she sprang, and adorns the home 
her energy, taste, and enterprise have helped to create. 
In 1861 Granville C. Moore became chief clerk to the 
superintendent of public instruction of Indiana, Miles 
J. Fletcher, and continued in that position for six years. 
In this place he became widely and favorably known to 
the educators and teachers of Indiana. On May 4, 1863, 
he married Miss Kate Hubbard, whom he had known 
from her infancy. She was the second daughter of Jesse 
and Elizabeth Hubbard (zée Peck). Her father, Jesse, 
was the son of Wright and Lydia Hubbard (xée Wal- 
den), of Kentucky. His wife, Elizabeth, was the daugh- 
ter of Jacob and Catharine Peck (#ée Knight), of Put- 
nam County, Indiana. In Kate, G. C. Moore found a 
wife who has proved a real helpmate for him. They 
have three children, Miles F., Elizabeth J., and Charles. 
In 1869 Granville C. Moore removed to Greencastle, 
where M. A. Moore had been in the practice of law 
since 1866, and the firm of Moore Brothers was estab- 
lished, having from the first an excellent business. 
Granville C. Moore is a thorough student, and pains- 
taking in whatever he does. In 1879 the Indiana As- 
bury University conferred on him the honorary degree 
of Master of Arts. The brothers had charge of the legal 
difficulties attending the erection of the third ward school- 
house in Greencastle, and carried the enterprise to a suc- 
In politics they are, and always have been, 
Their mother made them anti-slavery be- 
Both men, however, 


cessful issue. 
- Republicans. 
fore they knew what politics was. 
are liberal in their views, believing that honesty is not 
confined to one party or set of men. Both for years 
have been members of the Masonic Fraternity; both are 
confirmed believers in Christianity, and G. C. Moore is 
a member of the Locust Street Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Indeed, all the family that adhere to any sect 
are Methodists, as was their father before them. The 
Moore Brothers are, in a literal sense, the architects of 
their own financial, literary, and professional fortunes: 
have. always been active in local politics;»holding that 
every good citizen should earnestly engage therein, and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


He prepared and | 


31 


that to neglect political duties tends to corruption, and 
is a sin against freedom and good government. 
enjoy the esteem of their neighbors. 


They 


—> te<— 


AVE, CHRISTIAN C., attorney, of Danville, was 
i born in Carter County, Tennessee, August 22, 
G 1803, and is the fourth son of John and Elizabeth 
Cig (Carriger) Nave. 
iron master, doing an extensive business in iron; he 
served in the War of 1812, and later in the Indian war. 
Christian Nave passed his childhood on the farm, be- 
ing employed at the usual labor; and at the age of 
eighteen entered Washington College, in East Tennes- 
see. Leaving college in 1823, he entered the law of- 
fice of Colonel J. P. Taylor, at Elizabethtown, East 
Tennessee. Here he remained three years; and, in 
March, 1826, was admitted to the bar to practice in all 
the courts. He immediately opened an office in 
Elizabethtown, and built up a large practice, gaining 
an enviable reputation as a criminal lawyer. In 1831 
he emigrated to Indiana, settling in Danville, where he 
still resides. 


{ 


His father was a farmer and 


During the five years he remained in 
Elizabethtown, he defended many murderers, never los- 
ing but a single case. The first murder trial in Indiana 
in which he appeared as counsel was that of John 
McClave, for the killing of Garretson. In this he was 
successful, and from that time took high rank among 
experienced lawyers. He afterwards defended Bula 
Hockett, tried on the charge of infanticide, and cleared 
her, the jury being out only seven minutes. Mr. Nave 
is justly proud of the fact that he has defended more 
criminals than any other man at the bar; that, while 
he has numbered among his opponents all the noted 
lawyers of the state, he has never yet been defeated ; 
that he has practiced more years than any other attorney 
in Indiana, and is even now, at the age of seventy-six, 
one of the finest criminal lawyers of the West. In 
1834 he was elected to the Legislature; was re-elected 
in 1835; and in 1839 was sent to the state Senate, 
where he served three years. While a member of this 
body he introduced, and had passed, a bill appropriat- 
ing all of the unclaimed fees in the county clerk’s office 
to the school fund, which enriched that fund about fifty 
thousand dollars. In 1846 he helped to raise the first 
regiment of Indiana volunteer infantry for the Mexican 
War. For this service he was commissioned a captain, 
and afterwards promoted to the rank of lieutenant-col- 
onel. He remained in service one year, and was mus- 
tered out July, 1847. In 1850 he was a member of the 
constitutional convention. He married, December 2, 
1838, Lurena Rich, of Kingston, Tennessee. Of their 
five children, George W. is a stock-dealer in Danville; 
Christian A. is practicing law in Salina, Kansas; Henry 


a2 


L. is a Presbyterian minister at Edinburg, Indiana; the | 


eldest daughter, Elizabeth, now dead, married Isaac 
Shorer, a farmer, of Hendricks County; and Mary L., 
the younger, is the wife of Hubert Linkfelter. Colonel 
Nave belongs to the Presbyterian Church. He is a Re- 
publican in politics, and has always been an active 
partisan, ever ready at a moment’s notice to take the 
stump for his party. He is still hale and hearty, and 
few men of half his years are capable of doing the 
work he daily performs, 
temperance, and is the oldest worker for the cause in 
the state. It is due, in a great measure, to his efforts 
that for over forty years but one saloon has existed in 
the county. 


*BRIEN, JAMES, superintendent of the State Re- 

form School, Plainfield, was born in Yorkshire, 
i, England, September 25, 1843. He is the third son 
vd» of James and Mary (Charlsworth) O’Brien. His 
father, who was a merchant in the « tight little isle,” 
died when James O’Brien was a lad; and his mother, emi- 
grating to America, settled in Laporte, Indiana, where the 
subject of our sketch worked on a farm until he reached 
his eighteenth year. He acquired a fair education by 
attending school during the winter months. Late in the 
summer of 1862 he enlisted as a private in Company H, 
87th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served till the 
restoration of the peace. During the last two years that 
he spent in the army he filled the office of company clerk 
with entire satisfaction to his superiors. The three years 
following his return to civil life he spent in J. G. Laird’s 
Academy, taking a scientific course, and graduated in 
1868. He then went to Kansas and took charge of the 
high school at Holton, where he remained three years, 
acting as county examiner of schools and deputy county 
clerk, in addition to performing his school duties. Re- 
turning to Indiana in 1872, he was principal of the 
high school at Wanatah for one year, was elected in 
June, 1873, superintendent of schools in Laporte County, 
for two years, and was re-elected in 1875. The follow- 
ing autumn he was elected -assistant superintendent of 
the Reform School; and one year later, by reason of 
his ability and faithfulness, he was elected to the full 
position of superintendent, which he still retains. The 
average number of boys in attendance has been three 
hundred and sixty. The school is remarkable for its 
good order and thorough discipline, and many of the 
inmates have been permanently reformed. Mr. O’Brien 
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 
politics is an active Democrat. He was married, August 
I, 1869, to Sarah Hall, of Laporte, the daughter of 
George Hall, a prominent farmer. They have one son. 
His school is much visited by those engaged in reform- 
atory enterprises. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


He is a strong advocate of | 


[sth Dist. 


(XYLER, COLONEL SAMUEL P., attorney, of 
‘f Franklin, was born in Hawkhurst, England, Au- 
” gust 26, 1819. He is the second son of Samuel and 
Sophia (Rabson) Oyler. His father was a farmer 
and freeholder in the mother country. The early life of 
Mr. Oyler was passed principally in the city of London, 
where he attended school for some years. He was aft- 
erward in school for some time at Westminster, and in 
1834 emigrated to America, settling in Rochester, New 
York. Here he continued his studies, and, although he 
never had the advantages of a collegiate education, his 
studious habits and industrious reading since attaining 
to manhood have filled out and perfected the outlines 
gained at school, until he has now at his command a 
fund of practical knowledge of infinitely greater value 
than many a collegian can boast. For two years he 
worked for twelve dollars per month in a nursery near 
Rochester. Turning his face toward the then great and 
far West, he removed in 1841 to the state of Indiana, 
and settled in Tippecanoe County, where he varied the 
monotony of farm labor by studying theology. In 1843 
he united with the Universalist Church, and for the en- 
suing eight years preached continuously. During this 
period his labors were divided among the states of Ohio, 
Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. In 1850 he removed 
to Franklin, Indiana, and commenced the study of law, 
entering as a student the office of Hon. Gilderoy Hicks. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1851, when he relin- 
quished preaching, and commenced the active practice 
of the profession in which he has won his greatest dis- 
tinction, and which he has industriously pursued ever 
since that time. Having been, even before entering the 
law office of Mr. Hicks, an industrious student of Black- 
stone, he readily passed an examination, and was ad- 
mitted to practice before the Supreme Court in 1852; 
subsequently, also upon examination, he was admitted 
to practice before the Supreme Court of the United 
States. In 1852, and again in 1854, he was prosecutor 
of his district, and devoted himself zealously to his 
profession until 1861. Upon the breaking out of the 
Civil War he at once entered the service of his adopted 
country, and by his personal efforts raised the first com- 
pany of volunteers in his county, which was also the 
third recruited in the state. He was appointed captain 
of this company, subsequently commissioned major of 
the 7th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and 
served during the campaign in West Virginia. Return- 
ing home in August, he resumed the practice of his 
profession, which he continued until 1862. He then 
again entered the service, and, having recruited two 
companies of the 79th Regiment Indiana Volunteer In- 
fantry, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and 
assigned to duty in the Army of the Cumberland. He 
was first with General Buell, and afterward’ with Gen- 
eral Rosecrans in all his memorable campaigns. He 


5th Dist.) 


took part in the battles of Chickamauga and Chatta- 
nooga, in which his regiment suffered severely. He 
returned to Chattanooga, the day after the battle of 
Chickamauga, with nineteen hundred men, all that 
were left of the Twenty-first Corps, of which he was 
the ranking officer. He led the charge at the battle of 
Mission Ridge; and his regiment, consolidated for the 
time with the 86th Indiana Volunteers, was the first to 
scale the Ridge and capture the works of the enemy. 
During the winter of 1863 and 1864 he was stationed in 
the valley of the Tennessee, and in the following sum- 
mer was with Sherman in his march upon Atlanta. 
He was in July, however, disabled by sickness, and in 
October was obliged to resign his commission and return 
home. He was at once elected by the Republicans of 
his district to the state Senate. He served here, with 
the same success and ability that had distinguished him 
in the army and in his profession, during two regular 
and one extra session, being made chairman of the 
Committee on Organization of Courts and a member of 
the Judiciary Committee. In 1868 he was appointed 
Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, and served 
until 1870. On February 4, 1845, Mr. Oyler married 
Julia A. Wooding, of Switzerland County, Indiana, who 
died in November, 1847. 
ent wife, Lucy Howe, daughter of Solomon Hicks, in 
December, 1849. He was delegate to the Chicago Na- 
tional Convention, in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was 


He was married to his pres- 


nominated, and was also a delegate and a member of 
the platform committee of the soldiers’ convention at 
Pittsburgh in 1866. In local matters, Colonel Oyler is 
active and useful, having been president of the school 
board of Franklin for years, and at the time when the city 
high school building—one of the finest in the state— 
was erected. As a citizen he enjoys, in an eminent de- 
gree, the confidence and respect of the community. 


—>-gote--—_ 


NITCHLYNN, HIRAM R., M. D., was born in 
Columbus, Mississippi, December 25, 1829. His 
paternal grandfather, John Pitchlynn, left Ports- 
mouth, England, and sought adventure in the 
Everglades of Florida some years prior to the Seminole 
War. From there he went to Mississippi. That he 
was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and 
force of character is evinced by the fact that he was 
government interpreter, during Jackson’s administration, 
for the Choctaw nation. He married a’ wife of the 
IChoctaw tribe, Folsom by name, of mixed English and 
Indian blood. The father of the subject of this sketch, 
John Pitchlynn, junior, married Leila, daughter of 
Major Levi Colbert, the illustrious chief of the Chick- 
asaw nation. Colonel P. P. Pitchlynn, an uncle of Mr. 
Hiram Pitchlynn, is a resident representative of the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


33 


Choctaw nation, at Washington City, and is spoken 
of at length in Charles Dickens’s ‘‘ American Notes.” 
Hiram received his early education and training in the 
Choctaw nation. In 1847, when seventeen years old, 
he went to Greencastle and entered Asbury Univer- 
sity, remaining there three college years. In 1850 and 
1851 he attended medical lectures at Indiana Central 
Medical College, Indianapolis. In 1852 and 1853 he 
attended lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Phil- 
adelphia. He returned to Greencastle, and has been 
actively engaged in the practice of his profession, in 
which he has gained a reputation that places him in 
the front rank of his profession, and makes him an 
authority in complicated cases. Doctor Pitchlynn mar- 
ried, May 7, 1850, Miss Desire A. Morrow, a niece of 
Chief Justice McLain, of the Supreme Court, and is 
connected with some of the best Ohio families. Of six 
children by this marriage but two are living. Doctor 
Pitchlynn for a quarter of a century was a_ social 
drinker, and his temperament led him into excesses 
which his sober judgment condemned; but in April, 
1877, he put on the red ribbon, and has not only abided 
by it faithfully, but has infused his zeal into others’ 
hearts. He is now a member of the executive com- 
mittee of the Indiana Christian Temperance Union, and 
one of the most pronounced temperance men in the 
state. 
+4906 


NG 
ey Jone, PHILANDER W., physician and surgeon, 
‘< of Franklin, the youngest son of George M. and 
€¥)} Susan (Holcomb) Payne, was born in Bedford, 
CG Ohio, March 9, 1832. His father, a well-known 
farmer and merchant, is still living, and at the age of 
eighty-eight years is remarkable for his intellectual and 
physical vigor. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, 
while Mr. Payne’s grandfather on his mother’s side was 
a Revolutionary soldier. The latter was for eight years 
a colonel in the American army, and was one of the 
active spirits in that memorable and illustrious war for 
He was with the suffering army at Valley 
Forge through that terrible winter which was the dark- 
est hour in the history of those dark days, and was 
present at the capture of Trenton. 
teen years, Mr. Payne left the farm and entered the 
Jennings County Seminary, where he studied for three 
years, teaching school occasionally in order to obtain 
the means to pay his expenses. After leaving the sem- 
inary he spent one year in teaching, and then com- 
menced a regular collegiate course at Wabash College, 
at Crawfordsville. A disease of the eyes compelled 
him to leave college before the full completion of his 
course, but the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him 
by the institution a few years later. Determining upon 
the study of medicine, he began reading with Doctor 


py} 


freedom. 


At the age of six- 


34 


A. Parks, of Vernon, Iudiana, and in 1855 entered Ann 
Arbor University. From this institution he went to the 
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and graduated 
in 1858. To further perfect himself in his profession, 
he afterward attended the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, and also the Bellevue Hospital College, in 
New York City. He then commenced active practice 
in Franklin, where he has resided continuously ever 
since. In December, 1863, he was one of the surgeons 
specially appointed by Governor Morton to care for the 
Indiana soldiers wounded at the battle of Stone River, 
and he spent some time in this service. The record of 
his life since then is one of earnest, untiring labor in 
his chosen profession, attended by the achievement of 
marked success, both in attaining rank and high stand- 
ing as a physician and surgeon, and also in gaining 
a competence thereby for himself and family. As a 
surgeon, especially, Doctor Payne stands pre-eminent, 
having the largest practice in the county, and traveling 
far and near to perform difficult and complicated opera- 
tions. In the midst of his arduous professional labors 
he has found time to study and promote the public and 
educational interests of his city and county. He was one 
of the originators and founders of the gas works in Frank- 
lin, and has by his active, energetic business habits and 
’ well-directed efforts done much to advance the interests 
and prosperity of the city. 
trustee of the Franklin College, and was largely instru- 
mental in placing that institution on a firm financial 
basis. He was also for some time one of the trustees 
of the Indiana College of Physicians and Surgeons, at 
Indianapolis. He was married, May 14, 1862, to Mary 
A. Forsythe, daughter of a well-known merchant of 
Franklin. They have an interesting family of three sons 
and four daughters. Doctor Payne is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he is a Re- 
publican, having voted and worked with that party 
since its formation. In every sense he is entitled to the 
honorable distinction of being called a self-made man. 
Starting without education or money, he has: by hard 
labor and unflinching self-denial achieved a thorough 
classical and scientific training, and wealth has come to 
him naturally as a direct result. 


He was for several years a 


—>+ F006 


AGAN, REUBEN, late of Putnam County, Indi- 
ana, and one of seven sons of Robert and Sally 
(Samuel) Ragan, was born October 5, 1793, in 
Caroline County, Virginia. But little is known 

of his parents save that, in 1795, with their large family, 
they emigtated to that portion of the blue grass region of 

Kentucky now known as Mercer County, where they 
and three of their sons soon afterwards died. Robert, 
Abner, Reuben, and Thompson were left as a legacy to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[5th Dist. 


the charitable world. Reuben was indentured by the 
courts to Elisha Thomas, whose subsequent affiliation 
with the Shakers brought him into such ill repute with 
the authorities that his ward was removed, and appren- 
ticed to a tanner, with whom he spent seven years, and 
thoroughly mastered the trade. Meanwhile he had ac- 
quired a great taste for horticultural pursuits, through 
obedience to his natural inclinations, and from association 
with Edward Darnaby and James Munday, pioneer nur- 
serymen of Central Kentucky. In 1815 Mr. Ragan 
made his first trip to Indiana, remaining in Knox and 
Washington Counties during a large portion of that 
year. In the latter county he assisted in the erection 
of Flenor’s Fort, then a frontier post. For a period of 
six years he spent most of his time in pioneer excursions 
through Indiana, remaining during the winter of 1818-19 
in Putnam County, in what is now Washington Town- 
ship. In October, 1821, he attended the public sale of 
lots in Indianapolis, and soon afterwards entered eighty 
acres of land seven miles east of Greencastle, upon 
which he located permanently in the autumn of 1822, 
Here he began his life-work as a horticulturist. On his 
land was sown and nurtured the first blue grass in the 
county, and the trees of the primitive forest were made 
to give place to those more ornamental and fruitful, 
many of which stil] remain—monuments to his memory. 
From his nursery most of the early orchards of Western 
Indiana were supplied, as well as many in Illinois, Mis- 
souri, Iowa, and even Oregon and California. To his 
chosen calling Mr. Ragan was earnestly devoted, and 
although lacking in early opportunities, as well as in 
such facilities for information as are afforded through 
books, publications devoted to the science, and the or- 
ganizations and societies of the present day, he became 
justly noted throughout the West as a leading horticul- 
turist. He had a wide intelligence, and was known best 
by his critical observations of minutiz, through which 
he often arrived at the conclusions that startled 
the learned and the scientific. His deductions upon 
the subject of the pear blight, during its preva- 
lence in 1844, were adopted as correct, and are 
still maintained by men of far greater renown. In 
1842 Mr. Ragan, with Sigerson, Aldridge, Beecher, 
Lindley, and others, organized the Indiana Horticul- 
tural Society. This society was productive of much 
good ; but, as the facilities for meeting together were 
then very poor, it did not become a permanent institu- 
tion. In 1860, however, a reorganization of the society 
was effected, when Mr, Ragan, although absent, was 
unanimously elected to the presidency. This was the 
only official capacity in which he ever served, and in 
this case his characteristic modesty soon prompted him 
to resign. He was then voted an honorary member of 
the society for life. Mr. Ragan was enterprising be- 
yond the average citizen of his day. Through his 


sth Dist.) 


instrumentality many new varieties of fruits and agri- 
cultural products were introduced into the country; his 
place at all times being a kind of experimental farm. 
As a citizen and neighbor, none knew him but to 
admire and respect him for his many virtues and general 
worth. In evidence of this we quote from a private 
letter which Mr. Ragan’s son received from a friend a 
few days prior to the former's death: 


‘¢T say to you what I have often said to others, that, 
considered in all the relations of life, I regard your father 
as the best man I have ever known; an exemplary citi- 
zen; a model, patient man, whose life is worthy of all 
imitation, and of all praise; one who has made fewer 
mistakes than most men, and has lived, rather than 
professed, a long Christian life. I have known ‘him in- 
timately from my very childhood, and have learned 
from him more lessons of virtue, of morality, and of 
true manhood, than I have learned from all the rest of 
the world. Reuben Ragan has been not only a good 
but a great man, in the truest sense of the word.” 


We feel constrained to present, among the many, one 
other tribute of respect, from the annual address of 
IL. D. G. Nelson, president of the Indiana Horticultural 
Society, in 1870: 


‘‘ The past year has been a marked one in the history 
of the world for the death of its heroes, statesmen, 
jurists, men of renown in science, high literary culture, 
and princely wealth, as well as distinguished agricultur- 
ists and pomologists. But among them all there was 
not seen a better man than the late plain, unostenta- 
tious, pure-minded, practical pioneer horticulturist and 
first president of this society—Reuben Ragan. He 
acted well his part in all the relations of a long and 
useful life, in a quiet and unobtrusive way, until he 
was called hence, at the advanced age of seventy- 
six years. This society will not fail to pass appro- 
priate resolutions in memory of the man who has 
been so long identified with the horticultural interests 
of our state, and who, although not known in political 
circles, has done more to advance the true interests of 
Indiana in a social as well as commercial point of view 
than many of high pretensions and heralded fame.” 


Mr. Ragan was a Universalist, having full and un- 
bounded faith in the ultimate triumph of good over 
evil, and in the ‘‘restitution of all things spoken of.” 
When death was approaching he composed the follow- 
ing lines: 

“My God doth call and I must go, 
And leave this vale of tears below, 
And join that happy, blessed number, 
Where joy and peace doth never cease, 
And wake in heaven from my slumber. 
My soul still lingers on the breeze, 
And loves its own sweet native trees; 
But free from earth it goes to God, 
Along the road that angels trod.” 


The 1st of May, 1828, he married Miss Jane Mat- 
thews, eldest daughter of Anderson B. and Amy 
(Heavin) Matthews. Mrs. Ragan was born October 3, 
1812, in Montgomery County, Virginia, and removed 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


ele 


with her parents to Putnam County, Indiana, in 1827. 
She still resides at the old homestead, where her hus- 
band lived from 1822 until his death, in August, 1869. 
From her family have descended some persons of note. 
Professor J. C. Ridpath, the historian and author, is 
the son of one of her sisters; while her brother, the 
late William Matthews, a physician and author, arose to 
eminence in his profession. Mr. and Mrs. Ragan’s 
family consisted of twelve children, ten of whom are 
still living. Three of the sons were private soldiers in 
the Union army in the late Civil War. The eldest son, 
William H. Ragan, now forty-three years of age, was 
elected secretary of the Indiana Horticultural Society 
in 1869, in which capacity he continues to serve. In 
1873 he was also made a member of the Indiana State 
Board of Agriculture, and has been successively re- 
elected to the present time. At. the biennial election 
in 1874 he was elected by the qualified voters of Hen- 
dricks and Putnam Counties a Representative in the 
General Assembly, and in 1876 a Senator from the 
same district. One of Mr. Ragan’s daughters is the 
wife of M. A. Moore, Esq., a sketch of whose life ap- 
pears in another portion of this work. The remaining 
members of the family are honored and respected citi- 
zens. Three sons and two daughters, still unmarried, 
make their home with their widowed mother, who, 
although near unto the extreme age allotted to man in 
his best estate, is still hale and hearty. She is happy 
in the contemplation of a long life well spent, and in 
the satisfaction of being surrounded by a large family 
of children and grandchildren, in all of whom virtue 
and morality are leading traits of character. 


—<- Goto 


IDPATH, ABRAHAM (deceased), son of John 
N and Mary Ridpath, was born January 21, 1815, 
( in Montgomery County, Virginia; and at the age 

of eighteen years emigrated with his father’s 


family to Indiana, settling in Putnam County, in 1833. 


He was the oldest son, and labored hard for the support 
of the family, which was poor, experiencing all the 


hardships of pioneer life. At the age of twenty his 
father gave him his freedom—all he ever inherited ex- 
cept good character and industry. On July 4, 1839, he 
married Sally P. Matthews, daughter of Anderson B. 
and Naomi Matthews. She as well as her husband 
was a native of Virginia, and a woman of rare qualities 
of mind and heart, having also the advantages of a 
common school education such as girls then received. 
Prior to his marriage he worked four years for Mr. 
Matthews as a. farm and mill hand, for which he re- 
ceived ninety-six dollars the first year and one hundred dol- 
lars per year afterwards. In January, 1840, he removed 
to a farm in Marion Township, where he resided until 


36 


November, 1875, when he removed to the city of Green- 
castle. During these thirty-five years he applied himself 
assiduously to farming pursuits, and had the pleasure 
of seeing developed under his toil and care one of the 
finest farms in the county. Mr. Ridpath gave his 
whole energies to the interests of society, being especially 
devoted to the cause of education. He was the first 
trustee of his township after the passage of the free 
school law of Indiana, and did much for the promotion of 
the system, and for every other worthy cause which was 
agitated among the people of his county. Five sons 
and two daughters were the fruit of his first marriage. He 
also adopted William M., an infant son of a brother, 
whom: he reared as one of his own children. In 1859 
his first wife died. Three years afterward he married 
Caroline Wright, who died within a few months. In 
1864 he married Sarah Yowell, who bore him two 
daughters, and survives him. Mr. Ridpath never went 
to school a day in his life, but he managed by private 
study to become a good English scholar, and to acquire 
by reading an unusual fund of general knowledge. It 
was the ambition of his life to see his family well edu- 
cated, and, making every thing bend to this purpose, he 
succeeded to an unusual degree. Few men of his means 
and position in life have left so many children so well 
educated. The oldest, John Clark, is the well known 
professor in Indiana Asbury University, and author of 
Ridpath’s histories of the United States. Gillum is a 
teacher, and recently professor of mathematics in Tulla- 
homa College, Tennessee ; and William M. is a success- 
These, together with 
Martha, who intends to become a teacher, are all gradu- 
ates of Indiana Asbury University. Anna E. was for 
several years a student of Thorntown Academy, after- 
ward a teacher in the public schools of Greencastle, 
and is now the wife of Professor Bassett, of Indiana 
Asbury University. 


ful lawyer at Brazil, Indiana. 


The younger members of the 
family promise to fulfill their father’s fond expec- 
stature Mr. Ridpath was of medium 
height, spare of flesh, but very muscular. He was of 
nervous, sanguine temperament, quick in movement, and 
had great power of endurance. 


tations. In 


These traits are charac- 
teristic of his family, which is one of great longevity. 
Nis grandfather and grandmother died, at their Virginia 
home during the Civil War, the former aged ninety- 
nine, and the latter one hundred and two years. His 
father is now living, in Boone County, Iowa, in his 
eighty-second year. Mr, Ridpath joined the Christian 
Church in his early manhood, and lived a consistent life. 
The spirit of sacrifice and of devotion to those whom he 
loved was the leading trait of his character. Scrupu- 
lously honest, he often suffered injury rather than take 
an undue advantage. His example has not been lost. 
Each of his first wife’s children is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. His death occurred De- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[5th Dist. 


cember 11, 1876. After sixty-two days of suffering from 
typhoid fever, he sank quietly to rest, and his life-work 
was done. 

ae ae 


ea) IDPATH, JOHN CLARK, LL.D., vice-president 
and professor of belles-lettres and history in As- 
bury University, Greencastle, Indiana, was born 
in Putnam County, on the 26th of April, 1840. 
He is the son of Abraham and Sally (Matthews) 
Ridpath, both of West Virginia. In his youth he re- 
ceived only such educational advantages as were gained 
in the common schools of the day. At the age of nine- 
teen he entered Asbury University, and graduated in 
1863 with the first honors of his class. To his parents, 
who were people of more than ordinary culture, is per- 
haps due greater credit than to the schoolmaster for 
the excellent preparatory training he had received for 
college. During the succeeding three years he taught, 
successively, as subordinate and principal of the Thorn- 
town (Boone County) Academy. In 1866 he was elected 
professor of languages at the Baker (Kansas) University, 
and at the same time superintendent of the public 
schools at Lawrenceburg. He accepted the latter posi- 
tion, and occupied it for three. years with distinguished 
success. In 1869 he was called to the chair of English 
literature and normal instruction in Asbury University, 
and entered at once upon the discharge of the duties of 
the position. He left behind a sorrowing sense of loss 
among those with whom he had labored at Lawrence- 
burg, where his varied learning and eminent ability as 
an instructor brought the schools to a high condition of 
efficiency. Two years later the title of his chair was 
changed to belles-lettres and history. 
author began in 1874. In that year and the next he 
produced an academic history and a popular history of 
the United States, which latter, a work of eight hun- 
dred pages octavo, has met with great favor. The sales 
in a brief period following its publication reached more 
than one hundred thousand copies, and the demand 
still remains active. It ranks among the best historical 
works of the age. In July, 1876, he published a gram- 
mar school history of the United States, making in all 
three important books, each bearing the marks of careful 
preparation. This he did in addition to his college duties, 
and it is needless to say to those conversant with such 
work that it was a labor of herculean proportions. 
These books are now used in a large number of the 
schools and colleges of the country, and are every-where 
regarded as models of their kind. During his connec- 
tion with Asbury University he has wielded a much 
larger educational influence than that ‘which flows fram 
the discharge of his duties as professor of history and 
belles-lettres, His judgment has been of great weight 
with his colleagues in shaping the policy of the literary 


w 


His career as an 


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department of the college, while his long experience in 
the management of public schools has enabled him to 
exert a lasting and salutary influence upon the educa- 
tional system of the state. He has now in press a fourth 
work, entitled, ‘‘An Inductive Grammar of the English 
Language,” which will be published the present year. 
He has been secretary of the Indiana State College Asso- 
ciation since its organization. In July, 1879, he was unan- 
imously elected by the board of trustees vice-president of 
Asbury University. In June, 1880, he was honored with 
the degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Syra- 
cuse, New York. Since entering upon his duties at As- 
bury he has achieved an enviable reputation as a speaker 
upon the lecture platform, his repertory including such 
subjects as ‘* The Chinese at Home,” ‘‘ Catherine of Rus- 
sia,” “A Fight with Force,” all of which he has delivered 
throughout Indiana and Illinois. In person he is about 
five feet eleven inches in height, finely proportioned, 
and wears a full beard and mustache. He was mar- 
ried in December, 1862, to Miss Hannah R. Smythe, 
of Putnam County. Five children have blessed their 
union, four of whom are yet living. This is the record 
of a remarkable man, whose labors for the benefit of his 
race have been untiring in the past sixteen years, in 
which brief period he has accomplished more really val- 
uable work than is done by many literary men of ordinary 
caliber in a life-time. He is just in his prime, strong, 
vigorous, well-grounded in a wholesome faith, and am- 
bitious to do all in his power for truth and right, and 
the dissemination of knowledge. His past augurs a 
brilliant and useful future, and he assuredly deserves 
high honor, and challenges the brotherly sympathy and 
encouragement of good men every-where. 


—0t@200-— 
ri OBINSON, JOHN C., of Spencer, Owen County, 
Indiana, son of Osmyn and Nancy Robinson, 
was born in Rush County, Indiana, February 29, 
5 1840. His father, a man of great natural ability, 
was elected to the Legislature in 1839, where he served 
with distinction. He died in 1847, leaving his wife 
with the care of seven children, the eldest being but 
thirteen years of age. Mrs. Robinson, 
woman of extraordinary endowments, succeeded, how- 
ever, in properly training, educating, and preparing her 
children for careers of usefulness. She died June, 1876, 
Her son, John C. Robinson, was prepared for col- 
lege at Fayetteville Academy, under the instruction of 
Professor William M. Thrasher, now of Butler University. 
He entered the Indiana State University in 1857, and 
graduated in 1861. During his early years he spent 
much time in working on his father’s farm, and it was 
there that he laid the foundation of that fine physical 
constitution which he now enjoys. 


who was a 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


‘member of the Christian Church. 


During that time, | 


37 


however, he was developing mind as well as muscle, 
reading thoroughly all the leading literature of the day. 
He read to such purpose that, while in the academic 
and collegiate course, his opponents in debate found 
him a formidable adversary in all questions of interest. 
After leaving college he taught school during the winter 
months, reading at night and during odd hours, so that 
he might be prepared for the profession of law. In 
1865 he commenced to practice law in Spencer, where 
he now resides. During the fall of 1865 he was ap- 
pointed deputy district attorney, in which capacity he 
served until 1866, when he was elected district attorney 
in the district composed of Putnam, Clay, Owen, and 
Greene Counties. In the fall of 1868 he was elected 
prosecuting attorney in the circuit composed of Morgan, 
Monroe, Putnam, Clay, Owen, and Greene Counties, 
and was re-elected in the fall of 1870 by an increased 
majority. The state was never more ably represented 
than during Mr. Robinson’s term of office. In 1872 
Mr. Robinson received the nomination of the Demo- 
cratic party for reporter of the Supreme Court, but was 
defeated by Hon, James B. Black, of Indianapolis, the 
result of the ill-timed action of the Democratic party in 
attempting to defeat Grant with Horace Greeley. In 
1876 he received the nomination for Judge of the Fif- 
teenth Judicial Circuit, composed of Morgan, Owen, 
and Greene Counties, and was elected by the largest 
majority ever given to any person in that circuit, receiv- 
ing over his competitor a majority of two thousand 
eight hundred votes. In this position, which he now 
occupies, Judge Robinson displays great legal ability. 
As a jurist, he ranks among the first lawyers of the 
On the bench he is dignified in his bearing and 
He is a man of generous im- 
He is a consistent 
For 
years he was president of the Indiana State Christian 


state. 
just in his decisions. 
pulses, social and warm-hearted. 
a number of 


Sunday-school Association, and took a deep interest in 
the success of Sunday-schools. In April, 1869, Mr. 
Robinson was married to Miss Martha J. Cooper, of 
Spencer, a lady of unusual intelligence. She was a 
daughter of John J. Cooper, Esq. This union has re- 
sulted in three children, two of whom are living. 


TES SO 


G(\ EAGAN, AMOS W., M. D., Mooresville, Morgan 
County, Indiana, was born in Marion County, In- 
diana, April 3, 1826. He is the son of Reason 

and Dinah (Wilson) Reagan, natives of South Car- 
olina, the former being of Irish extraction and the latter 
of Welsh descent. The early life of young Reagan was 
spent on the farm in Marion County, with a limited at- 

tendance at the common schools of the country, In 1839 

his father removed from Marion to Morgan County, set- 


38 REPRESENTATIVE 
tling at Mooresville. At the age of seventeen he went 
into his father’s store as clerk, where he remained for 
two years. In 1844 he entered Asbury University, at 
Greencastle, Indiana, and pursued the regular literary 
course of study in that institution for three years. By 
this time he had concluded to adopt the healing art as a 
life-time calling, and immediately on his return from As- 
bury, in 1847, he began reading medicine in the office of 
Dr. G. B. Mitchell, at Mooresville. This continued only 
for a brief period, for, at the beginning of the session of 
lectures, he entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, for the winter of 1847-48, and zealously pur- 
sued his studies till the close of the term. On his return 
from Cincinnati in the spring of 1848, he went to Bridge- 
port, Indiana, where, in company with his brother, Doc- 
tor Lot Reagan, he continued his reading, alternated with 
considerable practice. In the fall of 1850 he returned to 
Cincinnati, re-entered the Ohio Medical College, and in 
the spring of 1851 he graduated with the degree of M. SER 
Immediately after receiving his diploma he formed a 
partnership with his preceptor, Doctor Mitchell, and 
entered regularly upon the practice of medicine at 
Mooresville. This connection continued pleasantly and 
profitably with the exception of the time Doctor Reagan 
was engaged in the army, since which time he has prac- 
At the organization of the 7oth Regiment 
Indiana Volunteers, in 1862, Doctor Reagan entered the 
military service as assistant surgeon, but upon the com- 
pletion of the organization was commissioned regimental 
surgeon, and entered upon his duties. He remained with 
his regiment till February, 1864, when he assumed the 
duties of brigade surgeon in the First Brigade, Third 
Division, of the Twenty-sixth Army Corps, and from May 
following till the close of the war was with Sherman’s 
army in the Atlanta campaign. Doctor Reagan is a 
member of the Morgan County Medical Society and the 
Indiana State Medical Society, and is esteemed as a man 
of high professional integrity and practical skill. In 
1848 he joined the Free and Accepted Masons, and still 
retains an honorable standing in the order. Doctor 
Reagan’s first marriage occurred on the fourteenth day 
of August, 1855, to Miss Anna Rooker, daughter of Jesse 
Rooker, Esq., of Morgan County. He was again married, 
to Miss Sarah E. Rooker, September 6, 1866. His third 
and last marriage happened on the seventh day of Octo- 
ber, 1872, the bride being Mrs. Harriet Cox, widow of 
John B, Cox, and sister of the Hon. Franklin Landers, 
ex-member of Congress from the Seventh Congressional 
District of Indiana, and present candidate for Governor 
of Indiana on the Democratic ticket. His only living 
child is Mrs. Jessie Wampler, wife of Millard Wampler, 
Esq., of Gosport, Indiana, and an amiable and intelli- 
gent lady. Doctor Reagan is a portly gentleman, of a 
courteous and dignified bearing. He is honored and es- 
teemed by a large circle of friends, who have the most 


. 


ticed alone. 


MEN OF INDIANA. [5th Dist. 
implicit confidence in his integrity and professional 
ability; and, as a result, he has a very general and ex- 
tended practice in all the country in the vicinity of his 
home. His standing among his professional peers is of 
the highest character, and clearly indicates that his career 
has been no less creditable to the profession than it has 
been useful to the general public. 


—+-got-<—_ 


i FREDERICK A., physician and surgeon, 
sty) of Spencer, Owen County, was born in Frederick 
€ if County, Maryland, March 21, 1826. He is a son 

of Enos and Charlotte (Hughes) Schell, natives of 
Maryland, his father being of German extraction and 
his mother of English-Scotch descent. His maternal 
grandfather was a soldier of the Revolutionary army, 
serving with honor and distinction to the close of that 
contest. Doctor Schell was educated in the common 
schools of his native state, which he attended in winter, 
toiling at the severest farm labor in summer and 
autumn. He was noted in early life for his studious 
habits, taking but little interest in the frivolous amuse- 
ments of that time. Losing his father early in life, he 
removed with his mother to Jeffersonville, Clarke County, 
Indiana, in 1845, where he engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits until the next year, when he went to Monroe 
County, in the same state. There his mother purchased 
a tract of land near Mt. Tabor, upon which they settled. 
The improvement of this tract gave the son oppor- 
tunities for physical development. He remained here 
but a short time, however, for immediately after the 
declaration of war with Mexico he enlisted in the reg- 
ular army, and served until the close of that contest, 
He was in General Taylor’s command, and took part in 
the noted battles of Monterey, Buena Vista, and in 
many other smaller engagements. Near the close of 
1848 he returned home, and soon after began the study 
of medicine with Doctor Ware S. Walker, at the same 
time superintending his mother’s affairs on the farm. 
In 1850 he entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincin- 
nati, and graduated in the spring of 1852, receiving the 
degree of M. D. Soon after his graduation he removed 
to Spencer, Indiana, and undertook the practice of his 
profession. In 1856 he attended a course of lectures in 
the Eclectic Medical Institute, at Cincinnati, which in- 
stitution conferred upon him a diploma and the degree 
of M. D. In the spring of 1857 he returned to Spencer 
and resumed his practice. In 1859 he removed with his 
family to Cincinnati, assumed charge of the Eclectic 
Medical Institute, and practiced medicine and surgery 
until the following year, when he again returned to 
Spencer. In 1862 Doctor Schell was appointed assistant 
surgeon of the 71st Regiment Indiana Volunteers, after- 
ward the 6th Indiana Cavalry. He served in this 


sth Dist.] 


capacity during the campaigns in Tennessee and Georgia 
under Generals Grant and Sherman. About the close of 
the war he returned to Indiana, and again resumed the 
practice of his profession at Spencer, where he has since 
lived. Dr. Schell is a Democrat of the old Jeffersonian 
school. On the fourteenth day of February, 1850, he 
was married to Miss Elizabeth Walker, daughter of 
Gideon Walker, of Monroe County, Indiana. He is the 
father of three children: two daughters, Callie and 
Dorothy; and one son, Doctor Walker Schell, a young 
man of fine literary and medical attainments, who is 
associated with his father in the practice of medicine. 
Doctor Schell is a man of a broad and comprehensive 
mind, and much above the average of his profession in 
intellectual acquirements. He is a genial and affable 
gentleman, enjoying a lucrative practice, and commands 
the esteem of a large circle of friends. 


— OCH 


CHWARTZKOPF, JOHN G., of Columbus, treas- 

sf) urer of Bartholomew County, was born in Wiir- 
temberg, Germany, July 27, 1835, and is a son of 
2) Joseph and Theresa (Murod) Schwartzkopf. His 
father was a grain dealer and farmer. He acquired a 
thorough German education in the Old Country, while 

his knowledge of the English language has been at- 

tained by his own energy since his arrival in America. 

At the age of fifteen, in company with his sister, he 

emigrated to this country, and settled in Cincinnati. 

Immediately on his arrival he became a wood-worker in 

‘a carriage manufactory, and after serving his time as an 
apprentice he worked in various shops in the city as a 

journeyman. July 9, 1856, he removed to Indiana, and 
established himself at Columbus, where he was occupied 

at his trade for about a year and a half. He then 

formed a partnership with Adam Spotz in the manufac- 

ture of wagons and plows. At the end of seven years 

he bought his partner’s interest, and is still carrying on 

the business, having added a department for the manu- 

facture of carriages. In the summer of 1874 he was 

appointed treasurer of Bartholomew County by the 

county commissioners, to fill a vacancy. In the fall of 

‘the same year he was elected to the same position for 
the term of two years, and was re-elected in the fall of 

1876. In politics he has always been a stanch Demo- 

crat, and is one of the representative men of the party 

in the county and city, having several terms dis- 

charged the duties of councilman. He was reared in the 

Gatholic faith, and is now a member of the Church of 

Rome. He married, March 12, 1859, Mary Rush, of 

Cleveland, Ohio. Seven children have been born to 

them, of whom four boys and one girl are now living. 

Frank X., the eldest son, is his father’s deputy in the 

office. Mr. Schwartzkopf is a man of liberal views, and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


39 


has been closely identified with the growth and pros- 
perity of the city and county, having for many years 
carried on a manufacturing business which employs a 
large number of hands the year round. 


— FO — 

7. CHOFIELD, SYLVESTER H., M. D., of Martins- 
tt) ville, was born March 8, 1824, in Chester County, 
(J; Pennsylvania. He is the son of Doctor Jonathan 

H. and Hannah (Bicking) Schofield, natives of 
Virginia, and of German and Scotch descent respect- 
ively. He attended the common schools of Pennsyl- 
vania early in life, but at the age of eighteen entered 
Jefferson College, Philadelphia, remaining there one 
year. He then began the study of medicine with Doc- 
tor Dawes, a physician of high repute in Philadelphia, 
and after four years of close application attained a high 
degree of excellence in his studies. In 1843 he removed 
to Morgan County, Indiana, and began the practice of 
medicine. He soon became known as a man of extraor- 
dinary ability in his profession, and was abundantly 
successful. He was formerly of the Presbyterian faith, 
but for several years has been a member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church. 
He has filled several official positions in Martinsville, 
and was president of the Morgan County Medical So- 
ciety for several years. He was married, October 19, 
1848, to Miss Mary J. Work, daughter of Robert and 
Lettie Work. He has four children living, all of whom 
have had the advantage of a finished education; the 
eldest daughter being a musician of rare qualifications, 
as well as an accomplished scholar. Doctor Schofield 
has loved his profession from youth, and has embraced 
every opportunity for improvement. Although his finan- 
cial circumstances have not for years required him to 
practice, he has been a hard student, frequently attend- 
ing courses of lectures, in order to keep thoroughly 
informed on all new points. At one time he contem- 
plated removing West for the benefit of his family, in 
reference to which the Martinsville Gazette has the fol- 
lowing, from the citizens of Martinsville: 


Politically, he is a Democrat. 


«¢Doctor S. H. Schofield, an old practitioner of this 
county, is about to remove West. We can recommend 
him as one of the most successful physicians in this 
region. The community in which he has so long prac- 
ticed will feel a loss, but their loss will be the gain of 
the locality in which he may settle. Doctor Schofield 
graduated from one of the best medical schools of the 
United States some thirty years ago, and has always 
been regarded as a prudent and safe attendant upon the 
sick and afflicted of this section.” 


The following article also appeared in the same paper: 
«©At a meeting of the members of the Martinsville 
Academy of Medicine, on the 17th instant, the follow- 
ing action was taken relative to the removal of Doctor 
Schofield from this city to another field of professional 


40 


labor.. We can join with the society in bespeaking for 
him, as an intelligent and skillful physician, a kind 
neighbor and friend, a welcome in any community he 
may select as his future home. 

“Whereas, Doctor S, H. Schofield, a deserving mem- 
ber of the Martinsville Academy of Medicine, contem- 
plates changing his location; 

‘* Resolved, That we recognize in Doctor Schofield an 
experienced and intelligent physician, and bespeak for 
him the kind offices of the profession and of the com- 
munity wherever his lot may be cast. 

‘Resolved, That this resolution be spread upon the 
record, and a copy be furnished to Doctor Schofield. 

fon. bP. RAT CHEN. 
‘“*CLARK ROBBINS, 
‘©E. V. GREEN, 
“S. A. TILFORD, President. 
““W. E. HENDRICKS, Secrefary.”’ 


i Committee. 


Few men are more deserving of a place among the 
representative men of Indiana than Doctor Schofield. 
He is firm in his convictions of right and wrong, and 
takes an exalted view of personal honor. Socially, he 
is kind, hospitable, and obliging, a student and a gen- 
tleman. 

+422 — 
\@ CHWEITZER, BERNHARD, Representative, of 
ral ) Owen County, was born in Freiburg, Prussia, 
(55 March 1, 1834. He is the son of M. and Cecilie 
de Schweitzer, both natives of Prussia. He obtained 
a limited education in the public schools of his native 
place, and by diligent self-culture has risen to intellect- 
ual eminence. In 1851 he emigrated to America, and 
settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where he remained 
for a time, working at the confectionery trade. In 1853 
he took passage from Newport, Rhode Island, on an 
extensive voyage at sea, on the ship ‘‘ Neiman,” visiting 
St. Helena, the Sandwich Islands, San Francisco, Spain, 
Cuba, Central America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. On 
his return he landed at New York. After a short time 
in New Haven, Connecticut, he shipped as deck-hand 
on the steamer ‘‘ Isaac Newton,” then plying on the Hud- 
son River. The next winter he was employed as a 
laborer on the Erie Canal. A friend in Syracuse sup- 
plied him with means enough to reach Buffalo, where 
he was engaged in a tannery for a month; from that en- 
tering the service of the Erie Railroad until spring, 
when he removed to Niagara Falls, being employed 
again as a baker and confectioner. There he stayed for 
a year, when he went on to Detroit. This was an 
unfortunate step, as he was induced to lend all his hard- 
earned savings to a supposed friend, who took advan- 
tage of his kindness and left him with nothing. Noth- 
ing daunted, he accepted a humble position on the 
Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, and was subsequently 
appointed receiver and inspector of timber. He became 
conductor of the construction train, and then was freight 
conductor, acting as fireman and engineer, 


He was 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[sth Dist. 


serving in Canada in this capacity when a terrible 
calamity occurred at Montreal, by the falling of a 
bridge, by which many lives were lost. This so im- 
pressed Mr, Schweitzer that he immediately left the 
business, preferring an occupation less hazardous, if less 
remunerative. He resumed for a time, in Detroit, his 
old occupation of baker and confectioner, leaving it to 
superintend in Chicago the construction of a large 
steam bakery. He was invited to take a position as a 
clerk in a store at Joliet, which he filled for a brief 
time, then going on to St. Louis, and acting as salesman 
in a large wholesale clothing warehouse. He left this 
for the St. Louis Savings-bank, but, at the urgent solic- 
itation of his former employers in the wholesale house, 
he returned to them. Being sent to Pike’s Peak with 
a stock of goods, he partly disposed of them there, re- 
moving the rest to Salt Lake City. Having accom- 
plished his object, and rendered an account to his em- 
ployers, he visited California, where for a season he 
was a gold miner. On his return to St. Louis, he re- 
sumed his former relations with his old firm, and here 
he met for the first time the amiable and intelli- 
gent lady whom he afterwards married. He had by 
strict economy saved about five hundred dollars, but, 
again responding to the needs of an impecunious friend, 
this sum was, through duplicity. lost irretrievably. He 
then removed to Portsmouth, Ohio, and engaged in the 
confectionery business. After establishing himself he 
visited Cincinnati and was married to Miss Mary Hecht, 
taking her to Portsmouth to reside. At the outbreak 
of the Rebellion he desired to enter the service of the 
Union, but was rejected by the regimental physicians. 
He stayed in Portsmouth for seven years, and was suc- 
cessful in making money, but a disastrous fire at the 
end of that time swept away about thirteen thousand 
dollars’ worth of property. Nearly penniless, he had to 
begin the world anew. His health also failed, and he 
sought to recuperate by traveling for a while. Locating 
permanently at Spencer, Indiana, he entered into mer- 
cantile business, and was recovering from the effects of 
the loss at Portsmouth when another fire consumed 
most of his savings. He soon after sold out his entire 
stock to the Grangers, and has since been enabled to 
give his entire time to the quarrying and the manufac- 
ture of lime. In this he is still engaged. He built an 
inclined railroad, at an expense of thirteen thousand 
dollars, to connect with the Indianapolis and Vincennes 
Railroad. Mr. Schweitzer employs a large force of men 
in one of the most important industries of Southern 
Indiana, and in addition is connected with several other 
important enterprises of his town. He is a member of 
the Odd-fellows, having joined in 1869, and became a 
Mason in 1872. He has always been a steadfast adher- 
ent of the Democratic party. In 1878 he was the nom- 
inee for Representative in the state Legislature, and 


sth Dist.] REPRESENTATIVE 
was elected by a large majority. In the General Assem- 

bly he was active and energetic in the cause of the 

laboring classes, as his official acts clearly show, and 

was vigilant in the interest of the tax-payers. Socially, 

Mr. Schweitzer is kind and obliging, and has the esteem 

of a large circle of friends, who admire him for his 

strict moral and business principles. 


—+-40t6-o— 


@. MITH, JOHN WILLIAM, M. D., physician and 
=?) surgeon, Gosport, was born in Clark County, Ken- 
Gq; tucky, the 11th of May, 1830. His father, Daniel 
4) Smith, was a native of Montgomery County, Ken- 
tucky, where he was born July 7, 1801, and his mother, 
Eliza A. Smith, a daughter of Thomas Gardner, was born 
in Clark County, Kentucky, in 1806. His grandfather, 
William Smith, a son of Enoch Smith, was born im Shen- 
andoah County, Virginia, in 1772, and moved to Kentucky 
His father and mother went to Trimble 


at an early date. 
County, Kentucky, when he was about two years of age. 
Mr. Smith was a farmer by occupation, and reared six sons 
and two daughters. John W. was next to the oldest son, 
and at the age of four years was attacked with the dis- 
ease commonly known as white swelling of the hip joint, 
from which he was a great sufferer for years. At seven 
years of age he started to school upon his crutches. 
He soon observed that his parents were disposed to aid 
him all they could in gaining an education, even at a 
sacrifice, for such it was, as his father was not able to 
give him a classical education. So, when young, he 
resolved to improve every opportunity in order to ac- 
quire instruction. He attended school at intervals; for 
their terms at that day were short, only being open three 
months, although some few reached six months, in the 
year. He was reared under religious influences. His 
father and. mother were both exemplary Christians and 
members of the Methodist Church, and at the age of 
fifteen he attached himself to that organization. At 
sixteen he commenced teaching. He would teach, say 
. three or six months, and then with the means thus ob- 
tained would avail himself of a graded school at Bed- 
ford Springs, in Trimble County, and, indeed, wherever 
he could find advantages offered for instruction. At 
eighteen he had acquired a good English education for 
that day, in that county. So, by the encouragement 
of friends, he entered upon the study of medicine with 
Doctor Harvey A. Moore, in Milton, Kentucky, a town 
situated on the Ohio River, opposite to Madison, Indi- 
ana. The great barrier to his desired success in this 
enterprise was his limited means, but he proposed by 
diligence and work in the drug-store to fight his way 
through. In the fall of 1850 he entered the Kentucky 
Medical School, at Louisville, Kentucky, and by econ- 
omy, and much labor and sacrifice, finished that session. 


MEN OF INDIANA. 4I 
He returned to his preceptor in the spring of 1851, and 
remained with him until the fall of 1852. Then he 
borrowed the money necessary to complete the course, 
and in the spring of 1853 received the honors of a reg- 
ular graduate. He returned home, not knowing what 
to do, having exhausted all his resources, and being in 
debt. On his arrival he found his preceptor in the 
midst of an epidemic of small-pox, and with him he 
treated over one hundred cases. He continued in prac- 
tice with—or, in other words, under—Doctor Moore 
that summer and fall, but-in November, 1853, located 
in Gosport, Owen County, Indiana, where he met with 
good success. He soon made sufficient to liquidate the 
debt made to enable him to attend the medical lectures. 
His success thus far was due to great effort, and the aim 
of his life was to fully qualify himself for the profession 
before entering upon practice. From the religious and 
moral influences thrown around him from childhood he 
resolved to do as near right as possible. In order that 
he might have every safeguard that was possible, he 
joined the Order of Odd-fellows as soon as he was of 
When he came to In- 
diana he brought a letter from the Church he left, and 
a card from the lodge. He found but two Odd-fellows 
in Owen County when he arrived. In the year 1854 he 
was a charter member of Owen Lodge, No. 146, the first 


age, in which he still continues. 


one organized in that county, and to this day remains a 
member of it. In 1855 he represented it in the Grand 
Lodge. He has been a member of that grand body ever 
since. He has assisted in organizing the surrounding 
lodges, and also the encampments, and as representative 
to the Grand Encampment of the state has been honored 
by the brotherhood with their highest offices. In 1875 
he was elected Grand Patriarch of the state, and then 
was chosen Grand Representative to the Grand Lodge 
of the United States, attending his first session, Septem- 
ber, 1877, at Baltimore, Maryland. He has been en- 
gaged in the practice of his profession in that place con- 
tinuously from the 28th of November, 1853, up to this 
time. He was married to his first wife, Miss Malinda D. 
Bell, in Nicholas County, Kentucky, in October, 1855. 
She died in 1857, leaving him with an infant child four 
weeks old, now twenty-two years of age. In 1858 he 
married Miss Mary E. Davis, near Cynthiana, Kentucky, 
daughter of William M. Davis, of that county, and has 
by this union four children, making five altogether. He 
was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church up to 
eight years ago, when he and his family attached them- 
selves to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, on its 
organization there. IIe is now president of the Owen 
County Medical Society, and is a member of the State 
Medical Society. He has been a friend to education, 
and has wielded his whole influence for its advancement. 
He has been one of the board of trustees of the Gosport 
graded school from its organization up to this time, and 


42 


it is in part due to his efforts that they now have a school 
that prepares pupils for a college course proper. Doctor 
Smith is now fifty years of age, and is busily engaged 
in attending to his practice, making the eye and surgery 
a specialty. He is superintendent of the Sabbath-school, 
and is a class-leader and steward in the Church. He 
has a farm containing over four hundred acres of land, 
cultivated under his personal supervision. 


4006-2 — 


gs; 


pa 
5 
¢ 


7 TAFF, FREDERICK S., attorney, Franklin, In- 
ist) diana, is the fifth son of Frederick and Catharine 
Q; (Knapp) Staff, and was born in Henry County, In- 
te} diana, April 29, 1845. His parents emigrated 
from Germany. His father was a fine scholar, possess- 
ing a good knowledge of the Latin, English, and Ger- 
man languages, and having enjoyed such a course of 
mental training as the institutions of his native country 
afforded, but died soon after his arrival and settlement 
in Indiana. The early youth of F. S. Staff, junior, was 
spent, as is that of so many of the self-made young men 
of our land, in assisting on the farm in the summer and 
in attending either private or public schools in winter, 
thus developing both a physical growth capable of sustain- 
ing mental toil and a brain development that is to one 
day shape and influence the destinies of our country, 
and the throng of humanity that press and touch us on all 
sides. At the age of sixteen years he entered Earlham 
College, a Quaker institution, situated at Richmond, 
Indiana, where he spent three and a half years, taking 
nearly a full classical course, and lacking only a few 
months of graduating, the want of the necessary means 
preventing him from completing his senior year. After 
teaching one or two terms of school, he entered the 
state university of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and gradu- 
ated from the law department in the early part of 1871. 
He then went to Indianapolis and began the practice 
of his profession, desiring, also, to renew his studies 
with the late Martin M. Ray, one of Indiana’s 
most gifted and distinguished attorneys, whence he re- 
moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he remained 
for three years actively engaged. On his return to In- 
diana he settled in Franklin, where he has since re- 
sided. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme 
Court of the state of Michigan in 1871, and during his 
residence in Little Rock was licensed as a practitioner be- 
fore the United States Courts of that state. Since his resi- 
dence at Franklin, Indiana, he has been actively and ener- 
getically engaged in the criminal practice, and by his 
industry and ability is receiving constantly increasing 
general practice. Mr. Staff was married, April 21, 
1876, to Anna E. Dodge, daughter of Doctor R. L 
Dodge, one of the earliest residents of the state of Ar- 
kansas, who, by a careful and upright business course, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| adopted city and county. 


[sth Dist. 


has become one of her wealthiest citizens. Mr. Staff is 
an attendant upon the services of the Presbyterian 
Church. In politics, he is an active Democrat, having 
been chairman of the county central committee, a fre- 
quent delegate to the state conventions of his party, 
and chairman of the congressional convention that nomi- 
nated Captain Myers, the successful candidate in 1878. 
He is regarded as one of the political leaders in his 
county and district, and a first-class organizer in polit- 
ical campaigns. In private life he commands at once 
the respect and confidence of all with whom he is asso- 
ciated, and is a genial and courteous gentleman. 


——>- 890 


1826. His mother’s maiden name was Sarah Herod. 
His father, John Stansifer, was a farmer, who died 
when the son was but one year old. Simeon Stansifer 
enjoyed very limited educational advantages. He ac- 
quired the rudiments of the elementary studies by at- 
tending the country schools in the winter, while during 
the summer months he was compelled to work on a 
farm. At the age of twenty years he attended the law 
school at Carrollton, Kentucky, under Judge Prior, 
haying acquired means to pursue his studies by teaching. 
After remaining at Carrollton two sessions, he entered 
the law school at Covington, Kentucky, where he re- 
mained one term. He graduated in 1850, and immedi- 
ately engaged in the practice of his profession. In De- 
cember, 1851, he removed to Columbus, Indiana, and 
formed a partnership with his uncle, Hon. William 
Herod, an ex-member of Congress. In 1863 he was 
appointed by President Lincoln provost-marshal of the 
Third Congressional District; and by his energetic and 
faithful discharge of his duties was of material aid to 
the government during that trying period. Just previous 
to his assassination, President Lincoln appointed Colonel 
Stansifer collector of the revenue of the Third District, 
which position he held until the middle of the following 
year, when he was removed for political reasons by 
President Johnson, against the earnest protest of Sec- 
retary McCulloch. He was a member of the town 
council of Columbus that inaugurated the present school 
system, and was instrumental in the erection of the 
school building which now adorns the city. He mar- 
ried, in 1851, at Frankfort, Kentucky, Elizabeth Finnell. 
Of their six children, five are now living. In politics 
Colonel Stansifer has always been a Republican, and is 
one of the leading county members of that party. The 
citizens of Columbus speak of him as a gentleman of 
the old school. He is highly respected, and has been 
closely identified with the growth and prosperity of his 
He does not belong to any 


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religious denomination, but is an attendant of the Pres- 
byterian Church, of which his wife is a member., Dur- 
ing the war he was appointed colonel of rendezvous 
headquarters at Columbus, and assisted in organizing a 
great many of the Indiana regiments. 


+400 — 

1@ WEENEY, REV. Z, T., pastor of the Christian 

Church of Columbus, and president of the Indiana 
Crs Christian Sunday-school Association, was born at 
~@ Liberty, Casey County, Kentucky, February Io, 
1849, of Scotch and Irish parentage. His father, Rev. 
G. E. Sweeney, was a minister of the Christian Church, 
and his mother, T. (Campbell) Sweeney, is a relative 
of the noted Alexander Campbell, the founder of the 
Christian Reform; she is also a descendant of the Argyle 
family, of Scotland. His grandfather, Rev. Job Swee- 
ney, was also a minister of the same denomination, and 
of his four sons two were ministers. Rev. Z. T. Sweeney 
has three brothers in the ministry: W. G., the pastor 
of a Church in Dubuque, Iowa; J. S., minister in 
charge of the Christian Church in Paris, Kentucky; and 
G. W., pastor of the First Christian Church, at Chicago. 
When the subject of this sketch had attained the age 
of six years his father removed to Macoupin County, 
Illinois, where he attended the public schools until he 
was fifteen. He then entered a seminary at Scottsville, 
and there laid the foundation of a classical education. 
His father being a poor man, he was obliged to teach 
school several terms, in order to accumulate sufficient 
means to enable him to attend college. He entered 
college at Eureka, Illinois, in the fall of 1868, and 
remained one year. He afterward attended Asbury 
University, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he remained 
During his college life he preached an occa- 


two years. 
sional sermon, and upon leaving the university deliv- 
ered one at Paris, Illinois, receiving an immediate call 
from that Church, of which he took charge seventeen 
months. At the end of this time his means were such 
as to enable him to again enter college, and he became 
a member of the senior class at Asbury University in 
the fall of 1871. His health beginning to fail, he was 
compelled to relinquish his studies, and, to recuperate, 
spent several months in Kentucky. On his return he 
stopped one Sabbath at Columbus, Indiana, and preached 
in the Christian Church, so delighting his hearers that 
he immediately received a call from them. He assumed 
charge January 1, 1872, and remained one year, at the 
end of which time he was called to the Christian Church 


at Louisville. He accepted, and remained three months, | 


when he returned to Columbus, upon the urgent and 
constant solicitation of his congregation there. March 
10, 1875, he was married to Linnie Irwin, daughter 


of Hon. Joseph I. Trwin, of Columbus, Indiana, and 
A—-20 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


43 


was granted a year’s vacation by his congregation. <A 
daughter, Nettie, has been born to them. During his 
vacation, Mr. Sweeney received a call from the Chris- 
tian Church at Augusta, Georgia, which he accepted 
for one year; he then returned to Columbus, and again 
assumed the pastorate of the Church there, which he 
still retains. Upon taking charge of the Louisville 
Church, he found it encumbered with a debt of five 
thousand dollars, but, by his well-known energy and 
zeal, this large amount was raised, and the Church re- 
lieved of all indebtedness. At Paris, Illinois, he was 
instrumental in the erection of a magnificent building 
for his denomination. At Augusta, Georgia, he en- 
gineered the raising of means for the completion of the 
church edifice at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars, 
and of the building of a parsonage in the same city at a 
cost of fourteen thousand dollars. When he began his 
labors in Columbus, in 1872, the congregation numbered 
two hundred souls; the membership now exceeds five 
hundred in number; through his labors there has been 
an accession of two thousand to the Church. Mr. 
Sweeney has received calls from New York, New Or- 
leans, Baltimore, and other city Churches, all of which 
he has respectfully declined, preferring to remain at 
Columbus, much to the satisfaction of his congregation. 
He is highly respected and greatly beloved by all classes 
of people in the home of his adoption, no other man 
in the city of Columbus being held in such universal 
esteem. His sermons are clear, concise, practical, and 
logical, and his eloquence is known all over the state. 
The church edifice at Columbus is regarded as one of 
the finest in Indiana, and is, in fact, a model of beauty; 
the acoustic properties are fine, and the arrangement) of 
the seats, in comparison with that in many churches, is 
admirable. Mr. Sweeney has acquired considerable 
reputation as a lecturer, and is a power in the temper- 
ance field. His lectures at several universities and col- 
leges are highly commended, and he is regarded, 
although comparatively quite a young man, as one of 
the most able and forcible reasoners in the West. 


—+- BE th-—$_. 


HOEMAKER, JOHN W., druggist, of Blooming- 
gh) ton, Indiana, was born at Laporte, Indiana, Sep- 
& tember 22, 1841, and is a son of Daniel and 
©) Elizabeth (Keith) Shoemaker. His father was a 
native of New York, and emigrated to Northern Indiana 
in 1832, locating on a farm near Laporte, where he has 
since resided. The Captain in his youth assisted his 
father on the farm during the summer seasons, and at- 
tended the common schools during the winter months, 
On the 27th of July, 1861, he enlisted as a private in 
the 29th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers; and was a 
participant in the terrible battle of Shiloh. Soon after 


44 REPRESENTATIVE 
this becoming unfit for duty he was granted:a furlough, 
and while at home, in Indiana, was commissioned by 
Governor Morton as second lieutenant in the 7th Indi- 
ana Cavalry. He rapidly advanced to the rank of cap- 
tain, participating in all the battles in which his regi- 
ment wasengaged. He remained with the 7th Regiment 
two years, and upon its consolidation was discharged. 
He then enlisted in the 9th United States Infantry as a 
sergeant, and continued with this command until it was 
mustered out of the service, when he returned home. 
In 1866 he entered the State University at Bloomington, 
where he studied two years. After this he engaged in 
the drug trade at Bloomington in connection with Doc- 
tor Durand. At the expiration of a year he purchased 
his partner’s interest, and carried on business alone for 
some time. He then formed a partnership with Jackson 
Arnold, who soon after sold out to Mr. Fullerton. The 
last named remained in the firm two years, when Cap- 
tain Shoemaker again became the sole proprietor. He 
has an immense stock, and is the leading druggist of 
Bloomington. He was married, October 13, 1869, to 
Miss Eudora Stuart, a native of Salem, Indiana, to 
whom three children have been born. In politics Cap- 
tain Shoemaker is a Democrat. He was educated in the 
faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but is not a 
member of any religious denomination. He is closely 
identified with the growth and prosperity of the city 
of his adoption, and is esteemed by all as a genial and 
progressive fellow-citizen. 


—- 8936-<—_ 
JPR ; 

vw TUCKY, DOCTOR JOHN M., of Gosport, was 
)) born in Jeffersontown, Jefferson County, Kentucky, 
ass June 15, 1825. He is the son of Frederick and 
i) Louisa (Meyers) Stucky, both natives of Kentucky, 
and of German ancestry. In boyhood he attended the 
common schools and the academy of his native town 
during that part of the year not occupied in hard labor 
on the farm. His first earnings were devoted to the 
purchase of medical books, and at the age of fourteen 
he began reading them in connection with his other 
At eighteen he accepted a clerkship in a whole- 
sale and retail dry-goods and grocery store in Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, where he remained two years. At 
twenty-one he resumed his studies, systematically, with 
Doctor John S. Seaton, subsequently entering the Louis- 
ville Medical School, where, in March, 1848, he graduated 
with high honors. He went to Gosport, Indiana, May 
10, 1848, and began the practice of his profession. On 
the fourteenth day of February, 1862, Doctor Stucky was 
appointed assistant surgeon in the 59th Regiment In- 
diana Volunteers. He was with General Pope at New 
Madrid and Island No. 10, and thence went to Corinth, 
Mississippi, where Rosecrans defeated Generals Van 


duties. 


. Polly Lane. 


MEN OF INDIANA. [sth Dist. 
Dorn and Price, October 4, 1862. In February, 1863, 
he resigned his position in the army, returned to Gos- 
port, and resumed his practice. In 1864 he was elected 
by the Democratic party of Owen County to the House 
of Representatives, serving in the regular and called 
sessions until 1865. As a member of the Committees on 
Education and Benevolent Institutions, he was largely 
instrumental in revising the common school laws of In- 
diana. Doctor Stucky joined the Free and Accepted. 
Masons in 1850, and has attained a high degree in 
that order. He-has always been a Democrat in poli- 
tics. He was married, March 7, 1850, to Miss Esther 
E. Wampler, daughter of Hezekiah Wampler, a-wealthy 
farmer, merchant, and trader, of Gosport. They have 
had nine children, five of whom are living. The eld- 
est, Thomas E. Stucky, is now a promising young 
physician of Mooresville, Indiana. Dr. Stucky ranks 
high as a physician. He is an exemplary member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is an upright 
man, a good neighbor, and a genial, courteous gentle- 
man. By close attention to business he has accumu- 
lated a competence, and his honesty and ability com- 
mand the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens. 


(VHOMPSON, SILAS L., of Columbus. auditor of 
Bartholomew County, Indiana, was born in Wayne 
Township, of that county, October 20, 1844. His 


GaN 
“ch means of education were confined entirely to the 
country schools. When he was twenty-one he began 
teaching, which he continued during the three following 
winters, and at the age of twenty-five again attended 
school. For a time he was in the telegraph-office at 
Jonesville. He was elected auditor of the county in 
1874, for a term of four years. December 22, 1875, he 
married Olive Peak, a native of Johnson County. In 
politics he was reared a Democrat, but was elected 
auditor on an independent ticket, advocating the one- 
term system. Although comparatively a young man, he 
has reached an eminent position in the county, and is 
highly respected as an honest, upright, and worthy cit- 
izen. His great-grand-parents on the Thompson side 
were of Irish birth, and, coming to this country, set- 
tled in South Carolina. His grandfather removed from 
Carolina to Kentucky, where he married Susan Still- 


‘well, of Irish and German parentage, and removed to 


Bartholomew County, Indiana, in 1821. Silas Thomp- 
son, the father of the subject of this sketch, married 
Desire B. Lane, the daughter of Colonel Jacob and 
Colonel Lane was born October 3, 1789, 
and came to this state from New York in 1818, making 
the trip down the Ohio, which consumed five weeks, in 
a flat-boat, in company with his father-in-law, two 
brothers-in-law and their families, and a sister-in-law 


5th Dist.) 


and her family. They settled in Utica, Clarke County, 
Indiana, and removed to Bartholomew County, April 
2, 1821. Mr. Lane was made a captain of militia in 
1823, and colonel in 1828. He was county commis- 
sioner from 1842 to 1848, and Associate Judge from 
April, 1849, to October, 1851, and was afterward elected 
one of the trustees of Wayne Township, of this county. 
He died October 20, 1855, at the age of sixty-six 
years; his widow, Polly Lane, still survives him, at 
the age of eighty-six. Her maiden name was Guern- 
sey, and she was born in Watertown, Connecticut, in 
the year 1793. Her father removed to New York in 
1807, near Penn Yan, Ontario County, where she mar- 
ried Jacob Lane, in 1813. The Guernseys were of En- 
glish and the Lanes of German origin. Polly Lane’s 
mother was Huldah Seymour, whose brother, Josiah 
Seymour, was a captain in the Revolutionary army. 


90th — 


ffir COLONEL W. C. L., attorney-at-law, 
qj; of Bloomington, Indiana, was born May 22, 1836, 
cA in the city of Lafayette. His father was John Tay- 
0) lor, a native of Pennsylvania, whose ancestors emi- 
grated to this country from Ireland many years ago. 
His mother, Mary A. (Brown) Taylor, was born in Ohio, 
of Scotch parentage. Colonel Taylor graduated at the 
State University at Bloomington, Indiana, in the class of 
1855. He immediately began the study of law in the 
office of Orth & Stein, in Lafayette; was admitted to 
the bar in 1858, and elected district attorney, which po- 
sition he held two years. In 1859, on motion of Hon. 
R. C. Gregory, he was admitted to practice in the Su- 
preme Court of Indiana. In 1861 he enlisted in the 
2oth Indiana Regiment, then organizing at Lafayette, 


and in July was commissioned, and mustered into the 
service, as first lieutenant of Company G. In August of 
the same year he accompanied the regiment to Mary- 
land, and on the 24th of September, 1861, sailed for 
Hatteras Inlet. Soon after landing, the regiment was 
ordered to the north end of Hatteras Bank, forty miles 
from the fortifications, without transportations or artil- 
lery. Here, on the 4th of October, it was attacked by 
the enemy’s fleet of gunboats and transports, loaded 
with troops, and was forced to return to the light- 
house, twenty-eight miles distant. On the 9th of No- 
vember the regiment embarked for Fortress Monroe, 
where, on November 20, 1861, Mr. Taylor was com- 
missioned as captain of Company G. In March, 1862, 
the regiment removed to Newport News, and partici- 
pated in the engagement between the ‘‘Merrimac,” 
‘‘Cumberland,” and ‘‘Congress;” and on the 8th of 
March, while deployed as skirmishers, prevented the cap- 
tors from taking possession of the ship ‘‘ Congress,” which 
had struck her colors. It also witnessed the fight be: 


- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


45 


tween the ‘‘ Merrimac” and ‘‘ Monitor,” assisted in the 
capture of Norfolk, and, in June, 1862, joined the Army 
of the Potomac at Fair Oaks battle-ground, being as- 
signed for duty in Jamison’s brigade, Kearney’s division, 
and Heintzelman’s army corps. It bore an active part in 
all the battles in front of Richmond, particularly in the 
battles of Orchards and Glendale, or Frazer’s farm, 
where its loss was heavy. It covered the retreat of the 
Third Corps in the seven days’ fight, and, on the 29th 
of August, took part in the second battle of Bull Run, 
On the Ist of September it was engaged in the battle 
of Chantilly, also at Fredericksburg, December 11. On 
February 12, 1863, Captain Taylor was commissioned as 
major of the regiment, and was present at the battle of 
Chancellorsville. June 6, 1863, he was promoted to the 
rank of lieutenant-colonel, and on July 3, 1863, to that 
of colonel. He soon after commanded his regiment in 
the battle of Gettysburg. He was then ordered to New 
York City, for the purpose of suppressing the disturb- 
ance caused by drafts, and was placed in command of 
Fort Schuyler, New York harbor. He rejoined the 
Army of the Potomac in time to engage in the fights at 
Locust Grove and Mine Run, in November, and was 
also engaged in the battle at Rappahannock. He 
crossed the Rapidan with Grant’s army in May, 1864, 
and participated in the battles of the Wilderness, Todd’s 
Tavern, Po River, Spottsylvania, Tallapotomie, Cold 
Harbor, Deep Bottom, and Strawberry Plains, after 
which he was placed in the entrenchments in front of 
Petersburg. On the 15th of April, 1864, Colonel Tay- 
lor, while in Indiana on leave of absence, married Miss 
Lizzie M. McPheeters, daughter of Doctor J. G. Me- 
Pheeters, of Bloomington, Indiana, and surgeon of the 
33d Regiment Indiana Volunteers. After 
Colonel Taylor served as city attorney of Lafayette, In- 
diana, for four years. In April, 1874, he removed to 
Bloomington, where he is now engaged in the practice 
of his profession. 


the war 


In politics he is an ultra Repub- 
lican, and in religious belief an Episcopalian. His 
many friends in Bloomington speak of him as a gallant 
officer, and a genial, courteous gentleman. As an attor- 
ney, he is fast advancing to a prominent position at the 
Indiana bar. 


— > CE ->-— 


NILFORD, SALEM A., physician and surgeon, of 
Martinsville, the eighth son of Alexander and 
Elenore (McCullough) Tilford, was born in Jeffer- 
son County, February 2, 1827. He 
was one of a family of nine sons and four daughters. 
His father was an American soldier in the War of 1812, 
and his grandfather served for seven years in the patriot 
army in our War of Independence. His ancestors came 
to Indiana early in the history of the state; and the 
family may be justly termed pioneers. At the age of 


Indiana, 


46 


seven years, Doctor Tilford was taken by his parents to 
Madison, Indiana, where he obtained a good high 
school education. Deciding to enter the medical pro- 
fession, he commenced his studies in the office of Doc- 
tor J. H. D. Rodgers, where he remained for three 
years. He then entered the Louisville Medical Uni- 
versity, attending a course of lectures; and subsequently 
graduated from the Indiana Medical College, of Indian- 
apolis. He then established himself in Martinsville, 
where he has for thirty-one years been in active practice, 
excepting a brief period, commencing in 1870, during 
which he served as county auditor. Doctor Tilford has 
seen many changes take place in the home of his 
adoption, and has probably traveled as frequently over 
the country outlying Martinsville as any man living. 
His practice has taken him literally from one end of the 
county to the other, and it might be interesting to com- 
pute the thousands of miles he has ridden with no com- 
panion but his horse. The Medical Department of But- 
ler University conferred upon him 
degree in 1879. 28, 1849, 
Emeline Major, daughter of a well-known farmer of 
Morgan County. She died in 1853, leaving one daugh- 
ter, Ella R. Tilford, who is a graduate of the Female 
College of Glendale, Ohio, and has been, since 1877, 
principal of the high school of Martinsville. He mar- 
ried his present wife, Ann Wolfe, daughter of Hon. 
Benjamin Wolfe, of Sullivan County, April 1, 1857. 
They have a family of five sons and six daughters. The 
oldest son, Benjamin W., is studying his father’s pro- 
fession at home. Dr. Tilford is a member of the Chris- 
tian Church. He takes no active part in politics, 
although in years past he was an influential member of 
the Whig party. During the Civil War he voted and 
worked with the Republican party, but has since been 
In his profession Doctor Tilford is not a 


the ad eundem 


November he married 


a Democrat. 
specialist ; he devotes his entire time to general practice, 
and has a more extended field of labor than he can well 
oversee. As a citizen, neighbor, and physician, he has 
the respect and confidence of the large circle in which 
he has been so long known. 


$006 — 


; " : cer, Owen County, Indiana, was born near Ripley, 
io Brown County, Ohio, on the 27th of March, 1827. 

G2> Heisason of Peter M. and Martha (Henry) Wiles, 
the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of 
Virginia. His father was a cavalryman in the War of 
1812, serving till the close of that contest. In 1833 he 
moved to Fayette County, Indiana, and settled on a 
farm. The early education of young Wiles was in the 
common schools of Rush and Fayette Counties, but at 
the age of nineteen he entered Fairview Academy, at 


4 a ILES, WILLIAM V., physicianand surgeon, Spen- | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[sth Dist. 


Fairview, Rush County, Indiana, conducted by Professor 
A. R. Benton, now a member of the faculty of Butler 
University, where he was prepared for a course in col- 
lege, which, however, he never attended. He began 
teaching, and continued until he had finished three 
terms, the Jast year studying medicine with Doctor John 
Arnold, now of Rushville, Indiana. During the vaca- 
tions in his first two terms of school he also worked on 
afarm. He continued receiving medical instruction 
from Doctor Arnold till the fall of 1851, when he en- 
tered Cleveland Medical College, at Cleveland, Ohio, 
where he took a course of lectures, afterward locating 
at Cataract, Owen County, Indiana, and beginning prac- 
tice. He continued this at Cataract till the fall of 1859, 
when he attended Rush Medical College, at Chicago, 
Illinois, where, in the spring of 1860, he graduated. 
After receiving his diploma he returned to Cataract, and 
resumed his rounds as a physician, which continued till 
August, 1862, when he received an appointment as first 
assistant surgeon of the 85th Regiment Indiana Volun- 
teers, commanded by Colonel John B. Baird, and imme- 
diately entered the service, where he remained at his 
post, performing his duties faithfully and zealously, to the 
close of the war. During his term of service Doctor 
Wiles was often intrusted with delicate and important 
situations, such as the entire management of large hos- 
pitals, and other responsible detached duties. In all 
these diversified positions he displayed marked executive 
ability and thorough medical and surgical skill. After 
the close of the war he located at Greencastle, Indiana, 
which, however, continued but a short time, for in 1866 
he changed to Spencer, where he has ever since resided 
in active practice. In 1867, in partnership with Doctor 
Dean, he opened a drug-store in Spencer, of which he is 
now proprietor. March 10, 1879, Doctor Wiles was ap- 
pointed by Governor Williams trustee of the institution 
for the education of the blind. He has been intimately 
connected with all important enterprises of his town and 
county, and especially active in constructing the graded 
school building in Spencer, one of the best in the state, 
and for six years subsequently he was its trustee. In 
1862, and prior to his appointment as surgeon in the 
Union army, Doctor Wiles was the nominee of his party 
for Representative in the state Legislature, but pending 
the election he entered the military service. He joined 
the Free and Accepted Masons in 1853, and has attained 
the degree of Royal Arch Mason, and been Master for 
twenty-seven years. Doctor Wiles was brought up 
among the Whigs, but since the days of that party he 
has been a steadfast member of the Democratic organ- 
ization. He was married, March 11, 1856, to Miss Par- 
thenia I. Jennings, daughter of Theodore C. Jennings, 
of Greencastle, Indiana, his present estimable and in- 
telligent wife. He is the father of eight children, 
seven of whom are living. As a physician, Doctor Wiles 


sth Dist.| 


ranks with the most learned men of his profession in the 
state. His large perceptive faculties enable him to 
readily apply his knowledge obtained from books to the 
particular case in hand, and, in consequence, he has a 
large and lucrative practice. Financially, he has been a 
success beyond the average in his calling, and has accu- 
mulated for himself and family a competence. Socially, 
he is kind, affable, and obliging, and as a result enjoys 
the confidence and esteem of a large circle of warm 
personal friends. 
— +-90CE«—_ 


ILLIAMSON, DELANO ECCLES, of Green- 
castle, Indiana, was in Flor_nce, Boone 
County, Kentucky, August 19, 1822. In 1830 
his parents, Robert and Lydia (Madden) Will- 


born 


iamson, removed to Covington, Kentucky, and in 1833 


emigrated to the West, and located in Vermilion 
County, Illinois. Here Delano until his 
nineteenth year, attending the common schools. In 1841 


he went to Greencastle, Indiana, with the intention of 


remained 


entering college, but abandoned the idea after arriving 
there, and two weeks subsequently, being still undecided 
as to his future, he visited Bowling Green, and while 
there accepted the position of deputy ‘n the county 
clerk’s office. In March of the following year (1842) 
he was married to Miss Elizabeth Elliot, a sister of the 
clerk. During his residence in Bowling Green, which 
extended over a period of nearly two years, he had been 
devoting his leisure moments to the study of law, and 
in February, 1843, he returned to Greencastle, where 
he entered the office of Eccles & Hanna, for the purpose 
of reviewing his studies. In those days admission to 
the bar was attended by greater difficulties than now 
confront the young aspirant. A committee appointed 
by the circuit judge subjected the candidate to a critical 
examination, after which the judge granted or declined 
to issue the coveted license. In Mr. Williamson’s case 
the committee was composed of General Howard, 
Joseph A. Wright (afterwards Governor of Indiana and 
Minister to Russia), Delano Eccles, and Henry Secrist. 
They reported favorably, and a license was issued, 
signed by Judge Bryant, president judge of the circuit. 
Still the admission was but half complete. He next 
proceeded to Owen County, where he was again exam- 
ined, this time by Judge McDonald himself, from 
whom also he obtained a license; and this made him, so 
far as authority was concerned, a lawyer. Locating in 
Clay County, he commenced the practice of his profes- 
sion, where he remained till 1850, when he was elected 
to the Legislature as a Representative from that county, 
on the Democratic ticket, by six hundred majority, over 
two competitors. Among his associates in the Lower 
House were Willard, Usher, and Pratt—the latter be- 
ing subsequently sent to the United States Senate. In 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN Of INDIANA. 


| practice in Western Indiana. 
President Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand men, 


47 


1853 he removed to Greencastle, and in 1858, being still 
a Democrat, he was again nominated for the Legis- 
lature, but owing to a division in the party, was beaten 
by five votes. Meantime, having been admitted to 
practice in the Supreme Court, he had visited all the 
adjoining counties and become very extensively known. 
He took an active part in the presidential contest of 
1860, was a devoted adherent of Douglas, and cast his last 
Democratic vote for the ‘‘ Little Giant.” In July, 1859, 
he formed a copartnership, under the name of Williamson 
& Daggy, which still exists, with a large and lucrative 
In 1861, immediately after 


Mr. Williamson, an unflinching Union man, became an 
active supporter of the government, devoting himself 
for the next twelve months, with all the zeal of a pa- 
triot, to the promotion of the war spirit in Putnam and 
adjoining counties. This action, as was naturally ex- 


pected, created a feud between himself and the Dem- 


| ocratic party, which excluded him entirely from its 


councils. In June, 1862, at the Union convention, 
which embraced the Republican party and Union Dem- 
ocrats, he received the unsolicited nomination for Attor- 
ney-general of the state. Among his opponents, who 
were five in number, were Daniel D. Pratt and Judge 
Smith. ‘She war spirit had widened the breach between 
the adherents and the enemies of the government. Men 
who a year previous had been fast friends now passed 
each other coldly by. Party feeling ran high, and was, 
if possible, intensified upon the announcement of Lin- 
coln’s proclamation of emancipation. The majority of 
the voters being pro-slavery men, this action caused a 
defection from the Republican and Union-Democratic 
combination, resulting in a total defeat of their state 
ticket. In 1864 Mr. Williamson again received the 
nomination of the Republican convention, by acclama- 
This office he held for three 
In 1870 he re- 
fused to take the position for a fourth time. No better 
evidence of his professional skill and unblemished rep- 
utation as a gentleman can be given than this unqual- 
ified support of his party for the highest legal office in 
the state, extending over a period of ten years. In 
1872 he accompanied Senator Morton in his canvass 
through the middle and southern counties, and in 1876 
was a candidate for Congress, but, owing to local difh- 
culties, was defeated in the convention, and John Hanna 
Mr, Williamson was married 


tion, and was elected. 
consecutive terms of two years each. 


received the nomination. 
a second time January 3, 1861, to Miss Carrie Badger, 
of Greencastle, daughter of the Rev. O. P. Badger. Of 
his five children, Robert E., the eldest son, served in 
the 14th Indiana Regiment, and participated in the 
battle of Antietam and the winter campaign in the 
Cheatham Mountains. Mr. Williamson is a member of 
the Christian Church; has taken the degree of Royal 


48 


Arch in the Masonic Fraternity; and is, politically, a 
strong Republican. He is about five feet ten inches in 
height, wears no beard, and for a man of his age is sin- 
gularly handsome and youthful, both in action and ap- 
pearance. His face bears the stamp of refinement and 
culture, and he is, in short, one who would be sin- 
gled out in any assemblage of distinguished men as 
possessing, in a marked degree, steadfastness of purpose, 
honesty, and intelligence. 


—2-G006<— 


INKLER, CAPTAIN WILLIAM M., postmaster, 
!W> Columbus, Indiana, was born January 29, 1831, 
2 in Prussian Poland, and was a son of August T. 
and Bertha (Jacoby) Winkler. His father was a 
clergyman of the Reformed Lutheran Church. Captain 
Winkler began his studies at home under a tutor, and 
afterwards entered the Prussian Military Academy at Bres- 
lau, Silesia, where he graduated in 1845, and entered as 
a cadet in the Prussian service. He soon advanced to 
the rank of lieutenant of light artillery, and took an 
active part during the rebellion of 1848 and 1849. In 
the fall of 1849 he emigrated to America, where for 
years he was an agent for an emigration society. He 
also assisted in the survey of the Buffalo and Branford 
Railroad. In the fall of 1855 he located at Columbus, 
Indiana, where he rented a farm. In 1861, on the 
breaking out of the Rebellion, he enlisted as a private 
in the 4th Indiana Volunteer Cavalry, and was after- 
wards appointed lieutenant and acting adjutant. The 
latter position he held when he was mustered out 
at the close of the war, when he returned to Colum- 
bus and engaged as a bookkeeper. He also pre- 
pared a plat of the city of Columbus, Indiana. In the 
spring of 1866 he was appointed, by President Grant, 
postmaster at Columbus, which position he has since 
held. He was married, October 23, 1856, to Mary A. 
Murphy, daughter of Robert Murphy, a merchant of 
Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana. They have two 
children: Francis A., who is deputy postmaster; and 
Bertha E., who resides with her parents. He was origi- 
nally a Lutheran, but is now an elder in the Christian 
Church. In politics, he has always been an active sup- 
porter of the Republican party. In early life he de- 
voted much time to the study of geology, and to 
the gathering of ancient and modern coins. His nu- 
mismatic collection is pronounced to be one of the 
finest in the state, and not surpassed by any private one 
in the country. It now numbers over one thousand 
four hundred pieces, some of which are very ancient, 
dating back to the time of Babylon. Mr. Winkler is 
also the possessor of one of the twelve medals ordered 
by the Geneva award. He manifests great interest in 
directing children in the study of history and the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[sth Dist. 


sciences, and is regarded as one of the most thoroughly 
educated men in the community. He is very hospi- 
table, and takes great pleasure in assisting visitors in 
their numismatical examinations. 


FOC 


CAS 
* ILLIAMS, WILLIAM F., SEN., of Owen 
VV County, Indiana, first saw the light of day at 
a Fort Knox, Knox County, then Indiana Terri- 

tory, December 27, 1803, and is now the oldest 
white male citizen of the state who was born and 
raised within its borders. Mr. Williams is a son of 
Frank and Abigail Williams, natives of New York state, 
who emigrated to Kentucky at an early day, and later to 
Indiana Territory, by means of a boat which traversed 
the Ohio River to the mouth of the Wabash and 
ascended that stream to Post Vincennes, now the county 
seat of Knox County, and a city of twelve thousand 
inhabitants. They did not remain long at Vincennes, 
however, but, in company with ten other families, re- 
moved to the wilds of the interior, about twenty-five 
miles north of that city, now included in Sullivan County, 
but which was then a dense forest, in which could be 
found almost every species of animal known to America, 
and where the native Indian pursued, unmolested, the va- 
rious sports of his tribe. Here a settlement was effected, 
and the men began clearing up the forest preparatory to 
planting and sowing. It was a work of no ordinary mag- 
nitude. For miles in every direction the eye of the pioneer 
met only a dense forest, broken here and there by rivers 
and creeks and small lakes. Dams must be constructed 
and mills erected on these streams; and the forest must be 
cleared away to make room for the corn-field. Subject 
to all the privations and hardships of the pioneer life 
began the career of William F. Williams, senior. For 
eight years following their arrival the family remained 
at their point of location, but the last three years were 
spent in a fort which had been built for protection 
against the aggressions and assaults of the Indians, who 
became hostile and rebellious, seeking every opportunity 
to molest the whites. This warlike attitude of the na- 
tives proved to be a great embarrassment, as guards 
were required to be posted to warn the laborers in the 
fields of the approaching danger. The nearest trading 
point was Vincennes, twenty-five miles away. Under 
these circumstances it would be natural to suppose that 
Mr. Williams had little opportunity for an education. 
All the scholastic training available to him was that 
furnished by a few weeks’ attendance at the subscription 
schools, kept in a rude log school-house. Mr. Williams 
was, however, one of those who make the best of 
things, and so persistent was he that he has acquired a 
fair English education., In 1824 he removed from Sulli- 
van to Greene, and from Greene to Owen County in 1838, 


sth Dist.) 


where he settled on a farm of one hundred and fifty acres, 
for which he obligated himself to pay nine hundred dol- 
lars, nothing being required in advance. By the dint of 
untiring zeal, energy, and economy, he discharged this 
indebtedness in a short time, selling pork at two cents 
net, and corn at twelve and a half cents per bushel, 
shelted and delivered aboard the boats. Prosperity be- 
gan now to dawn upon him, and pioneer life ended. Mr, 
Williams was for many years a member of the state 
militia. By a succession of elections he served as mag- 
istrate of Greene County for sixteen years, making 
a very acceptable officer, and for eight years subse- 
quently was a notary public. He is a consistent and 
worthy member of the Protestant Methodist Church, 
having belonged to that organization for fifty years. 
He is also an honored member of the Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons. He is a steadfast member of the Dem- 
ocratic party, of the old Jeffersonian school. He was 
married to Miss Mary Padgett December 28, 1822. Their 
wedding cake was composed of corn-meal, made by 
She 
lived with him many years, and as a fond and affec- 


crushing corn in a mortar with an iron wedge. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


49 


tionate wife and mother she had few equals. She is 
now dead. Mr. Williams is the father of five sons—Solo- 
mon, Daniel, Josiah, William F., junior, and James— 
four of whom served in the late war, two being wounded; 
but all lived to return home, and are now industrious, 
enterprising, and influential citizens, and all living on 
farms adjoining the old homestead. His two living 
daughters are Jane Patterson and Mrs. Elizabeth Mc- 
Clarren. The combined realty of the heirs now amounts 
in the aggregate to twenty-one hundred acres of the 
very finest land in Owen County. Mr. Williams’s life, 
though quiet, has been marked with great success. He 
has never been the man to boast of his achievements, 
or parade his virtues or accomplishments before the 
public. From an humble origin, with all the disad- 
vantages of life in a new country, and without means, 
Mr. Williams has attained a standing for moral princi- 
ples and influence seldom met with. His whole life 
has been most exemplary, and his example is worthy 
of imitation. Personally, he is kind and obliging. His 
friends will remember and revere his memory long after 
he is done with time and earthly things. 


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SIXTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 


|, NTHONY, SAMUEL T., physician and surgeon, 
sy of Muncie, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, 
bof December 2, 1792, and died at the residence of 
his son, Colonel E. C. Anthony, South Muncie, 

July 22, 1876. Doctor Anthony spent his years as a 
physician and a business man, and amassed a fortune 
of about a million dollars, consisting of real estate and 
both bank and railroad and bank stock. In 1812, being 
then about twenty years of age, he went with his father 
from Virginia to Cincinnati, and in the year following 
engaged with him in the manufacture of tobacco and 
the sale of general merchandise. This he continued for 
several years, after which he studied medicine, and then 
removed to Clinton County, Ohio, about the year 1823, 
where he practiced his profession for three years, 
Thence he removed to Muncie, Indiana, where he was 
continually employed in the duties of his calling for 
twenty-five years, at the end of which period he retired 
from active practice. Yet it was but a nominal retire- 
ment; for such was the demand for his services that he 
really spent much time after that in treatment of the 
sick, He attended the poorest patient, from whom no 
reward could be expected, as faithfully as the wealth- 
iest, and in this way did much good among the desti- 
tute. Doctor Anthony retained all his faculties to the 
last, attending closely to his large business interests. 
The circumstances of his death were as follows: He 
came at six P. M., as usual, from his office to the resi- 
dence of his son, with whom he lived, and, having 
rested about two hours, sat out on the porch and con- 
versed with the family until ten o’clock, and then re- 
tired for the night. Within an hour he was seized 
with violent pains in the right hip, which were followed 
by paralysis, and terminated fatally at twenty-five min- 
utes past twelve. He died without apparent pain, and 
in perfect resignation. His funeral was attended by the 
largest concourse of people ever seen on a like occasion 
in the city. Doctor Anthony was methodical, industri- 


ous, frugal, and just, and regarded idleness and profli- 
gacy with the utmost contempt. He had energy, inde- 
pendence of spirit, superior financial abilities, and was 
a physician of more than ordinary skill. He was twice 
married. By his first union he had one son, Colonel 
Edwin C. Anthony. No children were born of the sec- 
ond marriage. His widow survives him. 


w) 
i 


A\\) RNOLD, JOHN, physician and surgeon, of Rush- 
\ ville, Indiana, eldest child and only son of John 
and Mary Ann (Cole) Arnold, was born January 
14, 1815. His birthplace was upon that rocky, 
sea-girt ‘‘Garden of England,” the Isle of Wight, 
where the poet Tennyson dwells and pens his immortal 
For centuries it had been the home of his 
paternal ancestors, who, as shown by the records of 
heraldry, were of noble birth. « They were,” he writes, 
a ‘robust, healthy race, with strong passions kept in 
subjection by a powerful will, industrious, independent, 
energetic, with enthusiastic love for their home, their 
family, and their country:”? His father was born in the 
old family mansion at Waytes Court, parish of Brixton, 
July 20, 1788. After receiving a liberal education, he 
turned his attention to agriculture. A man of scholarly 
tastes, he acquired an extensive knowledge of litera- 
ture, and, becoming imbued with the political theories 
of the French philosophers, longed to dwell in the land 
where they had become in part the fundamental princi- 
ples of government. He had married October 7, 1813, 
and seven years later, May 20, 1820, he embarked with 
a brother for America. After a long and tedious voy- 
age they landed at New York. From there they went to 
Philadelphia, thence in a six-horse wagon over the Alle- 
ghanies to Pittsburg, and then in a covered boat down 
the Ohio to Cincinnati, where they disembarked and 
traveled on to Connersville, Indiana. Obtaining a 


verse. 


2 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


guide at that place, they pushed still farther into the 
wilderness to select a spot for settlement. The follow- 
ing is from a detailed account of their progress in 
Paper XVI of ‘‘Reminiscences of an Old Settler,” 
by Doctor Arnold, and is a graphic description of that 
part of Indiana in its primitive days: 

‘My father, though eminently domestic and social 
in his feelings, yet had an exalted love and admiration 
for the wild beauties of nature, and his heart was filled 
with pleasurable emotions as he traversed the mazes of 
the virgin forest. None but those who saw the country 
in those early days can form an adequate conception of 
the wild luxuriance of vegetation, covering every foot 
of the teeming soil, and showing its fertility. In addi- 
tion to the heavy growth of lofty forest trees, the dense 
and almost impassable undergrowth of spice brush, 
and pawpaw, and other shrubs, was seen a profusion of 
weeds and flowers of a hundred varieties, which have 
now disappeared, trodden out by the foot of civiliza- 
tion. These sights produced a still more powerful im- 
pression from the fact of his having just come from an 
old country, where the rich exuberance of nature’s 
products had been toned down by the hand of taste 
and subdued by cultivation.” 

The spot chosen for a home was on Ben Davis’s 
Creek, within the present limits of Rush County. There 
Mr. Arnold built a house and made every possible prep- 
aration for the comfort of his family, consisting of 
wife and four children, who came over with his brother 
Isaac the following year, 1821. It was several years 
before a school was established; and John Arnold 
gained his elementary education at home under the 
careful instruction of his parents. At length he at- 
tended a school taught by William B. Laughlin, a phy- 
sician and general surveyor. (See sketch.) Here he 
studied the higher English branches and Latin for one 
year, and then entered Miami University at Oxford, 
Ohio. At the end of four years ill-health obliged him 
to leave college, and after he had regained his vigor by 
working on the home farm he commenced the study of 
medicine, under the direction of Doctor Jefferson Helm 
(see sketch), in Vienna (now Glenwood), Rush County. 
With an inherited ability he devoted himself to the 
course of reading assigned, till at length he was enabled 
to pass a rigid examination before the three censors of 
the Fifth Medical District, Doctors Jefferson Helm, 
D. A. Cox, and Philip Mason, who licensed him 
to practice as a physician and surgeon, November 
2, 1836. He then entered into partnership with his pre- 
ceptor, Doctor Helm, with whom he remained until 
August 23, 1841, when he returned to visit the home of 
his childhood, the Isle of Wight, an interesting descrip- 
tion of which is contained in the series of papers above 
mentioned. The main purpose of Doctor Arnold’s 
trip to England was to regain his health, which had 
become so impaired that many believed he could not 
The result justified his hopes, and in Novem- 
ber of the following year he returned to Indiana en- 


recover. 


[ 6th Dist. 


tirely well. While in England he visited the principal 
hospitals, gaining thereby knowledge of great value to 
the medical practitioner. In the spring of 1843 he re- 
sumed the duties of his profession, opening an office in 
Connersville. During the next ten years he had the 
largest practice ever acquired in that county. At the 
close of that period, having bought his father’s farm, 
known as ‘‘Arnold’s Home,” he returned to Rush 
County and lived on the old homestead, engaged both 
as a physician and a farmer, until August, 1877, when 
he moved into Rushville, where he still continues prac- 
tice. The Doctor is a member of the Rush Medical 
Society, the Union District Medical Society, the In- 
diana State Medical Society, and the American Medical 
Association, In all these he has held prominent posi- 
tions, and in 1871 was sent as a delegate from the In- 
diana State Medical Society to the Ohio Medical Society. 
Four years later he became a delegate from the Rush 
Medical Society to the American Medical Association, 
which convened at Louisville, and again, in 1877, when 
it assembled at Chicago. In June, 1876, he was elected 
president of the Old Settlers’ Society of Rush County. 
Doctor Arnold in his political connections was formerly 
a Whig, and is now a Republican. The first presiden- 
tial candidate for whom he voted was Henry Clay, and 
he has ever since held very decided opinions on the 
great questions that have arisen, and been quite active 
in politics, but never seeks the spoils of office. In re- 
ligion he is a member of the Presbyterian Church, with 
which he united in 1854. He was married, December 
25, 1838, to Miss Sarah Ann, daughter of Abner Ball, 
a prominent citizen of Fayette County, originally from 
New Jersey. Of the four children of this marriage, 
three are living: Mary Ann, wife of Hamilton R. 
Holmes, a merchant in Mobile, Alabama; William W., 
a physician, and vice-president of the Rush Medical So- 
ciety; and John Arnold, who carries on the home farm, 
consisting of three hundred and thirty-six acres in fine 
condition. Doctor Arnold is the oldest physician now 
practicing in Rush County. It is forty-two years since 
he. received the degree of M. D., and entered upon 
the responsible duties of his profession; and, with a 
mind matured and enriched by the study and experience 
of that long period, he is to-day one of the ablest prac- 
titioners of that part of the state. He is also a grace- 
ful and instructive writer. Literary composition is ap- 
parently recreation to him, and the productions of his 
pen are numerous and interesting, consisting chiefly of 
newspaper articles, with occasional reports of cases un- 
der medical treatment. He is now writing a_ history 
of Rush County, for which he is particularly well quali- 
fied by culture and a long residence in that region. He 
traveled through the Southern States from 1872 to 1874, 
and gave the readers of the Rushville Republican an in- 
teresting account of the tour. ‘‘Reminiscences of an 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF Iktawars 


6th Dist.) 


Old Settler,” from which we have quoted, was pub- 
lished in the same paper, but deserved a wider circula- 
tion, being a charming description of events and scenes 
in the history and topography both of Indiana and the 
Isle of Wight. 
terms by the Indianapolis Sen¢zzeZ. Positiveness, energy, 
and perseverance, adequately proportioned to his intel- 
lectual faculties, are salient features in the character of 
Doctor Arnold. He bears a spotless reputation, being 
a man of marked probity and freedom from vice, and 
exemplary in the home circle as well as before the pub- 


It was noticed in very complimentary 


lic gaze. 
ee 

eo 

sy ) AER, O. P., M. D., of Richmond, was born in the 
p)) city of Frederick, state of Maryland, Angust 25, 
1816. 
English, German, and French—who came over 
during the Revolutionary War. 
as British soldiers, under George III, in the early part 
of the war, but, fully recognizing British oppression, they 
both deserted, and at once joined the American army, 
under General Washington. They fought faithfully to 
the end of the war, when they settled in Frederick City, 


All of his grand-parents were foreigners— 


Both grandfathers came 


and married ladies brought to this country by Lafayette. 
The Doctor’s father, William Baer, was the second son 
of George and Elizabeth Baer; his mother was the third 
child of Jacob and Margaretta Fauble—both families be- 
ing remarkable for energy and straightforward lives. The 
Doctor was sent quite early to Catholic schools, his 
mother having been raised a Catholic; and, though she 
had left the Church at her marriage, there always existed 
a firm friendship towards her in the heart of priest and 
Jesuit, both of whom frequently visited her house and 
taught her son Latin and Greek. At six years of age he 
visited, with his mother, a sick lady whom he saw tapped 
for dropsy. 
young mind that he then and there resolved to become 
a physician. 
into other lucrative walks of life, but his first idea was 
always his ‘‘haven of rest.”? It never forsook him. 
What the boy resolved the man accomplished. In 1827, 
his father, having lost all his property by becoming se- 
curity for another, removed to Dayton, Ohio, and, after 


This made so deep an impression upon his 


He met with several opportunities leading 


a few weeks sojourn here, finally settled in Union, some 
ten miles distant, his son Oliver remaining in Dayton 
with his uncle, Peter Baer, who, having no sons, accepted 
him as one, and gave him the full benefit of the best 
schools of the city. During his stay with his uncle he 
studied privately for the Catholic priesthood; but his 
father learning the fact caused him to abandon the proj- 
ect. Finishing his tuition in Dayton, he attended Ox- 
ford College for the space of two years, keeping bach- 
elor’s hall on fifty cents per week, and paying his way 
by aiding other scholars in their Latin, Greek, algebra, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 3 


trigonometry, chemistry, and other lessons, and also by 
teaching country night schools. On returning to Dayton 
he became acquainted, through Mr. Cathcart, the post- 
master, with the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, em- 
braced the doctrines as disclosed by him, and then went 
to Springfield under the pupilage of Professor W. G. 
Williams, an accomplished scholar, and a thorough ex- 
ponent of the doctrines as taught by Swedenborg. Here 
he remained two years. On returning home his Senator 
sought his appointment to West Point, but before his 
commission, arrived a first-class opportunity offered itself 
to enter Doctor Stubenger’s drug-store as a medical stu- 
dent, with alJl the facilities of a young chemist. He 
gladly accepted the position, and here he remained, a 
zealous student, for nearly three years. While a medical 


| student, as well as before, he taught night schools, and 


often lectured on phrenology, geology, and applied chem- 
istry. His father’s motto, impressed upon all his chil- 
dren, was fully recognized by him; ‘‘Never to go in 
debt beyond your known ability to pay.” Hence, he 
had no idle moments; all were fully employed in keep- 
ing his financial calendar clear. In the summer of 1839 
he made a geological tour through the North-west, and 
arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, in time for the opening 
of the Medical College, which he entered, and placed 
himself under the immediate care of Professors Daniel 
Drake and S. D. Gross. Here he remained until the 
spring of 1841. Having completed his studies, he re- 
turned home, and was married, March 25, 1841, to Miss 
Calista Mathewson, of Providence, Rhode Island, a lady 
of culture, who, six years thereafter, died of pulmonary 
hemorrhage. His second marriage occurred on the elev- 
enth day of July, 1848, to Miss Emma J., second daugh- 
ter of Rev. Peter Crocker, of Richmond, Indiana, for- 
merly of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. She was a lady of 
refinement and well educated, and has been to him all 
a loving wife could be, furthering his interests in every 
respect. Being domestic in her tastes, she was always 
at her post of duty with pleasure, as a mother, guar- 
dian, and general care-taker. The Doctor feels that he 
owes a great deal of his success in life to her ripe judg- 
ment, decorous conduct, and general supervision. By 
his first wife he had three children, all boys, each of 
whom died in very early infancy. By his second wife 
he had two children. The first, a boy, died when but 
a few months old; the second, a daughter, Mary E., 
is still living, a bright, well-educated young lady, with 
a decided musical talent and strong literary tastes. 
Doctor Baer commenced the practice of medicine in the 
small town of Union, where his parents resided; but, 
having a strong predilection for the practice of surgery, 
he resolved to change his location for that of Berlin, 
Shelby County, where active operations were going on 
in constructing the Ohio extension canal. Here he re- 
sided until the canal was finished, when he removed 


4 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dest. 


to Hardin, and thence to Vandalia, ten miles north | body had something to say, pro or con, about the new 


of Dayton, where he lost his first wife. While here he 
received a letter from Professor Drake, advising him to 
write an article for the medical journals against home- 
opathy, as it was making some little stir in the city of 
Cincinnati, as well as in the eastern cities. Thinking it 
wrong to attack a principle or doctrine without a thor- 
ough knowledge of its tenets, he procured Hahnemann’s 
own works, and in the investigation found so much 
truth to combat, and so little in the allopathic works to do 
it with, from a true scientific stand-point, that he resolved 
to test the theory by practice. He procured a few Ger- 
man remedies, and, after careful study of a notable case, 
administered the similia, and succeeded handsomely in 
curing a case that had been under the care of numer- 
ous allopaths for five years, and nothing bettered. He 
now commenced the study of homceopathy in earnest, 
leaving nothing unturned; he wrote to every known 
homceopath in our country, and some abroad, fully de- 
termined to catch the fire and hurl the burning brands 
where they would be the most effectual. 
with homceopathic remedies during the cholera of 1849 
settled the question with him. He renounced the allo- 
pathic practice 2% zofo, and raised the banner of home- 
opathy in the face of all opposition. So thoroughly 
convinced was he of the scientific basis of homceopathy 
that he considered it improper for him to practice any 
thing else. It was with this as with all other things 
which he is conscientiously convinced are truths, he felt 
compelled to live it. It would, indeed, be contrary to 
his nature to do otherwise. Whatever he believes, that 
he lives. He purchased all the works of Samuel Hahne- 
mann available, and a full Polychrest of his proved 
remedies; and, finding a ready purchaser, disposed of 
all his allopathic books and medicines, together with 
his real estate, and, on the 3d of September, 1849, 
moved to Richmond, Indiana. He hoped by this move 
to sever all connection with allopathic practice; as the 
change took him entirely away from his old friends and 
patrons, and placed him in a new field, among perfect 
Strangers, untrammeled and alone. He purchased prop- 
erty of his father-in-law on Fifth Street, where he opened 
his office, and quietly waited for the result. He always 
deprecated the idea of creating a sensation through flam- 
ing advertisements and blatant circulars, and therefore 
waited to be advertised by his cures. Cholera was just 
passing off, leaving many invalids in search of doctors 
to cure them, and Doctor Baer soon had his share of 
practice. Case after case presented itself, and cure after 
cure was joyfully effected. At first his practice was 
chiefly among the poorer classes; but cures effected 
among them were soon heard of, and his practice ex- 
tended to the wealthy. This opened strife at once. 
The allopathic physicians centered their entire wrath 
upon him. The warfare was sharp and abusive. Every 


His success 


system of medicine just being introduced under the 
name of homceopathy. The people, as well as the 
doctors, thus kept the new system and its exponent 
constantly in remembrance. The more the Doctor cured, 
the greater the contest and the more bitter the fight. 
Vandals of the baser sort, as emissaries, associates, and 
accomplices of would-be medical savants, assailed his 
premises, carrying off his gate, tearing down and hiding 
his sign, cutting his buggy-harness, placing heavy boards 
before his office door, with a dead rat and snake nailed 
upon it, hoping, no doubt, he would be injured 6n his 
opening the door. Dead animals were frequently thrown 
into his yard. Arsenic was placed in his pump-spout at 
three different times. Ropes were drawn across the 
sidewalk at night, for the purpose of tripping him. 
This condition of things waxed and waned more or less 
for some four or five years, when public opinion turned 
gradually in his favor, the opposition weakened from 
month to month, and he was treated with distant re- 
spect. His practice soon became the most enviable of 
any in the city. The most influential, wealthy, and 
honorable employed him, and he thus secured the cream 
of the medical practice, which the Allopaths had so 
long enjoyed. He commenced when but fifteen years 
of age to do for himself; and, without any aid from any 
source, he acquired a good classical, scientific, literary, 
and medical education, equal to any of his medical 
associates. ‘* What man has done man may do,” has 
always been his motto; hence he knew no obstacle too 
great to be overcome, and his unflinching perseverance 
has always brought him success. Both the Philadelphia 
Hahnemannian College and the St. Louis Homeéo- 
pathic College conferred upon him the degree of 
doctor of medicine. He writes for most of the Home- 
opathic journals, and many of his articles have been 
translated into the French and German medical journals. 
His leisure hours have been given up to the various 
sciences, such as geology, paleontology, mineralogy, con- 
chology, botany, chemistry, microscopy, etc., etc. He 
collected quite a respectable cabinet, which he gave to 
Urbana University, together with three hundred and 
fifty volumes of scientific works. He is now engaged 
in making a new collection. Being a devotee of .the 
New Church doctrines, as unfolded by the great seer 
Emanuel Swedenborg, he resolved, when able, to erect 
a place of worship, to be dedicated -to Jesus Christ as 
the God of heaven and earth. Thinking this time had 
arrived, he organized a society at his own house, hired a 
minister, and held meetings there for the space of one year, 
when he determined to build. He accordingly bought a 
lot, entered into contract for the erection of a temple, 
and set about raising the money. He collected some 
two thousand dollars from the good citizens, and then 
furnished the balance himself. The temple was dedi- 


6th. Dist.) 


cated January 21, 1870, and has been in constant use 
ever since. Doctor Baer has always been a close stu- 
dent ; he has no moments to loiter away, and is always 
among his books when not professionally engaged. Swe- 
denborg’s scientific works have a particular charm for 
him, as well as his theological writings. He has a large 
library of valuable scientific, medical, historical, the- 
ological, and other literary works; in other words, it is 
a complete reference library. In 1867, with ten other 
homeeopathic physicians, he organized a state society of 
homceopathy, and had it chartered, under the name of 
«¢ The Indiana Institute of Homceopathy.”” He was elected 
its president, and was elected to same office for six con- 
secutive years, when, in consequence of failing health, 
he refused to hold office any longer. He never failed 
to present a paper at each meeting of the institute. 
He now is, and has been for several years, an active 
member of the great medical association, the American 
Institute of Homceopathy. Te claims to have written 
the first article on atom mechanics in this country, 
assuming the polarity of atoms. Ile wrote two articles 
upon storms, showing, from meteorological data, why 
Richmond remains exempt from destructive tornadoes. 
He has written several scientific articles, which attracted 
more or less attention at the time of publication. He 
became an Odd-fellow in 1842, and a Freemason in 
1857, and took both the York and Scottish Rites. He 
joined the first organization of Washingtonians in the 
West in 1834, was a Son of Temperance and a Good 
Templar; he is in every sense a teetotaler, never having 
taken a.dram of liquor of any kind, nor prescribed it 
for his patients, in a large practice of over forty years. 
He never used tobacco, and never swore an oath, nor 
used slang language. 
ized a reformer; for, when but fifteen years of age he 


He was constitutionally organ- 


eschewed the use of tea and coffee, studied geology 
when all the divines in Dayton condemned it as of the 
devil, became a phrenologist, a Washingtonian, a Swe- 
denborgian, an Abolitionist, a homceopath; in fact, he 
examines every thing, irrespective of public opinion, and, 
if he finds it to coincide with other established truths, 
he frankly accepts it. As a physician, he deems it his 
bounden duty to be circumspect in the sick-room, and 
to show a cheerful face under all circumstances, believ- 
ing that a desponding medical face often casts a deep 
gloom where cheerfulness would restore confidence and 
hope. The great cardinal truth according to which he 
desires to live is, ‘‘that all religion has relation to 
life, and the life of religion is to do good.” Doctor 
Baer has now been for a long time before the people 
of Richmond, and has steadily grown in popularity each 
year. He has an eagerness for truth that leads him to 
examine any new theory or fact, and he is not to be 
deterred from accepting the results of his investiga- 


tions by any clamor or misrepresentation. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN. OF INDIANA. 5 


és J ELL, HARVEY, hardware merchant, of Knights- 
town, was born near Staunton, Virginia, May 12, 
~ 1806. He is the third of the eleven children of 
Ch john-and Sarah (McCutcheon) Bell, both natives 
of Virginia, where they were married. Mr. Bell was 
brought up to work on a farm, going to school for only 
a short time. In 1831 he removed with his wife and 
two children to West Liberty, near Knightstown, Indi- 
ana. His first business in the Hoosier State was that 
of running a saw-mill, in which he had bought an inter- 


est. At the end of three years he traded his mill prop- 
erty for a piece of land near by, which was covered 
with heavy timber. This he undertook to clear and 
cultivate; but, finding it too much for his strength, gave 
up the attempt after two years, and sold the land. He 
then bought an interest in a tin-shop in the village of 
Knightstown, and learned the tinner’s trade. About 
the year 1843 he purchased, trimmed, and sold the first 
cook-stove ever sold By industry and 
close attention to his work he gradually increased his 
business, until his little shop became a large hardware 
store. The present firm (1878), H. & W. N. Bell & Co., 
organized in 1860—consisting of the senior member, 
Harvey Bell; his son, William N. Bell; and his son-in- 
law, Tilghman Fish—has one of the best stocked and 
most attractive establishments of the kind in the state. 
The Bell Block and Bell’s Hall were built in the same 
The main room of the building occupied by this 


in the town. 


year. 
firm is twenty-five feet wide and one hundred and fifty 
feet deep; and when they took possession of it in 1864 
they put in over twelve thousand dollars’ worth of goods. 
They are doing the leading business in the town; and, 
being cautious in buying as well as in selling, have an 
excellent name for promptness and fair dealing. Mr. 
Bell has gone evenly and steadily forward in life, and 
has had no ambition for public office. In 1832 he was 
one of fourteen members who organized the Presbyterian 
Church, to which he still helongs. September 11, 1828, 
he married Miss Nancy Beaty, by whom he has two 
sons and three daughters. The eldest son, John A. 
Bell, is now postmaster at Knightstown; the eldest 
daughter is the wife of Mr. Fish, a member of the firm 
of H. & W. N. Bell & Co. Mr. Bell’s first wife having 
died in 1841, he married Susan Elder, August 27, 1843. 
She is the eldest daughter of Doctor Asiel Noble and 
Eliza Herberger. Her father was a native of Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts; and her mother of Philadelphia, Penn- 
sylvania. Mrs. Bell was born at Richmond, Virginia, 
August 22, 1805. When but a few months old she be- 
came blind, and remained so nearly two years, when, by 
Although 
now in her seventy-fourth year, she can read without 
the aid of glasses. January 6, 1830, she was married to 
Doctor James Elder, of Ohio, by whom she had three 
children, all of whom have died. In the year of their 


a skillful operation, her sight was restored. 


6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


marriage Doctor and Mrs. Elder removed to Covington, 
Indiana; thence, a year later, to Ohio; and returned to 
Indiana in 1835. Their son, Doctor B. F. Elder, was a 
student at Hanover College, and afterwards graduated 
from the Ohio Medical College. He began practice in 
Knightstown, when he was appointed post surgeon at 
Catlettsburg; and afterwards removed to Ashland, Ken- 
tucky. Through overwork, occasioned by inefficient 
help, he took a severe cold, which caused his death, 
August 5, 1862. He was a noble man, an ornament to 
society, and had an honest hatred for shams and shoddy. 
He passed away in the full hope of a happy future. 
By their second marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bell have had 
two children: Ada, who died in May, 1846, aged four- 
teen months; and Emma Louise, born March 7, 1847, 
now the wife of a prominent druggist of Knightstown. 
Mr. Bell leads a quiet and even life, is a valuable mem- 
ber of society, and highly respected in the community 
in which he lives. 
—+-g00@-<— 


F7 ENJAMIN, BREVET COLONEL HORATIO N., 
; »)) senior member of the firm of Benjamin & Weaver, 
(‘fo Richmond, and of H. N. Benjamin & Co., of 
6S Urbana, Ohio, both wholesale and retail grocers, 
was born in Binghamton, New York, November 9, 
18209. 
wholesale merchant in New York City. 
maiden name was Sarah M. Baxter. 
childhood was confined to that received at home and in 
the common school, and was interrupted by his becom- 


His father, for whom he was named, was a 
His mother’s 
Ilis instruction in 


ing a grocer’s clerk at the early age of twelve years. 
In this situation he remained, attending school part of 
the time, till 1846, when he began to learn the watch 
and jewelry trade; and four year later commenced the 
same business for himself in Binghamton. In Septem- 
ber, 1856, having previously married, he removed to 
Urbana, Ohio, and engaged in the grocery trade until 
1862. He then entered the army as second lieutenant 
vf Company E, 113th Ohio Infantry. The regiment 
was assigned to General Gilbert’s division in the Army 
of the Cumberland. In January or February, 1863, he 
was made first lieutenant of Company B, and in the 
following June became its captain. The regiment, after 
a few minor battles, met the foe on the field of Chicka- 
mauga. In this engagement Captain Benjamin was 
‘wounded, first on the scalp, by a piece of shell, then by 
a bullet through the body. Having sufficient strength 
remaining to walk, he started toward the rear, but, in a 
moment, as if death was determined to make sure of its 
victim, another ball struck his leg and felled him to 
the ground, and he was left for dead on the field. He 
lay there with little attention until morning, when he 
was picked up and conveyed to the hospital. On the 
22d of September he was sent home, though it was 


| frame, regular features, and dark, piercing eyes. 


[6c Dist. 


thought he could not survive the journey. Once there, 
tender care and society, which he enjoyed, worked their 
potent charm, and by the first day of the New Year he 
had so far recovered as to engage in the recruiting 
service. He fixed his headquarters at Columbus, and 
though it was deemed almost impossible, in that dark 
hour of the war, to recruit without drafting, he filled 
the nine companies of the 113th Ohio with volunteers, 
added a tenth, selecting its officers, and sent a number 
of men to other regiments. In April of the same year 
(1864) he rejoined his command, and engaged in the 
Atlanta campaign as provost-marshal on the staff of 
General John G. Mitchell. Some time after the fall of 
Atlanta, Captain Benjamin was appointed major of the 
185th Ohio Infantry, but, for important reasons, the 
sole command devolved upon him. He was ordered to 
Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and a part of the task assigned 
him was to rid the’ country of guerrillas, which he did 
successfully, evincing marked ability for such service. 
While there he had the honor to offer conditions of sur- 
render to General Giltner, commanding Morgan’s divis- 
ion of Confederate raiders; but the terms were haughtily 
refused. Major Benjamin then delayed them until he 
obtained reinforcements, when, with five regiments and 
one battalion of infantry and cavalry and a battery of 
artillery, he demanded their surrender unconditionally. 
Seeing that resistance was useless, the enemy yielded, 
and that terror-spreading band laid down their arms. 
Major Benjamin was then put in command of the post at 
Cumberland Gap, and of Camps Pitman and Barbours- 
ville; after which he was ordered to Eminence and Shel- 
byville, thence to Lexington, and, finally, to Camp Chase, 
Ohio, where, October 26, 1865, he was mustered out of 
the United States service. He had previously been 
breveted lieutenant-colonel, then colonel of volunteers, 
for meritorious conduct in battle. Having laid aside 
the sword, Colonel Benjamin at once established him- 
self in the wholesale’ grocery trade, as a member of the 
firm of Johnson, Weaver & Benjamin, in Urbana, Ohio, 
which, after some changes, became, in 1866, the present 
firm of H. N. Benjamin & Co. In 1876, with one of 
the partners—his son-in-law, W. S. Weaver—he entered 
The 
building they erected and now occupy was planned by 
him, and is said to be superior in internal finish and 
arrangement to any other of the kind in the United 
States. A convenient place is provided for every thing, 
and every thing is done in system and in order. Mr. 
Benjamin is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and 
has taken all the degrees up to, and including, that of 
Sir Knight. With his family, he is connected with the 
Baptist Church. Politically, he is a Republican, and 
votes and acts with that party. Nature has endowed 
Colonel Benjamin with a vigorous constitution, a stout 
His 


into the same business in Richmond, Indiana. 


6th Dest.) 


health is good. He is affable and fond of society, a 
man of kindly sympathy, considerate generosity, and 
sterling integrity. His successful management of two 
important mercantile houses proves him to be a man of 
superior business qualifications, and he is universally so 
regarded, both by his customers and those in the same 
line with him. Naturally, and from long experience in 
trade, he is accurate, far-seeing, prudent, and industri- 
ous. His mind forms conclusions with great rapidity. 
In the army he displayed marked courage, decision, 
and energy, and was quick to perceive the enemy’s de- 
signs, and bold and rapid in foiling them. So ably did 
he perform the duties of commandant of the post of 
Mount Sterling, Kentucky, that the inhabitants united 
in a petition against his transfer to another field, and 
the press of Louisville spoke most approvingly of his 
administration. While performing his duties to the 
government and to his command, he was just and ac- 
commodating to the citizens of the place. It is said by 
those who knew him in Urbana, Ohio, that he there 
ranked high in business and social circles, and that dur- 
ing the war the citizens testified their appreciation of 
his worth as a man and a commander by presenting him 
with an elegant and costly sword. At the close of the 
war the officers of the 185th Ohio made him the recip- 
ient of a beautiful gold-headed cane, and presented 
himself and his wife with a pitcher, a salver, and 
goblets of solid silver. 
respect of the community in which he lives, and de- 
He has honestly fulfilled the duties of 
He may 


He enjoys the confidence and 


serves them. 
life, and is now receiving his rightful meed. 
truly be entitled one of the eminent and representa- 
tive men of the state of Indiana. 


400 


) 


~ 
| 


oj ENNETT, GENERAL THOMAS W., of Rich- 

mond, was born in Union County, Indiana, Feb- 
CJ), ruary 16, 1831, and is the second in a family of 
33 ten children, whose parents were John F. and 
Nancy (Boroughs) Bennett. 
sive farmer, stock-raiser, and merchant, and was promi- 
nent both in political and religious circles. Thomas W. | 
Bennett was busily engaged in the lighter labors of the 
farm and in attending the common school until the age 
-of fourteen, when he entered his father’s country store 


His father was an exten: 


as clerk. Here he remained about three years, and 
then became a *‘ wagon-boy,”’ driving a six-horse freight 
team between Richmond, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio. 
In this he continued two years. At the end of that 
period he taught school in his home district one term, | 
‘and then attended the county seminary until the fall of 


1851, when, at the age of twenty, he entered the As- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


“bury University. In 1854 he graduated from the law 
department of that institution, and was elected pro- | 


7 


fessor of mathematics and natural science in White 
Water College, at Centerville, in which position he 
served one term.* In the spring of 1855 he began the 
practice of: law, in partnership with John Yaryan, at 
Liberty. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he 
earnestly espoused the cause of Fremont; and in 1858 
was elected state Senator for the counties of Fayette 
and Union; although the youngest member in the 
Senate, he took an active part in its proceedings. In 
the memorable political campaign of 1860 he spoke in 
most of the counties of Indiana for Mr. Lincoln, and 
in the following spring resigned his seat in the Senate 
to enter the army. On the very day the President 
issued his call for troops, Mr. Bennett began recruiting, 
and soon raised a company of one hundred men in his 
own town. With this company, of which he was 
elected captain, he joined the 15th Indiana Regiment, 
under Colonel G. D. Wagner, which was assigned to 
General McClellan’s army in West Virginia. There he 
was in the battles of Rich Mountain, Beverly, Green- 
brier, and Elkwater River. In September, 1861, he 
was appointed, by Governor Morton, major of the 36th 
Indiana Volunteers, then in camp at Richmond, In- 
diana. With this regiment, and in General Nelson’s 
division, he participated in the Buell campaign in Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, and Alabama ; including the capture 
of Nashville, the battle of Shiloh, the occupation of 
East Tennessee, the retreat to Louisville, and the pur- 
suit of Bragg out of Kentucky. In October, 1862, 
Governor Morton appointed him colonel of the 69th 
Indiana Volunteers. In command of that regiment he 
fought under General Grant in all his campaigns from 
Memphis to the surrender of Vicksburg, embracing the 
celebrated river expedition under General Sherman, the’ 
disastrous defeat of Chickasaw Bayou and Haynes Bluff, 
the capture of Arkansas Post, the following battles around 
Vicksburg, namely, Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, 
Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, and finally the cap- 
ture of the stronghold itself. During this memorable 
campaign Colonel Bennett received many marks of favor 
from his distinguished commander. 
for the difficult and perilous duty of exploring and 


He was selected 


opening the route from Morganza Bend, on the Missis- 
sippi, above Vicksburg, to New Carthage, below, on the 
same river. This work he did in such a manner as to 
elicit from General Grant a special order of congratu- 
lation. Again, in the winter of 1863, while the army 
lay at Voung’s Point, opposite Vicksburg, Colonel 
Bennett was, by General Grant, appointed president of 
a commission to examine and report for dismissal 
all incompetent officers, which resulted in the dis-, 
charge of nearly one hundred. After the fall of 
Vicksburg, he ordered with his 
New Orleans to reinforce General Banks, and, under 
that officer, participated in the Texas and the famous 


was regiment to 


8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


Red. River campaigns as a brigade commander. In the 
fall of 1864 he was detailed by Secretary Stanton as a 
member of the military commission to try the Indiana 
conspirators, Bowles, Milligan, Humphreys, and Horsey. 
In January, 1865, he obtained leave of absence from 
the army to attend the session of the state Senate, hav- 
ing been elected a member of that body from the 
counties of Fayette and Union. He served in that 
capacity four years, being a member of the Judiciary 
and chairman of the Military Committee. In the 
spring of 1865 he was appointed brigadier-general, and 
ordered to report for duty to General Canby at New 
Orleans, but before he reached that city Lee surren- 
dered, and the war was over. General Bennett was then 
mustered out of service, and resumed the practice of 
the legal profession at Liberty, Indiana. In 1867, he 
made a tour of Europe, visiting the chief points of in- 
terest in Ireland, England, France, Germany, Switzer- 
land, and Italy. In 1868 he removed to Richmond, 
Indiana, and, in the presidential campaign of that year 
employed his whole time in speaking for General Grant 
and the Republican party. In May, 1869, he was 
elected mayor of the city of Richmond, and served two 
years; then, declining a re-election, he resumed the 
practice of law. In September, 1871, President Grant, 
having appointed him Governor of the territory of 
Idaho, he removed there with his family. During his 
term of four years he was intrusted by the government 
with many responsible duties in regard to Indian affairs, 
and made several important treaties with the Nez-Perces, 
Shoshones, Bannocks, Coeur d’ Alenes, and Umatillas. 
In November, 1874, Governor Bennett was elected dele- 
gate to Congress from Idaho Territory, which seat he 
held eighteen months of the term of two years, when 
a contest for his seat was decided by a Democratic 
House against him. The very next day President Grant 
honored him by a re-appointment as Governor of that 
territory, which office he declined. In the campaign of 
1872, while Governor of Idaho, he canvassed the states 
of Oregon and California for Grant’s re-election. After 
leaving Washington, he settled permanently at Rich- 
mond, Indiana, and re-opened his law office. In May, 
1877, he was again elected mayor of the city, which 
position he now holds. General Bennett joined the In- 
dependent Order of Odd-fellows in 1854; he has taken 
all the degrees of the order, and is still a member in 
full fellowship. He has belonged to the Masonic Fra- 
ternity since 1857, and has taken as rapidly as. possible 
all the degrees of the Blue Lodge, Encampment, Chap- 
ter, Commandery, and the Sublime Degrees of the Scot- 
ish Right. He is also a member of the college order 
of Beta Theta Pi. General Bennett was reared by 
Methodist parents, and retains a preference for that 
mode of worship; he is not a member of any religious 
society, but, his wife being an Episcopalian, he gener- 


[Oth Dist. 


ally attends that Church. While believing in the great 
doctrines of a future existence and responsibility to a 
Creator, he is not altogether orthodox on many dogmas 
of the Church. In 1858 he married Miss Anna M. Cast- 
erline, daughter of Doctor Ziba Casterline, of Liberty, a 
prominent physician, editor, and politician, an Abolition- 
ist and a temperance advocate.- General Bennett is kind 
and benevolent almost to a fault, yet very positive in 
conviction, and firm in decision. He reads character 
intuitively, has strong personal magnetism, is a graceful 
and effective speaker, and thus is often enabled to win 
men to his views, and accomplish what to others would 
be impossible. These qualities have rendered him very 
efficient in the mayoralty, and conspicuous in the state 
Senate, and, united with courage and untiring energy, 
they have made him one of the best officers in the 
army. He ably administered the governmental affairs 
of Idaho, as shown by the fact of his re-appointment, 
and his previous election as delegate. Having risen in 
eight years, by the force of his own talent, from ob- 
scurity to the rank of brigadier-general and the office 
of governor, before the age of thirty-six, and efficiently 
performing all duties, his career has indeed been re- 
markable and worthy of emulation. 


—+-$20-o— 


Al) IGGER, HON. FINLEY, ex-register of the United 
States treasury, an able lawyer and mathema- 
tician, of Rushville, was born near Lebanon, 
ch Warren County, Ohio, September 209, 1807. He 
is a brother of Governor Samuel Bigger, deceased. (See 
sketch.) Through his father, Hon. John Bigger, a na- 
tive of Maryland, he is descended from one of three 
brothers who, about four hundred years ago, fled from 
Scotland during the Claverhouse persecutions, and 
settled in the north of Ireland. Their home in the 
former country was in or near the village of Biggar (as 
the family name was originally spelled), not far from 
the scene of one of Sir William Wallace’s battles with 


the English. His grandfather, John Bigger, senior, 


was a native of Antrim County, Ireland. His father 
was born December 5, 1770, and in the spring of 
1798 emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and settled 
in what afterward became Warren County. There he 
was soon elected to the first state Legislature, and con- 
tinued to represent that county either in the House or 
Senate until near the date of his death, June 18, 1840. 
He served, it is believed, more sessions in the Ohio 
Legislature than any other man. His early education 
had been neglected, but he had read and thought much, 
and his mind was strong, clear, and discriminating. 
He never suffered himself to be influenced by passion 
or prejudice ; and those who wished to do right in dif- 
ficult circumstances, sought his advice and relied on his 


6th List.) 


judgment with implicit confidence. He was always a 
peace-maker, and possessed the rare faculty of reconcil- 
ing contending parties even when reconciliation seemed 
impracticable; and, when he failed, he still retained 
the confidence and esteem of both. Strongly attached 
to family and friends, inflexible in the discharge of 
duty, ever ready to assist those who needed help, 
always more willing to forgive an injury than to 
resent it, he gained wide influence and was profoundly 
esteemed. For more than thirty years he was an elder 
in the Presbyterian Church, to which he became attached 
in early life. Tom Corwin was one of his intimate 
friends, and held him in such high esteem as to declare 
that by his honesty and nobility of character he was a 
natural Mason. That statesman and Henry Clay were 
often guests at Mr. Bigger’s house; and Mr. Cor- 
win’s mode of introducing him to distinguished gentle- 
men was, ‘‘ Allow me to introduce my honored friend, 
John Bigger, one of nature’s nobleman and an honest 
man.” Hon. Finley Bigger, the subject of this sketch, 
was introduced by Elisha Whittlesey to Judge McLane 
as the son of John Bigger, of Warren County, Ohio, 
‘¢as honest a man as the Lord ever placed on earth.” 
Finley Bigger had only very limited school privileges, 
bat he was reared under influences that stimulated in- 
tellectual growth. There, in the almost unbroken forest, 
was a coterie of young men of brilliant talents, who, 
with his father’s distinguished guests, unconsciously 
aided in molding the mind of the unlettered boy. 
Among these were two teachers of neighboring schools— 
Francis Glass, A. M., and J. J. Bruce Right, a graduate 
of a Boston college, a fine scholar and an eloquent de- 
bater. The former was a proficient linguist, writing and 
speaking with fluency seven languages. While in thai 
region he translated Weem’s ‘Life of Washington” 
into Latin, and it is still used as a college text-book. 
Vet both these men, with their splendid endowments, 
were victims of intemperance, and hence were reduced 
to the necessity of teaching small country schools. 
Mr. Bigger was not a pupil of either, but they were 
frequently at his father’s house. Years passed, and he 
studied law under Governor Corwin, was admitted to 
the bar, and, either in 1834 or 1835, licensed to practice 
in the Supreme Court of Ohio. In the spring of 1836 
he removed to Rushville, Indiana, and there com- 
menced the successful practice of his profession, Ex- 
cept during a period of several years, in which he re- 
sided in Washington, Rushville has ever since been his 
home. In 1853 Mr. Bigger was appointed register of 
the United States treasury, and discharged the duties 
of that responsible position until 1861. He found the 
archives of the office in a disordered condition, so much 
so that it was very difficult to find important papers on 
file, and months sometimes elapsed before a call from 


Congress or the heads of departments could be an- 
A—2I 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 9 


swered, He set proper forces at work to remedy this evil, 
and, when a new file room was prepared in the extension 
of the Treasury building, some hundreds of thousands of 
vouchers and other papers were so arranged that any 
of them could be found in less than fifteen minutes, and 
a call for information answered promptly. The depart- 
ments were so pleased with this improvement that Pres- 
ident Lincoln declared that if it were not for the pressure 
upon him for office he would have requested Mr. Bigger 
In 1874 Governor 
Hendricks appointed him one of the commissioners of 
the House of Refuge at Plainfield. While he acted in 
that capacity the annual expenses of the institution 
were reduced from seventy thousand to thirty thousand 
dollars, a fact that commends the faithfulness and ex- 
ecutive ability of the board, contrasting, as it does, with 
the official incompetence and corruption of the age. 
Almost ever since he fixed his home in Rushville Mr. 
Bigger has been, as he says, an ‘‘amateur editor.” He 
wrote for the Jacksondan, published in that city, and at 
times became its editor. Some of his editorials written 
after the Civil War were copied throughout the Union. 
The most important of these was one on Sheridan’s 
raid; another on Mrs. Surratt’s murderers; and a third 
on Black. Friday. 
a natural taste for mathematics, and an aptness for solv- 
ing difficult problems that was a promise of future abil- 
ity, which later years have more than fulfilled. At 
Washington, in 1859, he submitted to the National 
Teachers’ Association a review of Robinson’s analytical 
solution of the prize problem in Part Third of Emer- 
son’s Higher Arithmetic, which was referred by the 
association to the editor of the Mathematical Monthly 
(Cambridge, Massachusetts), and published that year in 
the December number of that periodical. As a speci- 


to remain as register during his term. 


At an early age Mr. Bigger evinced 


men of close, logical reasoning and terseness of style, 
this paper is worthy a perusal. It attests the power 
and capacity of the reviewer’s mind, especially as he 
studied in youth no higher branch than arithmetic, and 
that without the aid of a teacher, and never received 
instruction in the higher mathematics. For him, with- 
out such previous training, to present his review before 
a learned and august body of college professors seemed 
an act of temerity; but, as already seen, it was justified 
by the result, for the paper was deemed a masterly one, 
such as but few educated mathematicians could originate. 
Subsequently, Mr. Bigger published a pamphlet, ‘‘re- 
spectfully submitted to the teachers of the United 
States,” the title-page of which is as follows: ‘‘ Five of 
the Most Useful and Practical Rules in Arithmetic—to 
wit, Simple Proportion, Compound Proportion, Simple 
and Compound Interest, and Percentage—unified and 
solved by One Simple Formula; One Formula for either, 
or for Any Problem in either.”” This formula was to be 
embodied and illustrated in an arithmetic he was prepar- 


fe) 


ing, but for various reasons it has not beén completed. 
By this he claims that any pupil of ordinary intellect can 
readily state and solve the most difficult problem, and 
comprehend the whole reasoning process involved in 
arithmetical solutions. As a lawyer Mr. Bigger stands 
among the first. He has a thorough and comprehensive 
knowledge of legal principles; and his pleadings are 
celebrated throughout Eastern Indiana for their terse- 
ness and logical conclusions. As a writer on both 
political and social topics he has few equals. His style 
is concise, and exhibits great command of the English 
language. His sentences are often pointed with the 
keenest satire, and always linked together in perfect logic. 
Many of his newspaper articles have been copied by East- 
ern journals, and attracted much attention. Those who 
know him personally and through his writings say his 
mind is one of comprehensiveness and power. He is very 
faithful to clients and to friends, punctual in engage- 
ments, and in all relations of life a true gentleman. Mr, 
Bigger married Nancy Wilson, of Warren County, Ohio, 
March 6, 1827. 
—+-8Q tS 

G()OOR, WILLIAM F., M. D., vice-president of the 

First National Bank of New Castle, is one of the 
oldest and best qualified physicians in Henry 
tS County, having practiced there for a third of a 
century. He was the son of Nicholas and Rachel 
(Guisinger) Boor, both Pennsylvanians, of German de- 
scent, and was born in Perry County, Ohio, June Io, 
1819. After obtaining a good English education, he 
became, in April, 1842, a student of medicine in the 
office of Doctors Dillon and Spencer, in Uniontown, 
Muskingum County, Ohio, with whom he studied three 
years. He then opened an office in Carlisle, Monroe 
County, but, dissatisfied with the location, he removed in 
August, 1846, to Middletown, Henry County, Indiana, 


where he soon obtained a large and lucrative practice. 
Now fully established in the profession, he returned to 
Muskingum County, and was there married, April 15, 
1847, to Miss Catharine E. Axline. But the tie was bro- 
ken by her death, in March, 1852. Inthe following Octo- 
ber, bent upon attaining greater proficiency, he entered 
the Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia, from which 
he was graduated in March, 1853. Returning to Mid- 
dletown, he continued to practice there until 1858, when 
he removed to New Castle, where he has ever since been 
actively employed in his profession. Doctor Boor does 
not act in servile dependence upon the opinions of med- 
ical teachers, but relies very much upon the results of 
his own investigations. Having noticed in the treatment 
of enteric fever a very frequent and serious complication 
occurring about the end of the second week, ushered in 
with a chill, and speedily followed by pain in the groin 
and down the leg, he brought his observations to thee 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[6c Dast. 


notice of the Henry County Medical Society, in an es- 
say on ‘*Femoral Phlebitis,” in which he argued its 
pathological identity with phlegmasia alba dolens. He 
is a member of the Henry County Medical Society, and 
on several occasions has been élected its president. The 
Indiana State Medical Society also numbers him among 
its members. March 11, 1869, he was appointed physi- 
cian to the Henry County Asylum, and on April 2 of 
the following year he received the appointment of 
United States examining surgeon for pensions, both 
of which offices he still holds. In April, 1862, he was 
appointed by Governor Morton surgeon of the 19th In- 
diana Volunteers, but declined to serve; yet, on Septem- 
ber 4 of the same year, he accepted the surgeoncy of the 
4th Indiana Cavalry, and served with that regiment un- 
til June, 1863, when he was appointed brigade surgeon 
of the First Brigade, Second Division, Cavalry Corps, 
Army of the Cumberland. Unfortunately for the med- 
ical interests of that department, he was obliged to resign 
his post November, 1863, because of the protracted ill- 
ness of his wife. To this lady, his second consort, whose 
maiden name was Miss S. A. R. Roof, of Henry County, 
he was married April 1, 1857. He is the father of four 
children—two sons by the first wife, the younger dying 
in infancy. The older son, Walter A. Boor, M. D., is a 
graduate of the Medical Department of the Michigan 
University, and of Bellevue Hospital College, New York. 
He is in partnership with his father, and bids fair to 
become an able practitioner. By the second wife he 
had a daughter and a son. The daughter, Minnie L. 
Boor, nearing her twenty-second birthday, was very sud- 
denly and unexpectedly called hence in the early morn 
of the New-year, 1880. She was possessed of an amia- 
bleness of heart and gentleness of spirit rarely found, 
endearing herself to all. An active and devoted mem- 
ber of the Christian Church, she was ever found at her 
place in all the meetings. A graduate of the New 
Castle schools, under Professor G. W. Hufford, and two 
years at Antioch College, Ohio, she attained a high de- 
gree of intellectual culture. Thoughtful for humanity, 
she was diligent in the benevolent societies, and earnest 
in the temperance work and moral reforms of the day. 
The son is a student of medicine in his father’s office. 
The Doctor’s political attachments, though strong, are 
ever held in subservience to his sense of right, as seen 
in the fact that, although once a devoted Democrat, he 
left the party when it broke the nation’s compact and 
outraged the rights of man by repealing the Missouri 
Compromise. Since that event he has been a Republi- 
can. He has long been identified with the cause of ed- 
ucation, having been school trustee about twelve years. 
He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd-fel- 
lows, has passed all the chairs, and been several times a 
representative to the Grand Lodge. He is a member of 
the Christian Church, holding positions of responsibility 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


EARNS 
eens 


Wy 
ef 


6th Dist.] 


and trust. 
his profession, has gained, also, an enviable position in 
business circles, having been for some years a director 
of the First National Bank, of which, as previously 
mentioned, he is now vice-president. 


—~<-$006-— 


Ci LOUNT, WARREN, Blountsville, Henry County, 

2) @ prominent and successful farmer, and an early 
C pioneer, of that region, was born in Wayne County, 
6 February 17, 1817. He is the eldest of eleven 
children of Andrew R. and Sarah (Warren) Blount. The 
father was a native of Lawrenceburg, Pennsylvania.. He 
carried on farming in Wayne County until 1822; then 
removed to Henry County, laying out the village of 
Blountsville, where he resided until 1836; then remov- 
ing to Blackford County. In 1865 he returned to Blounts- 
ville, remaining there until his death, at the age of sey- 
enty-three. A good farmer, an energetic, upright man, 
His father 
emigrated from Wales to Maryland, but afterwards going 
to Pennsylvania, and finally to Delaware County, Indiana, 
where he died. Mr. Blount’s mother was born in North 
Carolina, of Irish ancestry, and came with her parents 
first to Ohio, then to Indiana. Warren Blount had in 
early life a very limited education. On attaining his 
majority, his father gave him fifty dollars; and with 
this, and an equal sum he had earned, he pre-empted 
eighty acres of wild land, and immediately began clear- 
ing it. Under steady assaults of ax, fire, and plow, the 
thick woods slowly gave place to fertile fields, and by 
successive purchases the farm was enlarged to five hun- 
dred and fifty-six acres. His first house was of logs, 
with puncheon floor and stick and clay chimney, all 
made by his own hands. After living in that about 
three years, he built, in 1842, a dwelling of hewn logs, 
in those days considered a very good house. His pres- 
ent spacious residence was erected in 1854. By gifts to 
his children, the farm has been reduced to four hundred 
and thirty-six acres, all under cultivation. Mr. Blount 
pays special attention to the raising of stock and grain. 
His out-buildings are large and well-built, and every 
thing indicates industry and enterprise. While making 
his farm one of the best in the state, he has helped to 
build turnpikes where in his younger days were only 
foot-paths or the poorest of roads. He was directly con- 
cerned in the construction of the Blountsville and Mel- 
ville Pike, and the Blountsville Extension Pike, running 
from the Delaware County line into Randolph and Henry 
Counties, and was one of the directors. He contributed 
liberally toward the erection of the Methodist Episcopal 
church in Blountsville, of which he has been a member 
Mr. Blount was formerly a Whig, but after 
At the 


he died lamented by many warm friends. 


since 1860. 
Harrison’s administration became a Democrat. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Doctor Boor, while eminently successful in | 


TI 


beginning of the Rebellion, when, as he believed, the 
Democratic party was inimical to the Union, he joined 
the Republicans, voting for Mr. Lincoln in 1864. The 
present generation owes a lasting debt of gratitude to 
such men, for the ease and plenty it now enjoys is largely 
the result of their hardships and privation. Though de- 
nied the advantages of school, his active, capable mind 
has proved equal to every undertaking. Quick to fore- 
see, wise to plan, and possessing the rugged strength, 
mental and physical, to execute, he has wrought a com- 
petence out of the wilderness, and, through the sterling 
virtues of his character, made his name respected wher- 
ever known. Mr. Blount was married, October 18, 1835, 
to Miss Nancy, daughter of Jonathan and Caturia Bid- 
well, of Henry County. He has had eleven children, 
six surviving: Melinda, wife of Burtiss Birds, a farmer; 


! Andrew, also engaged in farming; Jonathan B.; John 


W.; Emma, the youngest, who remains at home; and 
T. J., a young and promising lawyer of Muncie. 


4006-0 


‘)RADEN, DANIEL C., of Randolph County, was 
>) born in Guernsey County, Ohio, December 6, 1842. 
ia He is the eighth of the twelve children of John 
and Margaret (Leeper) Braden, who were married 
in 1825. His father is an old-fashioned farmer who yet 
lives near Washington, Ohio, and reared his sons as 
tillers of the soil. At the age of eleven years Mr Bra- 
den sufiered an attack of inflammatory rheumatism, 
which, owing to the malpractice of the attending phy- 
sician, was followed by anchylosis of the right knee, 
and he became a cripple for life. He attended the 
winter schools of the district, and when fifteen years of 
age succeeded in attending, during three terms of three 
months each, the old Miller Academy, at Washington, 
Ohio. By perseverance and diligence he prepared him- 
self to become a teacher in the public schools, which 
profession he followed successfully for years, having 
taught eighty-seven and a half months in the states of 
Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana. In 1865 he settled 
in Ridgeville, Indiana, and was principal teacher of the 
schools in that place until the spring of 1870. At this 
time he was appointed deputy United States marshal 
under General Benjamin Spooner. He afterward en- 
gaged in the mercantile business, which he carried on 
successfully until 1875, when he was elected, on the Re- 
publican ticket, recorder of Randolph County. This 
position he now holds, with credit to himself and with 


€ 


satisfaction to the county. His early political associa- 
tions were with the old Free-soil or Abolition party; and 
the lessons of those trying times, impressed upon his 
mind as they were by the sufferings of the helpless 
fugitives, to many of whom his father gave aid and 
shelter, with the abuse of the old Free-soilers at the 


12 


hands of the pro-slavery party, will never be forgotten 
by him. He is now a strong Republican in politics. In 
1867 Mr. Braden married Miss Annie E. Young; they 
have an interesting family of three children. He is a 
member of the Masonic Fraternity in good standing. 
His religious faith is that of a Missionary Baptist. Pos- 
sessing an active mind, and having been trained to 
habits of industry, he is almost constantly conducting 
some enterprise; in addition to his official duties he 
now superintends a fine farm near Ridgeville, in which 
town his family residence stands. His success is entirely 
due to his own exertions, and his life illustrates the 
truth of the noble sentiment, ‘‘It is the mind that 
makes the man.” 


FOC —— 


YOYCE, JAMES, manufacturer, of Muncie, was 
} born in Belfast, Ireland, April 7, 1833. His par- 
2, ents, Hugh and Margaret (Wilson) Boyce, were 
G& also born in that city, and he was their only son. 
He is not wholly of Celtic origin, however,: his lineage 
on the paternal side being directly traceable to the 
Normans. His grandfather, Alexander Boyce, was a 
farmer, and brother of John Boyce, a noted man in Ire- 
land. They formerly possessed great wealth, consisting 
chiefly of large estates, but through misfortunes and 
other causes they eventually became profligate. James 
Boyce attended one of the national schools in his native 
village, and became very proficient in the studies there 
pursued. After leaving school, at the age of twelve, he 
worked as an apprentice in a linen factory four years, 
his wages ranging from eight to nine cents per day, 
without board. At this time, October 8, 1848, he suf- 
fered an irreparable loss in the death of his mother— 
doubly grievous, since, his father being a drunkard, he 
felt that he was left an orphan. We was then induced 
to go to France by a gentleman who was looking for 
young men to work in his linen factory, near Havre de 
Grace, at a place called St. Germains. In this he labored 
two years, then returned to Ireland, and remained there 
the same length of time, after which he again went to 
France, and in Lille de Flanders worked at the same 
business. At the close of one year, finding himself out 
of employment, he walked from that place to St. Ger- 
mains, a distance of three hundred miles. There he 
was gladly welcomed by his old employer, who gave 
him a place in his mill. At length, in 1854, at the age 
of twenty-one, he obeyed the strong impulse that im- 
pels the European westward, and shipped as an ordinary 
seaman for New York, arriving there after a tedious 
voyage of nine weeks. His first work was driving a 
team on a canal; then he secured employment in a flax- 
mill at Little Falls, Herkimer County, New York. _In 
that situation he gained by skill and faithfulness the 
confidence and esteem of his employer, who, after one 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


year, sent him, because of his thorough knowledge of 
his business, to take charge of a similar mill at Cuy- 
ahoga Falls, Ohio. ‘There Mr. Boyce became acquainted 
with Miss Eliza McKenett, a lady of Scotch-Irish de- 
scent, whom he married, April 5, 1857. Soon after his 
marriage he engaged in business for himself in a small 
mill about ten miles from Cuyahoga Falls; but in a few 
weeks the dam was washed away, and, not having suf- 
ficient means to rebuild it, he moved to Newton Falls, 
in the same state, and thence the next year to Scott 
County, Minnesota. Leaving his wife and child there 
for a time, he went to Greenville, Mississippi, and 
worked at ditching, clearing thereby three hundred and 
five dollars. _He then returned to Minnesota, bought 
eighty acres of land, and began at once to convert it 
into a farm. In 1861 he raised the first acre of flax 
ever seen in that state, buying the seed at the drug- 
stores for five dollars per bushel. In the winter of 1863, 
Mr. Boyce started a scutching mill, cutting the logs for 
the horse-power from his own woods; but when he had 
worked up three years’ accumulation of flax, it caught 
fire, and all the property, including the buildings, was 
burned. He had nothing left but his farm, and to this he 
again turned for subsistence. But his misfortunes were 
only begun, The next spring, typhoid fever entered his 
family, and took his wife and one child, leaving him with 
two children to commence the world anew. Mr. Boyce 
then sold what little property he had at auction, and, 
leaving his notes with his father-in-law, went back to 
Ohio. His father-in-law soon died, and he was never 
able to collect any thing on the notes. At Alliance, 
Ohio, he contracted for one-third of a flax-mill, and 
after three months bought out his two partners and re- 
mained alone one year. He then sold the mill and 
went to Wooster, Ohio, having made two thousand 
dollars by the transaction, In that town he engaged in 
the same business with J. C. Kurtz, under the firm 
name of Kurtz & Boyce. But two years had passed 
when a second time his property was burned. After 
four years, he sold his interest to his partner, and re- 
moved to Muncie, Indiana, July 4, 1870, the possessor 
of ten thousand dollars. Mr. Boyce at first erected a 
small wooden building, and carried on the tow business 
for three years. Then, failing to find a market for this 
product, he commenced the manufacture of bagging, 
and of flax-breaking and tow machinery, with a capac- 
ity of two looms, which he afterward increased to five. 
On the 4th of November, 1876, the fire fiend again 
visited destruction upon him, by. which he lost about 
ten thousand dollars above the insurance. He then re- 
built, with a capacity of seven looms, using the best 


and latest improvements that could be obtained in the 


world, importing many from England. The establish- 
ment now manufactures the best of flax-tow machinery, 
and has a capacity of eleven looms, with an annual pro- 


14 


feature of his character, and makes him very compan- 
ionable, often smoothing his way through what would 
otherwise be difficult. In domestic relations he is one 
of the most amiable of men, his home being the scene 
of perfect harmony. During his long residence in Mun- 
cie he has become one of the ablest lawyers and most 
highly respected citizens of Delaware County. 


—>-gate-—-—_. 
: in| ROWNE, GENERAL THOMAS McLELLAN, of 
Winchester, member of Congress from the Fifth 
Indiana District, was born in the village of New 
Paris, Ohio, April 19, 1829. His father, John A. 
Browne, was a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 
and his mother was born in Cane Ridge, Bourbon 
County, Kentucky. He remained with his parents, at 
New Paris, until the death of his mother, which oc- 
curred in 1843. That misfortune broke up his father’s 
family, and Thomas Browne, then thirteen years of age, 
was apprenticed to a merchant in Spartansburg, Ran- 
dolph County, Indiana. Leaving him there, his father 
removed to Grant County, Kentucky, where he died in 
the year 1865. The rare ability, energy, and probity 
that formed the basis of the character of his master 
impressed themselves upon the mind, and ultimately 
upon the life, of the young lad. In this situation he 
learned the rudiments of success in business—attention, 
method, energy, dispatch, and a strict adherence to 
truth. He learned more. Being brought into daily 
contact with the people, he acquired a knowledge of 
their modes of thought and action which has been of 
great advantage to him throughout his career as a pro- 
fessional and public man. In the spring of 1848 he 
removed to Winchester and began the study of law. 
While thus engaged he attended, during one short ses- 
sion, the Randolph County Seminary. This was his 
only opportunity of going to school, except his casual 
and brief attendance on those in the village before 
going to Winchester. Such, however, has been his 
faithfulness in study, that few persons unacquainted 
with his early life and advantages would ever be led to 
think from their intercourse with him, either in public 
or private life, that he had not enjoyed the advantages 
of a liberal education and thorough culture. 


Few pub- 
lic men in the state now possess a wider or more 
thorough legal, political, and general knowledge than 
he; and none are better able to convey it to others. 
Once fairly engaged inthe profession of law, being a 
gifted and eloquent pleader, he soon acquired a large 
and profitable business. In 1863 he entered with zeal 
and energy upon the graver and more trying duties of 
a soldier. He assisted in recruiting the Seventh Indi- 
ana Cavalry, was elected captain of Company B, and 
before leaving the state for the field was promoted to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


the rank of lieutenant-colonel. With his regiment he 
served in Western Kentucky, in Tennessee, Mississippi, 
Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. He took part in the 
raids of Generals Grierson and Smith through Tennes- 
see and Mississippi. In the battle of Guntown, Missis- | 
sippi, June 10, 1864, he was wounded, and his horse 
was shot from under him. His commanding officer, by 
special order, commended both him and his command 
for gallant conduct in that action, and he was soon 
afterward promoted to the colonelcy of his regiment, 
receiving the rank of brigadier-general by brevet, “for 
gallant and meritorious conduct,” from the hand of Pres- 
ident Lincoln. During the winter of 1865-66 he was in 
command of the United States forces at Sherman, in the 
northern part of Texas. In this position he was brought 
into frequent and interesting relations with the people of 
that state, and, while holding the reins of authority with 
firmness, he manifested so much moderation, gentleness, 
and kindness as to win ‘*golden opinions from all sorts 
of people.” He returned to his home, leaving in the 
state of the ‘‘lone star’? many devoted friends among 
those whom he had lately met in the field as foes. 
Mr. Browne was admitted to the bar of the Circuit 
Courts of Indiana in August, 1849, and to that of the 
Supreme Court in May, 1851. When it is remembered 
that these advances were the results of his professional 
attainments, ascertained by judicial examination, and 
not, as at present, a constitutional right secured to every 
voter, it will be manifest that he had diligently im- 
proved his brief novitiate. Before he was twenty-one 
he was elected as prosecuting attorney of Randolph 
County, in which position he served two years. In 1855 
he was elected prosecuting attorney of the Thirteenth 
Judicial Circuit; he was re-elected in 1857, and again 
in 1859, and discharged all the duties of the position 
with marked ability and success. This, at a time when 
the bar of the circuit was among the ablest of the 
state, was a high compliment. In 1862 he was elected 
to the Senate, and took a leading part in its proceedings 
and debates during the session. The correspondent of 
the Cincinnati Gaze/fe thus describes him at this time: 

‘«Thomas M. Browne, Senator from Randolph, is a 
young man of sanguine complexion, an _ excellent 
speaker, full of fun and irony. There is a vim abcut 
him.that tells in a popular audience, and brings down 
the house. Now a burst of eloquence surprises you, 
and now a flash of fun; at times a torrent of indigna- 
tion comes out that is startling. This young man will 
make his mark in our country yet.” 

In April, 1859, he was appointed United States at- 
torney for the District of Indiana, by President Grant, 
but resigned his position in August, 1872. He filled 
this office with distinguished ability, and established a 
high reputation throughout the state as a sound lawyer 
and an able advocate. General Browne was nominated 
for Governor in 1872, by the Republican State Conven- 


6th Dist.) 


tion of Indiana, on the second ballot, over two of the 
ablest and most deservedly popular men in the state, 
Godlove S. Orth and General Ben. Harrison, and was 
defeated by only about one thousand votes. He was 
elected to Congress from the Fifth District in 1876, and 
again in 1878, defeating the popular Democratic nomi- 
nee, W. S. Holman, by a handsome majority. _ General 
Browne’s public services have ever been highly satisfac- 
tory to his constituency. He is a Master Mason, and 
has taken all the degrees of Odd-fellowship. While 
not a member of any religious denomination, his prefer- 
ences are in favor of the Christian Church, of which 
Mrs. Browne is a member. He married Miss Mary J. 
Austin, at New Paris, Ohio, March 18, 1849. But one 
child has been born to them, a son, who died at the 
age of about twelve years. This brief outline of Gen- 
eral Browne’s career, tracing his progress from a humble 
station in life to some of the highest offices in the gov- 
ernment, shows to the young men of the nation what 
possibilities are within their reach. 


—+-400<— 


mond, was born in Greensboro, Caroline County, 

Maryland, September 18, 1830, and is the only 

son of Jeremiah and Mary E. (Cockayne) Burch- 
enal. His ancestors in the paternal line came from 
England with Lord Baltimore’s first colony, and settled 
on the eastern shore of Maryland, where the records 
still extant show them to have been in possession of 
estates as early as 1645. When he was but an infant 
his parents removed to Zanesville, Ohio, where his 
father engaged in mercantile pursuits until his death, in 
1838. Mr. Burchenal’s mother having previously died, 
he fell to the charge of a grandmother, by whom he was 
brought, in 1840, to Wayne County, Indiana, which has 
ever since been his home. By the death of his grand- 
mother, in 1842, he was left without any near relatives, 
and thrown mainly upon his own resources. He obtained 
a fair education in the common schools at Richmond, 
and, at Centerville, in Wayne County Seminary and 
Whitewater College. He first engaged in business as 
clerk in the county treasurer’s office at Centerville, in 
which he continued three or four years. In 1850 he 
commenced the study of law under the instruction of 
Hon, John S. Newman, at the same place, where, after 
his admission to the bar in 1852, he began practice. In 
1854 he was elected district attorney for the Sixth Com- 
mon Pleas District of Indiana, and served one term. 
This is the only public position he has filled, having 
ever since persistently refused to be a candidate for any 
office. Mr. Burchenal married in 1860, at Hamilton, 
Ohio, Miss Ellen Jackson, who died in 1863, leaving 
one son. 


URCHENAL, CHARLES H., lawyer, of Rich- 


He again married in 1871, at Baltimore, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


15 


Maryland, Miss Mary E. Day, by whom he has three 
daughters and one son. He is a communicant of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, to which he is strongly 
attached, though quite liberal in his religious views. 
In politics he was originally a Whig, having cast his 
first vote for General Scott for President in 1852. Upon 
its formation he became a member of the Republican 
party, with which he continues to be thoroughly iden- 
tified. Though in early life an ardent politician, he has 
not of late years taken an active part in political 
affairs, preferring to occupy himself with his profession, 
and to gratify his taste for literature, art, and social life. 
In 1859 Mr. Burchenal removed from Centerville to 
Richmond, where he now resides, actively engaged in 
the practice of law, in which he has attained a prom- 
inent and leading position at the bar of the county and 
state. 
360 


}UCKLES, REV. ABRAHAM, of Muncie, was 
born in Ohio, August 26, 1799, and died at his 
@ home, near Muncie, Indiana, October 9, 1878, in . 
GS the eightieth year of his age. His father, John 
Buckles, was a native of Virginia, to which his grand- 
father, Robert Buckles, emigrated from England before 
the Revolution, and settled at a place afterward known 
as Bucklestown. The subject of this sketch was married, 
September 3, 1818, to Elizabeth Shanks, a lady of Ger- 
man and Welsh descent. After the marriage he re- 
moved to Springfield, Ohio, and thence to Miami 
County, in that state. In 1829 he was ordained minis- 
ter of the Baptist Church. In October, 1833, he re- 
moved, with his family, to Delaware County, Indiana, 
and settled on a farm near Muncie, where he continued 
to reside till the close of his life. Soon after his 
arrival in that neighborhood he organized the Mun- 
cie Baptist Church, and served as its pastor forty- 
five years without other reward than a consciousness 
of the faithful discharge of duty. In the early part of 
his life Mr. Buckles held various political offices, and 
in 1839 was elected to a seat in the General Assembly 
as Representative from Delaware County, a position 
which he filled with honor and credit to himself and 
to the people. Mr. Buckles had five children: Hon. 
Joseph S. (see sketch); Thomas N., now in California; 
John S., deceased, formerly an able lawyer in Gene- 
seo, Illinois; Mary (Mrs. Goble); and Ellen (Mrs. 
Campbell), who died a few years ago. Of Mr. 
Buckles’s marriage and of his character the Muncie 
Times, from which the above facts are taken, says: 
‘¢The union was a happy one, and for nearly a half 
century the twain bore together life’s burden, living the 
life of humble Christians; rejoiciug in their common 
love for each other and their children, and trusting their 
eternity in the merits of their professed Savior. Honest 
as the day in all his dealings, industrious and untiring 


16 REPRESENTATIVE 


in his efforts for a livelihood, bold and fearless as an 
advocate of the right as God gave him to see it, kind 
and gentle as a husband and father, obliging and social 
as a neighbor and friend, strong in body and intellect, 
his whole life modified and controlled by an abiding 
faith in the providence of God and the atonement of a 
Savior, he left an impress upon those about him which 
will reach through all time, and that influence was only 
for good. + . He was a man of peace. Through- 
out his life of fourscore years he never was a party to a 
lawsuit, and was never known to have bickerings with 
his neighbors or fellow-men, though a man of strong 
personal attachments and dislikes. Men in whom he 
had not implicit confidence and respect it was his rule 
to avoid.” 


+400 — 


UCKLES, JUDGE JOSEPH S., of Muncie, was 
»)) born near Springfield, Clarke County, Ohio, July 
29, 1819. His father, Abraham Buckles, was born 
in the same state, and was a descendant of Robert 
Buckles, an Englishman, who settled in Virginia before 
the Revolution. His mother was Elizabeth Shanks, 
whose parents were Joseph and Eleanor (Clawson) 
Shanks, respectively of Scotch and German descent. 
Joseph Buckles lived till he was fourteen years old in 
Miami County, Ohio, to which his father had removed 
several years before; and then, in 1833, went to Muncie. 
This has ever since been his home, except during a 
period of nine months spent in Blackford County. Much 
of his time was necessarily employed in the work of 
the farm, and little could be devoted to school; but 
while he did attend he studied most diligently. Such 
was his thirst for knowledge that when obliged to labor 
all day he pursued his studies at night by the light of 
the open fire-place. In this manner, aided to some 
extent by private instruction, Mr. Buckles acquired pro- 
ficiency in the common branches and some acquaintance 
with general history. He now began, at the age of 
nineteen, the labors of a district school-teacher. While 
thus engaged, in 1838, he was urged by Mr. Kennedy, 
then member of Congress from this district, to commence 
the study of law. This he did in Mr, Kennedy’s office, 
and was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court in 
1841, and in the State, Supreme, and the Federal Courts 
in September, 1850. After practicing about five years, 
Mr. Buckles was elected prosecuting attorney for the 
Sixth Circuit. At the close of the term of two years 
he was chosen state Senator from the district composed 
of the counties of Grant and Delaware; and while in 
the Senate was chosen chairman of the Judiciary Com- 
mittee. In 1857, at the expiration of the term, he 
returned, and devoted his time to his clients until 
1858, when he was elected Judge of the Seventh Judi- 
cial Circuit. In this position he remained twelve years, 
and then resumed practice in the State and Federal 
Courts. During the campaign of 1872 Judge Buckles 


MEN OF INDIANA. [Och Dist. 
served as a senatorial elector, and canvassed the greater 
part of the state. Prior to 1860 he was a Free-soil Dem- 
ocrat; but he then deemed it his duty to support Presi- 
dent Lincoln’s administration, and has ever since been 
strongly attached to the Republican party, believing 
the maintenance of its principles essential to good gov- 
ernment. Judge Buckles has been foremost in all enter- 
prises conducive to the public welfare, contributing 
without stint to educational, benevolent, and religious 
objects, and initiating the building of turnpikes and 
railroads. He was one of the originators of the Lafay- 
ette, Muncie and Bloomington Railroad, its attorney, 
and a member of its board of managers; he was also 
instrumental in the construction of the Fort Wayne and 
Southern Railway, and became the treasurer and general 
financial agent of the company. He is not a member 
of any secret society, nor of any religious body, though 
a firm believer in Christianity, and an attendant of the 
Presbyterian Church, with which his wife and two 
daughters are connected. He married, January 27, 
1842, Catherine H. Williams. She was born in Ohio, 
and is the daughter of Abel and Rebecca Williams, the 
former of whom is of Scotch descent. Mr. and Mrs. 
Buckles have eight children, four of whom are still liv- 
ing: Elizabeth, wife of Captain A. K. Lindsley, of Kan- 
sas; Rebecca, now Mrs. J. W. McCrea; Josie, wife of 
William E. Yost, of Muncie; and Cora, the youngest, 
who remains at home. Judge Buckles carries on agri- 
culture as well as the practice of law. His farm contains 
six hundred and fifty acres of choice land, with good 
buildings, and is ‘‘beautiful for situation.” His home 
is a happy one, and those who enter its precincts, or 
meet him elsewhere in hours of leisure, find him a 
most agreeable companion, fond of a harmless joke or 
anecdote, and possessed of good conversational powers. 
For twenty years he has been successful in politics, and 
one of the leading lawyers in that part of the state in 
which he resides. The circuit in which he administered 
the duties of judge embraced five of the most populous 
counties; and none ever wore the ermine with more 
regard for justice. He has also been successful in busi- 
ness enterprises. He unites energy with prudence, at- 
tempting only that which deliberate judgment sanctions; 
and when once engaged in an undertaking he bends to 
it all the forces of his strong, unyielding will. A man 
whose mind is controlled by such motive power does 
not require the advantages of wealth and influence to 
attain success, but, whatever causes combine to retard 
his progress, steadily and surely advances. Judge 
Buckles’s example should encourage every aspiring youth 
to feel that, however dark the future may appear, perse- 
verance, with a conscientious regard for truth, will win 
a just reward. He has never deviated from that rigid 
rule of honor that ought to actuate and govern a true 


man. 


vane! 
‘i be i, iT 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLIMOIS 


Western  Biog 


6th Dist.| 


po UNDY, JUDGE MARTIN L., of New Castle, 

was born November 11, 1818, in Randolph 

County, North Carolina, but from infancy he has 

lived in Indiana, and has sustained an important 
relation to the welfare of the commonwealth. When 
he was only three months old the family came to this 
state and settled near Richmond. He was soon placed 
in charge of his grandfather, Christopher Bundy, who 
in the spring of 1821 purchased a farm adjoining* the 
tract on which New Castle was afterward located. The 
first years of Martin Bundy’s boyhood were passed in a 
common school; then a desire seized him to rise above 
his humble surroundings and “bear an active part in the 
great, busy world, of which he had as yet only a 
vague conception, With this noble aim he studied 
under the private tuition of the late Judge John Davis, 
of Madison County, and spent a brief term at Miami 
University, then under the presidency of R. H. Bishop, 
D. D., Who, having conceived a liking for his pupil, 
advanced him by private instruction. There was no 
father’s or benefactor’s purse upon which to draw for 
his expenses, but he was obliged to defray them from 
his own slender earnings. The hard-working, studious 
youth of those days foreshadowed the able and useful 
man of later years. Though obliged to leave school, he 
did not relinquish his purpose, but entered, as soon as 
practicable, the office of the late Hon. J. Ts elliott, 
Judge of the Supreme Court of the state, whose biog- 
raphy appears in this work. He was admitted to the 
bar and commenced practicing in New Castle in 1842. 
Being known as a well educated young man of good 
moral habits, Mr. Bundy had the confidence of the 
people, and, having married a sister of his preceptor, 
he bent all his energies to the work before him. His 
efforts were not in vain. Two years elapsed and he was 
elected treasurer of the county. At the close of the 
term of three years, declining a renomination, he re- 
turned to the bar with renewed zeal. He advocated 
the election of Henry Clay, of whom he was an ardent 
admirer, and in 1848 he was made a member of the 
Philadelphia Convention, which nominated General 
Zachary Taylor for President. Mr. Bundy gave him a 
cordial support, but preferred the Great Commoner, to 
whom he adhered so long as there was a chance for his 
renomination. The same year, 1848, he was elected to 
the state Legislature, and served very creditably in that 
body during the session of 1849. Three years later he 
was elected a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 
and was re-elected in 1856, Having joined the Re- 
publican party at its organization, he was chosen a dele- 
gate to the state convention, to represent the party in 
the National Convention at Philadelphia in 1856, 
There and during the campaign he earnestly supported 
John C. Fremont. At the expiration of ,his second 
term as judge, in 1860, he was again elected Repre- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


17 


sentative to the Legislature, in which he served with 
distinction during both the regular and special sessions 
of 1861. During this period he gave Governor Morton 
hearty encouragement in his efforts to aid in the sup- 
pression of the Rebellion, and enjoyed the confidence 
and friendship of the great War Governor through all 
those trying times. In August, 1861, he was appointed, 
by President Lincoln, a paymaster of the army, and re- 
mained in that service until the spring of 1866, when 
he resigned. He was then commissioned brevet lieu- 
tenant-colonel, for ‘¢ faithful and meritorious services.”’ 
In 1864 Judge Bundy established the First National Bank 
of New Castle, of which he was made president, and 
continued in that capacity for ten years, during which 
the institution was very prosperous. In 1874 he estab- 
lished the Bundy National Bank, of which he was also 
president until December, 1877, when he retired. In 1868 
he received from the Secretary of the United States 
Treasury the appointment of examiner of the national 
banks of Indiana, and served as such until 1874, when 
he resigned the office. With such ability and faithful- 
ness had he performed these duties that the government 
again required his services, and Secretary Sherman ap- 
pointed him examiner of the national banks of Ala- 
bama and Tennessee, in which capacity he spent the 
winter of 1879. Few men have filled more stations in 
the public service, and none with more general satisfac- 
tion. Judge Bundy has now resumed the practice of 
his profession, in which he has long stood second to 
none in Henry County. 


—-900-2— 


Cis ORSON, JOHN WILLIAMS, late banker of Mun- 
:)) cie, was born near Bursonville, Bucks County, 
C’%, Pennsylvania, and was the son of Doctor Edward 
GS and Jemima (Stroud) Burson. His paternal grand- 
parents were David and Lydia (Williams) Burson. The 
former was a native of Wales, and came to the United 
States while they were yet colonies, about the middle 
of the eighteenth century. The latter was one of a nu- 
merous family who settled near the Delaware River, 
above Bristol, not far from Irvina. His maternal grand- 
parents were Colonel Jacob and Elizabeth (McDowel) 
Stroud. Jacob Stroud was the founder of Stroudsburg, 
now a flourishing and beautiful village, situated just 
above the Delaware Water Gap, on a fine plateau be- 
tween a spur of the Alleghany and the Pocono Mount- 
ains, at the confluence of Brodhead’s and Pocono streams. 
Though quite a young man, he was on the staff of Gen- 
eral Wolfe in the campaign of the English against the 
French in Canada, and was present at the death of that 
general in the storming of Quebec. In early childhood 
Mr. John Burson received an injury that for several years 


i} 
i 
ye 


' greatly impaired his health; but at last he outgrew it, 


18 


and was able to attend school, although the advantages 
there afforded were in those times of an indifferent char- 
acter. In 1832 his parents removed to Stroudsburg, 
Northampton (now Monroe) County, and he remained 
with them, engaged in light farming. During this time 
there was employed in the family as teacher a Mr. Hub- 
bard, an excellent instructor, under whose tuition John 
Burson received a good intellectual training. He sub- 
sequently spent perhaps a year at West Town boarding 
school, at that time, with the exception of Haverford Col- 
lege, the leading educational institution of the Friends 
in America. In 1837 he removed with his parents to 
Clinton County, Ohio, one mile north of Wilmington, 
and for several years his time was employed in superin- 
tending and conducting a farm. About the year 1846 
he was elected teller in the Preble County branch of the 
State Bank of Ohio. While living in Ohio he married 
Mary Elizabeth Wilson, who, with two children, a son 
and a daughter, still survives him. In 1853 he removed 
with his family to Indiana, and started the Cambridge 
City Bank, at Cambridge City, Wayne County, one of 
the few banks that stood firm through the great financial 
crisis that occurred a few years later. In 1856 Mr. Bur- 
son removed to Muncie, where he organized the Muncie 
branch of the Bank of the State of Indiana, which in 
1865 was changed into the Muncie National Bank. He 
continued in charge of this bank up to the time of his 
death, on the twenty-first day of September, 1872. He 
endeared himself to hundreds of citizens who sought his 
aid and counsel in business matters; and, foremost in 
every enterprise for the good of the country, he was re- 
garded as the most judicious and successful business man 
inthe community. Yet his acquaintance was not limited 
to a few persons or places, but was co-extensive with the 
northern and eastern part of the United States. He 
served one term, in the winter of 1870-71, in the Indiana 
Legislature, as Senator for the district composed of the 
counties of Madison and Delaware; and in 1869 and 
1870 he was one of the government directors of the 
Union Pacific Railway. For Mr. Burson to plan was to 
execute; and his active, far-seeing mind ever had in 
view some important scheme, not wholly for self-aggran- 
dizement, but the general good as well; for he was one 
of those large-hearted men who love to increase in their 
own thrift the prosperity of others. 


—+-8¢0h-o— 


UTLER, ELI H., superintendent of Winchester 
*) public schools, was born in Hancock County, In- 
Cio, diana, August 12, 1841. He is the son of George 
W. and Martha (Rawls) Butler. His early edu- 
cational advantages were limited to those afforded at 
the common and district schools of his neighborhood, 


and later he entered the academical department. Bat, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


having a natural gift for teaching and an ambition to 
excel, he soon entered that profession, and step by step 
advanced in knowledge and efficiency until, in 1865, he 
became superintendent of public schools. This relation 
he has sustained through twelve successive years, with 
credit to himself and with satisfaction to the communi- 
ties in which he has labored. During this period he 
had charge of the schools in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, 
five *years, those of Attica two years, and now occupies 
that position for his third year in the Winchester 
schools. He has also been one of the principal man- 
agers and teachers in the Randolph County Normal In- 
stitute; this institute is especially designed for training 
teachers for their work, and has been highly successful, 
having had an attendance of more than eighty students 
during one session. Mr. Butler was brought up a mem- 
ber of the society of Friends, but left that denomina- 
tion, and. in 1863 united with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, of which he is now an acceptable member. 
He married Matilda M. Sample, August 17, 1861; she 
died November 3, 1863, leaving one child, a son. 
August 19, 1869, Mr. Butler married Susanna A. Daven- 
port, who died March 8, 1876; but one of her three 
children survives. Mr. Butler is an earnest and efficient 
worker in the cause of education; and, being still a 
young man, has undoubtedly many years of usefulness 
yet before him. 
—>-006-.—_ 


Q 


py ULLA, JOSEPH M., president of the Richmond 
>) Horticultural Society, was born in Wayne County, 
g be Indiana, December 11, 1811, and is the son of 
GS Ttomas and Susanna (Mora) Bulla. His father 
settled in 1806 in what was then Dearborn (now Wayne) 
County, and became a successful farmer and _stock- 
raiser. Like all children of the early pioneers, Joseph 
Bulla had few school privileges, and those were of a 
very primitive kind; but, like a tree in barren soil, his 
mind instinctively found and appropriated the nourish- 
ment that it required. He was very fond of history, 
and read night after night by the light of the fire. He 
also studied the common English branches, thus qual- 
ifying himself to teach school, which he did successfully, 
until, impelled by a desire cherished from boyhood, he 
turned his attention to the science of medicine. During 
the years 1832 and 1833, he devoted himself to medical 
studies, but he either did not wish to practice that 
profession, or the farm offered greater inducements, for 
he soon applied himself closely to agriculture, which, 
with stock-raising and horticulture, has been the busi- 
ness of his life. He has acquainted himself with fruit- 
growing both practically and scientifically. In 1876 
Mr. Bulla was elected president of the Richmond Hor- 
ticultural Society, and the same year vice-president of 
the State Horticultural Society. In 1842 he was elected 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINGI 


Rt: 
it ee 


Wester 


Bingl 


Pub 


bth Dist.] 


county commissioner of Wayne County, and was re- 
elected in 1845, thus serving six years. In 1850 he was 
chosen to represent Wayne County in the Legislature, 
and was returned to that body the following year, the 
term being then but one annual session. While in that 
body he served both terms on the Committee on Elec- 
tions, besides other committees, and was the author of 
several bills that passed both houses. When the Civil 
War broke out, imperiling the government, he desired 
to **join the ranks of war,” but, being fifty years of 
age, could only remain at home and help to furnish 
men and means. Mr. Bulla has ever manifested a deep 
interest in the various temperance reforms, from the 
earliest to the present Murphy movement. In 1844 he 
was the first man in Boston Township to join the Wash- 
ingtonian Society. The same year he became a mem- 
ber of the Sons of Temperance, and filled all the chief 
offices in that order. In 1853 he united with the Free 
and Accepted Masons, and has taken the Blue Lodge 
and Chapter degrees, and occupied the principal chairs 
in the lodge. For the last ten years he has been a 
prominent member of the Universalist Church. In pol- 
itics, he was formerly a Whig, and became a Republi- 
can on the organization of that party. Some years ago 
he was very much engaged in political affairs, and even 
now is somewhat active in that field. April 17, 1834, 
Mr. Bulla married Miss Nancy Wilson, of Franklin 
County, by whom he has eleven children. All but two 
of these have married and settled near him, and several 
have become successful teachers. Those who have long 
known Mr. Bulla pronounce him one of the best men 
in the county. He is industrious, upright, public-spir- 
ited, and well-informed on the topics of the day. In 
the Legislature he exerted a marked influence, and his 
efforts before the Horticultural Society have proved him 
possessed of literary talent. Among these the following 
are deserving of special notice: First, an essay on « Ag- 
riculture and its Influence,” delivered in February, 1866, 
and published in the agricultural papers in this state 
and Ohio; second, a paper entitled «* What Destroyed 
Prehistoric America,” a very able production, upon 
which he spent much thought and research; and, 
thirdly, his last annual address, which was of a scien- 
tific character, and was published with the Proceedings 
of the State Horticultural Society. He has gained a 
competence by wise management and steady application 
to one pursuit; and without the aid of school or college 
has acquired a large fund of knowledge, and qualified 
himself to discharge the duties of various offices with 
ability. He would doubtless have succeeded as a 
teacher, a physician, or a politician; but he is to be 
congratulated that he belongs to that very useful class, 
the farmer legislators, who both create the material 
wealth of the country and make its laws, and thus, 
with mind and money, Atlas-like, bear up the nation, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


19 
3 


pHENEY, JOHN J., ex-Judge of the Court, Win- 
I) cnet was born in Franklin County, Massachu- 
; setts, December 5, 1827, and is the son of David 

and Sallie (Johnson) Cheney. Of seven children 
born to them, six of whom are yet living, the subject of 
this sketch was the eldest. His aptness for learning was 
such that, notwithstanding he studied mostly alone, and 
frequently with no one to recite to, he took a college 
course in Latin and a course in mathematics nearly 
equal to that taken by students in Yale College at that 
time. His father removed to Greene County, Ohio, and 
John continued to work on the farm until about twenty- 
three years of age, when he began the study of law with 
Judge Barlow, of Xenia. He pursued the law studies 
until 1852, when he removed to Winchester, Indiana, 
and began practice with Judge Colgrove. At the expi- 
ration of eighteen months he formed a partnership with 
General Thomas M. Browne, which continued until the 
latter entered the army, during the late Rebellion. 
With the beginning of 1864 he entered into partnership 
with Enos L. Watson, which continued until his election 
as Judge of the Common Pleas Court, in 1872. Judge 
Cheney has not asked for office, nor has he the slightest 
political ambition; yet such has been the confidence of 
the people in his integrity and ability that positions of 
trust and honor have been thrust upon him. In 1854 
he was elected prosecuting attorney for one term. In 
1865 he was appointed United States district assessor 
by President Johnson, through the influence of George 
W. Julian, member of Congress from his district at that 
time. Being strongly opposed to the policy of the ad- 
ministration, and outspoken on that point, he was re- 
moved by the President. He was elected to the Legis- 
lature in 1872, and the year following received the 
appointment of Circuit Judge from Governor Hendricks, 
though opposed to that gentleman in politics. At the 
close of his term of office, contrary to public wish, he 
declined a re-election. Judge Cheney is not a Church 
member. In politics he is a Republican. He was mar- 
tied, November 16, 1854, to Mary A. Steele, of Win- 
chester. Four children, two of whom are still living, 
have blessed this union. Mrs. Cheney having been an 
invalid for several years, the entire family spent the 
summer of 1877 in Minnesota. 


+8606 


! ee ALBERT WORTHINGTON, school su- 
4 ) perintendent of Delaware County, Indiana, was 
hed “) born at Lagrange, Jefferson County, Ohio, on the 

> 27th of January, 1848. His father, William Clancy, 
from whom the son inherited a considerable amount of 
his characteristic energy and perseverance, was of that 


—— 


Scotch-Irish descent that gives to our country some of 
its best and most enterprising citizens, while his mother, 


20 


Parmelia (Bartholomew) Clancy, was of German extrac- 
tion. 
old he had the misfortune to meet with a severe acci- 
dent in a corn-shelling machine, the result of which 
was the loss of his left hand, the arm being amputated 
about three inches below the elbow. Four sons and 
one daughter were born to his parents, and all lived 
happily together until a virulent attack of typhoid 
fever carried off both parents within three weeks, leav- 
ing the five orphans. Albert, who was five years old, 
was taken to the home of his father’s brother, where 
he was well taken care of until he was eight years of 
age, when his aunt died, and his second home was 
broken up. At twelve, having a fair common ‘school 
education for a lad of those years, he was sent to a 
graded school in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. From here he 
went to live with a good farmer, in whose employment 
he spent four years, working for board and clothes and 
four months’ instruction in each year. At the end of 
this time he was employed by another farmer, and by 
unwearied industry and close economy succeeded in 
laying by sufficient money to again attend school, and 
in this manner prepared himself as a teacher. He ob- 
tained his first certificate at London, Ohio, when he 
was seventeen years old, and taught in that state for 
two terms, and afterwards started on a trip westward, 
stopping on the way at Muncie, Indiana. This was 
in 1866. While visiting some old friends near Dale- 
ville, in the same county (Delaware), he was solicited 
to take charge of a school there. He consented, and 
secured his first certificate in Indiana of Mr. F. E. Put- 
He taught for 
three months, when again he went West, intending to 
visit a sister who lived in Illinois. Again misfortune 
attended him. While ex route on the Terre Haute and 
Indianapolis Railway, he was thrown under the cars, 
and the shoulder of the same arm that had been in- 
jured fifteen years before was crushed and mangled 
in a horrible This terrible accident necessi- 
tated an amputation at the shoulder joint, on the 
20th of February, 1867. Neither nor 
discouraged by his many misfortunes, he now for 
the first time concluded to lead a professional life. 
When he recovered from the long and wasting illness 
following upon the amputation, he gave instruction 
for a short time at Daleville, Indiana, and then at- 
tended the National Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio. 
Again we find him teaching at Daleville, where his ex- 
cellent work as a teacher and leader soon became ap- 
parent. He was the first in that village to put his work 
in a graded form, and he left an honorable record there 
as a modest, Christian gentleman, a good citizen, and a 
sincere, hard-working teacher. On account of domestic 
troubles he left his Daleville school and visited his sister 
at Lewis, Iowa, where he was offered and took charge 


nam, who is still a resident of Muncie. 


manner, 


disheartened 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


When Albert was about three and a half years | 
' he returned to Daieville, and for another year had 


[6th Dast. 


of Lewis Academy, with three assistant teachers. This 
position he kept for four terms, and in the fall of 1873 


charge of the school there. He was then called to 
Muncie, to act as principal of the Washington School 
Building, which position he filled with success, and to 
the satisfaction of the citizens generally, until elected 
county superintendent. In February, 1879, Mr. Clancy 
was chosen for the unexpired term, to fill the vacancy 
which then occurred in the office of county superin- 
tendent, and in June of the same year was re-elected 
for another term, This office Mr. Clancy holds at the 
present time. Thus hurriedly have we glanced through 
the career of this remarkable man, a successful teacher, 
and a prominent, progressive educator. By his own 
efforts he has carved out his future, and though sur- 
rounded by discouragements and_ bearing upon his 
shoulders misfortunes that would have crushed many a 
stronger man physically, he yet trudged steadily on- 
ward, doing his duty and fearing naught, shirking noth- 
ing in the way of work or labor, and ever walking 


uprightly. His persistence and energy are character- 
istic of the man. He commences nothing that he does 
not finish. He has engrafted many improvements on 


the school system of Delaware County that cause them 
to be recognized as among the best in the state. Mr. 
Claney is about six feet in height, and has rather a 
striking appearance. We venture to say that his repu- 
tation as an educator and as a man is unexcelled by that 
of any one in the county. He is always interested in 
every thing that pertains to the public concern or ben- 
efit, and is considered one of the most enterprising, 
public-spirited citizens of Muncie. Such men are nec- 
essary to build up a state. 


«LARK, GEORGE C., lawyer, ex-president of the 
Bank of the State of Indiana, and president of the 
i Rushville National Bank, was born in North Caro- 

jo lina, November 5, 1821. The place of his na- 
tivity suggests the contrasts that time presents; for, 
from having been part of the battle-field of Guilford 
Court House, North Carolina, where had been carnage 
and death, it had become a scene of quiet and pros- 
perity. His father was Hezekiah S. Clark, whose an- 
cestors removed from England to Ireland, from Ireland 
to Pennsylvania, and thence to Virginia. There his 
parents, Daniel Clark and Mary Sanders, were married, 
and from that state they removed to Randolph County, 
North Carolina. The mother of the subject of this 
sketch was Abigail G. Mendenhall. Her progenitors 
emigrated from the manor of Mildenhall, in Wiltshire, 
England (the family name being then Mildenhall, 
to Millhall), about the time 


sometimes contracted 


LIBRARY: Aim bohetak ae 
Sage YE SOF THE | es 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


6th Dist.) 


William Penn first visited America, and located in 
Chester County, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Judith 
Gardner, was of Welsh descent, and was born and 
reared on Nantucket Island. The Mendenhall and San- 
ders families both were very long lived. While he was 
yet a child Mr. Clark’s parents removed from Guilford 
to Randolph County, North Carolina, some ten miles 
north-east of the county seat, Ashboro, where his 
father, who was a tanner, carried on a tan-yard, and 
engaged, also, though less directly, in making pottery, 
shoes, and harness, and in blacksmithing. George 
Clark helped in the lighter work of the tannery until 
the spring of 1835, when the building and contents, in- 
cluding books, were burned. The losses thus incurred, 
added to liabilities his father had to pay as surety, left 
him with only enough to move comfortably to Rush 
County, Indiana, where he had previously bought eighty 
acres of land, mostly in green timber, seven miles west 
of Rushville. Mr. Clark was blessed with an educated 
mother, who, like her husband, was liberal in promot- 
ing the education of her family. She taught every one 
of them to read before leaving the parental roof to at- 
tend school, and her son George had learned to read 
at the age of four. In North Carolina he attended a 
subscription school about nine months; in Indiana he 
became a pupil, during a winter term, at a school in 
Carthage, and spent a second winter at another school 
in Walnut Ridge, supporting himself at both places by 
doing chores. Both of these schools were in Rush 
County, and in charge of the society of Friends. But 
Mr. Clark’s advantages had not been limited to the 
meager ones afforded in these schools, for in his native 
state, under the instruction of an elder brother, he had 
learned Latin so far as to read ‘‘Viri Rome.” His 
progress was then interrupted by the departure of the 
family for Indiana, where other more pressing necessi- 
ties left little time for study; yet, while clearing up 
green beech forests, the nights and rainy days were em- 
ployed in continued striving after knowledge. When 
the family left North Carolina his maternal uncle, 
George C. Mendenhall, a wealthy slave-holder and 
prominent lawyer of Guilford County, exacted a promise 
from Mr. and Mrs. Clark to allow their son George to 
return to his home when eighteen years of age. The 
father was extremely desirous to fulfill this promise, but 
his necessities prevented, until at last an opportunity 
was presented for him to ride back to North Carolina 
with relatives who had driven through to Indiana in a 
private carriage. They had been directed by the uncle 
above named to bring George back with them. He went, 
and soon after his arrival his uncle sent him for one 
year to the Friends’ boarding school, at New Garden, 
near Greensboro. His predilections up to this time 
were for the profession of medicine, and he had read 
with care ‘Bell’s Anatomy,” ‘‘Gibson’s Surgery,’ and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


21 


other medical works. He was now a good Latin scholar 
and had some knowledge of Greek; and, encouraged by 
an offer of his uncle, he commenced the study of the 
law under his instruction. 
reading he passed a long and severe examination, by 
three judges of the Supreme Court, without missing a 
question, and was duly licensed to practice in the county 
courts. This was in June, 1843, and after he had studied 
another year he was admitted to practice in all the courts 
of the state. On the 3oth of that month, with horse 
and saddle-bags, given. him by his uncle, and one hun- 
dred dollars, Mr. Clark set out for Indiana. 
through Kentucky he called on Henry Clay, then a 
candidate for the presidency. On reaching home he 
remained there until the 13th of the following October, 
when he located in Rushville to practice law. Having 
no money nor influential friends, business came slowly. 
A bar consisting of such men as Rariden, Newman, 
Parker, Test, O. H. Smith, C. B. Smith, Perry, Hackle- 
man, Tingley, Cox, Finley, Bigger, etc., left little room 
for a tyro, and he was compelled to engage temporarily 
in other pursuits. He acted as clerk in a store; taught 
school two years near Monrovia, Morgan County; was 
telegraph operator in the first office in Rushville, and 
became township clerk. Finally, in March, 1851, he 
settled down to the practice of law, but the fates seemed 


After two years of close 


Going 


unpropitious until 1854, when his success really began. 
In the fall of that year he was elected on the Whig 
ticket to the Lower House of the Legislature, and 
served one term, which wholly satisfied his political 
March, 1856, Mr. Clark entered into 
partnership with Pleasant A. Hackleman, a prominent 


ambition. In 


attorney and politician, and afterward a brigadier-gen- 
eral. In this relation he toiled hard, chiefly in the 
preparation of papers, and the firm became one of the 
ablest in Eastern Indiana. In 1861 it was dissolved, 
Mr. Hackleman entering the army. The wranglings of 
pettifoggers in Justices’ Courts were always distasteful to 
Mr. Clark; and he had now gained experience and rep- 
utation that enabled him to dispense with such practice. 
He had given much attention to that branch of the law 
which has to do with the titles of Jand and the rights of 
heirs, and he came to be regarded as a safe counselor. 
In 1864 he was elected president of the Rushville branch 
of the Bank of the State of Indiana, and held that office 
by successive re-elections until the bank closed, in April, 
1875. In October, 1871, he was elected president of 
the Bank of the State of Indiana, which position he held 
until the closing of the bank, as above indicated. In 
1865 he was chosen president of the Rushville National 
Bank, and still acts in that capacity. In all these respon- 
sible positions he performed his duties to the entire sat- 
isfaction of directors and stockholders, In October, 
1872, the Governor appointed him a director of the 
Southern State-prison of Indiana, to fill a vacancy until 


22 


the meeting of the General Assembly. Mr, Clark was 
formerly a Whig, and is now a pronounced Republican; 
and, though not a politician in the sense of being an 
office-seeker, he has always held positive views of public 
policy, maintaining them manfully in debate. In 1846, 
at Rushville, he joined the Independent Order of Odd- 
fellows, and is now Past Grand. Mr. Clark’s ancestors, 
on both sides, were mostly of the society of Friends, 
and he has a birthright membership, which he has 
never broken. Personally, he is of good figure, rather 
above the average size, and his bearing is dignified and 
impressive. Naturally thoughtful, he early evinced a 
preference for the intimate acquaintance of men advanced 
in years; and among the lessons of wisdom derived from 
these associations he acquired that precision of language 
and steadiness of deportment that have long character- 
ized him. He believes that the legal profession is, or 
should be, the most exalted of all pursuits, and there- 
fore holds in just contempt that class denominated 
‘*shysters.” He is profoundly versed in law, especially 
in the branch to which we have referred, and is one of 
the most reliable of counselors. It may seem at first 
glance paradoxical that a man who delights in the 
investigation of abstruse legal subjects should find equal 
pleasure in the cultivation of flowers; yet to this he de- 
votes much attention. It affords him needed recreation ; 
and he has displayed much care and taste in ornamenting 
his grounds. He not only excels in horticulture, but is a 
skillful botanist. Mr. Clark has a large fund of informa- 
tion, and the happy faculty of making it readily available. 
Naturally, and from long habit, he is so careful that he 
seldom makes a mistake or engages in a hazardous 
enterprise. He shrinks instinctively from the throng of 
men; but with chosen friends he is very companionable. 
His professional abilities and extensive reading, his per- 
fect honesty and pure morals, and his many quiet acts 
of charity, have rendered him one of the most useful 
and respected citizens of the state. 


—>-$006-o— 


diana, was born in Connersville, Fayette County, 
i) Indiana, December 12, 1825, and resided there 
2 until April, 4836, when, with his father, he re- 
moved to a farm one mile north of Connersville, where 
he resided and worked until the fall of eve ahi 
father, Newton Claypool, was one of the early settlers 
of Indiana; born in Virginia, he emigrated to Ross 
County, Ohio, in his youth, and thence to Connersville. 
Ne was a man of liberal education and strong common 
sense, and was frequently honored by his constituents 
with a seat in the Senate and House of Representatives 
in Infliana. The subject of this sketch was a pupil 
from 1834 to 1843 of Harvey Nutting, under whose 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


tuition he acquired a knowledge of the various branches 
usually taught in our seminaries, together with the 
French and Latin languages. He showed great fond- 
ness for Latin, and while under the instruction of his 
old preceptor, Nutting (still living), read most of the 
standard authors. In the fall of 1843 he entered As- 
bury Univérsity, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he re- 
mained until the summer of 1845, finishing the classical 
and belles-lettres course. Soon after leaving college he 
went into the law office of the late Hon. O. H. Smith, 
of Indianapolis, and began the study of the law. 
March, 1847, he was admitted to practice. 
his admission he opened an office in Connersville, the 
place of his birth, and engaged in the active duties of 
his profession, in competition with a bar at that time 
containing some of the most brilliant lawyers of the 
state. By study, industry, and close attention to busi- 
ness, he soon took rank among the foremost, both as a 
civil and criminal lawyer. He has been engaged in 
most of the important cases in the section of coun- 
try surrounding him. In politics he was a Whig, but 
when that party went down he became a Republican, 
and so continues. He was in 1856 a delegate to the 
Philadelphia convention that nominated John C. Fre- 
mont; in 1864 a presidential elector in the Fifth -Con- 
gressional District; and in 1868 one of the electors for 
the state at large, canvassing his district and state in the 
interests of the Republican party. In 1860 he was 
elected Senator from the counties of Fayette and Union, 
and served as such during the exciting times of the Re- 
bellion; at all times favoring a vigorous prosecution of - 
the war. He is an earnest, impassioned, and forcible 
speaker at the bar and on the stump, of decided con- 
victions, and fearless in the expression of them. What- 
ever he thinks right he expresses, regardless of conse- 
quences, paying little attention to the popular will. In 
connection with the law, he takes an active interest in 
manufacturing, agriculture, and the improvement of the 
country, and is now largely engaged in farming and the 
rearing of fine stock, possessing one of the best herds 
and improved farms in Indiana. Aside from his pro-. 
fessional duties, he has given considerable attention to 
finance, having been president of the branch at Conners- 
ville of the Bank of the State of Indiana for several 
years prior to its close, and afterwards president of the 
First National Bank of Connersville from its organiza- 
tion until 1873, when he sold his interest therein. Heat 
all times was, as now, an advocate of a sound and 
stable currency, based on gold and silver. In 1874 he 
was the nominee for Congress in the then Fifth Con- 
gressional District, but, owing to the unsettled condition 
of the currency, the depression of prices, and the bank- 
ruptcy that every-where showed itself, he, with the 
great body of Republicans, suffered defeat. He made 
a gallant fight, but could not stem the tidal wave. On 


In 
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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


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‘UIBRARY i | 
OR THER: 


6th Dist.) 


the 4th of August, 1853, he married Miss Alice Helm, 
eldest daughter of Doctor Jefferson Helm, of Rush 
County, Indiana. They have two children, a son and 
daughter. The son is now a partner with his father in 
the practice of the law. 


—o $0%-— 


| a ABRAHAM J., banker and farmer, of 
Muncie, was born in Connersville, Fayette County, 
ite Indiana, August 20, 1829. His paternal grandfather 
“S02 came from Ireland, the land of his birth, about 
the year 1745, to Harding County, Virginia. He was a 
brother of David C. Claypool, who published the first 
daily paper in Philadelphia, in partnership with Ben- 
jamin Franklin. Newton Claypool, Abraham’s father, 
was a native of Virginia, and emigrated to Indiana in 
1814, while it was yet a territory. He became a banker 
in Connersville, and controlled the banking business of 
that community about thirty years. He was one of the 
most prominent men of Fayette County, and represented 
it in both Houses of the Legislature. 
ent purpose, he never undertook any thing that he did 
not carry through to the end. He died in Indianapolis 
in 1866, at the age of seventy-three, much respected 
through life and greatly mourned in death. The mother 
of the subject of this sketch was Mary (Kerns) Claypool, 
born in Ross County, Ohio, near Chillicothe. Her father 
was Benjamin Kerns, of Welsh descent, a native of Phil- 
adelphia, and the builder of the old Schuylkill bridge 
Her mother belonged to the society of 


A man of persist- 


in that city. 
Friends. Abraham J. Claypool prepared for college at 
Connersville, and, entering the State University in Bloom- 
ington at the age of sixteen, remained there, until he 
was twenty years old, but did not graduate. On leaving 
that institution, he went to Cincinnati and became a stu- 
dent in the Commercial College. The studies there pur- 
sued were especially congenial to him, and he made very 
gratifying progress. At the close of the course he re- 
turned to Connersville, where his father established him 
in the dry-goods trade, which he carried on successfully 
until 1861. In 1856 Mr. Claypool helped organize the 
branch Bank of the State of Indiana, and was a director 
until 1863, when he assisted in establishing the national 
bank, of which he was a director and the assistant cash- 
ier until 1871. In that year he removed to Muncie and 
established on an independent basis the Muncie Bank, 
which he has since ably and successfully conducted, 
having, like his father, superior financial ability. As 
his paternal ancestors owned large estates, he, too, has 
become the proprietor of a farm of thirteen hundred 
acres, which is now under his immediate supervision. 
His time has been necessarily engrossed with his own 
business affairs, yet he has not been regardless of the 
public welfare, and has endeavored to promote the com- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


23 


mercial interests of Muncie, in identifying himself with 
the work of building several turnpikes and railroads. Mr. 
Claypool does not subscribe to any religious creed, 
although. his wife attends the Christian Church. He 
was formerly a Whig, General Scott having been the 
first presidential candidate for whom he voted, and he 
is now a member of the Republican party, but never 
seeks political honors. He married, January 31, 1854, 
Miss Melinda Scofield, of Connersville. In becoming a 
banker, Mr. Claypool chose the calling for which nature 
had eminently fitted him. He has led an uneventful life, 
because not capricious or visionary; and this stability is 
one of the elements of his success. He is a man of first- 
rate business qualifications, of sterling integrity, and fine 
social qualities. He contributes liberally of his wealth 
to worthy objects, and is regarded as one of the best 
of citizens. It may also be said of him, what is true 
of few others, that he has never been sued by any one 
in court, nor had his note protested. 


+400 -— 


<) 


6 

OTTERAL, WILLIAM WILSON, auditor of 
|, Henry County, was born in Union County, Indi- 
@ ana, May 10, 1830, and is the second of three 
oy children of George W. and Ruth (Macy) Cotteral, 
who emigrated from North Carolina. He was educated 
in the common subscription schools of his native county, 
which were in session but two or three months in each 
year. His father died when he was but six years old, 
and at this tender age he was bound to William Elder 
until he should be twenty-one. Here he worked on the 
farm until the year 1850, when Mr. Elder moved with 
him to Troy, Missouri. 
he attended the high school of Troy for three months, 
which completed his school education. In October, 
1853, he returned to his native place, and in 1854 went 
to Middletown, Henry County, where for a time he was 
clerk in a miscellaneous store. He afterwards purchased 
a store, and from 1860 to 1865 was postmaster at Mid- 
dletown, At the end of this time he took charge of the 
railroad depot, as agent, expressman, and telegraph op- 
erator. In the spring of 1874 he was nominated for 
auditor of the county, and in October of that year was 
elected to that position, which he now occupies to. the 
satisfaction of the community. In 1878 he was renom- 
inated and re-elected for a second term. He has taken 
all the degrees in the Blue Lodge of the Masonic Fra- 
ternity. In November, 1854, he married Miss V. E. 
Burr, of Middletown. They have an interesting family 
of three sons and one daughter. Since 1854 he has 
been a member of the Christian Church, to which Mrs. 
Cotteral also belongs. Mr. Cotteral is a gentleman of 
even, genial disposition, a courteous and efficient officer, 
and has the confidence and respect of his neighbors. 


After he reached his majority 


a 


| land Academy, was born in Wayne County, Indi- 
January 7, 1833. His father, Willis Davis, 
Ne aay was from North Carolina, and of Welsh descent. 
lis mother, whose maiden name was Ann Coggshall, 
came from Nantucket, and was of English extraction. 
Professor Davis has struggled up from humble circum- 
stances in youth to his present position without aid, 
impelled by an innate force that no obstacles could long 
resist, a desire for knowledge that no superficial attain- 
ments could satisfy. In boyhood he first attended a 
district school in Grant County, at that time a thinly 
settled region, to which the family removed in 1838; 
and he spent one term at Bloomingdale Academy, then 
in charge of B. C. Hobbs, since State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction. In 1856 he studied five months 
in Earlham College, Richmond, and was then chosen 
tutor. After acting as such one year he was placed in 
charge of the mathematical department, where he con- 
tinued teaching until the spring of 1863. During these 
and subsequent years he advanced by private study; 
and so diligent and thorough was he that in 1868 his 
attainments were sufficient to warrant the faculty in con- 
ferring upon him the degree of A. M., which was done 
The summer of 1863 was passed 


pee CLARKSON, A. M., principal of the Spice- 


GG ana, 


without his knowledge. 
ona farm, but the ensuing fall found him in charge of the 
Spiceland Academy, in Henry County. Here he remained 
nine years, devoting all his energies to the interests of the 
school, and making it one of the best of its kind in the 
state. During the first three winter seasons he spent 
his leisure in the study of Greek and German. The 
fourth year, 1867, he went to the Paris Exposition, and 
visited various parts of Europe. At the close of the 
school year in 1873, work in the class-room and severe 
study having impaired his health, he resigned, and en- 
gaged with Harper & Brothers, New York, as their 
special agent for Iowa and Minnesota. In this business 
In the fall of 1876 he 
returned, at the earnest solicitation of the trustees of 
Spiceland Academy, and again took charge of the school. 
In September, 1878, Professor’ Davis was appointed a 
member of the board of managers of Earlham College, 
and has been urged to accept the presidency of that 
institution. He has won such a reputation among the 
teachers of the West that Harper & Brothers set high 
value upon it as an aid in the sale of their school pub- 
lications. With a mind naturally capable, developed 
and enriched by study, travel, and experience, he has 
become one of the ablest of educators; and, having fine 
business talents, has accumulated an ample competence. 
He is a birthright member of the society of Friends. 
in politics he is a Republican, and in 1871 was elected 
superintendent of county schools. He was married, 
September 4, 1862, to Miss Hannah E. Brown, of Wayne 
County. 


he was employed three years. 


REPRESENTATIVE 


MEN OF INDIANA. [6c Dist. 

2 
7 UDLEY, WILLIAM WADE, late lieutenant-col- 

if, onel of the 19th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, 
and breveted brigadier-general of United States 
3) Volunteers, for gallantry at the battle of Gettys- 
burg, Pennsylvania, was born at Weathersfield Bow, 
Windsor County, Vermont, August 27, 1842. His fa- 
ther, John Dudley, a native of Richmond, Berkshire 
County, Massachusetts, was born November 3, 1805. 
He is a graduate of Yale Theological Seminary. His 
mother, Abby Wade Dudley, a native of Old Ipswich, 
Massachusetts, was born February 26, 1808. She is 
a graduate of the Ipswich Female Seminary, under 
Misses Grant and Lyon. His parents were married in 
1834, and his father entered upon the work of the min- 
istry in 1835, in which he continued with great accept- 
ance and success for twenty-three years, being settled 
at Chillicothe and Cincinnati, Ohio; Mount Clement, 
Michigan; Weathersfield Bow, Quechee, and Danville, 
Vermvnt, as pastor of Congregational Churches. From 
the latter place he moved to Orange, Connecticut, 
where, hoping to educate his children thoroughly, he 
opened a boarding school for boys, subsequently remov- 
ing it to New Haven, Connecticut. From New Haven 
his parents moved to Boston, Massachusetts; thence to 
Wayne County, Indiana. His father is the third son 
of Timothy Dudley, who was the son of John Dudley, 
junior, who was the first son of John Dudley, one of the 
early settlers of Massachusetts. His mother is the third 
child of William Wade, who was a son of Colonel Na- 
thaniel Wade. Colonel Wade was one of the first to 
bear arms in the Revolutionary War, was among the 
minute-men at Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill, 
rising from the ranks to the office of lieutenant-colonel 
and aide-de-camp to General Washington, and was the 
officer placed in command of West Point upon the de- 
sertion of Arnold. He served through the war with dis- 
tinction, and filled offices of honor and trust afterwards 
until his death. Colonel Dudley’s early education began 
at Phillips’s Academy, Danville, Vermont; and was com- 
pleted at Russell’s Collegiate and Commercial Institute, 
New Haven, Connecticut. At the latter school, which 
with a thorough classical course combines a most excellent 
military department, he acquired a thorough military 
education as well as an advanced classical one—fitting 
for the class of 1861 in Yale. He arrived in Richmond 
in August, 1860, and was engaged in milling when the 
call to arms came in 1861. He refrained from enlisting 
at the beginning, as, having at his mother’s request de- 
clined military life, he felt that he should not go with- 
out her full and free consent. This came in time for 
the second call for three hundred thousand by President 
Lincoln, and by vote of his company, the Richmond 
City Greys, of which he was captain, their services were 
tendered Governor Morton, and at once accepted. The 
independent organization was abandoned, and a recruit- 


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ing office opened in Richmond, Indiana, July 3, 1861. 
On July 5 he was unanimously chosen captain, and 
started for Indianapolis with a full company composed 
of young nren from that Quaker community. Arriving 
at Indianapolis, his company was assigned to the 19th 
Indiana Volunteers, commanded by Solomon Meredith, 
of Wayne County, then in the rendezvous at Camp 
Morton, and was mustered into service for three years 
or during the war, July 29, 1861, and by lot he became 
the second ranking captain of the regiment, Company 
B. The regiment being ordered to Washington, District 
of Columbia, za Baltimore, Maryland, Companies A 
and B were armed by the Governor with Enfield rifles, 
and reached Washington City on the morning of 
August 9, 1861. It encamped on Kalorama Heights, 
north-west of Washington, until brigaded with the 6th, 
2d, and 7th Wisconsin, when the brigade was moved 
into Virginia, at Chain Bridge. There the rounds of 
picket and intrenchment work began, and the regiment 
suffered great hardships, to which fully one-third suc- 
cumbed. His first engagement with the enemy was at 
Lewinsville, September 21, 1861, where the regiment 
suffered some slight losses. After the completion of the 
chain of forts near Chain Bridge, the brigade was moved 
to the Arlington estate and encamped for the winter of 
1861-62. He participated in every round of duty, drill, 
picket, or skirmish with his regiment, was engaged in 
the battles of Rappahannock Station, August 16th, 17th, 
and 18th; Sulphur Springs, near Warrenton, August 25th 
and 26th; Gainesville, August 28th; second Bull Run, 
August 29th and 30th ; South Mountain, September 14th; 
and Antietam, September 16th, 17th, and 18th, in 1862. 
In this last engagement he commanded his regiment, 
Colonel Bachman being mortaily wounded, Colonel Mer- 
edith disabled at South Mountain, and Major May killed 
at Gainesville. He commanded the regiment until 
about December 1, 1862, when, Colonel Meredith being 
promoted to brigadier-general, he should have become, 
in regular succession and by recommendation, colonel. 
He preferred, however, a brave fellow-officer, and waived 
his rank in favor of Captain Samuel J. Williams, of 
Company K. After some demur, both in the regiment 
and at Indianapolis, Colonel Dudley’s wishes were re- 
spected, and he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of 
his regiment. After considerable marching and bi- 
vouacking, he was engaged with his regiment, Decem- 
ber 13 and 14, 1862, at Fredericksburg, Virginia; again 
at Fitzhugh Crossing, April 30 and May 1, 1863; at 
Chancellorsville, May 3 and 4, 1863; and on July 1, 
1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The brigade was 
placed in an exposed position at the latter battle, and 
his regiment lost seventy-two per centum of the men 
engaged on the first day, July 1, Colonel Dudley being 
one of the wounded. From the effect of this wound 


his right leg was amputated; after a third operation it 
A—22 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF JNDIANA. 


25 


healed, and he at last recovered, after an illness of 
nearly a year. He was elected clerk of the Wayne 
Circuit Court at the October election in 1866, and was 
re-elected in 1870. During his term of office he directed 
his studies to the law, and upon retirement from office, 
January 19, 1875, was admitted to the bar, and took 
up the practice of the law at Richmond, leaving it in 
September, 1875, to accept the position of cashier of the 
Richmond Savings Bank, whence he was appointed 
United States marshal for the District of Indiana, on 
February 11, 1879. He was, during a part of his serv- 
ice as county clerk, chairman of the Wayne County 
Republican central committee, and afterward a member 
of the Republican state central committee, and thus was 
identified with the politics of the state. He became a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows in 
January, 1864, at Selma, and afterward was a charter 
member of Richmond Lodge, No. 254, at Richmond, 
Indiana. He was a prominent member of the Union 
League, and represented the soldiers of Wayne County 
at the great convention at Pittsburgh in 1866, and again 
in 1871. He became a member of the Masonic Fra- 
ternity at Centerville, Indiana, in 1870, and is now a 
member of Webb Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, 
at Richmond, Indiana. His religious views are what 
might be termed liberal orthodox. Brought up a Con- 
gregationalist, he early discovered a liking for the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, and was united to that 
Church in 1864, since which he has been one of its 
working members. He was born a Whig, brought up 
an Abolitionist, and is, of course, a Republican. His 
views have undergone no change, nor will be likely to. 
He was married, October 18, 1864, to Theresa Fiske, of 
Richmond, Indiana, the only daughter and survivor of 
the Rev. George Fiske, who founded and maintained 
St. Paul’s Church, Richmond, Indiana, from 1837 to his 
death, in 1860; he was its first rector, and only laid 
down his charge in 1855, when attacked by his last 
To them have been born seven children, five 
of whom are still living. To omit from Colonel Dud- 
ley’s record an emphatic commendation of him as a 
man, and a genial, warm-hearted friend, would leave 
untold some of his most strongly marked characteristics. 
In business he reveals the same energy and spirit that 
characterized his military life. He is a warm partisan 
and an enthusiast for his party’s success, but not a bitter 
politician. In the social circle, a gentleman of culture 
and education, a genial, pleasant companion and a 
sympathizing friend ; at home, a tender husband and in- 
dulgent father; in war, the gallant soldier; in peace, 
the modest, unassuming man of business, tenacious of 
his convictions, and fearless of upholding them—such 
is the picture presented by one who has known him 
from boyhood, and the biographer gives it with the cer- 


sickness. 


| tainty that all who know the Colonel will recognize it. 


ARING, WILLIAM PERCIVAL, physician and 
surgeon, Richmond, was born in Fayette County, 
Indiana, Apri! 18, 1827. His parents were 
GQ" Joshua and Margaret (Houghton) Waring. He 

was early required to work on the farm, and, losing his 

father at the age of fourteen, his labors were so in- 

creased that his school advantages were greatly lm- 

ited. When he was seventeen he entered the Beech- 

grove Academy, chopping wood for his board. In two 

ierms he fitted himself to teach school, which he did 

for three years, his last being the Whitewater school 

in Richmond. This school was under charge of the 

Friends, and was closed in 1849, owing to the prev- 

alence of cholera. Mr. Waring’s tastes had long in- 

clined him to the medical profession, and he began his 
studies that fall in Richmond, under the instruction of 

Doctor John T. Plummer. He soon entered the Ohio 

Medical College. From that institution he graduated in 

1852, receiving the degree of M. D. He then com- 

menced practice at Richmond in partnership with his 

former preceptor, and remained in that connection two 
years. At the end of that time he removed to Thorn- 
town, Boone County, where he practiced seven years; 
and then, in 1861, returned to Richmond, which has 
ever since been his home and the field of his practice. 
In 1866 Doctor Waring joined the Independent Order 
of Odd-fellows, of which he is still a member. He be- 
longed to the Wayne County Medical Society during its 
entire existence—a period of about twelve years—serv- 
ing most of that time as its secretary. In 1862 he joined 
the State Medical Society. He is by birthright a mem- 
ber of the society of Friends. Formerly a Whig, he is 
now a Republican. He married, July 3, 1852, Miss Se- 
mira Hiatt, of Milton, by whom he has had three chil- 
dren, two daughters and one son; the latter died Jan- 
uary 19, 1877. Doctor Waring conscientiously discharges 
every duty. Prudence and moderation are among his 
chief characteristics, and his life seems governed by pure 
and just precepts. He undertakes only what he can 
perform. He instinctively sympathizes with every moral 
reform, and looks with disapprobation upon any inno- 
vation in religion. As a citizen, he is highly respected. 

His diligence and carefulness have secured him a good 

practice; and it is worthy of note that he is the family 

physician of one of the best medical practitioners in the 


AY 


state. 
400-0 — 


WU HADWAY, CALEB §., auditor-elect of Wayne 
| County, Milton, Indiana, was born December ri; 
= 1826. He is the son of Peter and Martha (Reeves) 
AG Du Hadway, and is the only child living. His 
few educational advantages were principally found in 
Richmond, Indiana. His circumstances required him 
to leave school at fourteen years of age, and prepare to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| 


[6ch Dist. 


earn his own living. He first entered the store of his . 
uncle, James E. Reeves, as clerk, where he continued 
for about three years, when he took a similar position 
in Mark E. Reeves’s store, at Hagerstown. -In 1848, in 
connection with Edward Vaughan, he bought out the 
proprietor, and continued the business for two years, 
when his partner went to California during the mania 
for gold in 1850. Mr. Du Hadway continued the busi- 
ness which, proving unfortunate, he closed in April, 
1855. For the next five years he was engaged in insur- 
ance, at the end of which time he removed to Rich- 
mond, and went into the auction business with C. W. 
Ferguson. The next year he cultivated a farm, and in 
1863 he traveled as salesman for Vanuxem & Leeds, 
During the following two or three years he served as 
bookkeeper and general accountant, and in 1876 he 
entered an office as deputy treasurer for the county. 
While here fortune smiled upon him, and, on offering as 
candidate for county auditor, he was nominated over 
eight excellent applicants, and was elected to that posi- 
tion in October, 1878. On June 2, 1852, he married 
Miss Priscilla Buchanan, daughter of Doctor Buchanan, 
of Hagerstown, and has an interesting family of three 
children, Mr. Du Hadway is an honored citizen, and 
has the confidence of the community in which he lives. 
He is a member of the Masonic Order in good standing, 


LDER, JAMES, journalist, of Richmond, was born 
in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1818. 
He is the first son among the seven children of 

© Samuel and Jane (Oliver) Elder, both of Scotch 

ancestry. . His opportunities for acquiring an education 
were very limited, as his home was three miles from 
the only school he could attend, and that being held 
but three months in the year. His boyhood was char- 
acterized by a fondness for useful reading, and he early 
conceived the idea of becoming a printer, even before 
he saw a printing-press. At the age of sixteen he was 
apprenticed to that trade in the office of the Franklin 

Repository, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. During his 
apprenticeship, which lasted four years, he studied in a 

night-class in an academy; and by that means, and 
through his experience in the printing-office, the most 

important part of his education:has been obtained. In 

March, 1839, he set out for the West, thinking it offered 

greater inducements to young men than the thickly 
peopled East. Havifig stopped in Cincinnati, he worked 
as a journeyman printer for a short time, and then, in 

June of the same year, went on to Richmond, Indiana, 
where he has ever since remained. He was at once 
engaged as a journeyman in the office of the Jeffersonian, 
and after a few weeks entered into an engagement with 
the proprietor, S. E. Perkins, now a Judge of the Su- 


6th Dist.] 


preme Court of Indiana, to publish that journal for one 
year. In November, 1840, he bought the establishment, 
and continued to edit and publish the paper, except 
during a period of six months, until January, 1865, 
when its publication was discontinued. In December, 
1845, Mr. Elder was appointed postmaster by President 
Polk, and served in that capacity until a change of ad- 
ministration, in 1849, In August of that year he was 
elected Representative to the Legislature, though his 
party was greatly in the minority. During that session 
he was made a member of the Committee of Ways and 
Means, and chairman of that on Benevolent Institutions, 
two of the most important committees of the House. In 
the spring of 1846, while postmaster, he engaged in the 
book and stationery business, which he conducted over 
thirty years. In 1853 he was again appointed post- 
master, by President Pierce, and held that office two 
terms. In 1853 and 1854 he served one term as school 
trustee, and was always a warm advocate of the common 
school system and of all educational interests. He was 
elected a member of the city council at the first election 
under the new charter, in 1867, was re-elected the fol- 
lowing year, and also in 1870 and 1872. In May, 1873, 
He has 
been a delegate to three Democratic national conven- 
tions; namely, the Baltimore Convention in 1848, the 
Cincinnati Convention in 1856, and the St. Louis Con- 
vention in 1876. Mr. Elder is not a member of any 
Church or society. His sympathies are more fully with 
the Presbyterian Church, in which he was trained by 
his parents, who were members of that denomination ; 
but he usually attends the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
to which his wife belongs. 
his political connection is with the Democratic party, 
and he has been an active politician. Mr. Elder mar- 
ried, in Decembér, 1840, Miss Ann Mattis, by whom he 
had two children, Samuel and Ann. They, and also 
their mother, have passed away; the death of the latter 
occurred in September, 1845. In September, 1848, he 
married Miss Eliza J. Haines. They have had three 
children, James F., Mary, and Fannie; the first two 
are living. As the Democratic party is outnumbered 
in Wayne County by its opponents, Mr. Elder’s abil- 
ities have not been as fully recognized as they would 
otherwise have been. He has fair business tact, and 
his careful judgment, his knowledge of men and po- 
litical history, and his experience as a journalist, 
have enabled him to discharge with credit the pub- 
lic duties at various times assigned to him. He was 
appointed sheriff in September, 1878, by the Supreme 
Court of the state, and is’ now holding that posi- 
tion. Mr. Elder has won the esteem of his fellow- 
citizens as a man of candor, integrity, and benevo- 
He is a man of excellent standing and high 


he was chosen mayor, and served two years. 


As has already appeared, 


lence. 
ability. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 27 


SA ruorr, JEHU TINDALL, was born near Rich- 
{. mond, Wayne County, Indiana, February 7, 1813, 
cy and died, at his home in New Castle, on the 12th 

ey, of February, 1876, having just entered upon the 
sixty-fourth year of his age. His death was sudden and 
caused by apoplexy, but was not wholly unexpected 
either to his family or friends, who knew that he had 
suffered from previous attacks of that complaint, and 
that his existence was likely to be suddenly terminated. 
His father, Abraham Elliott, came to Henry County in 
1824, and settled on a farm one and a half miles from 
New Castle, which had just been laid out and made the 
county seat, and, with a large family to support, it was 
necessary that all should contribute by labor to aid in 
their maintenance. They were, in fact, a model family, 
universally beloved and respected by their friends and 
acquaintances, and all rendered a cheerful obedience to 
the requirements of the situation. The education of 
the youth was limited to the means which the country 
at that time afforded, but he learned rapidly, and soon 
he had made such proficiency that by the time he was 
eighteen years of age he was engaged in teaching a 
The 
father of the young man, himself a lawyer in good 
standing, had intended his son for the legal profes- 
sion, and, reached the age of twenty, 
placed him in the office of Martin M. Ray, then a law- 
yer of large practice at Centerville, Wayne County, 
where he remained about one year, and was then ad- 
mitted to practice. Having completed his studies, he 
returned to New Castle and opened an office, and a 
lucrative business soon came to him. 


school, which he continued for about two years. 


when he 


He was married, 
October 24, 1833, to Hannah Branson, who survives 
him. The first office he ever held was that of assistant 
secretary of the House of Representatives of the In- 
diana Legislature, a position to which he was re-elected, 
and in 1837 he was made principal secretary of that 
body. 
a new circuit, extending to and embracing the counties 
of Blackford and Wells, in which no courts had previ- 


In 1838 he was elected prosecuting attorney for 


ously been held, which position he held until August, 
1839, when lhe was elected to the state Senate, the term 
then being three years. In 1844 he was elected by the 
Legislature Circuit Judge, his circuit embracing eight 
of the most populous counties, and he was re-elected in 
1851 for another term of seven years, but in 1852 he re- 
signed the office and accepted the presidency of a rail- 
road then being built from Richmond to Chicago. 
This he resigned in 1854, and the following year, 1855, 
he was elected by the people Circuit Judge, holding the 
place until 1864, when he was elected one of the Judges 
of the Supreme Court. The bar over which he had so 
long presided was one of great ability, embracing such 
eminent lawyers as James Rariden, John S. Newman, 
Charles H. Test, Caleb B. Smith, Samuel W. Parker, 


28 


and James. Perry, with many others scarcely inferior to 
them. It was the opinion of these gentlemen and other 
competent judges that, as a Circuit Judge, his ability 
was of the highest order, and it is certain that no judge 
ever gave greater satisfaction than he. His popularity 
was such that no one ever opposed him for the place 
successfully, and when it was known that he was a can- 
didate an election followed, of course. The opinions 
he delivered during the six years he occupied a seat on 
the Supreme Bench bear evidence of great industry and 
a thorough knowledge of the law, and stand deservedly 
high with the profession. On retiring from the Su- 
preme Bench he resumed the practice of the law, and 
was thus engaged when death overtook him. The com- 
munity in which the Judge so long resided placed a 
very high estimate on his ability and integrity. He 
was the friend and counselor of the young men who 
embarked in the profession, and as such these esteemed 
him very highly. ‘The litigant always felt that in the 
decision of his case the Judge would bring to his aid 
thorough knowledge of the law and impartiality, and 
if he lost his suit it was because the law and facts com- 
pelled a decision the other way, and therefore lawyers 
and their clients submitted cheerfully to adverse decis- 
It was by this means that he won the title of 
the ‘*model judge.”” He served eighteen years as Cir- 
cuit Judge and six years on the Supreme Bench, mak- 
ing twenty-four years in all, and from 1835 to 1871 he 
was continually in the public service. Few men who 
die at the age of sixty-three have served the public so 
long and with such universal commendation as Judge 
Elliott. To the community in which he had so long 
resided, as well as to his personal friends and his 
family, his death seemed an irreparable loss, which 
found as full an expression as words could convey in a 
set of resolutions passed by the Henry County bar, 
which, through lack of space, we are unable to publish. 


ions. 


— >t — 


CV VANS, CAPTAIN OWEN, of the 2d United 
f States Sharp-shooters, was born in Henry County, 
Gy Indiana, August 11, 1826. He is of Quaker par- 

86 entage, the second of six children born to George 
and Mary (Haskett) Evans. He was reared on a farm, 
but had better educational opportunities than most boys 
in that section. He fully appreciated these advantages 
and made great progress in his studies. Under the direc- 
tion of a teacher who was a thorough classical scholar, 
Captain Evans learned Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; he 
was a great reader, and seemed literally to devour every 
thing in the way of books that came within reach, 
particularly works on history and theology. Having 
naturally an inquiring, logical mind, his searching ques- 
tions on the latter subject proved troublesome to his 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6h Dist 


parents and friends, for in those days knowledge of 
science and philosophy was not wide-spread. At the 
age of nineteen his mental acquirements were such that 
he passed an examination as a teacher; and for three 
years continued that calling. In March, 1855, he went 
to Iowa, and the year following removed to Minnesota, 
and entered one hundred and sixty-five acres of land in 
Anoka County. While a resident of this state he was 
commissioned sheriff of Isanti County, serving two 
years, when he was elected one of the board of county 
supervisors of Anoka County. He was appointed chair- 
man of the board, and had the disbursement of all 
moneys drawn for county purposes. He also organized 
Anoka Lodge of Freemasons, and filled the chair of 
Worshipful Master. He was afterward elected first 
Master, under the chartered lodge, and appointed Senior 
Grand Warden of the state. At the breaking out of 
the war Captain Evans was occupied in farming. A true 
American citizen, he resolved to sacrifice personal com- 
fort and interest in upholding the honor of his country; 
and, accordingly, in the fall of 1861 he enlisted for 
three years as a private soldier in Company A, 2d 
United States Sharp-shooters. This company, which in 
time became celebrated for its bravery and efficiency, 
was, during its term of service, attached to nearly 
every. corps in the Army of the Potomac, and was 
generally called upon to flank charges, to lead in 
advance, and to cover retreat. Captain Evans was 
engaged in the battles of Falmouth, Orange Court 
House, and a number of others, including the second 
battle of Bull Run, where he was taken prisoner. 
Paroled by order of General Lee, he was sent to Co- 
lumbus, Ohio, where he remained until exchanged.’ 
Passing through Pennsylvania, while ex route to rejoin 
his command, the train was thrown from the track, 
and Captain Evans’s shoulder was broken. This acci- 
dent sent him to the hospital at York for six months, 
and he was unable to join his company until the eve of 
the battle of Chancellorsville. At the battle of Gettys- 
burg his company was deployed as skirmishers in Gen- 
eral Sickles’s front, and received the charge, on Big and 
Little Round Top, of the advance line of Ewell’s and 
Longstreet’s divisions. On the third day of the fight 
they were called to the assistance of the Second Corps 
to resist the Confederate charge on Cemetery Hill. 
Here they again encountered the flower of the Southern 
army, which was broken and scattered before them. 
Thus far Captain Evans had escaped unscathed; but, 
just before the decisive charges, he received a slight 
wound in the face from a minie ball. Upon the reor- 
ganization of the army under General Grant, Captain 
Evans’s company was attached to Hancock’s corps, and 
with that command began the march to Richmond 
through the Wilderness. Here they were engaged in a 
succession of fights for fifteen days; and in that at Po 


6th Dist.) 


River Captain Evans was wounded in the arm by a 
shell. During the battle of Petersburg he narrowly es- 
caped having his head blown from his shoulders by a 
cannon ball, which came so close as to carry away the 
brim of his hat, and cause paralysis of the frontal brain. 
Such, in brief, is an outline of Captain Evans’s military 
career. He entered the army a private, and for merito- 
rious conduct was elevated through successive grades to 
the captaincy of his company. While yet*a lieutenant, 
+n addition to his own command, he had charge of two 
New Hampshire. companies. Such was his renown as 
an officer and a gentleman that he was subsequently 
tendered the colonelcy of a new regiment of Granite 
State troops, but declined the honor, preferring, for ob- 
vious reasons, Previous 
to the disbandment of volunteers Captain Evans refused 
the position of mustering officer on General Humphrey’s 
staff. He returned to Indiana, where his family, who 
had been driven from Minnesota by the Indian massa- 
cres, awaited him. In 1869 he was appointed deputy 
auditor of the county, the duties of which office he still 
performs. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, a consistent Christian, a gallant soldier, and a 


true gentleman. 


to remain with his own men. 


—+-3906--— 


oy MSWILER, GEORGE P., capitalist and broker, 


Iv of Richmond, was born in the town of York, 
OS York County, Pennsylvania, January 15, 1830. 
He was the eldest of ten children, and, his father 
being in straitened circumstances, young George’s Op- 
portunities for acquiring an education were by no means 
flattering, but being energetic and studious he was not 
long in mastering the rudiments, and that too mostly 
without the assistance of a teacher. He was early im- 
pressed with the influence and position in society which 
wealth could give, and he had an especial dread of de- 
pendence on others. In 1842, when but twelve years 
of age, he went to Harrisburg, and engaged as clerk in 
a dry-goods store, where he remained for four years, 
when, in company with his parents, he removed to 
Edinburg, Indiana. Although so young, he had so 
improved his opportunities by study after business 
hours that he taught school for twelve months, to the 
general satisfaction of all concerned. The following 
year he removed with his father’s family to German- 
town, in Wayne County, where he continued teaching 
for six months longer. In December of the same year 
he removed to Richmond, Indiana, his present home, 
and engaged as clerk for Stratton & Wright (afterwards 
Benjamin Stratton), where he remained five years, and 
where by close economy he acquired his first five hun- 
dred dollars, when his salary was but one hundred and 
Here he illustrated the two 
points of his business character, industry and 


eighty dollars a year. 
strong 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


29 
economy; to which, when acting for himself a few 
years later, he added the third, namely, good financier- 
ing ability. Add to these qualities an excellent judg- 
ment of human nature, granted good moral principles, 
and we have a character that could hardly fail of success. 
In the employment-of Thaddeus Wright he remained un- 
til the spring of 1855, when he was offered a position in 
the Citizens’ Bank, under Morrison, Blanchard & Co., 
and continued with them until March, 1857. At this 
time he engaged in the wholesale and retail notion 
trade with Mr. Christian - Zimmer, under the firm 
name of Zimmer & Emswiler. Three years later Mr. 
Zimmer retired, and he chose Alvin E. Crocker as 
his partner. This firm was continued for six years with 
unusual success. Although Mr. Emswilcr was possessed 
of a limited amount of property, their totak cash capital 
was only ninety dollars, with which to purchase horses, 
wagon, and a stock of goods, all of which they did on 
a credit of six months. Selling their wares for cash, 
and to prompt-paying customers on thirty days, they 
were enabled, by collecting closely every month, to meet 
every obligation against the firm before maturity, be- 
sides making considerable sums each year in discounts. 
So admirably were the finances managed by Mr. Ems- 
wiler that, though tens of thousands of dollars were 
involved in their trade, the total losses incurred by 
them during these six years were less than fifty dollars. 
Soon after the dissolution of this firm, Mr. Emswiler 
sold out the establishment and retired from business, 
and now leads the quiet and independent life of a gen- 
tleman of fortune. He married Miss Martha A. Finley, 
February 14, 1855, a niece of John Finley, well remem- 
bered by the older citizens as mayor of the city for 
many years. They have a family of two children, and 
are highly respected in the community. 


—< FHS 


| ETTA, CHRISTIAN, manufacturer, of Richmond, 
; was born in the province of Hanover, Germany, 
Cc Hl June 15, 1831, and came to this country with his 
4s parents when he was fourteen years of age. By 
his aptness and diligence in study he acquired a good 
primary education in his native place, and afterwards 
attended, during three winter terms, a private school 
+n his new home. He left school at the age of seven- 
teen, and began to learn the miller’s trade; but, finding 
that it injured his health, in 1849 he engaged to work ina 
brick-yard. After one year’s service he was made super- 
intendent of the yard, and, with slight interruptions, 
has continued in this business until the present time. In 
1851 he began the manufacture of bricks on his own ac- 
count, and by his energy, judgment, and quick perception, 
he established a prosperous business and acquired consid- 


erable wealth. In after years his success was checked by 


30 


the failure of a man for whom he had indorsed heavily, 
but his industrious habits and perseverance served him 
so well in this hour of trial that he emerged from the 
difficulty uncrushed and undaunted. In 1870 he bought 
a tract of land in Randolph County, and with a part- 
ner went into the lumber business, under the firm name 
of Fetta & Hawkins. Mr. Fetta had no taste for either 
military or political honors. He is a prominent member 
of the Masonic Order, having served as Master of his 
lodge for about ten years, and during the years 1873-74 
was Grand Master of the state. He is an Odd-fellow 
and a member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish 
Rite. Mr. Fetta was reared in the Lutheran Church, 
but at present is not connected with any religious de- 
nomination. He married in 1853, and has several sons 
and daughters. 
—~>- Got — 


AAR, ABRAM, president of Gaar, Scott & Co., 
manufacturers of steam-engines and _threshers, 
saw-mills, etc., was born in Wayne County, In- 
G diana, November 14, 1819. His father, Jonas 
Gaar, was a native of Virginia, and his mother, Sarah 
(Watson) Gaar, was born in Kentucky. They were 
married in Indiana in 1818. Abram was the oldest of 
eight children, seven of whom are yet living. His 
father moved to the then small village of Richmond 
when this eldest son was one year old, and followed his 
During his youth and boyhood 


trade as cabinet-maker. 
his opportunities for school education were very limited. 
Subscription schools for a few months only each year 
were all that could be afforded. When fourteen years of 
age he began to learn the trade with his father, and 
two years afterwards, in 1835, his father went into the 
foundry and machine business, on the site where the 
county jail now stands. Rbram at that time was an 
apprentice, but, being a natural mechanic, he worked 
at pattern-making, building woolen machinery, etc., 
though but about eighteen years of age. After three or 
four years this firm broke up, and he worked with Ellis 
Nordyke as a millwright in the years 1839 and 1840. 
Very hard times coming on, he gave up mechanics for 
the time being, and turned his attention to the improve- 
ment of his mind. He attended school for some time, 
and, finally, closed his last session in 1842, with James 
M. Poe as teacher. In 1843 he returned and worked 
for J. M. & J. H. Hutton, in the old Spring Foundry 
Machine-shops. Here he continued till’ 1849, when he 
and his father, brother, and brother-in-law, bought out 
the firm, and started under the familiar firm name of 
CONN aan eecieoez 
their future extensive shops. 


Here was the foundation laid for 
The principal members 
of the firm at that time consisted of Mr. Gaar’s father, 
himself, his brother, J. M. Gaar, and his brother-in-law, 
W. G. Scott, all of them having a genius for mechanics; 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[6th Dist. 


and being of industrious habits they continued to ex- 
tend their business and their reputation year after year, 
till April 1, 1870, when the name was changed to Gaar, 
Scott & Co., and a company was incorporated, with a 
paid-up capital stock of four hundred thousand dollars. 
Up to this time Abram Gaar was superintendent of the 
pattern and wood-working department of the works, and 
in 1870 was elected president, and continued actively in 
business till 1873, when he ceased to attend the works 
regularly, but still continued as president. The estab- 
lishment of Gaar, Scott & Co. has grown to large pro- 
portions. The machine-shop, built in 1856, was burned 
down in January, 1858, but was immediately rebuilt, 
and other buildings have been added from time to time, 
and at present the shops, with warehouses and necessary 
yard room, cover five acres of ground. They are among 
the most extensive boiler and engine builders in the 
world. They used in 1878 more than three hundred 
and sixty tons of boiler iron, over three hundred and 
fifty tons of wrought iron, and eight hundred tons of 
pig iron, besides one million seven hundred and fifty 
thousand feet of lumber in the construction of grain- 
threshers, saw-mills, etc., and employ on an average 
about four hundred men. The value of their manufac- 
tured goods exceeded five hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. Their goods are sent to all of the states and 
territories. Their trade on the Pacific Slope last year, 
principally in California, exceeded eighty thousand dol- 
lars. Another large shop has lately been put up to 
meet their growing business. In 1873 Mr. Garr, with 
his family, took a trip to California, returning in 1874. 
Soon after he removed to his farm, two miles north- 
east of Richmond, where he now lives. He had no 
taste nor ambition for military honors, though in 1842 
he belonged to a military company, under Captain 
Sinex, and continued for about five years. He wasa 
member of the city council from 1857 to 1861. Mr. 
Gaar had no aspirations for political offices, and never 
asked or accepted one. He belongs to no secret orders, 
but at one time was a member of the Good Templars. 
His sympathies and practice have always been on the 
side of temperance, never having been addicted to drink- 
ing, neither chewing or smoking tobacco. The result 
of such habits is a sound mind in a sound body in ad- 
vanced age. In 1840 he was anxious to cast his first 
vote for William Henry Harrison as a candidate for 
President of the United States, but, not having reached 
his majority by twelve days, that privilege was denied 
him. As his father was a Democrat, Abraham changed 
over, voted for Polk in 1844, and continued to act with 
that party till the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
when he left the party and became a Republican from 
that time forward. He also paid liberally for the sup- 
port of the war. In 1867 Mr. Gaar became a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which his wife 


fied 
- 
4 
) 
f 


carte . . ai Se Aare 


<< oi : = ig he eS > ; 7 “ ; p nee 4 i . git s 
. , _— , f, ” “ i: Pi eae 
. ee ie a =e ; _ ~ Sas as “i 


eee sie sek seewnarivE MEN OF INDIANA, tags ae 


ithe bite nhs Se Ne iene ent | and being of. seifteh tons 1 eeatinmed to exe. 
ibut dis ind ascxices Suet. Coe pepagencee served hin j tend Usele veaess and their ws i 
Fo well in title Rub ah whe ON Re oregyed from. the ; till Awrdiay $870, when the name was changed 40 Gaay 
ificulty wacdahyst <yil-ewteamtet Ge igo be boughi | Seat & Co., and a was <with a 
t tract of Wed ae Siena 4a Sees ed with a part: - pees capital stock of four Feber thousand . . 
per want fant ee een ameter the firm nemme “jae this time Abram Gaar was superintendent of 
pf Pets. eee He Pitta hed ne taste for eatery: —petiern: and wood-working ‘department of the works, 
iniliss op polite ig He loa prominest memuer | in 1870 was elected president, and continued actively in 
of ime BAI, ) Seance, gyweoge served as Master of die | business till 1873, when he ceased to attend the works 
litt bp gual Se me and during the yaa H8yg~74 | regularly, but still continued as ident. The ‘estab- 
weed! Son samy Coser othe wate, He is an “Wiefellow | lishment of Gaat; Scott & Co. ‘grown, to large. pro- 
ant squass Geshe Ancient and A<cepsed Seottish ‘portions... Thesmachine-shop, built i in 1856, -was burned 
Hits = Sif. Sete wes reared in the Letegton Church, down in January, 1858, bat was: immediately rebuilt, - ; 
bat -..9 BSE Sowet connected with any religions. de- | and other buildings have been added from time to time, 
n ernebey: ©. 47® married in 1853, 44 fas several sons | and at present the shops, with oon gh and Peed 
aus ie la - ind Ie ahoie Socaneucgal eee are among 
eae aie "| the most extensive’ boiler and builders in eon . 
ty, | world. They tised®-in® ee oc ty three hundred 
= SAS ABRAM, president of eee Scott & Co., | and sixty tons"ef boiler iron, over. three “hundred and 
¥ aewwhcturers of steastengines and threshers, | fifty tonseof wrought iron, and ight mooie cnet 
(2 ers-aeUs, ete, was beara in .-Wayne County, In-* pig ‘irony “bevides ‘one: million seven hone 
t . ae. November 14, 819, His Seaiteor Jonas | mene ae ‘te. Bers 
Gas, 55 a native of Virginia, and ie et _ e ce ial om 
(Watson) ad was born ie Kenegeiy,- ce . ? Yo ita Same : 3 
marriet in indiana in 1818. Albee wee 
eight children, seven of whoat are pe Sy 
father moved iv the then smal Hiage ee es 
whyn this eldest son was one year. Gay Ba Gig: i 
trail e eabinet-maker, During hin POUS ae? > RET 
his) euenetunities for school. education rere very Pat es. P. eee 
Sula polow schools for a-few swaths only Cs ete se ae 
wetoi!) Get could be afforded. When fourteen yeas mit dg acre 
age > tuyat to iearn the wade with his father, awd: eae 49 
two {que aédetwards, in 189%, “his. davher went into the : asst. we 
fourgey amc machyre business, oh the gitte where- the | ha’ Peer 
couee®. 4 aew siands, Roca at Tu! ‘Hee was on t Sade “ 
appiiatice, het, being a aaturs meehewie, be worked  rapaiter 
at pattere: wmuhing, building weve amehinery, aig | Cie en a = 2 
thoyzh but about eighteen years of age. After theres ar + ankout ae - wired et a 4 
four byears this firm broké up, amt he aed with Piva: j bist a8 tgs ‘ey gs pee 
Norflyke as a millwright ia the seneg sage and sBigo. ) | Aiea seomibae: ia gt have always | 
Very dard times coming on, he gays up, waghitnics for} Rian Raga ere een 
the Girne beieg, and turned IMs mustime ee dhe improve» > ig al age eda or aniobiag Sanisan The resnlt 
men} ¢f bi’ mind. He attended «howl fr Done ume, ‘ot taele plies = sound mind in a sound body a aie 
and,|s, clored. his last sewiine; 38° reed. wort Tames’ re ey was he was anxious to cust bis first © 
M. Fey ae. teacher. in 184g he sooencd aval wired "sate. tue Wie Henry “Harrison: as a candidate for. 
for J & & jf, HO Ruttom in che ied esa - Foundry | Poctijess f the United States, hut, not having, reached 
Mach iittnsientes, Here he contineess o Sie 4 oe ae majority ty ewelve days, that privilege was denied 
and i Gicher, benther, and LEAL vat * gel, ane | ee \As his father was a Democrat, Abrakati changed _ 
the test. an@ started ander the juin line tec ee, at 4 + geet, weted for Polk i 1844, and continued to act with © 
A. ear & Ge Here was the fouebeges tant Ge, Pe ati ARK he oepet of the Missouri Compromisé, _ 
their — age eotteeivg shops. Thigoprtaciont gion be-i4 ‘whew Set Softee party aad nat > Stes ee 
of thh Gms ot shay tai consisted of Mr, Gaars faskan, © Ri. ‘conga Si 7 
pins Ge beet: 5. Me. Gaar, and his brotherigdtaw,. ak a eS 
Ww. Gi She i whem benign fo mca n : 


PIO aS TAT TAT Be 
SPSS AIMS a 


Pra 
HD 


TW get Ca ee Pe i) Pe ah ee . : si) ee Oe Subs Used hel 
J au atch eile had cir mle yee 
iy el, e 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
"UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


6th Dist.) 


and one son belong. He has long been noted for his 
liberality and kindness to the poor and unfortunate, 
though these noble deeds of charity have been done in 
privacy, and with a desire to avoid display. On March 
26, 1851, he married Agnes Adams, and has a family of 
four children. In 1876 he built a very superior dwelling 
on his farm, where he now lives, surrounded by the com- 
forts and pleasures of home, respected and esteemed by 
the community in which he dwells. In 1868 he was 
elected one of the trustees of the Home for Friendless 
Women, an institution of Richmond, where he served 
about nine years without remuneration, and his name 
now heads the list with a very liberal subscription to 
pay off an incumbrance on that institution. 


—+>-gnte->—_ 


|ORDON, OLIVER C., county treasurer, of Win- 

4 chester, was born in Henry County, Indiana, 

November 14, 1845. His parents were Charles 

6 and Lydia (Jessup) Gordon, who emigrated years 
ago from North Carolina. 


at Arba, Randolph County, and gained his first knowl- 
edge of business as salesman in a store in that village. 
He entered the army as a private soldier at the age of 
eighteen, and served during the war. His career in 
the army was a checkered one. At times he enjoyed 
pleasure and plenty, more frequently he was exposed to 
the dangers of the sea, wearied with forced marches, 
and exhausted with hunger; and, finally, he returned 
home uninjured. For two years he carried the mail be- 
tween Richmond and Union City. He then settled in 
the latter place, in the book and stationery business, and 
remained until elected to his present position, in 1875. 
He now has the nomination for a second term, which is 
about equal to a re-election. His popularity may be 
shown by the fact of his giving a bond amounting to 
two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. His 
bondsmen include a number of the most influential cit- 
izens of the county, all signing without any solicitation 
on his part. He is a member of the society of Friends, 
while his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. He married Miss Maggie Keever Powers, 
in 1866, by whom he has three children. Mr. Gordon 
is a gentleman of fine personal appearance and courte- 


He received a fair education, 


ous manners. His social position is well defined and 


secure. 


wy 

{1 RIFFIS, THEODORE L., merchant, Connersville, 
Y Indiana, was born in that place October 10, 1826. 
cp) He is the son of Robert and Sarah (Swift) Griffis, 
the former of whom was a native of Pennsylvania 
Mr. Griffis is by no 


means a stranger to pioneer life, as Indiana had been a 


——2 -390b-— 


=e 


and the latter of New Jersey. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Sy 


state but ten years at the time of his birth. His educa- 
tion was acquired at the common schools of Conners- 
ville, where he stood well in his classes, excelling in 
mathematics. With a natural taste for business, he be- 
came a clerk in a drug-store at the age of ten years. 
Three years later he resumed his studies at school, 
which he attended until about nineteen years of age. 
In 1846 his business life began, and he was employed 
in the dry-goods establishment of Daniel Hankins as 
bookkeeper and salesman. Here he continued for six 
years, acquiring valuable experience in studying human 
nature and in handling fabrics. In practice Mr. Griffis 
has acted upon the motto of one of the great philan- 
thropists of England: ‘* Be a whole man; at one thing 
ata time.” Through all these years of trade he has kept 
to one course, though often solicited to accept offices of 
honor and profit. Industry, courtesy, and persistence 
have been the law of his house, and he now stands at 
the head of his business in his native town. About the 
year 1851 he became a partner with Mr. Hankins, and 
At the end of this 
time the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Griffis be- 
gan an independent life as a merchant, in the room 
immediately north of his present location. On Febru- 
ary 24, 1853, Mr. Griffis married Miss Rachel M. 
Rogers, daughter of Doctor J. G. Rogers, of New Rich- 
mond, Ohio, who is deservedly honored by a sketch in 
the ««Encyclopedia of Eminent Men of Ohio.” They 
had four sons, three of whom are now living. Mrs. 
Griffis’s death occurred on March 25, 1866. While 
Mr. Griffis has never aspired to office, he has re- 
mained true to his political faith—first as a Whig and 
afterward as a member of the Republican party. June 
30, 1875, he married Miss Kathleen Reese, of Wilming- 
ton, Ohio. Mr. Griffis is a gentleman of fine personal 
appearance and courteous manners, and is highly re- 
spected by his fellow-citizens. 


continued with him for eight years. 


—>- $te<— 
oy 
\N RAVES, PROFESSOR KERSEY, of Richmond, 
V was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, November 
>) 21, 1815, and is descended from the noble family of 
G Stuarts of England. His father was Enos Graves, 
a man of great force of character, a clear reasoner, and a 


vigorous, logical writer. He was a leading member of 
the society of Friends, and, in political life, held offices 
of honor and trust in the county, and might have 
gained higher positions had not his religious scruples 
restrained him from seeking or accepting them. The 
maiden name of the mother of Kersey Graves was 
Elizabeth Jones, a relative of the noted English scholar, 
Sir William Jones. THis highest educational advantages 
were those of an academy, in which he studied mathe- 
matics and the natural sciences, and made some attain- 


32 


ment in the classics. He early manifested a love for 
history and scientific studies. At the age of nineteen 
he began teaching school in Richmond, Indiana, near 
which he now resides, and continued that occupation at 
intervals, there and elsewhere, for twenty years. He 
spent several years in traveling and lecturing on phre- 
nology, physiology, and physiognomy. Language reform 
also engaged his attention, as comprehendea in the 
terms phonography and phonotypy. He learned their 
principles, urged their claims, and taught them in 
classes formed for the purpose. Both from education 
and natural inclination, Mr. Graves has scrupulously 
avoided any active participation in politics, though re- 
cently he has manifested some interest in political re- 
form as contemplated by the principles of the radical 
reform party, and now has many calls to speak on that 
question. He has never held a higher political office 
than that of mayor, which was unsolicited, and accepted 
reluctantly. Though often urged to become a candi- 
date, he has always, with the above and no other ex- 
ception, declined. He once accepted a nomination 
for the Legislature on the anti-slavery ticket. He took 
an active part in that as well as various other reform 
enterprises, having been appointed the first secretary of 
the state society for the abolition of slavery. He was 
also the first state lecturer under the auspices of that 
society. While employed in the duties of that office he 
had, he says, to encounter those hard arguments of the 
opposition—eggs, stones, and brickbats. Like his 
father, he has ever manifested a deep interest in the 
temperance cause, and he has often delivered addresses 
upon that subject. Professor Graves’s mind was turned 
toward religion at an early age. As he manifested a 
pious. disposition, his friends cherished the hope of his 
finally entering the ministry. But becoming convinced, 
by his researches in Oriental religious history (a subject 
which he became passionately fond of investigating), 
that the popular theology embraced some errors, he began 
using his pen in an effort to enlighten the public mind 
upon that theme. His labors resulted, first, in a work 
entitled ‘‘The Biography of Satan ;’’ and, more recently, 
in ‘*The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors,” a book 
which has met with a very flattering reception both in 
America and Europe; the former has advanced to the 
tenth edition, and the latter to the sixth. He has an- 
other work now in press, entitled ‘The Bible of Bibles,” 
embracing a description of twenty-seven Bibles written in 
various ages and countries. Mrs. Graves, whose maiden 
name was Lydia Michener, is a niece of Hon. David 
M. Stanton, and cousin of the late distinguished Secre- 
tary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. They have four 
children, of whom they are justly proud because of 
their position in society and their promise of future 
usefulness. The eldest son, Benjamin M., is a graduate 
of Cornell University, a young man of great energy of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ th Dist. 


character, industry, and lofty ambition, who bids fair to 
reach a high mark as a writer and speaker. The eldest 
daughter, Lizzie, studied two years in the same institu- 
tion and one year in Adrian College, Michigan, and is 
now teaching in a high school. The younger son, 
Alonzo J., has conceived a passionate fondness for in- 
strumental music, and seems likely to attain to distinc- 
tion in that art. The younger daughter, Elma, a young 
lady of great promise, endowed with beauty and an 
amiable disposition, is preparing to enter Cornell Uni- 
versity. They all seem to have inherited from their 
parents an ardent love of books and study. Professor 
Grayes is constantly employed in literary work. When 
not traveling and lecturing upon some reform topic, he 
is writing books, newspaper and magazine articles. 
Though for years he has been at times disqualified for 
public speaking by a disease that affects his delivery, 
he has made many such efforts, and is regarded as an 
able and interesting speaker. He has delivered full 
courses of lectures before both literary and benevolent 
societies, who have expressed their appreciation by 
flattering resolutions. He possesses a remarkable mem- 
ory. After having delivered a public discourse upon 
any subject that enlists his feelings, such is the impres- 
sion it makes upon his own mind and memory that he 
can repeat it as pronounced or in reverse order, or be- 
gin at any point of it and go either way. The whole 
address hangs before his mental vision so that he can 
grasp all or any part of it with ease. The general ver- 
dict of those who know him well is that Mr. Graves is 
a good man, pure, upright, ingenuous, and kind- 
hearted. He has never uttered an oath, nor drank 
enough to amount to a gill of intoxicating liquor. This 
he attributes chiefly to the moral lessons imparted by 
his father, the remembrance of whom he cherishes with 
most affectionate respect. He has developed and dis- 
ciplined his mental powers unaided by the schools, and 
written remarkable works, which many believe will ac- 
complish great good and immortalize his name. 


4006 — 


VW ernor of Indiana, was born in Chester County, 


on Pennsylvania, October 18, 1828, and is the son of 
we John and Hannah (Worthington) Gray. His an- 
cestors all belonged to the society of Friends, his great- 
grandfather having emigrated from England with Will- 
iam Penn, and settled in Chester County. His parents 
removed from Pennsylvania to Urbana, Ohio, in 1836; 
thence to Montgomery County, in 1839; thence to 
New Madison, Darke County, in 1842. In the last 
named place they died. Isaac Gray received a common 
school education; and, being ambitious and of studious 
habits, he early @ntered upon the study of law. His 


ARAY, COLONEL ISAAC PUSEY, Lieutenant-goy- 


bth Dist.) 


poverty, however, compelled him to accept a clerkship 
in a mercantile house at New Madison. Here his close 
application and strict integrity soon raised him to a 
partnership in the business, and in a few years he be- 
came sole proprietor of the establishment. In 1855 he 
removed with his family to Union City, Indiana, where 
he has since resided, and where, after successfully con- 
tinuing the mercantile business for a few years, he en- 
tered upon the profession of law. He is now a promi- 
nent member of the bar, and his practice extends to 
the Supreme and the United States Courts. Mr. Gray 
was colonel of the 4th Indiana Cavalry in the Civil 
War. He made a good record, and remained until dis- 
charged on account of ill-health. Returning home, 
he regained his wasted energies, and recruited the 147th 
Indiana Infantry. In 1866, after careful consideration, 
he was selected as the candidate for Congress against 
Hon. George W. Julian, who had long represented that 
district in the House of Representatives. After a close 
contest, Governor Gray was defeated by about three 
hundred votes. Two years later he was elected to the 
state Senate, where he remained four years. In July, 
1870, he was tendered the consulate at St. Thomas, West 
Indies, and the official papers were forwarded through 
Governor Morton; but Mr. Gray declined the honor. 
As a young man he was a member of the Whig party, 
but acted with the Republicans during the war. Since 
1871 he has been an active member of the Democratic 
party, serving as a member of the Indiana delegation 
to the Liberal Republican convention in 1872. He was 
nominated, by acclamation, on the Democratic ticket, 
for Lieutenant-governor; was elected to that honorable 
position in 1876, and was renominated for the same 
place the present year by the state convention. In 


1850 he married Miss Eliza Jaqua, daughter of Judson | 


Jaqua, an old and prominent citizen of Darke County, 
Ohio. They have two children living, Pierre and 
Bayard, both young men, in the law office of their 
father. Governor Gray has an excellent judgment of 
men and things, well balanced by knowledge and expe- 
rience, a handsome personal appearance, and a courte- 
ous address, 


ey 
'REGORY, RALPH S&., lawyer, junior member of 
the law firm of Templer & Gregory, of Muncie, was 
born in Delaware County, near the village of Gran- 
> ville, February 28, 1845. He is the son of Samuel 
and Mary Gregory, both of whom are now deceased ; his 
mother having died in September, 1862, and his father 
in September, 1871. They were honored and loved by 
all who knew them, and had each lived to more than 
the allotted age of man. 


—~>-§939-o—_ 


Mr. Gregory remained upon 
Up to this 
time his school advantages had been very limited, and 


the farm until he was sixteen years of age. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


aa 


he and Robert C. Bell, now the Hon. R. C. Bell, of Fort 
Wayne, Indiana, entered school at Muncie together, rent- 
ing a small room of Peter Much, and boarding themselves. 
Mr. Gregory made rapid progress in his studies, and in 
1860 entered Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, Indi- 
ana. In 1866 he was admitted to Asbury University, 
and graduated from that institution in the class of 1867, 
having undertaken and accomplished the task of obtain- 
ing a college and university education without assist- 
ance. Immediately after graduating he was appointed 
superintendent of the Huntington high schools, of Hunt- 
ington County, Indiana. The duties of this position he 
successfully discharged for one year, when, having made 
sufficient money to pay the indebtedness incurred dur- 
ing his last year at college, he abandoned teaching and 
commenced the study of law, the profession of his choice. 
He entered the office of Hon. Carleton E. Shipley, at 
Muncie, and so diligently did he apply himself to his 
work that in August, 1868, he was admitted to the bar 
of that city. He began the practice of Jaw with Mr. 
Shipley, and afterwards formed a partnership with the 
late Hon. Alfred Kilgore, ex-United States district at- 
torney, which existed until the death of Mr. Kilgore, in 
1871. For a time, immediately after the death of his 
partner, Mr. Gregory was alone; but, on account of his 
extensive practice, he felt that he required assistance. 
He accordingly formed a copartnership with the Hon. 
J. N. Templer—a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere 
in this work—under the firm name of Templer & Greg- 
ory, which is to-day one of the leading law firms of 
Eastern Indiana. August 8, 1862, Mr. Gregory enlisted 
in the army; was made orderly sergeant of Company B, 
84th Indiana Infantry, and was discharged at Shell 
Mound, Tennessee, on the 29th of November, 1863, by 
reason of illness. He has been identified with every 
laudable enterprise of his town and county, and in 1874 
was one of the committee appointed by the Grand Lodge 
of Free and Accepted Masons of Indiana to build the 
grand Masonic Temple at Indianapolis. The task was 
successfully accomplished. He is a Knight Templar, 
and has been honored with all the subordinate offices 
of the fraternity. He belongs to the Improved Order 
of Red Men, and has been Grand Sachem of the state 
of Indiana. At present he is the grand representative 
of that order to the Great Council at New York City. 
He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias and other 
orders. He was chosen school examiner of Delaware 
County, December 9, 1870, to fill the unexpired term 
of Arthur C. Millette, now registrar of the United 
States land office, Springfield, Dakota Territory. This 
position he filled to the satisfaction of all concerned. 
In 1874 he was elected a member of the school board 
of his city, and has held other responsible posts, 
in all of which he displayed much ability, faithfulness, 


and zeal. In the matter of education he is an earnest 


34 


and devoted friend to the free school system, and is a 
firm advocate of compulsory education. Mr. Gregory 
comes from a Methodist family, but is not himself iden- 
tified with any branch of the Church militant. His 
views of religion are quite liberal, consisting largely in 
the practice of the golden rule, and he has no patience 
with the hollow pretense of piety so largely in vogue at 
the present day. In politics he is a Republican, and 
has always taken part in political campaigns, contrib- 
uting not a little to the success of his party; but he 
seems to have no ambition to be a professional politi- 
cian. He has never sought political office, although at 
the earnest solicitation-of friends, on one occasion, he 
permitted them to use his name for a short time in 
connection with a candidacy for a seat in the House of 
Representatives of Indiana; but, soon becoming utterly 
disgusted with the ‘‘ways that are dark and the tricks 
that are vain” of the ‘‘machine politician,” he peremp- 
torily withdrew from the contest before the time for the 
election Mr. Gregory occupies an eminent 
position in society, and, although he possesses qualifica- 
tions fitting him for the domestic circle, he has never 
married. He is a young man of energy, perseverance, 
and business probity, who by the practice of a rigid 
economy has already laid the foundation for future 
wealth. He has also achieved a reputation in his pro- 
fession as a good lawyer and a successful practitioner. 
As an advocate, he ranks with the best, being’a fluent, 
logical, and convincing speaker; and his ability in the 
preparation of his cases for trial is second to none. 


arrived, 


—+-$006-— 


| ANT ADAMS, deceased, of Rushville. The fol- 
lowing is from an address delivered by George C. 
Clark at the funeral of the subject of this sketch, 
in Rushville, October 18, 1862: ‘«¢ Pleasant Adams Hack- 
leman was born in Franklin County, Indiana—then a 
territory—on the 15th of November, 1814. He was the 
son of Major John Hackleman, who served his country 
as a soldier in the War of 1812, and a native of Abbe- 
ville District, South Carolina. His mother, whose 
original name was Sarah Adams, was born in Stokes 
County, North Carolina. His parents were married in 
what is now Franklin County, Indiana, in the year 1810, 
and still reside near Brookville, where they originally 
settled. Both of them, hale relics of a former age, are 
with us to-day, mourning their untimely loss. The 
early years of Pleasant A. Hackleman were spent amid 
the vicissitudes of pioneer life, clearing off the forests of 
a newly settled country, preparing the lands for the 
production of the fruitful harvests which we have so 
long been reaping, and performing the manual labor 
usual at that day upon a farm. On the 31st of October, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


1833, he married Sarah Bradburn, daughter of Doctor 
John Bradburn, then of the same vicinity. She and 
seven daughters survive him. After his marriage, he 
continued in the occupation of farming nearly three 
years, when he commenced reading law with John A. 
Matson, Esq., at Brookville, Indiana, At that day a 
knowledge of law, tested by a rigid examination, was a 
prerequisite to admission to practice. With such assi- 
duity and energy did he prosecute his studies that at 
the end of ten months he had thoroughly mastered the 
elements of the science, and was admitted to the bar. 
Immediately afterward he removed with his family to 
Rushville, which has been his home from that time to 
the period of his death. He settled here about the 
last of May, 1837, commenced the practice of law, and 
rapidly rose to high distinction in the legal profession. 
In August, 1837, he was elected Judge of the Probate 
Court of Rush County, which office he held until about 
the 15th of May, 1841. In August, of that year he 
was elected to the House of Representatives, and served 
the ensuing session with honor to himself and his con- 
stituents. In the fall of 1847 he was appointed clerk of 
the Rush Circuit Court, in the place of John L. Robin- 
son, resigned. In August, 1848, he was elected clerk 
to fill Mr. Robinson’s unexpired term, and a year later 
was elected as clerk again, and served as such until 
about the end of the year 1855. He was twice selected 
by his political friends as their candidate for Congress— 
as a Whig in 1847, and asa Republican in 1858—but 
was not elected. His name occupied a place as sena- 
torial elector for Indiana on the presidential ticket in 
1852; and he was a delegate from the state at large to 
the convention at Chicago, in 1860, that nominated for 
President Abraham Lincoln, the present occupant of the 
White House. In May, 1846, he became a member of 
the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, and ever after 
felt a deep interest in the welfare and progress of that 
benevolent order; and here, as in every other sphere in 
which he moved, he soon became one of the leading 
spirits of the fraternity in the state. In July, 1851, he 
was the unanimous choice of the members of the Grand 
Lodge of the state as one of their representatives to 
the Grand Lodge of the United States, and served in 
this distinguished position for six years. The honor of 
so long a service in the great legislative head of the 
order has been conceded to but one other of the able 
representatives in that body from Indiana. But this 
was not the culmination of the honors which a frater- 
nity grateful for faithful labors were disposed to award 
him. In November, 1857, he was chosen Grand Master 
of the state. No. greater evidence of the unbounded 
philanthropy of the man can be required than the fact 
that for twelve years, in offices that afforded no emolu- 
ment, in an order devoted to visiting the sick, relieving 
the oppressed, burying the dead, and educating the 


a 


6th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
orphan, his best energies were exerted. In addition to 
the labors necessary to the faithful discharge of the 
duties of all these positions, he became, about the year 
1840, editor of the Rushville Whzg, and soon made fot 
it a wide reputation for untiring zeal and ability. He 
subsequently edited the Rushville Republican, and did 
not entirely cease writing for the press until he entered 
the army. The highest testimony to his ability as a 
statesman may be found in the fact that when the clouds 
in the political horizon grew dark and gloomy, and 
serious threatenings were heard of that storm which 
has since burst with such relentless fury upon us; when 
the magnificent structure of our free government seemed 
rocking to and fro upon its foundations; when all eyes 
were turned to men of thought, men of ability, men of 
cool judgment and political wisdom, then was Pleasant 
A. Hackleman selected as one of the commissioners or 
delegates from the state of Indiana to the Conference 
Convention, which met at Washington on the 4th of 
February, 1861. In that body of men of distinguished 
ability, he was a worthy associate in the performance of 
as high a political trust as was ever committed to men 
since the formation of our Constitution. That they 
were not successful in calming the turbulent elements 
of political strife by which they were surrounded, does 
not detract from the importance of the trust confided to 
them. Soon after the Civil War commenced, under a 
thorough conviction of duty, Mr. Hackleman voluntarily 
offered his services to his country, and was appointed 
colonel of the 16th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. 
"This was then a twelve months’ regiment in the service 
of the state, but was turned over to the United States 
for the same term, and soon acquired the reputation of 
being the best-drilled volunteer regiment in the service. 
In this capacity he served nearly a year in North-eastern 
Virginia and in Maryland. A short time before the 
expiration of his term, he was promoted to the rank of 
brigadier-general, and ordered to report to General 
Halleck, then at Corinth. Arriving a short time after 
Corinth was evacuated, in June, 1862, he was placed in 
command of the First Brigade of the Second Division 
of the Army of the Mississippi, commanded by General 
Grant, and remained near Corinth in almost entire in- 
activity until a few days before the battle in which he 
received the wound which caused his death. On the 
third day of October, 1862, in the battle before Corinth, 
about three o’clock P. M., while on horseback at the 
head of his brigade, bravely rallying his troops to vic- 
tory against an overpowering foe, he received a gunshot 
wound in the neck, injuring his powers of utterance to 
such an extent that he could speak only in broken 
sentences. He was taken from his horse by Captain W. 
H. F. Randall, chief of his staff, and conveyed to the 
Tishomingo House, in Corinth, where he had every 
needed attention by army surgeons and nurses. And 


MEN OF INDIANA. 35 
there, about eight o’clock the same evening, entirely 
conscious of his condition, he quietly and peacefully 
sank to that sleep that knows no waking. His last 
audible words were, ‘I am dying, but I am dying for 
my country.’ He has left us an example 
worthy of imitation. He was emphatically a self-made 
man, the architect of his own fortune. He commenced 
life in the backwoods, and in limited circumstances, 
without the advantages of education, family influence, 
or wealth; he has, by his own industry, energy, and 
perseverance, with the blessing of a vigorous and pow- 
erful intellect, sustained by an unswerving integrity and 
honesty of purpose, attained a character and achieved a 
position among men of which any one might justly be 
proud. Although for many years in public life, 
necessarily mingling with all classes of society, he was 
rever guilty of any kind of dissipation, and was remark- 
ably free from the fashionable vices of the age. He was 
open-hearted, candid, and generous, to a fault; the 
needy who applied to him were never turned away 
empty, if in his power to relieve. 
fected, and unostentatious in his manners and his habits. 
As a lawyer, he was profound; an honest, earnest, and 
able advocate; a frank and manly adversary, never at- 
tempting to conceal from his opponent the ground upon 
which he relied for success. 


He was plain, unaf- 


He was wholly incapable 
of resorting to any trick or chicanery for the purpose of 
gaining a triumph in a cause, preferring always to place 
his case upon what he believed to be the law; and to 
his position, thus taken, he adhered with an unyielding 
tenacity. When once enlisted in a cause, no matter 
how small the amount involved, his whole powers were 
exerted in behalf of his client. 
ability is known to you all; he was an ardent admirer 
of that form of government under which we have so 


As a statesman, his 


long prospered, and often dwelt in conversation, with 
great fervor of commendation, upon its system of checks 
and balances, which he believed to be most admirably 
adjusted. As a soldier, he was brave and gal- 
lant; but on this phase of character I will allow one of 
his own beloved 16th Indiana Regiment to speak for 
me. J. R. S. Cox, who for twelve months endured the 
privations and hardships of the tented field under Gen- 
eral Hackleman’s command, says: ‘Those long marches 
through Virginia to Winchester, across the Shenandoah, 
over the Blue Ridge, through Manassas to the Rappahan- 
nock—as the panorama moves past, how many thousand 
instances are called up of his kindness in alleviating the 
condition of his men! We endured no hardship that 
he did not share; and no regiment ever loved their 
colonel more devotedly than the 16th loved P. A. 
Hackleman. I have ofteneseen him trudging on foot, 
carrying a gun, while a sick man rode his horse. 

We will ever think of him as struck down at the head 


of his columns while leading them on to glorious vic- 


36 


tory.’ General Hackleman was a kind husband, a fond 
and indulgent parent, and in all the social relations was 
highly esteemed and respected. He was that noblest 
work of God, an honest man. We can only commit his 
lifeless clay to the silent tomb; his spirit is already in 
the hands of a just and merciful Father, in whom he 
believed and trusted. 


‘Of the rich legacies the dying leave, 
Remembrance of their virtues is the best. 


yo 


Oe 


EDGES, JOHN S., of New Castle, was born in 
Deersville, Harrison County, Ohio, April 25, 1848. 
eo He is the youngest of three children of Samuel and 
eee Mary L. Hedges. Her maiden name was Blair. His 
father died when he was about two years of age; and his 
mother removed with her children to Henry County, 
Indiana, in the fall of 1855, where they have ever since 
resided. His mother married a second time in 1856; 
and at the early age of fifteen years John began in the 
world for himself without a dollar of money. He first 
went to live with Judge Jehu T. Elliott, a kind, benev- 
He was ambitious for an education. His 
facilities heretofore had been very meager, but now he 
attended the high-school, and paid his tuition by sweep- 
ing floors and building fires. So well did he improve 
these opportunities for learning that the next year, 
when but sixteen, he began teaching school. To under- 
stand the obstacles better which he had to overcome, it 
should be remarked that when but eighteen months old 
his spine received an injury that rendered him a cripple 
ever afterwards, and made walking painful and difficult. 
He continued to improve his education by teaching in 
the winter and attending school in the summer till the 
spring of 1870, when he began the study of law with 
Mellett & Forkner. After teaching during the following 
winter, he was promoted to the office of deputy clerk of 
the county in the spring of 1871. This position he 
filled to satisfaction till November, 1872, when there 
was a change of officers, and he retired. He returned 
to the occupation of teaching for the two succeeding 
winters, when, owing to ill-health and the partial failure 
of his eyesight, he spent several months in the summer 
of 1873 in Ohio and Western Virginia to recuperate. 
In April, 1874, he was again called to the position of 
deputy clerk, receiving the nomination for the clerkship 
in the spring of 1876. 
on November 4 entered upon his duties. He is an Odd- 
fellow in good standing, and also a member of the Knights 
of Honor. In the spring of 1874 he became a member of 
the society of Friends. On March 19, 1874, he married 
Emma Cook. They have one child living and mourn 
another, who is dead. By his industrious and strictly 
temperate habits and sterling worth he has risen from 


olent man. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


He was elected in October, and 


[Oth Dist. 


humble life to an honored position in the community. 
An old author says: ‘* There is merit without elevation, 
but there is no elevation without some merit.” 

® 


en A Tare 


IATT, ALLEN RILEY, hardware merchant, of 
Randolph County, was born in Guilford County, 

\ North Carolina, February 20, 1829. His father, 
“s¢ John Hiatt, was a native of the same state; and 
his mother, Rachel Glandon, was born in South Caro- 
lina, Allen Hiatt is the youngest of nine children. 
Owing to the death of his father, in the year 1831, the 
care and responsibility of the family devolved on his 
mother. With a firm trust in Him who has promised 
to be a friend to the widow, and a father to the father- 
less, she nobly met and discharged these duties. Hav- 
ing herself been in the midst of slavery, she taught her 
children to abhor the system. In 1833 she removed 
with her family to Randolph County, Indiana. Of 
necessity, his education was limited; but, being stim- 
ulated and encouraged by his mother, his acquirements 
were above those of the average scholar, and he began 
teaching school before he was twenty years of age, con- 
tinuing for five or six years. His mother died in 1844. 
Although Mr. Hiatt was then but fifteen years of age, 
such was her faithfulness in instilling the principle of 
honesty and integrity in his young mind, that it ever 
afterwards influenced his course and actions in life. In 
1856 he entered a store in Ridgeville as salesman and 
bookkeeper. In 1861 he was employed by Thomas 
Ward in a hardware store, of which he became the 
owner in 1865, and where he still continues in the 
business. Mr. Hiatt is a Royal Arch Mason, having 
joined the order in 1857. He is not a member of any 
Church, but holds to the Universalist belief. He married 
Mary A. Clark, in 1851, by whom he has eight children 
now living. He believes that ‘honesty is the best 
policy,” and through all his commercial transactions. 
has made it one of his cardinal principles never to mis- 
represent any article offered for sale. By diligently 
pursuing this course he has built up a profitable busi- 
ness, and, at the same time, has been an honor to the 
occupation in which he is engaged. 


—-FOCh-o— 


ELM, JEFFERSON, M. D., retired physician and 
capitalist, of Rushville, though not a native of 
Indiana, has been identified with her history for 
more than two-thirds of a century. He is de- 
scended from the Anglo-Saxons and the Scotch. His 
paternal grand-parents emigrated at an early day from 
England to Mason County, Kentucky, where he was 
born November 27, 1803. His mother’s family came 


6th Dist.) 


from Scotland, her native land, and settled in Pennsyl- 
vania near Pittsburgh, where her father was accidentally 
killed. They afterward removed to Kentucky. Before 
their marriage his father, William Helm, and his 
mother, Elizabeth Drummond, were inmates of Bryant’s 
Station during its memorable siege by the Indians; and 
the father was engaged for some time in the border 
March 10, 1811, the family came to Indiana 
Territory, and settled on the Whitewater River, five 
miles below Connersville, in what was known as the 
<¢Twelve-mile Purchase.” Here Mr. Helm bought 
three quarter sections of land, and began clearing it. 
At the beginning of the War of 1812, he was commis- 
sioned "major, and placed in command of the troops 
They were garrisoned in block- 
houses, built about six miles apart, and extending from 
the Ohio to Fort Wayne. Before leaving home he pro- 
tected his cabin by a stockade and trench, that his 
family might resist an attack. 
and nights of anxious watchfulness; but, happily, the 
savage foe never did more than to menace them by 
skulking through the surrounding forest. Major Helm 
was a brave soldier and a prominent and _ successful 
business man. His son Jefferson worked on the farm 
until the age of sixteen, when he began reading medi- 
cine in the office of Mason & Moffett, the latter of 
whom was a skilled physician. Up to this time his 
winters had been spent at a common school in a rough 


wars. 


guarding the frontier. 


Many were their days 


log house with greased paper windows; and he never 
attended school in a building provided with the luxury 
of glass windows. But, though the houses were rude, 
the teachers were well qualified. He continued his 
medical studies three years, living meantime with the 
At the end of that period he formed a 
partnership with his preceptor, Doctor Philip Mason, 
and commenced practice in Fayetteville, Rush County. 
After one year Doctor Mason returned to Connersville, 
and Doctor Helm went to a point three miles north, 
and there laid out the village of Vienna, now Glen- 
He remained there till about the year 1845, 
when he removed to what is now Farmington, and two 
years later founded Farmington Academy, where three 
of his children were prepared for college. Before com- 
mencing practice he passed a very rigid examination by 
the Board of Censors of the Third Medical District, at 
the first annual meeting of the society. - This body was 
organized in 1827, under a special act of the Legisla- 
ture; but in 1839 was merged into the Fifth District 
Indiana Medical Society, of which he became a charter 
member, and occupied the position either of censor or 
president as long as it existed. With his medical skill 
and knowledge Doctor Helm combined large political 
intelligence and ability, and in 1850, as a delegate to 
the Constitutional Convention, he helped to revise the 
fundamental law of the state. Two years later he was 


Mason family. 


wood. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


4 


elected to the Senate from the county of Rush, which 
was then a senatorial district, and served one term of 
four years. In 1858, having shown himself, in the in- 
vestment of the proceeds of his practice and in 
the management of his business, to be an_ excel- 
lent financier, Governor Morton appointed him sink- 
ing fund commissioner, an office he held two years, 
being one of the three commissioners who, with 
a president and cashier, had charge of five mill- 
ion dollars. Two years prior to this Doctor Helm 
removed to Rushville, and soon after 
practice. In the Civil War, at the call for more sur- 
geons, he was appointed surgeon of the 27th Indiana 
Infantry, but was favored, on account of age and intimate 
friendship with Governor Morton, by being placed on 
the easy service. He served at Shiloh, Louisville, 
Madison, and Evansville. 


abandoned 


Doctor Helm is a very large 
land-owner, his possessions comprising about nine hun- 
dred acres in Rush and two thousand in adjoining 
counties, besides a large property in Indianapolis. He 
helped organize the Rushville National Bank, of which 
he has since been a director. He married, April 28, 
1831, Miss Eliza Arnold, a native of the Isle of Wight, 
England, and cousin of John Arnold, M. D. By this 
marriage he has had six children: Alice, wife of B. F. 
Claypool, a prominent attorney of Connersville; Eliza- 
beth, wife of William A. Pattison, a wholesale druggist 
of Indianapolis; William H., a farmer; Jefferson, an 
able lawyer of Rushville; Captain Isaac A., 5th 
United States Infantry, who was first breveted lieuten- 
ant-colonel, then colonel, and died of cholera in 1867 
at Fort Zarah, Kansas, of which he was in command; 
and the youngest, Mrs. H. P. Cutter, a widow. Their 
mother died in 1866, Though seventy-five years old, 
Doctor Helm is still in possession of vigorous faculties, 
and attends almost as actively as ever to his business, 
which is buying and selling land. By this he has 
amassed an honest fortune. His pecuniary success is 
largely due to his strong common sense and remarkable 
judgment; he reads men by intuition, rather than by 
the knowledge gained from experience, though that is 
extensive. While practicing his profession his diagno- 
sis seemed the swift result of intuition, instead of the 
slow conclusion of reason; but this natural facility did 
not cause him to neglect the study of the science of 
medicine, and when he closed his professional career he 
was among the best qualified physicians of the state. 
With these superior talents is united a moral excellence 
that heightens the character of his influence and exalts 
him in public regard. Doctor Helm is very widely 
known. He has been for a very long time in practice, 
and has formed an extensive acquaintance all through 
the state. There is a great difference between the call- 
ing of a medical man now and what it was in the be- 
ginning of this century. 


REPRESENTATIVE 


ELM, DOCTOR JOHN C., late of Muncie. This 
sketch is copied from an obituary published in 
\ the Muncie 7zmes of April, 1872: ‘Doctor John 
ci¢¢ C. Helm departed this life on last Monday, April 
8, after a lingering and painful illness. At the time of 
his death he was in his sixtieth year, having been born 
October 10, 1812. The place of his nativity was Dan- 
bridge, Jefferson County, Tennessee. His parents were 
honorable and pious, and from them Doctor Helm inher- 
ited many of his marked characteristics. He was a man 
of remarkably clear thought, strong conviction, and an 
unconquerable spirit; whatever he did, he did it from 
Yet he was a man of ten- 


conviction and not impulse. 
derest sympathies, ever entering into the troubles and 
sorrows which afflicted his neighbors. Ofttimes he has 
been known to stop on the street and soothe the grief 
of a little child. He was also a man of deep religious 
faith. He inherited from his parents a spirit of earnest 
devotion to the cause of his Divine Master, and his love 
for Christ led him to loathe with unutterable feelings a 
trickster in the Church, or one who maintained a sham 
zeal for the cause of morality. Doctor Helm entered the 
Church very early in Jife, at what time, however, can not 
now be clearly ascertained. He was at one time an hon- 
ored and very efficient elder in the Presbyterian Church 
of this city. For reasons fully satisfactory to his own 
mind, he was compelled to leave the Church in which 
he was born, and which he loved and labored for so 
earnestly. Those causes which drove him from the 
Church were a source of unmingled sorrow to him down 
to his last moments of consciousness. His heart was 
true and loyal to his Church, and yet, without sacrificing 
all that a man holds dear to his home, he could not do 
otherwise than he did. He died loving the Presbyte- 
rian Church of Muncie and praying for its prosperity, 
wishing his enemies all the blessings of Almighty God. 
Doctor Helm’s worth as a Christian was not appreci- 
ated until he passed away; then it became apparent to 
all. Asa physician he had few superiors. He was ever 
honorable to his brethren in the profession, and extended 
to them the fullest charity. Those whom Doctor Helm 
visited as a physician, and to whom he ministered, will 
long and tenderly remember him. He entered his pro- 
fession very early in life. Studying with his father, he 
commenced practicing in his native town of Danbridge 
in his eighteenth year, 1830; and for the long period of 
forty-two years, by day and night, in storm and sun- 
shine, did this man go from house to house, soothing 
the afflicted, administering to the necessities of the un- 
fortunate. How many during that long period have 
arisen and called him blessed! and yet, after those forty- 
two years of unceasing hard labor for the good of 
others, Doctor John C. Helm died a poor man. Like 
his noble companion, Doctor Willard, who has just 
preceded him, he has given his life for the good of 


MEN OF INDIANA. [6th Dist. 
others—has died a sacrifice to his profession; and the 
whole community owe him a monument more durable 
than brass—the monument of grateful remembrance. 
Doctor John C. Helm was married three times: in 1835, 
to Miss Ruth Nicholson, of Tennessee; in 1838, to Miss 
Mary Norris, of Preble County, Ohio; and in 1854, to 
Miss Eliza M. S. Cox, who now survives to mourn his 
loss. A good man has passed away; may we remem- 
ber his good, and may this community learn to appre- 
ciate the sacrifices of our board of noble physicians in 
this place, and hold them in esteem for ‘their work’s 
sake.’” Upon the death of Doctor Helm a set of res- 
olutions was adopted by the Delaware County Medical 
Society, and by Muncie Lodge, No. 74, Independent 
Order of Odd-fellows. We publish those framed by the 
medical society: 

‘“* Whereas, It has pleased our Heavenly Father at 
this time to terminate the useful earthly career of our 
senior brother, Doctor John C. Helm; therefore, be it 

‘‘ Resolved, That, in the death of Doctor Helm, this 
society has lost a member whose thorough medical ed- 
ucation, great experience, extraordinary ability, diag- 
nosis, and strict observance of the code of medical ethics, 
entitled him to the appellation of ‘the best counseling 
physician in Delaware County.’ 

‘* Resolved, That, in the death of our professional 
brother, the community at large has lost one of its best 
physicians, and one of its chief cultivators, writers, and 
promoters of scientific horticulture, and in many other 
respects one of its most valuable citizens. 

‘* Resolved, That we tender to the bereaved family 
of Doctor Helm the assurance of our heart-felt sympa- 
thy with them in their great affliction. 

‘* Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be 
published in the county newspapers, and the State Med- 
zcal Journal, 

‘* Resolved, That the society attend the funeral in a 
body. ‘*H, C. WINANS, 

CONDE W 7) BIAGK 
“*ROBERT WINTON. 

‘‘On motion, the resolutions were adopted, and the 
society adjourned. 

“G. W. H. Kemper, Presddent, pro. tem. 

‘*M. JAMES, Secretary, pro. tem.” 


—~-g0te-<— 


IBBERD, JAMES FARQUHAR, M. D., was born 
qii]} at what is now known as Monrovia, Frederick 
23(\ County, Maryland, November 4, 1816. He was 

Z the fifth son of Joseph and Rachel Hibberd, who 
were members of the society of Friends, and whose an- 
cestors came to Pennsylvania with William Penn. His 
paternal grandmother was of the Sharples, or Sharpless, 
family, of Pennsylvania. His mother’s maiden name 
was Wright, of the Warren County (Ohio) family of 
Wrights, formerly of Pipe Creek, Carroll County, Mary- 
land, where there was a large relationship among the 
Farquhars and Shepherds. Doctor Hibberd’s ordinary 
education was begun and continued for a number of 


‘ 


6th Dist.) 


years in a country school, and was completed in Benja- 
min Hallowell’s Classical School, at Alexandria, Vir- 
ginia. His opportunities for school education were 
limited, but from early youth he was a very industrious 
reader, which gave him a wide range of information, 
but without definite system or point, because he had 
access to only a meager assortment of books in the be- 
ginning, and never had advice as to a proper course of 
reading. His parents removed from Maryland to War- 
ren County, Ohio, in 1825, and he accompanied them; 
but in the autumn of 1826 he went to Martinsburg, 
now West Virginia, to his father’s brother, Aaron Hib- 
berd, with whom he lived until the spring of 1837, 
when he returned to his parents, at Springboro, Ohio. 
Aaron Hibberd was the owner of a large farm and a 
woolen manufactory, and the subject of this sketch spent 
the summers: of the ten years he lived with his uncle in 
labor alternately on the farm and in the factory, and 
the winters of the same period in school. After his re- 
turn to Ohio he engaged one year in farming with his 
father, but the occupation was not to his taste; and, 
having attained his majority, he accepted an invitation 
of his cousin, Doctor Aaron Wright, of Springboro, 
Ohio, to enter his office as a student of medicine. In 
1839 and 1840 he attended his first course of lectures in 
the Medical Department of Yale College, New Haven, 
Connecticut, and was for the time a private pupil of 
Doctor Tomlinson. Under the advice of his preceptors 
and others, he entered on practice in the summer of 
1840, opening an office in the village of Salem, Mont- 
gomery County, Ohio, just as the only doctor in the 
village removed to the West. This event left a wide 
expanse of well-settled country open to the enterprise 
of the young doctor, which he was fortunate enough to 
make fruitful by entering at once into an extensive and 
profitable practice, The Doctor speaks of this era as 
one of peculiar enjoyment. He had been dependent on 
his own hands, head, and character for the means to 
obtain his professional education and start in business, 
and now at once to emerge from the close application 
of a student in-doors, with its impecunious present and 
uncertain future, into full, paying practice, involving 
active out-door exercise, on foot and on horseback, and 
sufficient and congenial mental occupation; and lifting 
the veil of the futere, so that close at hand he saw his 
coming ability to make recompense to those incompara- 
ble,friends who had always been true and steadfast in 
faith and works when a failure must of necessity have 
changed the whole current of his life; to emerge thus, 
and change the environment, was like entering a new 
world, and his whole being, physical and immaterial, 
responded to the new and invigorating inspiration. It 
was almost a matter of course that Doctor Hibberd 
should immediately take an active part in the manage- 
ment of the schools, and in literary and social organiza- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN Of INDIANA. 


39 


tions, the establishment of an Odd-fellows’ lodge, and 
Presently become earnestly engaged in local politics, 
and a little further on in general politics, which led to 
his election to the Ohio Legislature in 1845, and his 
re-election in 1846. 
Withdrawing entirely from politics, he devoted himself 
to his profession; and, intending to make Dayton, Ohio, 
his permanent home, as a preparatory step he attended 
a graduating course of lectures in the College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, New York, in 1848 and 1849; but 
in March, 1849, just as the commencement exercises 


But this service was distasteful. 


were about to be inaugurated, he was tendered the 
situation of surgeon on the commercial steamer ‘‘Sena- 
tor,” and in three days was at sea in that capacity. 
The Senator” visited Para, on the Amazon River; 
Rio Janeiro, in Brazil; lay up a month in the Island 
of St. Catherine’s for repairs; was for two months in the 
Straits of Magellan and the Patagonian Archipelago in 
the depths of winter—a dark and dismal time in that 
high latitude, with an uninhabited wilderness of mount- 
ains bordering the narrow passages in which they sailed 
and loitered. After stopping for a time at San Carlos, 
in the Island of Chiloe; at Valparaiso, Callao, Lima, 
Panama, and Acapulco, the steamer arrived at San 
Francisco, in the latter part of October, 1849, in the 
midst of that intense excitement which followed the 
discovery of gold in the sands of the California rivers. 
This voyage of the ‘‘ Senator” was full of variety; 
twice the ship was in the most imminent peril of 
foundering at sea, and once of being wrecked on the 
inhospitable coast of Patagonia; and was so long un- 
heard of that the friends of her officers and crew had 
for months given them up as lost, yet the varied expe- 
rience derived from a visit to a city under the Equator, 
and a call at a penal station in a latitude approach- 
ing the Antarctic Circle, with large examination of 
ports and shores and peoples intermediate, afforded 
an opportunity to an inquiring and retentive mind to 
gather knowledge useful in all after life. To the in- 
struction thus received was added the advantage of a 
six years’ residence in California, among a population as 
cosmopolitan in character as picturesque in appearance. 
‘These years were devoted to professional engagements, 
commercial enterprises, mining occupations, real estate 
operations, and travels from the head-waters of Feather 
River to the Mohave Desert, and all along the coast, 
producing the usual fluctuations in fortune that were the 
experience of the great majority of early Californians. 
Wealth accumulated as if by magic, and disappeared as 
if by sorcery; coming in a stroke of good luck, without 
the exercise of unusual acumen; going in an unlucky 
whirl of fortune’s wheel, without the fault of unusual 
carelessness. To have lived from 1849 to 1855 in Cali- 
fornia, but chiefly in San Francisco and Los Angeles, 
was to have an opportunity to study nature, animate, in- 


40 


animate, and human, under circumstances that will not 
offer again in a century, if ever. During his sojourn 
on the Pacific slope, Doctor Hibberd made a visit to 
his old home and friends in the autumn of 1853, cross- 
ing Central America by the Nicaragua route, and re- 
turning by the way of Panama, before the railroad was 
completed. In October, 1855, he closed his business in 
California, returned to the ‘‘States,” and spent the win- 
ter reviewing professional science, availing himself, for 
this purpose, of the facilities offered by his Alma Mater 
in New York, and in June following opened an office 
in Dayton, Ohio; but in October, 1856, removed to 
Richmond, Indiana, where he has remained since. In 
his new -home, favoring influences quickly opened the 
way to active practice, and for many years he did the 
leading business in Eastern Indiana. In the spring of 
1869, abandoning his active professional life, he passed 
down by way of the Mammoth Cave, Memphis, and the 
Mississippi River to New Orleans, thence through Mo- 
bile, Atlanta, Knoxville, and Washington to New York, 
where, with a friend, he embarked for Havre, France, 
and the Old World, on the 15th of May. A year was 
spent abroad, going as far north as Amsterdam and 
Lerlin; as far south and west as Sevillé and Cadiz, in 
Spain; across the Strait to Tangiers in Morocco, Africa; 
and then to Gibraltar, Malaga, and through Spain to 
Barcelona; and then embarking for Marseilles, France. 
Having visited all the principal cities and noted places 
in Western and Central Europe, crossing the Alps 
twice, to enjoy the mountains and the Italian lakes, a 
party of six, two ladies and four gentlemen, met by 
agreement early in October, at Vienna, Austria, to be- 
gin a journey to the Orient. From Vienna to Pesth, 
and across the plains of Hungary to the Danube where 
it enters the Carpathian Mountains; down the Danube, 
through scenery of unparalleled grandeur and beauty, 
to Rustchuk, in Turkey; thence by rail to Varna, on the 
Black Sea, and thence by steamer to Constantinople. 
From there to Athens, touching at Syra, and across the 
Grecian Archipelago to Smyrna, in Asia Minor; and 
thence to Beyrout, in Syria, touching at Cyprus. Leav- 


ing Beyrout by caravan, they crossed Lebanon to the. 


ruins of Baalbec, and then crossed Anti-Lebanon to 
Damascus, and down by the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth, 
and Nablous to Jerusalem, the Jordan, and the Dead 
Sea. Embarking again, at Joppa, they arrived in 
Egypt about the first of December, and ascended the 
Nile to the first cataract, seeing all the wonders of 
that wonderful land. Early in January, 1870, the party 
separated. Doctor Hibberd and his companion crossed 
the Mediterranean to Sicily and Italy, and, having 
visited all places of note therein, arrived at Turin 
about the middle of March, to find the Transmontane 
Railroad blockaded with snow (the tunnel was not then 
completed) ; they were compelled to cross the Alps on 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


sledges over the Mont Cenis Pass. After again visit- 
ing Geneva, Paris, and London, they returned home 
late in April. Two trips to California, by rail, since his 
return from Europe, with shorter journeys to sundry. 
parts of the Union, complete the record of the Doctor’s 
travels to date. Immediately after the battle of Stone 
River, January 1, 1863, he took charge of a volunteer 
party of surgeons and nurses that were actively em- 
ployed for a month at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, but 
he had no official connection with the army. The Doc- 
tor became a member of Eaton Medical Society in 1842; 
a member of the Ohio Medical Convention in 1844, and 
continued for several years, being its secretary, when 
some of its members originated the State Medical So- 
ciety of Ohio, in 1847, which latter he assisted to or- 
ganize, being the secretary. He is now an honorary 
member of the society. He was a member of the 
Montgomery County (Ohio) Medical Society in 1856; a 
member of the Wayne County (Indiana) Medical So- 
ciety in 1857, and has been so ever since; he was its 
secretary for several years, and its president in 1860, 
and several times subsequently. He is a member of the 
Union District Medical Society, and was its president in 
1874; became a member of the State Medical Society 
of Indiana in 1860, and was its secretary in 1861-62, 
president of it in 1863, and is still an active and influ- 
ential member. He is a member, and now president, of 
the Tri-state Medical Society of Indiana, Illinois, and 
Kentucky. He became a member of the American Med- 
ical Association in 1863; was its first vice-president, in 
1866; its representative to the British Medical Association 
in August, 1869, and its representative to the International 
Medical Congress, at Florence, Italy, September, 1869. 
He was a member of the select committee of the Amer- 
ican Medical Association in 1864, to revise its constitu- 
tion and by-laws, and has been the chairman of many 
of its important committees from year to year. He isa 
member of the Rocky Mountain Medical Association. 
He was for a long time chairman of the Richmond Med- 
ical Club, an active professional association that kept no 
permanent record. He is an honorary member of the 
Ohio State Medical Society, an honorary member of 
the California State Medical Society, of the Muncie 
District Medical Society, and of several county med- 
ical societies. He has been the president and man- 
ager of numerous social, literary, and scientific societies, 
and was for several years president of the Richmond 
Scientific Association. It has already been stated that 
he was twice elected to the Ohio Legislature from Mont- 
gomery County, namely, in 1845 and 1846. During his 
first year’s service he was an active participant in 
changing the law for assessment of property for taxa- 
tion from a specific tax on many things to an ad valorem 
valuation on all things—a radical change, the idea of 
which was due to Senator Kelly, of Columbus. During 


bth Dist.) 


his second year’s service he was chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Public Works, the leading committee of the 
House. In 1872 he was elected a member of the city 
council of Richmond, Indiana, and brought her finan- 
cial condition from a depressed and embarrassed state to 
one of soundness, and among the most satisfactory in the 
state. In 1875 he waselected mayor of the city, and served 
for two years. In December, 1874, he was made presi- 
dent of the Richmond Board of Trade, with a view of 
getting up and publishing an exhibit of the manufac- 
turing, commercial, and general business industries of 
the city, together with an outline of its history, situa- 
tion, social condition, and special characteristics, which 
was organized satisfactorily early in 1875. At present 
he is president of the city school board. He has been 
active and influential in all public enterprises of the city 
for many years, and in preparing Indiana for the Cen- 
tennial Exhibition was a laborious member of the gen- 
eral committee and chairman of the sub-committee on 
building. The parents of Doctor Hibberd were Qua- 
kers, and while he is not a member of that society his 
associations and proclivities are with that organization. 
In politics he was a Whig as long as there was a Whig 
party, and since the organization of the Republican 
party he has been a Republican, with a propensity to 
scratch a bad man.on the party ticket when there is a 
good man for the same place on the opposite side. On 
the 30th of March, 1842, he married Nancy D. Higgins, 
of Montgomery County, Ohio, who died April 26, 1846, 
leaving a son two years old, Edgar G. Hibberd, now 
married and living in Richmond, Indiana. May 16, 
1856, he married Catherine Leeds, of Richmond, who 
died October 15, 1868, leaving a son ten years old, 
Wilton L. Hibberd, now living in Richmond. April 20, 
1871, he married Elizabeth M. Laws, of Richmond, his 
present wife. The last marriage is without living issue. 
Doctor Hibberd’s first medical essay was prepared by 
direction of the Eaton Medical Society, in 1844, on 
‘© Milk Sickness,” and published in the Western Lancet, 
February, 1845. Since then his professional papers have 
been numerous, including a prize essay of the Massa- 
chusetts Medical Society in 1868, and published in va- 
rious journals, in pamphlets, and in the transactions of 
many societies. While traveling in South America and 
California he was an occasional correspondent of news- 
papers, but during his trip to the old world he wrote a 
regular series of fifty-two letters, which were published 
in the Richmond 7Zelegram for 1869-70. Doctor Hib- 
berd is five feet nine inches high, weighs about one hun- 
dred and ninety pounds; a well-preserved gentleman of 
vigorous appearance, never having met with a serious 
accident nor been seriously ill in his life. He is pre- 
possessing, courteous, and sociable, positive in opinion, 
decided and energetic in action; a man of honesty, in- 


dependence of spirit, and great executive ability, and 
A—23 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


4I 


fitted, therefore, to be intrusted with important inter- 
ests, and to carry out extensive enterprises. He has a 
more than ordinary mind, developed and enriched by 
study and professional experience, and extended and ob- 
serving travel. He has tastes and abilities that would 
have won success in literature; and he possesses other 
talents by which he might have succeeded in any of 
several avocations. He is a respected and influential 
citizen, and in the profession of his choice has won a 
wide and enviable reputation. 


—>-g00@-— 


ODSON, JOHN MILTON, editor of the Win- 
chester Journa/, was born in Clinton County, 
Ohio, August 24, 1839. He is the youngest son 
of Matthew and Hannah (Hunt) Hodson, who 
had five children, four of whom still survive. The 
family removed to Hancock County, Indiana, in 1852. 
Being a studious lad, Mr. Hodson attended the common 
school, and at the early age of sixteen he was qualified 
to teach. For the next four or five years he was em- 
ployed in teaching during the winter and working for 
his father on the farm during the summer. In 1860 he 
the South-west State Normal 
School, of which Professor Holbrook has long stood at 
the head. Here he completed the regular course of 
study in one year, but, by the rules of the institution, 
he could not obtain a diploma until he had attended 
two or more years; however, as he preferred knowledge 
to diplomas, this was no serious disappointment. From 
early boyhood he had an ambition to be a lawyer, and, 
when quite a young man, procured and brought home 
the necessary books preparatory to study; but his 
father’s prejudices against 
that, with tears in his eyes, he implored his son to give 
up his cherished idea, which he reluctantly did. He 
continued in the profession of teaching, and for four 
years had charge of the public schools at Carthage, 
Indiana. He was principal of the Knightstown school 
for one year, and afterward was superintendent of the 
Plainfield schools for two years, but owing to ill-health 
Prior to this time he served 


became a student in 


the profession were such 


he resigned the position. 
as county examiner, and was school superintendent of 
Rush County for three years. On leaving Plainfield he 
came to his present home and bought a half interest in 
the Winchester Journal, July 1, 1872, since which time 
he has successfully filled the position of chief editor. 
His paper has long been established, having first been 
started by Colonel H. H. Neff, under the name of the 
Winchester Patriot. Mr. Hodson has always been an 
active and outspoken temperance man, and has fear- 
lessly advocated his principles, whether as a private citi- 
zen, teacher, ‘or journalist, without regard to the narrow 
limits of expediency. Neither himself nor family belong 


42 


to any Church. He was reared in the society of Ortho- 
dox Friends, but now discards the idea of the divinity 
of Christ. He is a stanch Republican, and from child- 
hood was taught to abhor the system of slavery, as his 
father was an Abolitionist of the most radical type. 
October 17, 1861, he married Martha A. Rawls; they 
have one child living, a bright little girl. He is pros- 
perous in his profession, and has a good social and 
business standing in the community. He deserves great 
credit for the success he has attained in life. 


qiij) in some respects is the best race in Europe. He 
SN was born in Braehead, parish of Carnwath, county 
ag of Lanark, Scotland, February 28, 1814. His fa- 
ther, Rev. William Horne, was pastor of the Presby- 
terian Church at Braehead until 1833, when he emi- 
grated to America, and settled in Canada, near Goodrich, 
on Lake Huron. From there he removed, in 1835, to 
Switzerland County, Indiana, and preached for twelve 
years in Caledonia, a Scotch settlement. The subject 
of this sketch was educated in a school in Carnwath 
and in the University of Edinburgh.. In 1831 he regis- 
tered as a student of medicine in the College of Sur- 
geons, in that city. Two years later he came with his 
father to this country, and in 1840 graduated from the 
Ohio Medical College. Doctor Horne had now enjoyed 
superior advantages, both literary and professional, and 
was better prepared than many of his classmates to 
assume the responsible duties of the physician. He did 
not establish himself permanently until 1848, when he 
went to Yorktown, Delaware County, Indiana.  Al- 
though engaged for a short time in the mercantile busi- 
ness, his chief attention has been devoted to the prac- 
tice of medicine. 
from the fact that he was elected, in 1877, president of 
the Delaware District Medical Society, and the same 
year president of the Delaware County Medical Society, 
for a term of two years. Doctor Horne is a member of 
the Presbyterian Church, the teachings of his father 
having taken deep root in his nature. He married, in 
the spring of 1844, Isabel B., daughter of Captain W. 
T. Scott, from Virginia. By this marriage he has two 
sons and three daughters now living. The elder son, 
W.N. Horne, M. D., graduated in the spring of 1877 
at the Medical College of Ohio, and is now associated 
in practice with his father. Doctor John Horne is a 
thorough, conscientious, and capable physician. He 
studies his cases with great care, and brings to the exer- 
cise of his duties a mind enriched by culture and experi- 
ence; and in all his relations he sustains the character 
of a Christian gentleman. 


His success in this may be inferred 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


UBBARD, CHARLES S., of Knightstown, was 
born in Milton, Indiana, September 1, 1829. His 


Bip 

eye? bard. His paternal grandfather was Jeremiah 
Hubbard, a minister of prominence in the society of 
Friends. Charles was the second child in a family of 
twelve children, five sons and seven daughters. When 
ten years of age his father removed to Henry County, 
and located on a farm about a mile and a half from 
Knightstown. By an unaccountable freak of nature, 
Charles was born without a right hand, yet, in spite of 
this disadvantage, he was able to plow, chop wood, and 
do almost all kinds of work—a striking proof of na- 
ture’s law of compensation. At the age of sixteen he 
began teaching a district school in the neighborhood, 
at a salary of ten dollars per month, boarding himself. 
He continued to alternate between teaching and at- 
tending school .until the summer of 1847, on the open- 
ing of the Friends’ boarding school (now Earlham 
College), when he entered that institution, perhaps as 
its first scholar. Here he continued three terms. In 
the mean time his father had removed to Raysville, near 
by, and engaged in merchandising. Charles continued 
to teach for some time, but the field was too limited for his 
aspiring ambition, and he joined his father in business. 
In November, 1850, he married Martha White, daugh- 
ter of Sorns and Millicent White, of Washington 
County, Indiana, and located in Raysville, where, after 
three years’ close application to business, he was en- 
abled to purchase a one-third interest in his father’s 
store, for five hundred dollars. A year later, his brother- 
in-law, Doctor Cochran, joined him, and under the new 
arrangement each owned a half interest. At the end of 
another year Mr. Hubbard bought him out, and con- 
tinued the business alone. He now realized his boyish 
ambition—to be a merchant, to deal in live-stock, and to 
live in a brick house of his own. He continued to 
prosper in business until 1862, when he retired. One 
year of idleness, to the man of strong business habits 
and restless activity, so wearied Mr. Hubbard that in 
1863 he engaged in the dry-goods business at Knights- 
town, with Timothy Harrison, of Richmond, Indiana. 
They did a large and successful business for several 
years. In 1864 he was elected one of the three trustees 
of the Soldiers’, Seamen’s, and Orphans’ Home, a state 
institution established that year near Knightstown. 
This position he filled four years. In 1866 he was made 
a director in the Franklin Life Insurance Company, of 
Indianapolis, which duties he still performs. In 1868 
he again retired from mercantile life, wishing to devote 
his time to religious and benevolent work; but. his 
business qualifications and experience were too valuable 
not to be utilized. About this time he was appointed 
one of the managers of Earlham College. The need of 
an endowment fund for this institution had long been 


6th Dist.) 


felt by himself and other friends of higher education, 
and a plan was laid for its procurement, and Mr. Hub- 
bard was chosen to execute it. He proceeded energet- 
ically and enthusiastically in the work; traveled exten- 
sively in the United States, visiting members of the so- 
ciety of Friends and others interested, and at the end of 
two years had-secured about fifty-three thousand dollars 
asa permanent endowment fund. This was placed under 
the control of five trustees, of whom Mr. Hubbard was 
chosen one, and where he still continues to faithfully 
serve the best interests of that institution. He has also 
been one of the seven directors of the First National Bank 
of Knightstown since its organization, in 1865. In 1876 
he was elected a member of the Indiana Legislature, 
and re-elected in 1878. As a member of the state exec- 
utive committee, he has been largely interested in the 
Sabbath-school cause, in local, Church, and state work. 
He has been a life-member of the society of Friends, 
active in Church work, and for several years a minister 
of the Gospel. He has an interesting family of five 
children—one son, who is now engaged in business 
with his father, and four daughters. The two older 
children are married. It should be remarked that 
Mr. Hubbard, who has been from childhood a strong 
anti-slavery man, has been particularly interested in 
the education, progress, and elevation of the freed- 
men of the South. He is a member of the mission- 
ary board, and in pursuance of his duties has often 
visited the states of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missis- 
sippi. Mr. Hubbard still enjoys remarkable health, the 
result of an industrious and temperate life. He has 
often spoken of the loss of his hand as among his great- 
est blessings, believing that its loss has been indirectly 
of inestimable value to him. He is still active and 
vigorous in business and good works, and is highly 
esteemed by his widely extended acquaintance. 


—~>-4006-— 


Si AMESON, JESSE KLINE, D. D. S.; of Conners- 
ville, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
October 2, 1832. His father, Jacob Jameson, is of 
Scotch-Irish ancestry, while his mother, Mary Tay- 

lor, is of German descent. When Mr. Jameson was about 

six years of age his parents removed to Franklin County, 

Indiana. Both were members of the Methodist Church, 

in which the father labored as local minister for more 
than sixty years. His father was poor, and the school 
privileges of Mr. Jameson were limited to two or three 
months each winter in the common schools of that com- 
paratively new country. Even these advantages were 
denied him at the age of fifteen; but while at school he 
was industrious and stood well in his classes, especially 
those in grammar and arithmetic. When he was seven- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


43 


teen he apprenticed himself to learn the cabinet-maker’s 
trade, where he remained until he attained his majority. 
Being at that time in ill-health, he entered the dental 
office of Doctor Peek, of Mount Carmel, Indiana, little 
thinking what would be the result. After spending five 
years of the succeeding seven with Dr. Peek, he re- 
moved, in October, 1860, to Shelbyville, intending to 
practice dentistry. A principle of his life has been that 
what is worth doing at all, is worth doing well; and he 
became dissatisfied with his work, and determined to 
know all that he could know, both about the science 
and the art of dentistry. He read every thing on the 
subject that he could find; procured ‘ Harris’s Prin- | 
ciples and Practices of Dental Surgery,” mastered it, 
and applied to his old preceptor for information about 
saving and building up teeth, as illustrated in that 
work. But it was as the blind leading the blind; and 
Doctor Jameson, fearing that he should fall into the 
‘ditch of non-progression and self-satisfaction,” struck 
out boldly for information. He attended dental associ- 
ations, district, state, and national, far and near, and 
listened to the discussions and investigations with a 
mind eager for the truth. He has been eminently suc- 
cessful, and abundantly repaid in his researches for 
knowledge. He has frequently been called before den- 
tal associations to read papers on special topics under 
consideration. In 1874 the degree of D. D. S. was 
conferred upon him by the Ohio College of Dental 
Surgery. When it is considered that he arrived at this 
distinction almost entirely by his own efforts, at a time 
when the science was in its infancy, without the aid 
developed by modern research, it will be seen that the 
title was well earned. In the annual catalogue of the 
above-named institution, Doctor Jameson’s name has 
appeared for some years past as one of the clinical 
instructors before the students. August 28, 1872, he 
removed to Connersville, Indiana, bought the interest 
of Doctor A. O. Rawls, and opened his dental office for 
practice. Here he was very successful, and, in January,’ 
1875, took possession of his present elegant and commo- 
dious suite of rooms, where he is doing the leading 
business of the town. He was united in marriage, 
August 14, 1852, to Miss Elizabeth A. La Rue, of 
Mount Carmel, Indiana. For more than four years past 
he has been an active member of the Young Men’s 
Christian Association. Doctor Jameson joined the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in 1857, to which Mrs. Jameson 
also belongs. With this Church he has been officially 
connected for the past sixteen years. As a Mason, he 
has filled almost all of the offices connected with the 
lodge, chapter, council, and commandery, and is a mem- 
ber of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. In disposition 
Mr. Jameson is modest and retiring; as a Christian, 
earnest and sincere; and as a citizen, he is influential 
and highly respected in the community. 


REPRESENTATIVE 


UMP, SAMUEL V., M. D., of New Burlington, 
is the fourth of five children of Isaac and Eliza- 
-<t- beth (Gulett) Jump. He was born in Kent County, 
Ge) Delaware, June 27, 1822. His paternal grand- 
father came from Wales to Delaware, and took part in 
the Revolution. His mother’s father was born in Eng- 
land, and also emigrated to the state of Delaware. After 
the death of his father, in 1832, Samuel Jump re- 
moved with the family to Wayne County, Indiana, and 
settled near Richmond, then a small village. Necessity 
compelled him to labor on the farm, so that he could 
attend school only three months of the year; but at 
length his increasing desire for knowledge led him to go 
out, at the age of sixteen, and work for means to pay 
the expenses of a course of instruction. At the end of 
two years, having earned a sufficient amount, he at- 


tended a select school in Richmond. For the next two 
years he engaged in teaching during the winter, and the 
remainder of the time attended a school taught by 
Barnabas C. Hobbs, who finally became state superin- 
tendent of public instruction. While teaching, Mr. 
Jump began the study of medicine, under the direction 
of Doctor Richard Swayne, which he continued, con- 
ducting a school during the winter, until 1846, when he 
entered the office of Doctor Prichett, of Centerville. 
There he remained until the fall of 1847, and then at- 
tended a course of lectures at the Ohio Medical College 
at Cincinnati. The following spring he went to New 
Burlington, Indiana, and commenced carefully applying 
the knowledge thus far gained to the treatment of the 
In 1858, fitted by the 
experience of ten years’ practice to comprehend the 
most difficult subjects presented in medical instruction, 
he attended another course of lectures at the same col- 
lege, and graduated in the spring of 1859, with the de- 
gree of M. D. He then returned to New Burlington, 
and resumed the duties of his profession. Doctor 
Jump’s influence grew with his practice, and political 
preferment came unsought and undesired. In 1869 he 
was, without his consent, nominated and elected Repre- 
sentative to the Legislature. 


sick, still continuing his studies. 


During the term he served 
through extra sessions also, and was a member of im- 
portant committees. He has always Tent aid, both as a 
legislator and a private citizen, to every enterprise pro- 
motive of the public good. When his professional 
duties permit, he devotes considerable attention to 
politics as a member of the Republican party. He has 
been connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church 
for thirty-eight years. He has been a member of the 
Masonic Order since 1852; was master of Whitney 
Lodge, No. 229, from 1857 to 1865; and is a member 
of Muncie Chapter, Muncie Council, and Muncie Com- 
mandery. The life of Doctor Jump calls to mind the 
well-known truth that it is better to begin one’s career 


in poverty with industry and virtue, than in wealth 


MEN OF INDIANA. [Och Dist. 
with either indolence or vice, and that he alone can 
wisely use and fully enjoy affluence who has himself 
earned it. The better part of the results of a successful 
life is not the gold accumulated, but the riches of ex- 
perience. Denied instruction for many years, Doctor 
Jump at last surmounted the obstacles that blocked his 
way to knowledge, and, strengthened by the effort, sup- 
plied the deficiencies of youth by severe study in man- 
hood. Thus by diligence, self-denial and the conscien- 
tious performance of every duty, he moved slowly but 
surely toward the goal of his ambition. He is now one 
of the best of physicians, respected on every hand, and 
surrounded by the blessings of abundance, the fruits of 
a well-spent life. Doctor Jump married Miss Leticia 
Allen, of Richmond, July 31, 1848; she died in 1854, 
leaving two children. December 9, 1856, he married 
Rebecca Cecil, whose death occurred October 25, 1871. 
He married his present wife, Sophia Gilbert, March 28, 
1872. Four children were born of the second and two 
of the last marriage. 


op emer, GENERAL WILLIAM HARRISON, 
‘\ M. D., of Muncie, was born in Rush County, In- 
Gh diana, December 16, 1839. His parents, Arthur 
3 Smith and Patience (Bryant) Kemper, were both 
born in Garrard County, Kentucky, and were of German 
ancestry. William Kemper remained at home, working 
on his father’s farm and attending the common school, 
until the age of eighteen, when he engaged as a printer, 
and followed that occupation two years. From early 
boyhood he had aspired to become a physician, and ac- 
cordingly he commenced the study of medicine at 
Greensburg when twenty-one years of age. His studies 
were soon interrupted by the opening of the Civil War, 
and he enlisted, April 24, 1861, in the three months’ 
service as a private of Company B, 7th Indiana Regi- 
ment. On the expiration of the term he re-enlisted, and 
was appointed hospital steward of the 17th Indiana 
Volunteers. In that capacity he served until February 
20, 1863, and was then made assistant surgeon of the 
same regiment, retaining the position untik July 27, 
1864, when, his term of enlistment having expired, he 
was discharged. Doctor Kemper’s experience in the 
army afforded him unusual facilities for obtaining pre- 
paratory knowledge of medicine and surgery, and he 
sought to make further advancement by attending, in 
the winter of 1864-5, a course of medical lectures at 
the Michigan University. He took a second course the 
following spring at Long Island College Hospital, 
Brooklyn, New York, from which institution he gradu- 
ated in 1865. He then established himself in Muncie, 
Indiana, and commenced practice. Results soon proved 
Doctor Kemper to be especially adapted to the profession 
of his choice; he isa member of the Delaware District 


Bioviiy 
beat 7 wiih 


; hy! 
7 7 s ihe ae oe 
i 4 5 


6th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
Medical Society, the Delaware County Medical Society, 
the State Medical Society, and also the American Med- 
ical Association. He has studied much, and carefully ex- 
amined many cases, and, being an original thinker and 
a clear, logical writer, he has made known his investi- 
gations from time to time in a number of essays con- 
tributed to various medical journals or read before 
medical societies. The following are among the num- 
ber: ‘Diseases of Children”—Western Journal of 
Medicine, Vol. Il, p. 14 (January, 1867). ‘* Operation 
for the Radical Cure of Varicocele ”’—Lowzsvelle and 
Richmond Medical Journal, Vol. 1X, p. 285 (March, 
1870). ‘*Exophthalmic Goitre’’—Transactions of the 
Indiana State Medical Society for 1871, p. 181. ‘* La- 
bor Complicated with Peritoneal Adhesions of the | 
Uterus” —American Practitioner, Vol. V, p. 289 (May, 
1872). ‘** Biblical Medicine ”—Jndiana Journal of Medi- 
cine, Vol. III, p. 1 (May, June, and December, 1872). 
*«Case of Inversion of Uterus”—Jndiana Journal of 
Medicine, Vol. IV, p. 482 (March, 1874). ‘Retention in 
Utero of the Dead Foetus—Considered Particularly with 
Regard to its Effects upon the Mother’—Transactions 
Indiana State Medical Society for 1875, p. 23. ‘Is 
Labor Protracted by Early Spontaneous Rupture of the 
Membranes ?”—American Practitioner, Vol. IX, p. 334 
(June, 1874). ‘‘A Case Illustrating the Use of Intra- 
uterine Injections for the Arrest of Post Partum Hemor- 
rhage””— C/inic, Vol. VII, p. 75 (August, 1874). ‘Sequel 
to a Case of Retained Foetus”—Transactions Indiana 
State Medical Society for 1876 (May, p. 119). ‘<A Case 
of Podelcoma”—American Practitioner, Vol. XIV, p. 129 
(September, 1876). ‘‘A Contribution to Medical Juris- 
prudence” —American Practitioner, Vol. XV, p. 340 (June, 
1877). ‘Four Hundred Obstetrical Cases—Statistics 
and QObservations”—American Practitioner, Vol. XVII, 
p- 227 (April, 1878). The essays contain much which 
is of value to the medical fraternity. They are the 
fruits of reason and experience combined, and have 
met with much attention in the medical journals, 
both at home and abroad. He has not neglected, 
as many other practitioners do, to record the result 
of his experience for the benefit of others. Doctor 
Kemper was coroner of Delaware County from 1872 to 
1875, and since 1872 has been United States examiner 
for pensions. During the session of 1875-6 he was as- | 
sistant to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women 
and children in the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
of Indiana. He has been a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church since his seventeenth year, and is a 
devoted Sabbath-school worker. A man of fine moral 
sensibilities and broad sympathies, he always abhorred 
the vice of intemperance, and cherished anti-slavery 
sentiments. His superior abilities as a medical prac- 
titioner and writer, and the sterling virtues of his char- 


acter, render him worthy of a high rank among the 


MEN OF INDIANA. 45 
representative men of Indiana. Doctor Kemper mar- 
ried, in August, 1865, Hattie, daughter of William 
Kemper, Esq., of Oskaloosa, Iowa. They have three 
children—Georgetta M., Arthur T., and William W. 


>-8006-<— 
Gy, 

€(7 IBBEY, JOHN F., Judge of the Circuit Court of 

the county of Wayne, was born in Richmond, In- 
7c diana, May 4, 1826. He was the only son of John 
« C. and Mary (Espy) Kibbey. His grandfather, 
Ephraim Kibbey, was a native of New Jersey, and served 
as a soldier through all the Revolution. In 1790 he was 
one of the surveyors of ‘*‘Symmes’s Purchase,” a large 
tract lying between the two Miami Rivers. In that 
year he located where Columbia, now adjoining Cincin- 
nati, stands, and in the Indian wars that soon broke 
out he bore an active part as captain of rangers, under 
General Wayne. His father was also born in New Jer- 
sey, and in 1813 he removed from Warren County, Ohio, 
to Wayne County, in the then territory of Indiana. 
Judge Kibbey’s rudimentary education was acquired un- 
der the instruction of his father, and at the age of nine- 
teen he was sent to Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, 
where he remained for three terms, and then left with- 
out graduating. In 1849 he entered the office of Sena- 
tor Morton as a student of law, was admitted to the 
bar in 1852, and the following year formed a partner- 
ship with his preceptor. Im 1851, while reading law, 
he was elected surveyor of Wayne County, which office 
he held by re-election until 1856. The firm above men- 
tioned had a heavy practice, and were retained in all 
the most important cases. The partnership ceased when 
Senator Morton became Governor of Indiana. In March, 
1862, Mr. Kibbey was appointed Attorney-general of the 
state, to fill a vacancy. The following year he was 
made military commander of his congressional district, 
with the rank of colonel. The duties of this office were 
to raise volunteers for the war, and to provide for their 
maintenance and control in camps within the district, 
until organized into regiments and mustered into the 
service of the United States. While acting in this ca- 
pacity he enlisted more than nineteen hundred volun- 
teers. In 1865 he was appointed Judge of the Common 
Pleas Court, which office he held by subsequent re-elec- 
tions until the spring of 1873, when the court was abol- 
ished. In October, 1873, he was elected Judge of the 
Circuit Court of the county of Wayne, into which the 
Common Pleas Court was merged, which office he still 
holds.. He was nominated by the Republican party in 
1876 for the office of Supreme Judge of the state, but 
was, with the remainder of the ticket, defeated by a 
small majority. Judge Kibbey up to 1854 acted with 
the Democratic party, but, being opposed to its action 
on the slavery question, then abandoned it, and two 


46 


years afterwards assisted in organizing the Republican 
party, and has ever since been in accord with it. He 
was married, May 5, 1852, to Miss Caroline E. Conning- 
ham, by whom ke has had five children. Both himself 
and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. Judge 
Kibbey is prepossessing in person and manner, and agree- 
able in social life. Nature has denied him the assurance 
necessary to success as an orator, and made him averse 
to much speaking, in order, perhaps, the more fully to 
develop his powers as a thinker; for his mind is more 
mathematical than imaginative, more given to deep, 
logical: thought than to fluent speech. His thoughts 
find easy expression, however, in writing, his written 
charges being brief and clear. 
themes, and, in meditating upon them, displays much 
power of concentration; and, having sound judgment, 
is thus fitted to comprehend profound principles of law, 
and analyze and decide intricate cases. 
not confined to Jaw, but embraces, also, much of a mis- 
cellaneous character; and, possessing a retentive mem- 
ory, he has thus acquired a wide knowledge of general 
literature. He is an able political manager, and.is quite 
influential in his party. 


His reading is 


—+-40to— 


Ge 
C(7 1LGORE, ALFRED, late of Muncie, will always 
4) be remembered as one of the most talented men 
Cc} of Indiana. With an ordinary English education, 
“=5 he arose by his own active energies to the high 
position he occupied at the bar, in political circles, and 
in the army. He was the son of Hon. David Kilgore, 
one of Indiana’s ablest men, and was born April 7, 1833, 
on the ‘*Homestead Farm,” in Mount Pleasant Town- 
ship, Delaware County, where also occurred his death, 
August 22, 1871. During boyhood he attended the old 
seminary at Muncie. On leaving school, he engaged 
for a year or two in teaching, then studied law, and 
was admitted to the bar in 1857, in Muncie, where he 
soon gained an enviable reputation as a criminal lawyer. 
Mr. Kilgore held numerous local offices in the city and 
county prior to 1860; but when the first alarm of war 
was sounded, in 1861, he was one of the first to offer 
his services in defense of the old flag and Constitution. 
He recruited a company, which was assigned as Com- 
pany B, of the 36th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with 
which regiment he remained, and participated in all the 
campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland until the 
battle of Shiloh. Though his spirit was brave, his body 


was too weak to endure the hardships of the camp and | 


field. Stricken with disease, he lingered in the hospital 
for months, then was brought home to die. His strong 
will conquered the disease in a measure, but only par- 
tially, for it was the cause of his death. In appreciation 


of his talents and services, his friends elected him to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


He is fond of abstruse . 


[Och Dist. 


the state Legislature for two terms, where his voice was 
always heard on the side he deemed right. Soon after 
the expiration of his term of office he was appointed 
United States attorney for the district of Indiana, which 
place he filled with distinction and honor. He fell in 
the prime of his manhood; and, in summing up the 
record of his life, we may truthfully say that, as a sol- ° 
dier, he was brave and patriotic, making every sacrifice 
for his country; as a legislator, he was fearless, able, 
faithful, and, above all, incorruptible; as a lawyer, he 
was earnest, zealous, and brilliant. 
of fine social qualities, genial, and devoted in friendship 
and tenacious in love; and his memory is embalmed in 
the hearts of his friends forever. Mr. Kilgore married, 
August 2, 1854, Miss Susan Shoemaker, now the wife of 
Hon. James N. Templer. Of this happy marriage two 
children were born—Charles W., a young lawyer, who 
seems to have inherited his father’s genius; and Mollie 
G. (Mrs. Davis), a lady of rare beauty. 


He was a gentleman 


—-5206-o—- 


ILGORE, JUDGE DAVID, of Delaware County, 
was born in Harrison County, Kentucky, April 3, 
‘\i 1804, the second in a family of four sons. His 
= father, Obed Kilgore, was a native of Pennsylva- 
nia, but for many years was a citizen of Kentucky, 
where he carried on farming until 1819, and then re- 
moved with his family to Franklin County, Indiana, 
then a wilderness. Among the infirmities of his increas- 
ing years came blindness, but it was only the precursor 
of that perfect sight that views the glories of the spirit 
realm, for he soon died at the residence of his son David, 
at the age of eighty-two. Judge Kilgore’s mother was 
Rebecca (Cuzick) Kilgore; she died in Franklin County 
in 1843. After the usual course of study in the com- 
mon schools of his native place and of Franklin County, 
Indiana, to which the family removed, as above stated, 
Mr. Kilgore commenced reading law, without a pre- 
ceptor, but was occasionally aided by Governor James 
B. Ray and John T. McKinney, afterward Judge of the 
state Supreme Court. In 1830, having finished his pre- 
paratory studies, he started on foot for Delaware County, 
carrying all his worldly effects, which consisted of a 
small bundle of clothes, four law-books, and four dol- 


lars and seventy-five cents in money. On reaching his 
destination he secured a pre-emption claim and located 
upon it, but commenced practice. Success at the bar 
and political influence almost immediately followed; for 
in 1832 he was chosen on the Whig ticket to represent 
Delaware County in the Legislature, was several times 
re-elected, and in 1856 became speaker of the House, in 
which position he gave marked satisfaction. In 1839 Mr. 
Kilgore was elected Judge of the Judicial Circuit com- 
| posed of the counties of Randolph, Delaware, Grant, 


ss 
SN 
es = 

ee SS 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
NIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 


LIBRARY 


OF THE 
UNIVERSITY GE tLLuNor 


6th Dist. 


Jay, Blackford, Madison, Wells, and Adams, and served 
seven years. In 1850 he was a member of the conven- 
tion that revised the state Constitution. He was elected 
by heavy majorities to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth 
Congresses, and bore a part in the exciting discussions 
that there occurred during Buchanan’s administration. 
Judge Kilgore was very active as one of the original 
builders of the Bee-line Railway, and was its director 
for about twenty years. At present he is a stockholder 
and a director in the Citizens’ National Bank of Mun- 
cie, and is also a stockholder in the Muncie National 
Bank, and in the First National Bank of Indianapolis. 
He was chiefly instrumental in establishing the Indiana 
Hospital, at Washington, during the first year of the 
Civil War. Apropos of his interest in the brave boys 
who were fighting to preserve the Union, his biographer 
desires to insert the following extract from a Washington 
paper of 1861: 

‘The members of the Ist New Jersey Regiment and 
of the Ellsworth Zouaves desire to return their sincere 
thanks to Hon. David Kilgore, member of Congress 
from Indiana, for a bountiful supply of letter paper and 
envelopes, supplied to them on Saturday last, for their 
correspondence with the dear ones at home. We hope 
to hear of similar donations to other regiments quar- 
tered in our city.” 

Judge Kilgore is a member of the Free and Accepted 
Masons, and has taken all the council degrees. He 
helped organize the Republican party, to which he has 
ever been firmly attached. With regard to his religious 
associations, he was born within the pale of the Presby- 
terian Church, and now attends its services, but is con- 
nected with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He mar- 
ried, July 14, 1831, Mary G. Van Matre, daughter of 
the prominent Virginian, Absalom Van Matre. They 
have had six sons: Henry C., who died in infancy; 
Alfred, who was a captain in the 36th Indiana Volun- 
teers, afterward a district attorney, and also member of 
the Legislature three terms; Obed; Tecumseh, who 
was surgeon of the 13th Indiana Cavalry; David, also a 
captain, and James, a lieutenant, both of the 19th Reg- 
iment of Infantry. It is interesting to reflect what im- 
portant results have grown from small beginnings in 
Judge Kilgore’s career. The four law-books which he 
carried through to Delaware County have gathered to 
themselves other volumes, till he now has a fine library; 
that scanty store of cash has been multiplied, and trans- 
formed into stocks, houses, and lands; and the lone 
student trudging his weary way through miles of wil- 
derness has become the political orator, legislator, law- 
yer, and jurist. When in the prime of mental vigor he 
excelled as a stump speaker, and before a jury had no 
superior in Northern Indiana. He wore the judge’s robe 
with dignity, and brought to every case clear perception, 
ready power of analysis, and a desire to promote the 


ends of justice. For years his name and works have 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


47 


been allied with the educational institutions, public im- 
provements, courts, and political interests of the state. 
Health, a high purpose, an unconquerable will, vigorous 
mental powers, and diligent study are the means by 
which he has made himself so eminently useful, and 
every ambitious youth who must fight the battle of life 
unaided may read with profit the biography of Judge 
Kilgore. 


400 <— 


INSEY, ISAAC, the eldest son and fourth of nine 
children of Oliver and Sarah (Griffith) Kinsey, 
‘ was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Fifth 
Month 19, 1821. His father was born at Little 
Britain, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and his mother 
at Gunpowder, Baltimore County, Maryland. When 
he was about two years old, his father, who was a black- 
smith, moved with his family to within four miles of the 
city of Baltimore, where he had purchased a farm, and 
continued his business of blacksmithing and farming 
for five years later, then moved into the city, where he 
was largely engaged in the manufacture of edge tools, 
particularly of axes. In Baltimore Isaac had fair op- 
portunities for the acquirement of an education, and 
they were fairly improved. But at the age of eleven 
years his father returned to the farm he then owned, near 
which the town of Franklin now stands. About this 
time his mother died, and he was deprived of her be- 
nign influence. One of his first teachers was Herman 
Husband, of Baltimore, who is now living; and another 
was James M. Poe, by whom he was taught in Mary- 
land, and afterwards in Richmond. In May, 1835, his 
father left Baltimore and drove across the mountains to 
Indiana in a two-wheel sulky, alone, to look at the 
country. He was better pleased with Wayne County, 
Indiana, than any other county that he saw west of his 
native state, and there determined to try his fortunes. 
In November of that year he loaded his goods, chattels, 
and family into a large four-horse wagon and one car- 
riage, and with Elisha Norris, now living near Rich- 
mond, as principal driver, he set out on the weary 
journey for Indiana. The mountains having been passed 
and the last camp-fire extinguished, they arrived at Rich- 
mond the following month. The next spring (1836) 
his father bought a farm of about two hundred acres, 
situated on the west bank of Whitewater, opposite the 
city, part of which is now owned and occupied by Will- 
iam Baxter. From the southern part of this farm his 
father subsequently laid off West Richmond. For the 
next four years Isaac’s time was principally spent in as- 
sisting his father and brothers in cultivating the farm in 
summer and attending the town school in winter. In 
1841 his father sold the farm to Robert Morrison and 
moved into town. Here the son spent the next two 
Soon after this 


years in clerking in a dry-goods store. 


48 


he, in company with John Evans, who was a manufac- 
turer of cough and ague medicines, took a team and 
wagon and drove into the Western country, and in their 
trip visited Nauvoo, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. 
Prior to this, the subject of our sketch had seen little 
of the world, and during this journey he realized that 
home was the best place, and that ‘contentment is 
great gain,” and ever after this he was cured of any dis- 
position to a wandering life. He now settled down to 
business, and the first money that he really earned inde- 
pendent of his father (which proved to be the founda- 
tion of his future success) was procured by slaughtering 
hogs for packing. The following spring he engaged in 
the manufacture of brick, with success. This, together 
with the meat business, occupied his attention till the 
winter of 1845 and 1846, when he went to Cincinnati, 
and engaged with his brother Thomas in the produce 
business. This brother, attracted by the gold excite- 
ment, went to California in 1849, leaving the firm with 
his interest in charge of Isaac, who prosecuted the busi- 
ness successfully till the return of his brother, in 1852. 
This California venture had a fortunate termination. 
In the spring of 1852 the brothers bought the large and 
‘beautiful farm now owned entirely by Isaac, on which 
It consists of nearly five hundred acres, 
embracing some of the richest and best of the second 
bottom lands in the walnut-level country of Wayne 
County, Indiana. Here he has the great privileges of 
country life, with all of its freedom and independence. 
In 1868, having invested in the Hoosier Drill Works, of 
Milton, some two miles north of his home, he was elected 
president of that prosperous manufacturing company, 
which position he retained till he sold his interest in 
the establishment, in 1876. This proved to be a remarka- 
bly successful and remunerative enterprise. On Ninth 
Month 25, 1847, he was united in marriage with Mary 
P. Jones, daughter of Aquila and Ann H. Jones. On 
Ninth Month 25, 1848, was born their daughter and 
only child, Sarah Griffith Kinsey, who died Seventh 
Month 23, 1849. Mary Kinsey’s father was born in 
Brandywine Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
Ninth Month 9, 1796. He married Ann H. Perine in 
1825. They moved to Richmond, Indiana, in 1833, and 
thence to Cincinnati in 1845. 


he now lives. 


He still survives, being 
with them in their own home, where, in feeble health, 
he is cherished by the kindly hands and loving hearts 
of this daughter and her sister Hannah, who is now 
living with them. The aged couple moved from Cin- 
cinnati to Milton in 1865, where his wife passed away, 
in a ripe old age, in 1877. In politics he is an ardent 
and uncompromising Republican, though he never sought 
nor accepted any political office. He belongs to no 
order or association, excepting the religious society of 
Friends, in which both he and his wife were born and 
educated. They live in a most commodious and beau- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


tiful home, abundantly supplied with cupboards, closets, 
and cozy recesses which so much delight the hearts of 
good housekeepers. The dwelling is lighted with gas 
manufactured on the premises, and supplied with water 
raised by a wind-pump, and heated by a furnace in the 
cellar. Considering the size, elegance, and completeness 
in all of its appointments, it is an exception for a coun- 
try dwelling. Added to all this is attached a conserva- 
tory of rare flowers and plants, which lend an air of 
taste and refinement to the surroundings. In this ele- 
gant home is dispensed hospitality with a liberal hand, 
as many friends can testify. The location is an admira- 
bly chosen one, with fine views from the observatory on 
the north and west; and especially on the east the 
landscape is delightful, embracing the fine valley of the 
West River, threaded by two railroads, and bounded 
by the forests and higher lands beyond. Our subject 
descended from healthy and temperate ancestry, and 
these qualities he possesses in an admirable degree. In 
business he is thoroughly energetic and straightforward, 
and possesses an unblemished character for honesty and 
integrity. With good social qualities, he has an honest 
hatred for sham and shoddy. 


—>FOte-<—_. 


€(7 LINE, WILLIAM B., of the firm of Wysor, 
Kline & Co., Muncie, is the son of Benjamin and 

G Harriet (Boone) Kline, both of whom were natives 
4 of Pennsylvania. His father carried on the mer- 
cantile business in Pricetown, a small village in Berks 
County, where the family resided until the year 1838. 
They then emigrated. to Butler County, Ohio. Here 
they remained until 1841, when the father died. The 
subject of this sketch led the life of a country lad, at- 
tending the district schools, and working on the farm 
during the summer. Farming as then carried on af- 
forded little scope for the exercise of other than mere 
muscular abilities; and he felt that to till the soil was 
to neglect the mind. Under these circumstances he 
went to Hamilton, Ohio, and engaged as clerk in the 
dry-goods establishment of Matthias & Kline, where he 
remained until the spring of 1844. The firm then estab- 
lished a branch store in Cambridge City, which, having 
discovered Mr. Kline’s superior business qualifications, 
they to his management. Meanwhile he 
studiously devoted his spare moments to reading good 
At the end of two years the business 


intrusted 


and useful books. 
changed from trade in dry-goods to that in hardware, 
and afterwards into the warehouse and transportation 
business. Courteous toward all, careful and conscien- 
tious, Mr. Kline soon won the esteem and confidence of 
the community, and established a reputation as a suc- 
cessful and enterprising business man. Pursuing this 


course undeyiatingly, he increased the business until in 


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6th Dist.] 


1848, upon the breaking out of the ‘‘gold fever,” he 
left his pesition and started for California, by way of 
Panama, arriving there in January of the following 
year. He at once engaged in mining, and, subsequently, 
in the mercantile trade, and was moderately success- 
ful until 1852, when he returned to Cincinnati. In 
March, 1853, he removed to Muncie. Forming a co- 
partnership with Captain Gilbert Beemer, he engaged in 
the grocery business, under the firm name of Kline & 
Beemer. March 13, 1858, Mr. Kline bought a one- 
third interest in the firm of Wysor & Jack, carrying on 
a general milling business in the city of Muncie. The 
firm of Wysor, Jack & Co. existed until Mr. Jack’s 
death, in 1859, when the firm of Wysor & Kline was 
formed. They carried on a prosperous business until 
1875, when Mr. Wallace Hibbitts bought a one-third 
interest, making the firm, which is now known through- 
out Western Indiana, of Wysor, Kline & Co. Mr. 
Kline is also represented in other business enterprises, 
and superintends the management of two very fine 
farms, situated in Delaware County. Previous to the 
organization of the Republican party, of which he is 
now a firm supporter, he was an. old-line Whig, and 
cast his first vote for Henry Clay, in 1844. He has 
never sought political preferment, although he allowed 
his name to be used as that of an independent candi- 
date for state Senator on the Republican ticket in 1870, 
and during that canvass he made speeches throughout 
the senatorial district. Mr. Kline’s business career has 
been marked by the exhibition of those qualities which 
make success almost a certainty, possessing that rare ex- 
ecutive ability indispensable in the management of any 
large business. These qualities were developed in early 
life, and have enabled him to acquire a competence 
and a position with the best men of Muncie. He is 
somewhat liberal in his religious convictions, and is a 
member of the Universalist Church, having assisted in 
the organization of that denomination in Muncie. In 
1846 he associated himself with the Independent Order 
of Odd-fellows. He is of a generous nature, kind, 
benevolent, and ever willing to lend a helping hand to 
a friend; positive, quick, and active, and, in his social 
relations, genial and affable. Mr. Kline married Miss 
Mary Conwell on the twenty-fourth day of February, 
1853. They have one son, born to them on the 3oth of 
November, 1855. 
—-~<-g D-<— 


IRBY, THOMAS, late of Muncie, was born in 
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, December 25, 1804. 
He attended school until he reached the age of 
ten, when he entered a woolen factory, where he 


& 
worked, attending school every winter, for ten years. 
In the fall of 1827 he migrated to Richmond, Indiana, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


and there engaged at his trade, in the employment of | 


49 


Levinas King. After remaining in that situation one 
year, he commenced buying and selling furs, deerskins, 
and ginseng, of which plant he bought about six thou- 
sand pounds per annum. It grew spontaneously through- 
out a large portion of this state, and was then a staple 
article of commerce between this country and China. 
In 1830 Mr. Kirby removed to Muncie, and engaged in 
the mercantile business for five years. At the end of 
this period, having become the owner of a tract of land, 
a part of which is now within the city of Muncie, he 
turned his attention to farming, in which, together with 
transactions in real estate, he was occupied for the 
remainder of his life. Mr. Kirby cast his first ballot 
for John Quincy Adams, and was afterward a Republi- 
can; but he took very little interest in politics, except 
when momentous issues were at stake, and never sought 
nor accepted public office. In religion he was a Univer- 
salist. Mr. Kirby married, July 15, 1833, Miss Sarah 
H. Tomlinson, a native of North Carolina. They had 
five children, three sons—Hickman, John, and George; 
and two daughters: Martha A., married to A. H. Ham- 
ilton, merchant; and Elizabeth, wife of J. A. Heinsohn, 
proprietor of the Kirby House. The life of Mr. Kirby, 
for nearly half a century, was blended with the history 
of Muncie. He built the first brick store, and made 
other improvements, among which is a fine hotel. He 
owned about one thousand acres adjoining the town, 
and has made six additions to the city of Muncie, each 
containing from thirty to eighty lots. The grounds on 
which were built the Universalist and Presbyterian 
churches were donated by him. 
the first two merchants in the place, and one of the 
first trustees. Muncie, or Outainink, as it was called by 
the Indians, was once the home of the Shawnee prophet, 
the brother of Tecumseh; and in those early days, 


Mr. Kirby was one of 


although the red man had buried the tomahawk, wild 
animals still ranged the forest, loath to yield to encroach- 
ing civilization.: The subject of this memoir was an 
energetic worker from boyhood. So long a resident of 
Delaware County, he was known throughout its length 
and breadth; and all speak of him in terms of respect, 
as one whose acts were ever free from craft and dis- 


honor, and governed by righteous motives. 


—>-8¢0-o— 
Ct 
C7 OONTZ, JACOB H., merchant and farmer, of 
{\ Yorktown, is the son of Jacob and Deborah 
Cis (Combs) Koontz, both of whom were natives of 
sy Virginia. His father was of German descent, 
and his mother of Scotch-Irish extraction. In the year 
1817 they left their native state, and removed to Ohio. 
Two years later they settled in Fayette County, Indiana, 
where the subject of this sketch was born, December 27, 


1827. Here they continued to reside until the year fol- 


50 


lowing, when they removed to Henry County, Indiana, 
where his father subsequently laid out the place which is 
now known as Middletown, and where he died in 1830. 
Some time afterward his mother married again, and the 
family went to Delaware County. Here Jacob H. 
Koontz was allowed the privilege of attending the dis- 
trict schools during the winter months, and in summer 
was employed upon the farm. At the age of sixteen 
he left home because of the abuse of his stepfather, 
and engaged to work as a regular farm hand. He was 
the first man in his township to receive the sum of ten 
dollars per month, which was considered very high 
wages in those primitive days. He supported himself 
in this way, attending school during the winter, until 
1849, when, having saved enough money from his hard 
earnings, he attended the Muncie Seminary for one year, 
and became proficient in the English branches. In 1850, 
being then about twenty-two years old, he embarked at 
New Orleans, in a sailing vessel, for California. After 
a long and tedious voyage of one hundred and twenty 
days, he arrived in San Francisco on the 25th of April. 
Mr. Koontz engaged at once in mining, which he con- 
tinued with moderate success until December, 1851. 
He returned home by the same route, reaching his des- 
tination in February, 1852. 
lated while in California, he engaged in the mercan- 
tile business in his adopted village, and conducted it 
successfully during a period of four years. He then 
purchased the Yorktown Mills, which he carried on until 
1865, when he sold the property. For the next five 
years he directed his attention to selling merchandise ; 
then sold his stock of goods, and removed to one of his 
farms, located two and one-half miles south-east of 
Yorktown, feeling great relief at being able to lay aside 
Here he has 
resided ever since, and, active and prosperous as a mer- 
chant, he has been equally so as a farmer. In 1863, 
during the Morgan raid, he was commissioned by Gov- 


With the means accumu- 


the cares and anxieties of mercantile life. 


ernor Morton captain of a company of minute-men, 
who were afterward organized into companies for the 
Indiana Legion. He was then commissioned colonel 
of the Delaware regiment. Mr. Koontz has always 
taken a deep interest in schools and education, was 
made township trustee in 1854—one of the first elected 
under the new school law—and has served in this ca- 
In 1876 he was elected 
joint Representative from the counties of Jay and Del- 
aware, and served as chairman of the Committee on 
While in the House, he heard from an old 
friend, who was then in the Minnesota Legislature. 
They had worked on a farm together when boys in La- 
porte .County; and Mr. Koontz, upon learning this 
friend’s address, wrote to him, and found that he also 
had been appointed chairman of the Committee on 
Roads. As they had not seen or heard of each other 


pacity for seventeen years. 


Roads. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OL INDIANA. 


[ Och Dist. 


for thirty years, this was certainly an interesting coin- 
cidence. Asa public speaker, the power of Mr. Koontz 
lies in his earnest language, concise statements, and 
sound logic, devoid of any oratorical display. He has 
always taken an active part in the temperance work, 
and is connected with different temperance organiza- 
tions. He is not a member of any religious denomina- 
tion, although he attends divine worship, and supports 
the different Churches of Yorktown. In his public re- 
lations he is esteemed as possessing a strong sense of 
truth and justice, and endeavoring to live in accordance 
with those principles. In 1875 he commenced the study 
of law, but could not follow it to the extent that he 
wished on account of his failing sight. He has prac- 
ticed in the courts of his county, and has met with 
good success. It ds truthfully said of Mr. Koontz that, 
having undertaken an enterprise, he will push it through 
to the end. His earnest nature could not fail to inter- 
est itself actively in politics. He has been connected 
with the Republican party ever since its organization, 
and is one.of its most influential members in Delaware 
County. Asa business man, he has won the confidence 
of all who have dealings with him. He cares little for 
society, but is courteous in all business and social rela- 
tions. Like all self-made men, he is imbued with the 
spirit of self-reliance, and every interest intrusted to his 
care is managed with judgment and tact. <s a citizen, 
he is eminently respected. Mr. Koontz was twice mar- 
ried. His first marriage occurred June 26, 1853, when 
he was united to Miss Anna Brown, who died in 1855, 
leaving one child, a daughter. 
July 24, 1857, to Miss Violetta Sheiner. This marriage 
has been blessed with a family of five children, four of 
whom survive. 


He was again married, 


—<- 8906-<—— 


ACY, JOHN W., was born in Henry County, 
Indiana, June 6, 1843. 
‘ the paternal side were natives of the Island of 
Oy Nantucket, whence they moved to North Car- 
olina, and from thence to Tennessee, where his father, 
David Macy, was born. He married Priscilla Luellen. 
His father was a strong anti-slavery man in the dark 
days when it tried men’s souls to maintain such princi- 
ples. John W. Macy’s education was limited to the 
common schools of his native county, and even these 


J 
i 
Cf 


His grand-parents on 


opportunities were cut off at the age of fifteen years, 
when he went to Farmland, Randolph County, begin- 
ning the trade of wagon-maker at sixteen. This he 
followed for about three years, when, on the breaking 
out of the war, he enlisted in the army as first sergeant. 
He was wounded at the battle of Chickamauga, but 
remained in the conflict until its close, and was mus- 
tered out in June, 1865. Being active and industrious 
in his habits, he at once returned to his trade at Farm- 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOI 


9, 
LX 
xy 


iy 
eiy. 


XX} 
NY, 
Wa 


) 


6th Dist | 


land, where he continued till 1867, when he was ap- 
pointed deputy by the county auditor. In that position 
he remained for about two years; and from 1869 to 
1871 he served as deputy clerk of the county. At the 
expiration of this time he went to Edmondson County, 
Kentucky, as superintendent of the Kentucky Land 
Company, where he remained till 1875, when he returned 
to his adopted county, engaging in business for a short 
time, and was then elected to the office of clerk of the 


court, a position he now holds with credit to himself 
and to the county he serves. Mr. Macy is a member 
of the Masonic Order. He belongs to no Church at 
present, but was brought up in the society of Friends. 
In politics, he is an enthusiastic Republican, and, while 
on good terms with the world, he works hard for the 
success of his party, and enkindles like enthusiasm in 
those about him. On December 26, 1871, he married 
Miss Sarah Edger, of Winchester, by whom he has a 
family of three children. He has a warm, ardent tem- 
perament, fine personal appearance, and good social and 
business standing in the community, in which he is a 
general favorite. 
—>-890h-<—_ 

oVe 
ARCH, JUDGE WALTER, of Muncie, son of 
Samuel and Zoa March, was born in Millbury, 
© Massachusetts, August 5, 1814. He is of English 
descent, his ancestors emigrating from England 
to Massachusetts in 1635. His father was a farmer, and 
lived upon a farm that was owned by the family for four 
generations. He was very industrious, had great pow- 
ers of endurance, and looked upon labor as a duty and 
a blessing. He possessed little knowledge of books, 
but much good common sense. A man of few words, 
and of regular, temperate habits, he was one of the last 
of that sturdy race who, despite hostile Indians, a rigor- 
ous climate, and a sterile soil, made Massachusetts the 
Attica of the new world, and gave their offspring to be 
the builders of other states. He died in 1874, at the 
extreme age of ninety-two. Mr. March’s mother was of 
more delicate physical constitution, but of superior in- 
tellectual capacity and cultivation. Her death occurred 
in 1838, at the age of fifty-four. Both parents had re- 
ceived only a limited education, but fhey determined to 
provide more liberal advantages for their children, who 
remember with lasting gratitude their exertions to this 
end. Walter March was early accustomed to labor, and 
worked with his father until eighteen years old, attend- 
ing the common school of the town during the winter 
months. He then studied in the Millbury Academy one 
year, and at its close (1833) entered Amherst College, 
where he remained through the whole course, defraying 
part of his expenses by teaching during the winter. He 
graduated in 1837, and then became a student of law, 
first in the office of Clough R. Miles, Esq., of Millbury, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


SI 


and afterwards in that of Judge Borton, of Worcester. 
After sufficient time had been spent in preparation, he 
attended the lectures of Professor Greenleaf and Judge 
Story, at the Cambridge Law School. During these 
three years of legal study he helped harvest his father’s 
crops in midsummer, and taught school in the winter— 
severe recreation, but it made stronger men and better 
students, and was a thousand-fold preferable to vacations 
spent in dissipation. Fully appreciating his advantages, 
Mr. March had studied with great diligence, and was 
now prepared to enter upon his chosen profession under 
favorable auspices. Believing that the West offered bet- 
ter inducements than the East, he came, in 1840, za 
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the Ohio River, to Indian- 
apolis, reaching that cityin November. There he passed 
the winter, and in March of the following spring com- 
menced the practice of law in Muncie, which, with the 
exception of a residence of three years in Indianapolis, 
has since been his home. He who attains any degree 
of distinction in the legal profession must travel a rug- 
ged road; and Mr. March was no exception to the rule, 
though, because of superior culture and capacity, his 
mind doubtless ranged, at every point of progress, over 
a wider scope of thought than the minds of many others. 
Years of hard study and increasing practice passed, and, 
in 1850, he was selected as the man best qualified for 
the responsible duties of a member of the State Consti- 
tutional Convention. In 1852 Mr. March was one of 
the three commissioners who drafted the Indiana Code 
of Pleading and Practice. This great improvement upon 
the verbose forms of the common law is the equal of 
any state code, and a noble monument to the learning 
At the close of this work, 
in 1852, he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas 
District composed of the counties of Delaware, Grant, 
and Blackford. This position he held till 1856, when, 
by the newly formed Republican party, he was chosen 
state Senator from the counties above named, and served 
as such by re-election until 1864. In 1878 Judge March 
was elected Representative in the Legislature from Del- 
aware County. Possessing an extensive knowledge of 
literature and the general principles of the sciences, he 
was made, in 1877, first president of the Literary and 
Scientific Association of Muncie. Judge March was a 
Democrat until 1854, when the position which his party 
had gradually assumed with reference to slavery obliged 
him to seek other political connections; hence, he joined 
in the movement that resulted in the formation of the 
Republican party, and has since worked with it in every 
campaign, though in 1872 he voted for Horace Greeley. 
He is not a member of any secret society, nor of any 
religious denomination, but attends the Presbyterian 
Church, with which his wife is connected. As Judge 
of the Court of Common Pleas, Walter March proved 
himself possessed of judicial abilities of a high order. 


and fidelity of its framers. 


52 


His decisions were just, and evinced careful research 
and preparation. An untiring worker, a severe student, 
excelling in the knowledge of law and as a counselor, 
he is considered one of the ablest lawyers in Eastern In- 
Through the exercise of these abilities, with 
wise economy and perseverance, he has gained a for- 
tune. He enjoys very robust health for one of his 
years, due in part to his total abstinence from the use 
of intoxicating liquors and tobacco. 


diana. 


—+- FO — 


Methodist Episcopal Church, Richmond, Indi- 
ana, was born in Wayne County, in this state, 

LOST November 26, 1832. His father, William T. 
Marine, of North Carolina, married Mary Williams, a 
native of Ohio, and settled in Wayne County at an early 
day. Abijah was the first born of ten children, six of 
whom are yet living. His opportunities for an educa- 
tion were superior to those of the average boy of those 
times. He attended Whitewater College at Centerville, 
Indiana, for three years, and afterwards the title of 
A. M. was conferred on him by the faculty of the State 
University at Greencastle. He entered the ministry of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1855, in which he 
still continues. His first charge was at Elkhart, Indi- 
ana, and he has since served five years in the Berry 
Street and Wayne Street Churches of Fort Wayne, and 
at present (1878) is on his second term at Grace Church, 
Richmond. Mr. Marine is a Royal Arch Mason, and 
belongs to the Order of Ancient Odd-fellows. He is an 
ardent temperance man, and many eloquent discourses 
has he delivered in its defense, while his abstemious 
habits through life enforce the sincerity of his profes- 
sion. He has endured persecution and obloquy for his 
outspoken sentiments against the custom of drinking. 
On one occasion, when stationed at Fort Wayne, through 
the garbling of his speeches by the press and the slan- 
ders of a designing politician, he was brought face to 
face with an indignation meeting of Germans in that 
city. 


But he spoke not against any nationality as such, 
nor against Germans, only so far as they stood in the 
way of temperance principles. The result was that the 
speaker vindicated himself, the considerate ones were 
satisfied, and the reactionary wave stranded the aspir- 
ant for Congress high and dry on the beach. As a 
minister of the Gospel, Mr. Marine stands in the front 
rank in the conference to which he belongs. As a 
speaker, he is forcible, eloquent, and ‘persuasive, and is 
often called before public audiences. And when, rising 
to the height of the occasion and warmed with the 
subject in hand, in the language of Webster, he has 
‘‘the clear conception, outrunning the deduction of 
logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dost. 


spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, 
informing every feature, and urging the whole man 
onward, right onward to his object—this, this is elo- 
quence.” Says Sterne: ‘*Great is the power of elo- 
quence ; but never is it so great as when it pleads along 
with nature, and the culprit is a child strayed from his 
duty, and returned to it again with tears.” In 1859 he 
was married to Mary E. Miller, by whom he has a 
daughter. His wife having died, he married Miss Clara 
A. Smith, in 1866, by whom he has an infant son. In 
personal appearance Mr. Marine is of florid complexion, 
stoutly built, and about medium height, his counte- 
nance indicating an ardent temperament and unwaver- 
ing decision of character. He is admired and beloved 
by his congregation, and is esteemed and respected in 
the towns in which he has served as preacher. 


—~-Fate-<— 


prosecuting attorney for the Circuit Court, the 
son of Rodney and Phila (Jayne) Marsh, was 
born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, September 15, 
1840. His father was from Massachusetts, and his 
mother from New York state. Aside from the rudi- 
ments he was taught in his native county, his principal 
instruction was obtained at the Western Reserve Eclec- 
tic Institute, of Portage County, Ohio. Here he ac- 
quired a good English education, including the higher 
mathematics and some knowledge of Latin. Owing to 
poverty he left school and began teaching at the age of 
eighteen years, continuing in this profession, although 
adding the study of law, till the breaking out of the 
war, when he entered the army as a private soldier: 
He first was in the three months’ service with the 15th 
Ohio Volunteers, and then enlisted, in 1862, in the 46th 
Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a private. In May, 1863, 
he was commissioned captain of the 59th United States 
Colored Infantry. He resigned in July, 1865, and re- 
sumed the study of law, being admitted to the bar in 
Jackson County, Indiana, in February, 1867. He sus- 
pended his practice and engaged in life insurance busi- 
ness until 1872, when he began again at Winchester, 
Indiana. He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1876. 
In August, 1878, he was the Republican nominee for 
Representative. He is not a Church member, and 
thinks that he has no religious bias. In Masonry he 
has taken the Royal Arch Degree and is now Master of 
On November 14, 1861, he married Sarah 
He is ambitious and 


his lodge. 
M. Galleher, a native of Ohio. 
zealous in his chosen profession, and as a rising young 
lawyer and politician has a bright future. His good 
personal appearance and excellent social standing in 
his community are important considerations in his 


favor. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLIN@I< 


oth Dist.) 
“x, ARSH, JOHN, cashier of the Citizens’ National 

hl Bank of Muncie, was born in Preble County, 
=} Ohio, August 22, 1811. In his veins the blood 
Geko of the Anglo-Saxon mingles with that of the 
Teutonic race. His father, Timothy Marsh, was the 
son of John Marsh, who came to this country from 
England, pushed his way far into the wilderness, and 
settled in what is now Germantown, in Montgomery 
County, Ohio. He afterward served in the American 
army all through the Revolution. The mother of the 
subject of this sketch was Mary Clawson, who was born 
near the mouth of the Little Miami River, August 22, 
1787, and is said to be the first white child born in the 
territory of Ohio. Cincinnati was not then laid out, and 
the country was the home of wild beasts and of the 
red man, whose war-whoop sometimes startled the set- 
tlers from slumber to scenes of devastation and death. 
She died at the age of ninety, at the residence of her 
son, Searing Marsh, near Logansport, Indiana, Septem- 
ber 15, 1877. Her father was John Clawson, a Ger- 
man, who settled first in Kentucky and afterward in 
Ohio, and took part in the long struggle by which the 
colonies threw off the British yoke. John Marsh was 
not allowed to spend all his boyhood in school, but 
only the winter term of every year, the remaining time 
being employed in work on the farm. Yet the school 
he attended was the best in the county, and he there 
obtained a good education in the common English 
branches. At the age of seventeen he went to Eaton, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


and served an apprenticeship of five years at the hat- . 


ter’s trade. During this period his spare hours were not 
wasted in the society of the vicious or the frivolous, 
but were devoted to the acquisition of useful knowl- 
edge. A friend had given him a ticket granting 
access to a certain library, and there he read night after 
night, and every Sunday. At length Mr. Marsh com- 
menced business as a hatter in Camden, and continued 
it successfully until 1847, when he entered upon the 
dry-goods trade. After one year he was elected treas- 
urer of Preble County, and held the office by re-election 
three terms. So faithfully and well had he discharged 
his duties that, at the last election, he received all the 
votes cast in the county except thirty-six. During 
this time he was a stockholder and a director of the 
Preble County branch of the State Bank of Ohio. In 
October, 1854, he removed to Wayne County, Indiana, 
and was made president of the Cambridge City Bank, 
one of those that withstood the crisis of 1857. Mr. 
Marsh removed to Delaware County in 1856, and or- 
ganized the Muncie branch of the State Bank of Indi- 
ana, becoming its president. In 1865 it was converted 
into the Muncie National Bank, and he remained its 
president until 1874. He then sold his interest, intend- 
ing to retire from business; but after a few weeks of 
recreation, at the urgent solicitation of a number of 


53 


prominent men, he organized, with them, in November, 
1874, the Citizens’ National Bank, and, being given his 
choice of positions, accepted that of cashier. Mr. 
Marsh has always been an active politician. His first 
ballot was cast for Henry Clay; he aided in the organi- 
zation of the Republican party, and ever since has been 
in accord with the principles then set forth. In 1838 
he joined the Masonic Fraternity, and ten years later, 
at Dayton, Ohio, took the Commandery degrees. He 
has been treasurer of Delaware Lodge, of Muncie 
Chapter, and of Muncie Commandery, and helped or- 
ganize the latter, of which he still is treasurer. Since 
1854 he has been connected with the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, of which he is now a trustee. Mr. Marsh 
is an able financier, and has secured a handsome com- 
petence. Many natures become narrow and selfish in 
the sunshine of prosperity, but his seems rather to have 
expanded and taken om warmer hues, for he is one of 
the most generous and sympathetic of men. The desire 
for knowledge that impelled him in youth to pore over 
the volumes of that library has not been lost in the 
cares of business, and he has gained a large fund of 
general information. He has no small mental capacity, 
and might have achieved equal success in other im- 
portant callings. Few are so endowed with qualities 
that inspire respect and friendship, and none live in 
happier domestic relations than Mr. Marsh—his family 
being a model one, in which perfect harmony exists. 
He married, May 25, 1835, Miss Margaret, daughter of 
Nathan and Jane (Carr) Mitchell, both of Maryland, 
originally, but afterward pioneers of Ohio, Four chil- 
dren were born of this marriage, two of whom are liy- 
ing. Their mother died of cholera, July 29, 1849. Mr. 
Marsh was again united in marriage August 29, 1854, 
to Mrs. Mary Mutchner, by whom he has four children. 


—< Ste 


cKEW, ARTHUR, merchant, miller, and farmer, 
of Ridgeville, Indiana, was born near Cincinnati, 
CAN Ohio, August 12, 1819. His parents came to 
LCS this country from Ireland as young people, and 
Arthur is the oldest of 
six children; and when he was six weeks of age his 
parents removed to Fayette County, Indiana. His edu- 
cation, which, from the nature of his surroundings, was 
somewhat limited, was obtained in this county from 
subscription schools when quite a young boy. As he 
was the oldest child his father frequently took him 
from these short terms to help him or his mother in the 
duties of the family; thus even these scant opportuni- 
ties for an education were seriously interfered with. 
His father removed to Randolph County when Arthur 
was about twelve years of age, and settled near where 
the town of Ridgeville now stands. Here Arthur 


were married in Pennsylvania. 


54 


worked for his father on the farm, and had compara- 
tively no privileges of instruction, except that he re- 
turned to Fayette County and attended one term of 
about four months, which finished his school education, 
though by perseverance he continued his studies, until 
he has been able to carry on an extensive and mixed 
business of farming, merchandising, milling, etc. His 
knowledge of mathematics is fair, while he writes an 
excellent hand. About the age of twenty-one he began 
for himself, by working on a farm for very low wages. 
This he continued for some three years, when he of his 
own accord, without assistance, took up and learned the 
trade of plasterer. This, with farming, made his busi- 
ness till twenty-eight years of age. About this time he 
sold eighty acres of land in Jay County, and bought 
sixty acres on which Ridgeville now stands, and 
opened a store at the cross-roads, which afterwards 
formed the center of the town. Thus was the founda- 
tion laid for his future wealth. He did a large and 
promiscuous business in selling dry-goods, groceries, 
hardware, boots and shoes, etc., as needed in a new 
country. He also bought grain, cattle, sheep, hogs, 
and farm products generally. He was for a number of 
years the buyer and seller and the general factotum of 
the place. During these times he drew to himself trade 
for eight or ten miles in every direction. Much of this 
was done on the credit system; but his superior judg- 
ment in buying and selling, and his knowledge of men 
and things, enabled him to accumulate money rapidly, 
and with comparatively little loss from his customers. 
He built a larger store in a better location about 1850. 
His extensive grain trade decided him to buy the 
‘‘River Mill” in 1855. It was in poor condition, and 
he pulled it down and built a new one, introducing 
steam power in 1866, and selling it in 1870. He still 
continued his mercantile business successfully; and in 
that year he bought a steam mill at Walton, Indiana, 
and removed it to Ridgeville; but an accident overtook 
him. His mill, with its contents of some five thousand 
bushels of corn, besides wheat, flax-seed, oats, and its 
valuable machinery, including four run of stone, was 
destroyed by fire on May 5, 1877. This calamity was 
thought to be accidental. But a man of Mr. McKew’s 
make-up was not to be discouraged by such disasters; 
and within thirty days he began to rebuild, better and 
more substantially than ever before; and he now has a 
handsome brick structure, with metal roof, three stories 
high, to take the place of the old one. In addition to 
this he has three extensive warehouses near by, to meet 
the wants of his large trade in wheat, corn, flax-seed, 
oats, etc. Aside from stores, mills, town lots, etc., Mr. 
McKew owns twelve hundred acres of land in one body 
adjoining the town of Ridgeville. But in this world 
of sorrow and death man’s cup has its bitter draught. 
By his marriage to Margery Ward, in 1843, six children 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ Oth Dist. 


were born to them, three of whom died in childhood, 
and three lived to grow up. Of these he had a bright 
boy who learned rapidly, and had acquired a good 
education. But death marked him for his own; and in 
1874 he died of the spinal fever, and now ‘sleeps be- 
neath the low green tent whose curtains ne’er swung 
outward.” With this cherished boy there were buried, 
it seems, the hopes of his father. Life seemed worth- 
less, and business lost its interest to him; and for some 
two years but little was done, comparatively. His re- 
maining son is engaged in the business with him. 
Mr. McKew has used his means liberally for the ad- 
vancement of education, the building of railroads, etc., 
Ridgeville College, which was founded in 1866, 
under the care of the Baptist Church, has received from 
him about eleven thousand dollars, though he is himself 
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is 
one of the directors of that institution. In politics he 
was an anti-slavery Whig, and is now an influential 
Republican. Always of temperate habits, he refuses to 
keep in his employment any man who drinks alcoholic 
stimulants when on duty, We trust that his example 
of industry and integrity may prompt young men to 
higher and better aims in life, and that, by imitating his 
virtues, they may enter upon the high road to success. 


etc: 


—<-400@-0— 


‘VYcRAE, CAPTAIN HAMILTON SAMUEL, son 
y/ of Franklin and Rachel (Sands) McRae, was 
(.\ born near New Middletcwa, Harrison County, 

Che Indiana, January 2, 1833. A genealogical ac- 

count of the MacRas was written by John MacRa, some- 

time minister of Dingwall, in Ross-shire, who died in 

1704. This was transcribed and extended by Farquhar 

MacRa, and, from manuscript received from Scotland, 

was printed for private circulation by Colin McRae, of 

Camden, South Carolina. In the account there is a 

reference to a tradition of a ‘‘desperate rencounter be- 

twixt two of the petty princes of Ireland, in which a 

certain young man signalized himself by his prowess, 

defending himself from a particular attack of the -en- 
emy, which others observing said, in Irish words, he 
was a fortunate son.” The spelling of the original 
name, McRath, was variously modified, according to 
the pronunciation in the dialect of the particular local- 
ity. Thus: MacGrath, MacGraw, MacGrow, MacRay, 

MacRae. Sometimes, from an ‘ill-founded prejudice,” 
the Mac was dropped, and the name became Craw, 
Crow, Ray, or Rae. In this country a John McCrea 
adopted the spelling McCrea, that he might be distin- 

guished from other John McRaes. Some of the Mac- 

Ras, adherents of Colin Fitzgerald, came to Scotland as 
early as 1265. At a somewhat later date, probably, 
McRas came to Kintail, whence they were widely dif- 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


SLOSS SNS 


SSE 
SSS 
& A 


SRR 


6th Dist.] 


fused. The genealogist cited maintains that the Mac- 
Kensies, the MacRas, and the MacLains were of the 
same people in Ireland. He gives as an evidence, to 
which the manners of that time would give force, the 
fact that a MacKensie, a MacRa, and a MacLain had a 
tomb in the same place. He also maintains that the 
Campbells of Scotland were of the same stock, a 
MacRa having married the heiress of Craignish, and 
changed his name to Campbell. He seems to be proud 
of the fact that this MacRa in changing his name did 
not change his blood, the Campbells and the MacRas 
maintaining a close intimacy throughout successive gen- 
erations. Whatever may have been the degree of re- 
lationship, or the comparative prominence of the four 
clans, they were all brave in battle, constant in friend- 
ship, and true to public trusts. A large portion of the 
McRas in the United States of America are descend- 
ants from those who landed at Wilmington, North 
Carolina, before the Revolution. Others are descended 
from an Episcopal minister sent to Virginia by the 
British Crown. At an early period one McRae is 
known to have emigrated to New York. From these 
progenitors have sprung many families of local promi- 
nence, and not a few of wider distinction. Their chief 
merit, however, does not consist in the fact that they 
have furnished heroic soldiers, prosperous farmers, suc- 
cessful merchants, able professionals, and wise legis- 
lators, but rather in the fact that their law-abiding 
habits are such that their names do not appear in the 
lists of convicts. The subject of this sketch is descended 
from the North Carolina McRaes. The maiden name 
of one of his ancestors was Margaret McKensie, who 
was descended from a Laird McKensie. In her youth 
she diligently improved what were then, in Scotland, 
considered rare opportunities for culture. Her husband 
was a person whom the Scotch would call a pretty man. 
There was a touch of romance in their courtship, inci- 
dent to the assumed superiority of her family; but she 
had a will of her own—one strong enough to aid in 
prolonging the life of her delicate organization to the 
age of one hundred and five years. Although her 
form was bent low with age, she walked about the yard 
on the day previous to her death, which happened in 
Richmond County. Her son Alexander, with whom 
she lived after her husband’s death, took part in the 
Revolution. He was the father of a large family of 
sons and daughters. Each of these had a fine body, a 
massive brain, and a clear conscience. The same may 
be said of nearly all of their descendants. One of 
Alexander’s sons, Alexander Bain McRae, married 
Mary, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Sullivan) 
Chance. The fact that this Chance was a Quaker did 
not prevent him from aiding the patriotic cause. Ina 
fight with the British his side was defeated, and he was 
too severely wounded to escape. A Tory neighbor who 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


55 


had betrayed the patriots gave his body a kick, and said 
to another: ‘‘Here is Chance. He has got what he 
deserved.” He said this, supposing Chance to be dead. 
In referring to this matter Chance said: ‘* Quaker as I 
was, I wanted to kill him. Afterwards he went with 
some of us on a deer hunt. He never came back.” 
The names of Alexander Bain McRae’s children were 
Nancy, Franklin, Hamilton, Abigail, Calvin. 
These names of the boys emphasized his philosophy, 
politics, and religion. He was known as Esquire Alex- 
ander, and, besides discharging the duties of a Justice of 
the Peace, kept a store. Impoverished by the approach 
of the War of 1812, he left with his wife what little 
money he could, and, taking a surveyor’s compass and 
chain and provisions for the journey, he, with the old- 
est three children and a sister, came to Harrison County, 
Indiana. He engaged in the war, and acted an honor- 
able part. He afterwards taught school in Crawford 
County, and again served as a Justice of the Peace. 
He had expected with his compass to earn enough to 
establish a permanent home, but the other settlers, like 
himself, were poor, and only a few had money with 
which to buy lands or pay surveyor’s fees. He was re- 
garded as an excellent teacher, and, although pupils 
walked four miles to attend his school, the population 
was so sparse that the attendance did not exceed twenty. 
The customary price of tuition was one dollar and fifty 
cents for a quarter, of thirteen weeks, mostly payable 
in corn-meal, maple molasses, buckskin, and linen. 
The parents claimed deduction for each half day’s ab- 
sence, This custom obtained in Indiana later than 
1850. His wife, who did not feel strong enough to en- 
dure the fatigues of a journey to the West, did not 
make the journey with him, but afterwards with the 
two children came with her brother to Wayne County. 
A friendly correspondence was maintained, but the sep- 
aration was protracted by hard conditions until, at the 
time they had arranged to reunite the family, death 
came to him and bereavement to her. Her serenity of 
soul and kindness of spirit characterize her descendants 
in an eminent degree. Franklin, the son of Alexander 
Bain, and the father of Hamilton S. McRae, taught 
school in early life, and always manifested an active 
zeal in the cause of education. He often said that 
whatever is worth printing is worth reading, and read 
on both sides of questions. He served as a Justice of 
the Peace, member of the Legislature, and captain in 
the Mexican War, and for many years was a school trus- 
tee. His son, beginning at five, was sent to school 
steadily for three years. The plan of the teacher then 
was to teach spelling and little else, until the pu- 
pil could pass a good examination in the columns 
of Webster’s Speller. The mother, in her eager- 
ness for the son’s advancement, supplemented the 
work of the instructor by teaching the reading les- 


and 


56 

sons. The father performed a similar service as to the 
fundamental processes of arithmetic, and furnished 
him with ‘ Peter Parley’s History of the World,” as a 
reader in school. The author of that book and his 
early teachers, Farmer Barnes, Leonard Evans, and 
Hamilton Pfrimmer, were enshrined in the boy’s mem- 
ory as objects of profound reverence. At eight years 
of age he received a small volume as a prize for 
being the best speller in the highest class in school. In 
the inscription the teacher, Leonard Evans, expressed the 
wish that he ‘‘may become an ornament to the learned 
world.”” These words have been an exhaustless stimu- 
lant to his ambitious hopes. Afterward he attended 
Friendship Seminary, at Elizabeth, then the nearest vil- 
lage. His teacher there was John Spurrier Sandbach, 
who had an accurate rather than extended scholarship, 
but whose power of inspiration was of more value than 
great learning. ‘‘ What man has done man can do,” 
was a maxim enforced by fitting illustrations. 
the age of sixteen to twenty, young McRae taught school 
In 1852 
he spent two months at Corydon Seminary, in the study 
of algebra and physics. His character for temperance, 
kindness, and truthfulness was already formed, by a 
wise and loving mother, without a severe blow or a 
harsh word. The brothers and sisters have similar 
characters, as the result of similar influence. With one 
exception, all of them who lived to the requisite age 
taught school. Thus prepared as to knowledge and 
character, in May, 1853, he entered the preparatory de- 
partment of the Indiana University at Bloomington, and 
August 5, 1857, he graduated, delivering the valedic- 
tory. While in college he gave little attention to general 
society. Time not needed for study or exercise was given 
to reading the best works. In early life biography and 
the newspapers were more entertaining to him than fic- 
tion. In college Milton, Pope, Scott, and Carlyle were 
his favorites, but Prescott, Hume, and Gibbon did not 
escape close attention. After a year’s successful teach- 
ing at Maple Grove Academy, near Vincennes, he read 
law in the office of Hon. William A. Porter, a thor- 
ough instructor, at Corydon. 


From 


in winter and worked on the farm in summer. 


Soon after entering the 
office he was unanimously nominated and elected dis- 
trict attorney of the Common Pleas Court. He located 
at Salem to begin practice, and attained fair success at 
the bar, but his mind was mainly bent in the direction 
of constitutional law and general literature. At the 
outbreak of the Rebellion, he joined a cavalry com- 
pany, which was not accepted. 
imously elected in 1861 to the Legislature, to fill 
a vacancy. His services were not called for. Ob- 
serving that ‘it is easier to fill the halls of legisla- 
tion than the ranks of the Union army,” he declined to 
permit his name to go before the nominating conven- 
tion as a candidate for re-election. 


He had been unan- 


He volunteered as a 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[Oth Dist. 


private, and on August 19, 1862, was mustered in as 
sergeant of Company B, 66th Indiana Volunteer In- 
fantry. May 25, 1863, he was detailed to act as second 
lieutenant, and June 8, 1863, he received a commission 
as captain of the company. He was honorably en- 
gaged in action at Richmond, Kentucky, August 30, 
1862; Colliersville, Tennessee, October 11, 1863; Snake 
Creek Gap, Georgia, May 10, 1864; Resaca, Georgia, 
May 15, 1864; and Dallas, Georgia, May 27, 1864. In 
this last action he was severely wounded. At the ex- 
piration of a furlough he was received into Hospital 
No. 6, New Albany, Indiana, transferred to Officers’ 
Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, and assigned to court- 
martial duty at Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, 
Ohio. On the dissolution of the court he rejoined 
his regiment at Alexandria, Virginia, and a few days 
afterward, May 31, 1865, received a discharge on ac- 
count of the wound. Before he was wounded he was 
almost constantly with his company, .except for a 
brief period when he was on the staff of Brigadier- 
general Sweeney, as judge advocate and aide. In 
1865 he was appointed principal of the third ward 
school, Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1866 he was ap- 
pointed superintendent of schools at Vevay, and school 
examiner of Switzerland County. In the latter ca- 
pacity he held the first township institute in the 
state. In 1867 he became superintendent of the 
Muncie schools. His administration of schools is 
based on the idea of equal rights to all. Special 
pains are taken to avoid offense to any party or any 
sect. In 1853 he joined the Philomathean Society of 
the university, and became its president; in 1856 a 
member of the Beta Theta Pi; in 1866 the Indiana State 
Teachers’ Association, of which he was chairman of the 
executive committee; in 1866 the National Educational 
Association, being a life member; in 1871 the Amer- 
ican Association for the Advancement of Science, of 
which he is a fellow; in 1877 the American Metric 
Bureau; and in 1877 the Spelling Reform Association. 
The most important public. enterprise in which he has 
been engaged is the public library of Muncie, of whose 
board he has been president since its establishment, 
in 1875. He joined the Presbyterian Church in 1857. 
His wife is a Methodist, and their child attends the 
Methodist Sunday-school, thus indicating the congrega- 
tion preferred by the parents; they are not strictly ortho- 
dox, but believe that other than Evangelical Churches 
should be regarded as Christian. He voted for Bu- 
chanan in 1856, Douglas in 1860, and Lincoln in 1864, 
and has since been a radical Republican. He frankly 
admits that his first views as to the powers and du- 
ties of the national government were not correct. He 
believes now in a liberal construction of the Constitu- 
tion, with a view to the protection of industry, the pro- 
motion of education, and the security of equal suffrage 


6th Dist.) 


without regard to race, sex, or creed. Although he has 
strong convictions he has not often taken public part 
in politics, but in 1868 he consented to address the 
Grant Club at Muncie, and the effort was accredited 
as the best speech of the campaign. He has been an 
occasional contributor to the school periodicals and to the 
newspapers. The most important of these articles were 
a contribution to the Indianapolis /uwrval in 1867, on 
**The Great Need of the Schools;” and one which ap- 
peared in the Cincinnati Commercial, December 25, 1876, 
entitled, ‘*The Election of President and Vice-pres- 
ident, December 6, 1876.’’ August 6, 1868, he married 
Mary Emma, daughter of William and Anna (Newlove) 
Montgomery. She is a lady of superior accomplish- 
ments, and as principal of the Muncie high school she 
has deservedly won a high reputation. She was the 
first president of the Women’s Club of Muncie, and is a 
member of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Women. Her father was an able and devoted 
minister of the Methodist Church. Her mother was a 
worthy coadjutor in the holy work of a noble husband. 
Mrs. McRae’s grandfathers were both preachers. She 
herself is an eloquent speaker. Bertha Montgomery, 
the first child, was born November 28, 1873, and died 
August 8, 1874. Charline Montgomery was born Feb- 
ruary 10, 1876. She goes to the kindergarten, which 
her parents actively aided to establish. 


—>+ FOE <-—_ 


ELLETT, JUDGE JOSHUA H., of New Castle, 
is an example of what may be accomplished by 
steady application to one pursuit without change 
of residence. His temperament, physical and 
mental, is the happy result of a union of the blood of 
the impulsive Frenchman and the sturdy Scot; his 
father, John Mellett, having come of a family originally 
from France, and his mother, Mary Ann Hickman, of 
one whose ancestors were from Scotland. He was born 
in Monongahela County, Virginia, April 9, 1824, and, 
seven years later, removed with his parents to Henry 
County, Indiana. There he made a good use of the 
opportunities offered by a common school and the county 
academy, and at the age of eighteen began the study of 
He soon evinced an aptness for legal study, and 
before the age of twenty-one was admitted to the bar. 
Such precocity did not escape notice; for, by special 
favor, he was immediately licensed to practice, notwith- 
standing his minority. The way to distinction seemed 
easy to him, so steady was his progress therein. In 
1848, less than four years after he commenced practice, 
he was elected, by the Whigs, to the office of prosecut- 
ing attorney, which he held two terms. 


law. 


His powers 
continued to develop with experience, and his influence 


to extend, until he gained a hold upon the esteem of the 
A—24 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


wy 


people which has grown stronger with every trial. 
When the Republican party was organized, he gave it 
his firm support, and in 1858 was elected to the Lower 
House of the Legislature, and in 1860 to the Senate. 
While in the’ latter body, he served on the Judiciary 
and Finance Committees, and his record as a legislator 
is in keeping with his success at the bar. Ten years 
later, Mr. Mellett was elected Judge of the Thirteenth 
Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Henry, 
Hancock, Grant, and Delaware. To this responsible 
office he brought a profound and logical mind, enriched 
with legal lore, and performed its duties with dignity 
and a high regard for justice. Judge Mellett prepares 
a case with unusual care, studying it from his opponent’s 
stand-point as well as his own, and many a lawyer has 
found him a formidable antagonist. He has acuteness 
and breadth of thought, is strong and self-reliant, and 
has a fund of mental resources that never fails, however 
sudden or great the demand. He is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a highly respected 
and public-spirited citizen. He married, November 16, 
1847, Miss Catharine, daughter of John Shroyer, a mer- 
chant of New Castle, and has three children. 


—~ Ste 


| OFFETT, JOHN, M. D., of Rushville, is the son 
of William and Isabel (Reed) Moffett, both na- 
tives of Virginia. Their ancestors were Scotch, 
who, because of religious persecution, fled from 
the land of their birth to Ireland. The father was an 
extensive farmer, widely respected as a man of integ- 
rity and sound business ability. He died in 1859, the 
possessor of an honestly gained fortune. His progen- 
itors in the paternal line engaged in the same peaceful 
occupation, yet were men of military tastes; his grand- 
father, William Moffett, was a captain in the Revolu- 
tionary army, and killed at the storming of Stony Point. 
John Moffett was born near Abingdon, Virginia, October 
23, 1822. The following year the family moved to Rush 
County, Indiana, and settled on a farm two and a half 
miles north-east of Rushville, which his mother, aged 
eighty-two, still owns. About one-third of a century 
ago Dr. Moffett, then a young man just past his major- 
ity, became, a student of medicine in the office of Doctor 
William H. Martin, a prominent practitioner of Rush- 
ville. His literary training had been obtained in a log 
school-house, and by attendance one year at a seminary. 
But even from the age of ten, while conning his lessons 
or helping his father clear the farm, his boyish fancy 
had pictured scenes in the lifeof a physician, and led 
him to form vague plans of entering upon that profes- 
sion. During five years he applied himself zealously to 
his studies, which embraced three courses of lectures at 
the Ohio Medical College, where he graduated, March 


58 


4, 1849. Such was the confidence already placed in 
him, because of his thorough and rapid progress, that 
immediately after graduation Doctor Moffett was elected 
house physician of the Commercial Hospital in Cincin- 
nati. After remaining in that position one year, he 
returned to Rushville and entered upon the practice of 
medicine and surgery with his first preceptor, April 
15, 1850. At the end of three years, he bought his 
partner’s office and dwelling, both of which he still 
occupies. Soon after Doctor Moffett commenced prac- 
tice, it was discovered that the thoroughness with which 
he appropriated medical knowledge while a student 
was equaled by his ability in applying it asa physician. 
‘The cases submitted to his charge soon became numer- 
ous, and he was not long in taking rank among the best 
practitioners of Rush County. Though his time had 
been wholly devoted to his profession, he was thought 
to be naturally fitted to lead in municipal affairs, and, 
accordingly, was elected president of the village. The 
citizens soon perceived the wisdom of their choice, and 
retained him in that position for ten years. Under his 
administration the fine public school building was 
erected, and the bonds for that purpose issued and re- 
deemed. On retiring from office he declined a renom- 
ination. He was then chosen school trustee, in which 
capacity he still acts, manifesting much interest in the 
cause of education. Doctor Moffett is also a trustee in 
the Baptist Church, which he joined June 24, 1850. 
He is positive in both his religious and political convic- 
tions. He read and conversed intelligently on politics 
in youth, and, at the age of twenty-one, being among 
the best informed in the township, took a prominent 
part at the polls as a judge of the election. He voted 
on that occasion for James K: Polk, and has ever since 
been a Democrat. He married, in Alleghany City, 
Pennsylvania, May 8, 1851, Miss Elizabeth J. A. Harris, 
daughter of Isaac Harris, of Pittsburgh, an energetic 
business man and journalist. Their wedded compan- 
ionship, after existing nearly twenty-seven years, was 
broken by the death of Mrs. Moffett, April 12, 1878. 
Their children are William H. and Mary Daisy. Doctor 
Moffett keeps pace with the advancement of medical 
science, but is not entirely controlled by the theories 
and conclusions of others, for he is an investigator and 
a reasoner. His success is due to his original experi- 
ments, as well as to his extensive reading. He has a 
very retentive memory, and all his mental faculties are 
cast in a capacious mold. He is a prominent member 
of the following bodies: The Rush Medical Society, of 
Rush County (of which he was secretary for seventeen 
consecutive years, during which he made a complete set 
of records); the Union District Medical Society; the 
Indiana State Medical Society; and the American Med- 
ical Association. He has been a contributor to their 
‘¢ Transactions,” and, in 1877, was a delegate from the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


Rush Medical Society of Rush County to the American 
Medical Association. As a citizen Doctor Moffett has 
been active in encouraging every utility, and as a man 
none stands higher in moral character, or is more gen- 
erally respected. 

0-800 — 


ONKS, JUDGE LEANDER J., son of George 
W. and Mary A. (Irvin) Monks, was born at 
Winchester, Randolph County, Indiana, July 10, 
1843, and is one of a family of six living children. 
His father was elected clerk of Randolph County in 
1839, re-elected in 1846, and served in that capacity for 
fourteen years. He was also a member of the House 
of Representatives in 1854-55. He was noted for his 
deeds of charity, and for his love and good-will for the 
unfortunate. Mr. Monks’s mother died in September, 
1864, and his father in 1865. The primary education 
of Leander was obtained in his native town. He after- 
wards attended the State University at Bloomington in 
1861, 1862, and 1863, but left while a member of the 
junior class. He began the practice of law in Septem- 
ber, 1865, and has successfully prosecuted it since that 
time. He has never asked for office, but, his ability and 
fitness being generally admitted, he was, in October, 
1878, elected to the position of Judge of the Twenty- 
fifth Judicial Circuit by a unanimous vote—a handsome 
compliment, worthily bestowed. His religious prefer- 
ences are in favor of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
In politics he has always been a Republican. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth W. Teal in 1865, by whom he has two 
children. He has a good personal appearance and un- 
blemished character, and is a man of weight and 
standing. 


3006+ 


OORE, JAMES W., clerk of the court of Wayne 
County, was born in Centerville, Indiana, Sep- 
tember 2, 1844. He is the son of David and 
Catherine (Fisher) Moore, and the third of four 
children. He was educated in the common school of 
his native town, and at what was then known as White- 
He was left an orphan. at the age of 
seven years by the death of his father. At first he 
worked on a farm, and afterwards in a grocery. But 
neither of these occupations suited his tastes, for he had 
an ambition to learn a trade, and gave his mother no 
rest on the subject until she consented to let him become 
atinner, Franklin says: ‘‘He that hath a trade hath 
an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an office of 
profit and honor.” On completing his apprenticeship 
he entered in business for himself, but after a few years 
of experience he entered the office of the clerk of the 
court, as deputy, and in October, 1876, he was elected 
as clerk, which position he now holds satisfactorily. 


water College. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY QF ILLINOIS 


6th Dist.] 


On November 29, 1866, he ‘married Miss Louisa Ac 
Rupe, daughter of Rey. Henry B. Rupe, minister of 
the Baptist Church, and ex-treasurer of the county. 
Concerning her we may appropriately employ the words 
of Solomon: ‘*The heart of her husband doth safely 
trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. 
She will do him good, and not evil, all the days of her 
life.” As a politician, Mr. Moore has no special am- 
bition, but prefers the more*quiet walks of life. He is 
a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is an unpre- 
tentious member of society, of persevering and industri- 
ous habits, and is respected by the neighborhood in 
which he lives. 


—- 92 06--—_ 


S|} EELY, THOMAS S., of Muncie, was born in 
A Adams County, Pennsylvania, September 13, 1811. 
Ce, His parents, Moses and Jane (Smith) Neely, were 
Ou also natives of Adams County. His grandfather, 
on the father’s side, was one of the earliest pioneers of 
that region. He died at the age of eighty-eight, in 
Miami County, Ohio, to which his son Moses had re- 
moved. The early instruction which Thomas received 
was limited, yet equal to that of most young men in 
that country in those early days. In the year 1828 he 
commenced to learn the blacksmith’s trade, and followed 
it until 1831, when he went with his parents to Miami 
County, Ohio. There he resumed work at his trade. 
In 1833 he married Miss Matilda Wierman, of Adams 
County, Pennsylvania. Six years later he removed to 
Muncie, Indiana, where he continued his occupation, 
with the exception of about nine months of mercantile 
business, merging it after a time into the manufacture 
of wagons, plows, etc. He ironed the first wagon made 
in Delaware County. In 1855 he changed his occu- 
pation of mechanic to that of photographer, a. business 
in which he continued until 1865. Mr. Neely, hav- 
ing gained a competence as the result of long years 
of industry and economy, then retired from active life. 
While engaged in manufactures he had to transport all 
his iron in wagons from Cincinnati, and accordingly he 
conceived the idea of connecting Muncie with Eastern 
cities by rail, and to this end advertised for a railroad 
meeting. It was largely attended, he being appointed 
corresponding secretary. After communicating with 
Governor Bebb, of Ohio, Hon. Oliver H. Smith, of In- 
dianapolis, and others, the route was finally agreed 
upon. Mr. Smith was elected president of the com- 
pany. This was the origin of the Bee-line Railroad, 
due, in great measure, to the enterprise of Mr. Neely. 
We discover in this successful project that far-sighted- 
ness and decision which were so characteristic of him. 
His fellow-citizens expressed their appreciation of his 


; REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


abilities, in 1845, by electing him county commissioner, 
retaining him in that office six years, or until 1851. | 


59 


Mr. Neely was the first district clerk, and, as such, was 
instrumental in building the first school-house in Mun- 
cie. He is now secretary of the board of trustees, who 
are erecting in that city what is expected to be one of 
the finest public school buildings in the state. He also 
planned and assisted in building the Presbyterian 
Church. He may be said to be instinctively moral and 
religious, having always been a stanch temperance man, 
fully alive to the importance of teaching men to make 
the body subservient to the spirit. For nearly forty 
years he has been a member of the Presbyterian Church, 
holding during most of that period the office of elder. 
He was also superintendent of the Sabbath-school for 
fifteen years. The clang of anvil and hammer had not 
deadened his ear to more melodious sounds, for he led 
the musical services of Church and Sunday-school for 
many years. Mr. Neely cast his first vote, for a Whig 
candidate, in 1832; and thus, as a member of that and 
the Republican party, has been an interested witness of 
the long civil contest, which, beginning with nullifica- 
tion, ended in secession and war, the results of which 
were emancipation of the slaves and the restoration of 
the Union. As one of the pioneers of Muncie, Mr. 
Neely has ever had at heart the interests of that city 
and of Delaware County. His influence in the commu- 
nity has always been salutary, and he is held in high 
estimation throughout the county. He is a man of fine 
personal appearance, combining rare social qualities with 
a disposition that is kind, generous, and just. Mr. Neely 
has had five children, four of whom are living, two sons 
and two daughters. 
—~-$0e6-0— 


EFF, COLONEL HENRY H., son of John and 
Susannah (Gray) Neff, was born near Eaton, 
Preble County, Ohio, June 5, 1815. His educa- 
@J§ tion was acquired in the common schools of his 
native county, which were good for that day. At the 
age of seventeen he engaged in’ the printing business 
in the office of the Eaton Regéster, which was owned by 
Doctor Francis A. Cunningham and John Van Ausdale. 
The former was afterward elected to Congress. Young 
Neff went to Connersville with Matthew R. Hull, who 
had bought the Xegéster, and assisted in starting a new 
paper at that place, under the name of the Indiana 
Sentinel, This occurred in 1834. During that year he 
removed to Winchester, his present home, and two 
years afterward went to Fort Wayne as a typo and 
worked on the Fort Wayne Sentcvel, the first newspaper 
started in that place. He returned in 1838, and went 
into the drug business until 1843, when he began the 
publication of the Winchester Patriot, which he con- 
tinued for nine years. Mr. Neff thus had a somewhat 
extended experience as a journalist in the early days of 


Indiana. He was elected to the state Legislature in 


60 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


1847 on the Whig ticket, and in 1852 was elected clerk | serves in that honored position. In 1839 Mr. Neff re- 


of the court, serving in that capacity eight years. At 
the breaking out of the Rebellion he, associated with 
Colonel Orr, recruited the 124th Regiment Indiana 
Volunteers, as first major, being soon afterward pro- 
moted to lieutenant-colonel, a rank which he held until 
the close of the war. He was with General Sherman 
until the evacuation of Atlanta, when he returned with 
Schofield and joined the army under General Thomas, 
taking part in both the great battles of Franklin and 
Nashville. His regiment occupied a prominent position 
in both of these great engagements. Colonel Neff’s only 
son, J. Lawrence Neff, while serving as captain in his 
father’s regiment, was instantly killed at Kingston, dur- 
ing the last engagement before the surrender of General 
Johnston. Colonel Neff took an active interest in the 
building of railroads, in internal improvements, and in 
the advancement of educational facilities. He organ- 
ized the first division of the Sons of Temperance in his 
community, is a Sir Knight in the Masonic Order, and 
was one of the charter members in the Odd-fellows’ 
lodge at Winchester. Both he and Mrs. Neff are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His first wife 
was Miss Elizabeth Carr, deceased, whom he married on 
July 2, 1839, and by whom he has two surviving 
daughters. He married Miss Margaret Mitchell, No- 
vember 7, 1865, who now presides over their beautiful 
home, in which they are surrounded by the comforts 
and blessings of life. 
4006-0 — 


EFF, CAPTAIN JOHN, was born in Preble 
County, Ohio, March 4, 1813. His education as 
a boy was extremely limited, the schools to which 
he had access having only one term of three 
months during the year, to attend which he was obliged 
to walk three miles. A study of the spelling-book and 
Testament constituted the required course. At the age 
of seventeen he began to support himself by his own 
earnings, engaging in the work of type-setting in the 
office of the Eaton Regzster. The next year he went to 
Centerville, Indiana, and continued the same occupation 
in the employ of Hall & Brown. Meanwhile, Enoch 
Edmonson, the editor and proprietor of the Eaton (eg- 
aster, having been accidentally killed, Mr. Neff and 
Doctor Cunnington bought the paper, and conducted it 
in the capacity of editors and publishers. At the ex- 
piration of the year they sold out, and Mr. Neff resumed 
his old occupation of type-setting at Liberty, where he 
remained one year, after which he returned to Eaton, 
and engaged as a clerk in a store for three years. 
Meanwhile, in 1837, he married Miss Harriet N. Holmes, 
by whom he had four children. A son and one daugh- 
ter are still living. The former was elected Secretary 
of State on the Democratic ticket in 1876, and still 


moved to Winchester, Indiana, where he has since lived. 
At first he was clerk:for Michael Acre, in whose employ 
he remained until the summer of 1841, when he was 
elected county treasurer for three years. In 1845 he 
was a candidate for clerk of the court. The Mex- 
ican War having broken out that year, President Polk 
sent a commission of captain to Mr. Neff. He after- 
wards entered the army, was stationed at St. Louis 
under Colonel Enos McKay, and served as assistant 
quartermaster, with the rank of captain. His principal 
duties were to procure forage and furnish transportation 
between St. Louis and Forts Leavenworth, Scott, and 
Jefferson Barracks. In that wild country these duties 
were attended with no little privation, hardship, and 
danger. On one occasion his colonel wanted transporta- 
tion for one hundred thousand dollars in gold and 
twenty thousand in silver to Fort Leavenworth. The 
wharf at that time was crowded with steamboats, but 
the navigation of the Missouri River, with its treacher- 
ous sand-bars, and other perils both by land and water, 
caused a high rate of transportation to that point. No 
river captain would ‘take the risk for less than two per 
cent commission on the money. Colonel McKay re- 
garded the price as exorbitant, and resolved not to pay 
it. He ordered Captain Neff to take this money over- 
land, and asked him what escort he wanted. ‘The 
less the better,” was the reply. The gold and silver 
was then put into iron-bound boxes, loaded into a 
wagon, and with a guard of four soldiers the Captain 
started on his long drive of fourteen days. When they 
had been out two or three days it was found that their 
muskets were all worthless; not a shot could be fired. 
By mistake the commander of the arsenal had sent them 
condemned arms. Notwithstanding this, the money was 
safely delivered to Captain Clary at Fort Leavenworth, 
the total expense of the trip being one hundred and 
thirty dollars. Thus this faithful officer saved to the 
government the sum of two thousand two hundred and 
seventy dollars. On the honorable discharge of Captain 
Neff he returned to Winchester, and after engaging in 
the grocery business for three years commenced dealing 
in grain, a business which he has successfully followed 
for twenty-eight years. Though approaching threescore 
and ten, he is still actively engaged, thus giving an 
example of industry that the rising generation might 
well follow. 


—<-400-<— 


“TICHOLSON, TIMOTHY, proprietor of a book- 
Ni store and book-bindery, Richmond, Indiana, was 
el born in Perquimons County, North Carolina, No- 
49 vember 2, 1828. His parents, Josiah and Anna 
(White) Nicholson, were both elders in the Church of 
the society of Friends, and were also quite influential 


6th Dist.) 


in the community in which they lived. His grandfather 
was an able minister of the gospel in that sect, yet an 
owner of slaves. In common with all at that time, he be- 
lieved such proprietorship Scriptural and right, so slow 
are men to perceive the true nature of evils to which 
they have long been accustomed. But in the latter 
part of his life he became convinced that human slavery 
was a sin, and, despite the difficulty and unpopularity of 
the act, liberated all his bondsmen. This noble self- 
sacrifice was followed by such peace of mind that he 
declared he ‘‘would not again be entangled with slaves 
for their weight in gold.”’ The Friends, ever in the van 
of moral progress, were not long in imitating his ex- 
ample, and soon there remained not a slave-owner 
among them in North Carolina. It was through an 
inheritance of this strict regard for right, as well as by 
reason of the parental moral and religious training he 
received, that there were begun in the lad, Timothy 
Nicholson, the foundations of a character which subse- 
quent years have strengthened and enlarged. Though 
reared upon a farm he was privileged to attend the best 
schools, and thus united the advantages of rural life 
with those of literary culture. He was first instructed 
near his home, in Belvidere Academy, an institution 
established and maintained by the society of Friends, 
after which, at the age of eighteen, he attended the 
Friends’ school in Providence, Rhode Island. After 
remaining at that institution one year and a half, he 
returned, and was appointed principal of the Belvidere 
Academy, a position which he held six years. He then 
accepted an invitation to take charge of the preparatory 
department of Haverford College, near Philadelphia, 
also under control of the Friends, and performed his 
duties so well that at the close of a period of four years 
he was advanced to the position of general superintend- 
ent of the college. At the end of two years he resigned, 
and in 1861 removed to Richmond, Indiana, and joined 
with his brother, John Nicholson, in the book and sta- 
tionery business. He remained in this connection until 
1873, and then purchased his brother’s interest; since 
which time he has conducted both the bindery and the 
store alone. For fifteen years Mr. Nicholson was a 
trustee of Earlham College, at Richmond, and because 
of his peculiar fitness for the duties of that office, and 
his residence in that city, much of the labor devolved 
upon him. During the years 1865 and 1866 he was a 
member of the board of trustees of the Richmond City 
schools. From 1868 to 1875 he was a trustee of the In- 
diana State Normal School at Terre Haute. Two years 
afterward, in 1877, a vacancy having occurred in the board, 
the remaining trustees united in requesting Governor 
Williams to fill it by the appointment of Mr. Nicholson, 
which was done, although his political attachments were 
at variance with those of the Governor and every trustee. 
From 1872 to 1877 he was also a trustee of the Home 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


61 


for the Friendless, at Richmond. From early life he 
has been an earnest temperance worker, and for a long 
time an elder in the Church. During five years he was 
clerk of the Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders, 
and for twelve years clerk of the Whitewater Monthly 
Meeting, comprising four congregations. During a pe- 
riod of four years he was a Sabbath-school superintend- 


-ent, and recently was unanimously chosen superintendent 


of the Sunday-school in the new Yearly Meeting-house. 
He is a stanch Republican, and in 1872 was president 
of the Richmond Grant Club, but is not a seeker for the 
honors or the emoluments of political life. Mr. Nich- 
olson was married, August 11, 1853, to Miss Sarah N. 
White, daughter of John and Mary White, elders in the 
Church of the society of Friends in Perquimons County, 
North Carolina. Of the issue of this marriage four chil- 
dren—three sons and one daughter—are living. Their 
mother died September 26, 1865. He was married again 
April 30, 1868, to Miss Mary S. White, sister of his first 
wife. Two daughters, still living, are the result of this 
union. Mr. Nicholson’s establishment is the oldest book 
house in Eastern Indiana. He has achieved what men 
call success, but his aim has been, not so much to amass 
wealth, as to establish a reputation for perfect honesty. 
That he has accomplished this purpose is shown in the 
following testimony, gathered, not from members of his 
Church, who might be suspected of undue partiality, 
but from men without the society of Friends. Besides 
the qualities of energy, perseverance, discretion, and 
perception necessary for mere gain, his life has been emi- 
nently marked by perfect probity. Unbounded confi- 
dence is expressed in him in this respect, and, in proof of 
his integrity, the fact is cited that he never withholds one 
penny’s worth in submitting the value of his property for 
assessment—a conscientiousness, alas, quite rare. He is 
a practical philanthropist, manifesting his regard for 
humanity chiefly through the channels of the Church 
and the cause of temperance, and with an interest that 
amounts to enthusiasm. He has unusual executive tal- 
ent, and, as an organizer and manager of educational 
and benevolent institutions, has few superiors in Indi- 
ana. Mr. Nicholson’s manner is very affable and pleas- 
ing, and, with his intelligent conversation, indicates the 
effect of class-room culture and business experience. It 
is needless to add, in view of all this, that he has many 
friends, and commands the respect of the best classes 
wherever he is known. 
—>- 9 té~<—_ 


RR, COLONEL SAMUEL, late of Muncie, was 
born in the county of Tyrone, Ireland, June 9, 
1813, and died November 19, 1876. The follow- 

- ing is copied from an obituary published in the 
Muncie 77mes, of November 23, 1876: ‘He emigrated 
from Ireland with his father and family in 1821. They 


62> 


settled at Greenbrier County, Virginia, where they 
remained until 1836, when they removed to Greene 
County, Ohio. There the subject of this sketch was 
married to Miss Jane Moore, September 28, 1837. In 
October of the same year they all removed to Delaware 
County, Indiana, where Samuel settled on his farm, 
three miles north of Selma, in Liberty Township. 
Here they lived together in peace and harmony for 
many years, converting a portion of the wilderness into 
a beautiful home, and seeing a large family of intelli- 
gent and worthy sons and daughters grow up around 
them. In 1846, and for two consecutive years follow- 
ing, he was chosen a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where he represented his county with credit 
to himself and constituency. At the outbreak of the 
Rebellion he tendered his services to his country, and 
was made lieutenant-colonel of the 84th Regiment of 
Indiana Volunteers, being mustered September 8, 1862, 
a position which he filled with honor and fidelity until 
December, 1863, when he was compelled to resign on 
account of his health. An unfortunate estrangement 
having arisen between him and his wife, they were 
finally legally separated, when he subsequently married 
Miss Nancy J. Morrison, June 26, 1871, with whom he 
lived happily till the time of his death. His funeral 
occurred at the Sharon United Presbyterian Church, near 
his old home, on Tuesday, at eleven o’clock, Rev. Mr. 
seattie preaching the discourse to a large multitude of 
his old friends and neighbors, who were anxious to pay 
him the last tribute of respect. He was a ruling mem- 
ber of this Church at the time of his death, and for 
many years previous. His virtues and his faults have 
been matters of public notoriety, he having been a pub- 
lic and prominent man in the history of the county. 
Among his shining and praiseworthy traits were in- 
dustry, economy, promptness in business obligations, 
and a kind, merry Irish heart. No man, perhaps, 
practiced more untiring industry, and he was a rigid, 
though not parsimonious, economist. This, together 
with his strict regard for his obligations and his sagacity, 
greatly conduced to his abundant prosperity in worldly 
His political career is well known to the peo- 
ple of the county, and, whatever criticisms have been 


goods. 


made upon it, no opponent has ever questioned his 
loyal devotion to his country. There was no taint of 
treason in him; while his political life has been some- 
what checkered, his intimate friends give him credit for 
He was 
an effective political speaker, and until recently has 
never failed to take a leading part in the campaign, his 
health alone restraining him now. In the late cam- 
paign he advocated the election of Mr. Cooper, on the 
financial question, but frequently asserted his preference 
for Republicanism rather than Democracy. So ends the 
earthly career of another of Indiana’s prominent citizens.” 


acting at all times from conscientious motives. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


SARRY, WILLIAM, president of the Cincinnati, 
Richmond and Fort Wayne Railroad, was born 
in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Seventh 
Month 20, 1810, and he is the son of Joseph 
and Sarah (Webster) Parry. His opportunities for 
obtaining an education were limited. His mind was 
to be disciplined and instructed in the real duties 
of life; and perhaps such training is most healthful, 
and the knowledge thus acquired most permanent and 
useful. In 1827, at the age of seventeen, he set out for 
that land of promise, the West, and finally stopped at 
Richmond, Indiana. There he learned the trade of 
plasterer, and followed it until 1844, when he bought, 
near that city, the farm on which he still resides. For 
several years prior to this he was a member of the city 
council, and one object in his removal to the farm was 
to escape the duties thus imposed at every succeeding 
election. From 1849 to 1851 he built the turnpike from 
Richmond to Williamsburg, in the same county, and 
was elected president of the company. In 1858 he 
was chosen president of the Wayne County Turnpike 
Company, which office he retained till 1871, when the 
pressure of other business compelled him to resign. In 
1853, when the office of township trustee was created, 
Mr. Parry was elected to that position, and, by re-elec- 
tion, held it nineteen and a half years, and during that 
long period fulfilled its important duties—the care of 
the roads, the schools, and the poor, and the assessment 
and disbursing the taxes—so faithfully that not the 
slightest error appeared in his accounts—a shining ex- 
ample that should be held up to view in the moral 
darkness of the official corruption of the age. In the 
year 1868 he was elected president of the Cincinnati, 
Richmond and Fort Wayne Railroad. For sixteen 
years it had been slowly building, being badly managed 
the while, and at times abandoned, until finally Mr. 
Parry was urged to accept the responsibility of its con- 
struction. He shrank from the thought of failure, and 
hesitated to undertake this great task, because success 
seemed almost hopeless, but at length consented, and 
went East to enlist more capital. Such was the confi- 
dence reposed in his known energy, capacity, and truth- 
fulness that the necessary aid was soon secured. Ke- 
turning then to Indiana, work on the road was resumed 
with new vigor, and steadily continued until its com- 
pletion. The road still remains under his control, and 
he has proved as capable in its management as in its 
construction. Mr. Parry was made a member of the 
committee appointed by the Indiana Yearly Meeting of 
the society of Friends, of which he is a member, to 
take charge of the Omaha tribe of Indians, the purpose. 
being to civilize and christianize them. He is also one 
of the delegates of the Seven Yearly Meetings, which 
convene annually at Baltimore, and have control of the 
Northern superintendency, composed of the following 


6th Dist.) 


tribes: Santa Sioux, Winnebagoes, Omahas, Pawnees, 
Otoes, and Iowas, of Nebraska, and the Sacs and Foxes, 
of Missouri, numbering in all about six thousand. In 
the discharge of these important trusts, he has made 
several visits to Washington and to the Indians, and 
subserved the purposes of the society in a most efficient 
manner. On the fourth day of the ninth month, 1833, 
he married Miss Mary Hill, by whom he has had twelve 
children, of which number seven are living. Mr. Parry 
is a man of great energy and determination, and in 
whatever engaged instinctively becomes a leader, though 
not ostentatious; and he has the ability to conceive and 
carry out important enterprises. He is not easily 
daunted by difficulties, and his enthusiasm, bouyancy 
of spirit, and fertility of resource, enable him to succeed 
in spite of discouragement. Warm-hearted, unselfish, 
always good-humored, and possessing strong self-control, 
he never gives way to anger, though keenly sensitive to 
injustice. Morally, he is without reproach, and though 
sometimes brought into collision with others, because of 
his utter fearlessness in the prosecution or the defense 
of right, he is deservedly one of the most popular men 
in that part of the state. 


—+-400<—$ 


AXSON, JESSE E., a merchant of Union City, In- 
diana, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
on the 23d of August, 1810. He is the second 
of six children of Isaiah and Lydia Paxson, whose 

maiden name was Mendenhall. His parents were both 

natives of the Keystone State. His father was a shoe- 
maker, but kept a tollgate on the Gap and Newport 

Turnpike until Jesse was eight years of age, when he 

removed to Columbiana County, Ohio. Mr. Paxson was 

one of the first ministers of the Christian Church, and 

_ after removing West bought a few acres of land, on which 

his son was employed until he was about sixteen, when he 

began at the carpenter’s trade. For four years he was em- 
ployed at this occupation in the neighboring counties, 
when he went to Canal Dover on the Tuscarawas River, 
engaging with §, A. Towner in a general store. He con- 
tinued in this two years, when he removed to Brookfield, 
two miles west of Massillon, Ohio, laboring as carpen- 
ter, cabinet and chair maker. In this town he was 
married in 1833, but had the misfortune a few years 
after to lose his wife and both of his children, the 
oldest being about two years of age. The blow was 
almost overwhelming, and he determined soon after 
to seek a new home. After a visit to his father and 
mother, who in the mean time had removed to Richland 

County, he went to Sandusky and Toledo by boat, stop- 

ping a few days, then proceeded on foot to Logansport, 

Indiana, riding part of the way on canal-boats. From 

that place he journeyed to Indianapolis, and after a 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


63 


short time to North Vernon, where he crossed the first 
railroad which had been constructed in the state. 
Taking the train he rode twenty-four miles to Madison, 
in which place the cars then went no further than to 
the top of the hill. He proceeded to Cincinnati by 
steamboat, and after looking about a week or two con- 
tinued on to Clermont County. Here he married his 
second wife, removing with her to Richland County, 
where he stayed until her death and that of her only 
child, in 1845. A second time stripped of his home, 
he began wandering again. At Springfield he was em- 
ployed for a short period as a cabinet-maker, thence pro- 
ceeded to Fairfield, Dayton, Piqua. Here he wrought 
as a carpenter upon the new Episcopal church, under 
Rankin Walkup, and the fine work he did then was 
much admired, especially that on the chancel rail and 
pulpit. He was united at this place to his present 
wife, in May, 1848. The succeeding January he left 
Piqua for Camden, Indiana, where he labored as a car- 
penter, and in July, 1854, in driving with his wife to 
Piqua, to see their friends, they passed through the 
then very small village of Union City. It seemed very 
attractive to them, and they returned there to live. 
The last work he had at his trade was to build a store- 
house for Benjamin Hawkins. When it was completed 
that gentleman bought a stock of dry-goods, boots and 
shoes, etc., giving the keys to Mr. Paxson, and telling 
him to take charge of it, which he did with great suc- 
cess. He also had charge of the first post-office and 
the first grain-house of the place. He had been keep- 


-ing the accounts of the grain house by single en- 


try, but as the owner desired them kept by double 
entry, Mr. Paxson bought a work on bookkeeping and 
after a month’s study opened a new set of books. This 
he did unaided and alone. He began on his own 
account as a boot and shoe dealer in October, 1856, 
with a small stock of goods, since which time he has 
acquired a competency. He has sometimes bought as 
high as eight thousand dollars’ worth of goods at one 
time, and his honesty is so well known that he can com- 
mand almost unlimited credit. He is now independent, 
and possesses a good business, and the evening of his 
life bids fair to be serene and joyous. 


—+-400@-o— 


S(NEELLE, WILLIAM A., ex-Secretary of State, 

% was born in Richmond County, North Carolina, 
September 18, 1819. His parents, William and 
Sally (Cox) Peelle, removed to Wayne County, In- 
diana, in 1820, while he was yet an infant. Circum- 
stances forbade his attendance at school, yet he stud- 
ied—often by the light of a fire of bark—so diligently 
that at the age of sixteen he was fitted to teach the com- 


mon school in his home district. He continued teach- 


64 


ing, most of the time in Wayne County, until 1842. At 
about this time he attended a seminary one term—the 
only school in which he was ever a pupil, except the 
common school. In 1839 he began reading law, devot- 
ing to it the time not employed in his duties as a 
teacher. In 1842 he married Miss Eveline Boyd, 
daughter of Samuel K. Boyd, of Kentucky, and in 
a few weeks afterward removed to Marion, Grant 
County, Indiana, and resumed teaching and _ read- 
ing law. In October, 1845, Mr. Peelle was admitted 
to the bar, and in August of the following year 
he removed to Winchester, Randolph County, and 
opened a law office. Two years later he was elected 
prosecuting attorney for the Circuit Court of that 
county, and, in 1854 was chosen Judge of the Common 
Pleas Court for the counties of Randolph and Jay. In 
1858 he was nominated by the Republican State Con- 
vention for Secretary of State, but was defeated in the 
election, according to the count. In 1860 Judge Peelle 
was renominated for the same office and elected, and in 
January of the following year he removed to Indian- 
apolis and entered upon the duties of that position. In 
1862 he was again renominated for the office of Secre- 
tary of State, but was defeated at the polls. In April, 
1863, having purchased Governor Morton’s homestead, 
in Centerville, then the county seat of Wayne County, 
he removed thither, and again engaged in the practice 
of law. In the year 1866 he was elected to represent 
Wayne County in the Lower House of the General As- 
sembly, and he served during the session of 1867. 
mediately after the adjournment of the Legislature, 
Governor Baker appointed him Judge of the Wayne 
County Circuit Court. In 1877 he removed to Rich- 
mond, where he now resides. In politics Judge Peelle 
was first a Whig, until that party ceased to be, when he 
became a Republican, but, as he says, ‘‘in the lan- 
guage of General Taylor, not an ‘ultra Republican.’ ” 
He is a believer in the doctrines taught in the Bible, 
but thinks the Churches generally fail to teach the 
genuine religion of that book. Judge Peelle was 
always very industrious, often doing, as if through mere 
love of work, what is usually left to subordinates. He 
comes of a long-lived race, and now, inthe sixtieth 
year of his age, labors as hard as ever in his profession. 
He is a good counselor, and as a speaker is vigorous 
and pointed, seeking not to charm by grace of speech 
and delivery, but to convince by clear and forcible argu- 
ment. These abilities are not made, even in the prac- 
tice of law, wholly subservient to the purposes of gain, 
for he has been known to exert all his energies for a 
poor oppressed client, even to the sacrifice of his own 
interests. 


Im- 


In business he is exact and just, and in poli- 
tics, though so active and prominent, he never engages 
in intrigue. What Judge Peelle has accomplished is 
due entirely to his own efforts, for, since the age of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[Oth Dist. 


fourteen, he has supported and educated himself with- 
out aid. Such examples should shame those youths 
who waste their superior advantages in frivolity or vice, 
and rouse them to-manly endeavor. 


— Foto — 


SfOLK, ROBERT L., of New Castle, Judge of the 
Eighteenth Judicial Circuit, is the son of Robert 
H., a descendant of William Polk, who came 
from Ireland, and located in the eastern part of 
Virginia before the Revolution. An earnest, outspoken 
patriot, he labored to convert the wavering public sen- 
timent of his neighborhood into a firm support of the 
cause of American independence. This was not done 
without sacrifice, for it so excited the ill will of the 
Tories that they destroyed his large salt works, the 
furniture of his house, and other property. Impelled 
by that strong love of country that makes men oblivious 
of personal interests, he endangered his life as well as 
property by entering the army as captain of militia. 
December 11, 1823, Robert H. Polk married Hannah 
Hodgin, of Guilford County, North Carolina, a lady of 
English descent, and in 1841 removed to Henry County, 
Indiana, where, on the 12th of October of that year, his 
son Robert L. was born. While the father was a farmer 
in a region comparatively new, he could give his 
boy only the ordinary advantages of country lads. 
When Robert was eleven years of age, however, the 
family removed to New Castle, the county seat, where 
for two years he attended the county seminary, which 
was under the charge of James S, Ferris and Russell B. 
Abbott, both very able teachers. After taking a regular 
course at the Bryant and Stratton Commercial College 
at Cleveland, he entered Whitewater College at Center- 
ville, that institution being under the management of 
Professor W. H. Barnes, an author and prominent edu- 
cator. After remaining there one year, he returned to 
New Castle. He had long aimed to become a lawyer, 
and availed himself of every opportunity for studying 
law, until at last he was qualified for admission to the 
bar. He entered the office of James Brown, Esq.; but 
his preceptor, finding him already well advanced, and a 
man of promise, took him into partnership in the spring 
of 1863. This relation existed until 1872, when Mr. 
Polk was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 
he being at that time only thirty years of age. His 
term was of short duration, as the office was abolished 
the following year. He then resumed practice alone, 
and continued it until the fall of 1876. In that year he 
was elected to his present position of Judge of the 
Eighteenth Judicial Circuit, embracing the counties of 
Henry and Hancock. Although called to this responsi- 
ble office while yet a young man, Judge Polk has ably 
performed its duties, and in this capacity has fully an- 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY GE itunes 


A 


6th Dist.) 


swered the expectations excited by his success as an 
attorney. He was elected on the Republican ticket, 
with which party he has been connected since the elec- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln, in 1860. He is a class-leader in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church; and it is believed that 
he is governed, both in public and in private life, by a 
high sense of religious duty. Judge Polk was married, 
November 28, 1865, to Harriet, daughter of Rev. Milton 
Mahin, D. D. In the society of his wife and children, 
Paul, Mary, George, Catherine, and Dudley, he finds 
his chief recreation; and thus, with his fine residence 
and pleasant grounds, there is presented a beautiful re- 
lation between the physical and the moral features of 
home too rarely setn. As a lawyer and jurist, Judge 
Polk ranks among the best in that circuit. He has al- 
ways been a diligent student, and in legal knowledge 
has no superior among his associates, while his decisions 
have shown much power of analysis, and a judgment 
which is universally sound. 


—- G00 — 


OWELL, SIMON T., president of the Bundy Na- 
tional Bank, New Castle, was born near Cambridge 
€ City, Wayne County, Indiana, August 21, 1821. 
cat When a child of five years his parents, John and 
Margaret (Huff) Powell, who were from Kentucky, re- 
moved to Illinois, and located near Danville, where, in 
1830, his mother died, leaving three sons and four daugh- 
ters. John Powell, a prominent man in Sullivan, IIli- 
nois, is the only surviving brother. Simon attended a 
district school in Champaign County, Illinois, and after- 
wards entered St. Gabriéel’s College at Vincennes. Not 
possessing the means, however, to defray his expenses, 
he soon left the institution, and went to Cambridge City, 
where he studied under Professor Hoshour. In 1841 he 
became a teacher in the county seminary at New Castle. 
Whatever time could be spared from his duties was oc- 
cupied in reading law, and in 1843 he was admitted 
to the bar. Soon afterward he obtained the situation of 
deputy clerk of the county, in which capacity he acted 
about eight years. At the close of this period he was 
elected clerk, which office he held five years. He then 
resumed practice, and continued it until the beginning 
of the Rebellion. Mr. Powell did not enter the army, 
nor hold any office during the war; yet few men in the 
state rendered the government more valuable aid. He 
was an intimate friend of Governor Morton, who often 
sought his advice, and relied much upon his judgment 
and assistance. Not only were his services given with- 
out remuneration, but he also levied largely upon his 
own means. A still greater sacrifice was made when he 
gave to the cause his son, Adjutant Orlistus W. Powell, 
who was killed at Chickamauga. His other son, Henry 
L., was also « soldier, and was wounded at the battle 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


| 


65 


of Rich Mountain. In 1871 Mr. Powell was honored 
by President Grant with the appointment of supervisor 
of internal revenue. There were ten such officers ap- 
pointed throughout the United States, and so great was 
the temptation to bribery and collusion that only two 
of the number preserved their integrity. One of these 
was Mr. Powell. During the five years he occupied that 
position he performed his work faithfully and well. 
Finally, he engaged in the banking business, and be- 
came vice-president of the First National Bank. In 
January, 1877, he was made president of the Bundy 
National Bank. He has been very active as a member 
of the Republican party, his abilities and influence 
enabling him to contribute much to its success. He is 
a charter member of Lodge No. 59 of the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd-fellows; has acted as Noble Grand, 
and been several times a delegate to the Grand Lodge. 
Mr. Powell is one of the best of financiers, and possesses 
in a high degree all the qualities essential to the suc- 
cessful business man. That he is blessed with an un- 
usual diversity of mental gifts is fully demonstrated by 
what he has done in law, in finance, and in civil office. 
Through the force of his own genius alone, he has 
mounted step by step, until he is at present one of the 
wealthiest, most capable, and influential citizens of 
Henry County. A Latin proverb warns us to call no 
man fortunate until he is dead; yet, if to have acquired 
knowledge in the face of adversity; to have pushed 
through all difficulties in the pursuit of a worthy end; 
to have gained and made a wise use of wealth; to have 
filled with credit high offices of trust, is success, it is 
safe to pronounce the career of Simon’T, Powell a suc- 
He was married, April 5, 1842, to Eliza- 
beth, daughter of Judge David Hooper, of Wayne County. 


cessful one. 


| There have been four children, two sons and two daugh- 


ters. One son, Henry L., alone survives. 


—~>-3006-—_ 


Ge 

oy Juen, WILLIAM ARNOLD, M. D., of Rush- 
ft ville, is one of the few Americans, so migratory is 
et the race, who make a permanent home in their 
cE native town. He was born at Rushville, Indiana, 
March 7, 1829. His father, Reu Pugh, belonged to an 
influential family in Ohio, and was an uncle of Georga 
E. Pugh, United States Senator from that state. Ha 
was prominent in the early history of Rush County, and 
the principal business man of its capital. His mother, 
Catharine Arnold, was born on the Isle of Wight, Eng- 
land, of a noble family, whose coat-of-arms is preserved 
in the heraldic records at London, and whose mansion, 
centuries old, still looks out upon the English channel. 
Her father, Isaac Arnold, was one of the earliest set- 
tlers of Rush County, and one of its ablest citizens. 
After attendance at the common schools of Rushville, 


66 


William Pugh was prepared for a collegiate course by 
his step-father, Rev. D. M. Stewart (see sketch and en- 
graving), and he entered Hanover College, Indiana, in 
1842. The following year he went to Miami Univer- 
sity, there remained three years ; then changed to Jeffer- 
son College, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated 
in 1848. He ascribes the directing of his education and 
the forming of his literary tastes to his step-father. 
Soon after thus completing this foundation upon which 
he was to rear the fine superstructure of his professional 
career, Mr. Pugh entered the Cleveland Medical Col- 
lege, where he took one course of lectures during the 
winter of 1849-50... He was influenced to choose the 
profession of medicine through his esteem and admira- 
tion for his two uncles by marriage, Doctors H. G. Sex- 
ton and Jefferson Helm (whose biographies may be 
found elsewhere in this volume), who also gave him 
personal encouragement to that end. On returning from 
Cleveland he continued his studies in the office of Doc- 
tors H. G. Sexton and Marshal Sexton, his son, at 
Rushville, and took a second course of lectures at the 
Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, where he graduated 
He then located in Shelbyville, 
Subjecting in 


in the spring of 1851. 
Indiana, and remained there two years. 
this early part of his career the theories of the schools 
to the test of experience, and subordinating them to his 
own judgment, Doctor Pugh developed an individuality 
and force that were an assurance of future distinction. 
At the close of that period he returned to Rushville. 
There his youth had been spent under such training as 
to fix his character for morality and integrity with the 
people, and when he solicited their patronage as a phy- 
sician they had no misgivings. Yet confidence in the 
man does not imply immediate confidence in the phy- 
sician, and, having to compete with men of high standing 
in the profession, he had to bide his time, which finally 
came, bringing the gratifying results of patient effort in 
the reputation he now enjoys. ‘The Doctor is one of 
those who, in 1856, founded the Rush Medical Society, 
was subsequently its secretary for three years, and at 
length was elected president. In 1874 he was chosen 
president of the Union District Medical Society, and he 
is a member of the Indiana State Medical Society, and 
of the American Medical Society. Being a man of lit- 
erary tastes and culture, he has lent his influence and 
personal aid to advance the cause of education. For 
twelve years he was a member of the school board, and 
was acting in this capacity when the new school building 
He was prominent in or- 
ganizing the present graded schools, and delivered an 
address at the opening in 1869. In his religious con- 
victions Doctor Pugh is a Presbyterian, which Church 
he joined in 1849, under the preaching of Rev. L. D. 
Potter, D..D., now president of Glendale Female Col- 
In 1851, in Shelbyville, he was elected a deacon, 


was conceived and erected. 


lege. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dest. 


and three years afterward, in Rushville, a ruling elder 
in the Presbyterian Church, which office he still holds. 
His early manhood did honor to the careful training of 
his excellent Christian mother, and gave strong hope of 
the usefulness of the fully developed man. He set out 
with the established character of a Christian gentleman, 
which his whole subsequent life has amply illustrated. 
Doctor Pugh joined the Republican party in its first 
campaign, and has always adhered to its principles; 
but has never been the recipient of its gifts, excepting 
as the coroner of Rush County for ten or twelve years. 
In that position he showed a fitness for official life by 
discharging his duties in the most satisfactory manner. 
His marriage occurred in May, 1851, when he was 
wedded to Miss Nancy Ann, daughter of Hon. Finley 
Bigger, and niece of Governor Samuel Bigger. (See 
sketches.) He has two children: Kate W., a graduate 
of Oxford Female College; and Finley B., who grad- 
uated from the Department of Pharmacy in the Univer- 
sity of Michigan. As a general practitioner, Doctor 
Pugh ranks high, and in obstetrics, to which his study 
and practice have specially led him, he is regarded as 
authority. Combining in this important branch the 
necessary firmness with superior skill and. knowledge, 
he enjoys a large practice, and for years has been ap- 
pealed to for counsel. He is regarded as a fine scholar. 
Of the writers for the Rush Medical Society and the 
Indiana State Medical Society, he is among the first. 
He is ready in debate, and, but for that diffidence said 
to be characteristic of the profession, would excel as an 
orator. He is humane, never withholding his services 
from the poorest and humblest, and his unremitting 
and unrewarded efforts in behalf of the suffering should 
give him rank in a profession eminently benevolent. 
He has the unbounded respect of the people as a man, 
and their grateful confidence as a physician. 


—-4006-o— 


2) 

4) ATLIFF, CORNELIUS, SENIOR, farmer, was 
) born in Randolph County, North Carolina, Decem- 
ber 25, 1798. He was the son of Cornelius and 
Elizabeth (Charles) Ratliff. His great-grandfather 
came from England with William Penn, and was pres- 
ent when that famous treaty was made with the Indians. 
His father was born in Pennsylvania, and removed with 
his parents to North Carolina. When of age he there 
received as his patrimony two slave girls; but, being 
conscientiously opposed to slavery, he at once liberated 
them. The following is a copy of one of the papers 
then executed for that purpose: 


‘STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA 
Randolph County. 


«‘On the petition of Cornelius Ratliff to emancipate 
a certain female negro slave, by the name of Patience, 


5 \ august Term, 1800. 


6th Dist.) 


the property of the aforesaid Cornelius Ratliff, it is con- 
sidered, adjudged, and ordered by the court that the 


aforesaid negro slave Patience, of the age of twenty-five | 


years, be liberated and set free; and that she be per- 
mitted henceforth to enjoy all the privileges of 
persons of her color.” 


Then follows the certificate of the county clerk. A 
few years after this noble act he emigrated from 
state where human beings were bought and sold to 
where its evils were never known, and arrived with his 


one 


family in what was then called the Whitewater coun- | 
try, and located on a piece of land one mile north-west | 


of where Richmond now stands. This was in 1810, six 
years before that town was laid out, and Indiana be- 
came a state. That region was then inhabited by the 
Delaware, the Shawnee, and the Pottawatomie Indians. 
The last two tribes became hostile, and the whites in 
that vicinity all moved away except him. He and his 
family remained, feeling comparatively safe, for the 
leading chief had, as a legacy from one of his ancestors, 
a gift received from William Penn, the Indian’s friend; 
and having learned that Mr. Ratliff was a Penn man, 
as he called him, he had promised him friendship and 
protection. The result was that, though he was the 
only settler remaining on that side cf the river, and 
armed and painted savages were daily seen skulking 
through the forest, and the garrison in the government 
block-house near by were virtually besieged, he and 
his unharmed—an illustration of the value of 
kindness and the lasting nature of the red man’s regard. 
At his death his son Cornelius, the subject of this 
biography, inherited the farm, and has ever since re- 
sided upon it. On the 12th of June, 1822, he was 
married to Miss Mary Kindley, of Waynesville, Warren 
County, Ohio, granddaughter of John Rudolph Way- 
mire, who, before coming to this country, was one of 
the body-guard of the King of Hanover, which was all 
composed of men above six feet in height. Before 
leaving the realm it was necessary to obtain a passport 
from the sovereign. This was refused, and when he 
persisted he was imprisoned for a fortnight. On being 
released he said, “‘ Now I will go,” for which he was 
again incarcerated the same length of time. Prudence 
restrained further remarks; but at last that Teutonic Pha- 
raoh granted him a passport, and he came to the United 
States, and located in Pennsylvania; and his descend- 
ants are now very numerous. Mrs. Mary Ratliff was a 
type of pioneer womanhood. With a willing heart she 
entered with her husband upon life’s journey, determined 
to succeed. Being blessed with a healthy physical or- 
ganization, she has done an amount of work from that 
day to this that would seem incredible to one unac- 
quainted with pioneer life. For about twenty years 
in succession, she spun and wove for herself, and wove 
for others, about three hundred yards of fabric each 
year, consisting of carpets, linsey, flannel, linen, etc. 


were 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


67 


the making of linen she has pulled the flax (it was not 
cut in those days), helped to break, hackle, and scutch it, 


spun and wove it, and bleached the linen. To weave 


{ree | ten yards of linen per day, and do her house-work, was a 


task she often performed. No woman in the county has 
had a greater reputation for making choice butter than 
she, fifty pounds per week being not an unusual product 
of her dairy. Few men in Eastern Indiana have done 
more to develop and improve the country than has Cor- 
nelius Ratliff. He has assisted in every laudable enter- 
prise, contributing liberally toward the various improve- 
ments which have made the county what it is. In 1822 
he commenced the nursery business. Though small at 
first, his catalogue soon embraced the leading varieties 
of fruits, and, continuing this occupation more than 
thirty years, he furnished very many men with what are 
now fine orchards. Farming has been the business of 
his life, and in its pursuit he has been very successful, 
having acquired an ample competence. In politics, he 
was an active Whig, and has been an earnest Republi- 
can ever since the organization of that party. He was 
strongly opposed to slavery, and though his house was 
not a station on the ‘‘Underground Railroad,” trains 
have stopped there. 
Ratliff has always been a Friend, having had a birth- 
right in that society. He has been an active member, 
and filled many of its most important positions. He was 
clerk of the Whitewater monthly meeting about twenty 
successive years. For more than a generation his house 
has been the home of Friends coming from a distance to 
the Yearly Meeting. These Yearly Meetings last about 
one week, and at such times it is no uncommon occur- 
rence for fifty persons to stay at his house over night, 
and partake of his hospitality through the whole week. 
He has been, and still is, consistent in carrying out the 
principles of the Friends in plainness of dress and ad- 
dress. For fifty years, when well and at home, he has 
not failed to join with his brethren in a religious ca- 
pacity; and, in attending meetings in Richmond and 


In religious matters, Cornelius 


elsewhere, has traveled not less than twenty thousand 
miles. Though nearly fourscore years of age, yet he 
retains his faculties, both physical and mental, to a re- 
markable degree, and the amount of work he performs 
is surprising. He has lived on his farm continuously 
nearly sixty-eight years, and thus has seen that region 
improved from a wilderness to its present highly culti- 
vated state, and noted the progress made in the arts, 
especially that of agriculture. Once he cut all his 
grain with a sickle, at the rate of one acre per day, 
threshed it slowly and laboriously with a flail, cleaned 
it with a sheet drawn over a bush in the shape of a 
fan, and when he took his grist to the mill turned the 
bolting-cloth himself by hand. Now he employs a man 
to ride through his fields on something like an ancient 


In | chariot of war, which reaps.eighteen acres per day; the 


68 


grain is threshed and cleaned by steam-power, and 
the flour is bolted by the Hexall machine, that turns 
out one hundred barrels in twelve hours. So virtuous 
and peaceful has been the life of Cornelius Ratliff that 
it may be truthfully said of him that his age 


“ Melts in unperceived decay, 
And glides in modest innocence away.” 


—+-400-— 


() ATLIFF, JOSEPH C., son of Cornelius and Mary 
(Kindley) Ratliff, was born near Richmond, Indi- 
ana, July 6, 1827. During boyhood he attended 
the common school each winter term, and helped 
his father through the summer on the farm and nursery. 
The primary schools of that region were then called 
‘‘Joud schools,” from the singular manner of studying 
then in vogue. The pupils were directed by the teacher 
to con their lessons, not in silence, but in the loudest 
possible tones. The effect may be better imagined than 
described—-a Babel of voices of every quality, pitch, 
rate, and force, a scene that would drive a modern in- 
structor mad. At the close of a half hour the presid- 
ing genius of this pandemonium would shout, with the 
voice of a stentor, ‘Silence!’ Comparative quiet 
would result, followed by this or a similar mandate, 
‘Big boys, come and read!” During every recitation 
the remainder of the school were at liberty to employ 
the time in any way, if not too disorderly, that ingeni- 
The studies were the same 


ous mischief might suggest. 
then as now, excepting geography and grammar, the 
former being considered of little or no value, and the 
latter an almost unattainable height of knowledge. The 
text-books were by English authors, and hence the 
arithmetic contained no problems in United States cur- 
rency. The whole system was modeled after that of 
North Carolina, from whence most. of the first settlers 
came, and it was better adapted for the development of 
vocal than mental power, and incited more love of 
The school-house was built 
of logs, the floor and seats of slabs, the chimney and 
fire-place of mud and sticks, and the latter struc- 


noise than of knowledge. 


ture sometimes fell crashing down among the noisy 
urchins, ‘‘making confusion worse confounded.” But 
when it stood intact the fire was not sufficient to beat 
back the cold that swept through many a crevice, so 
the big boys were required to keep fires burning outside, 
and to fill a large kettle with the coals thus obtained, 
and place it in the center of the room. The only win- 
dow, if it deserved the name, was made in the rear of 
the building by cutting out a middle section of one of 
the logs and fixing panes of glass in the opening. A 
board was fastened against the log beneath to serve as 
a writing desk, for the window admitted so little 
light that, in writing, the pupils sat near it, a few at 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ 6th Dist. 


a time, till all had finished. At length Mr. Ratliff 
entered the Richmond Academy, where he remained 
two terms. He then taught school for three or four 
successive winters, and afterward, in 1850, began the 
study of dentistry in Richmond, and in connection 
with it took a full course of medical lectures at the 
Western Reserve College. After practicing dentistry 
one year, and engaging the same length of time in the 
manufacture of paper near the above-named city, he re- 
sumed farming, in which he is still employed. In 1862 
he was appointed enrolling officer for the township of 
Center, his duties being not only to record all the 
militia and conscripts, but also to act on the Board of 
Exemption. In 1865 he was elected Justice of the 
Peace, and the following year was appointed real estate 
appraiser, in the discharge of which duty he appraised 
two thousand seven hundred acres in one day. In ad- 
dition to the duties enumerated, from 1860 to 1866 Mr. 
Ratliff edited the agricultural department of the Rich- 
mond Telegram. In 1863 he was elected president of 
the Richmond Horticultural Society, and held that 
office six years. In 1871 he was elected president of 
the State Horticultural Society, and remained in that 
position longer than any other incumbent except the 
first—a term of three years. From 1870 to 1874 he was 
master of the Centerville Masonic Lodge, and he is now 
a member of the Richmond Commandery. In 1856 Mr. 
Ratliff held for one term the office of Noble Grand in 
the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, and the follow- 
ing year was elected representative of the Richmond 
lodge to the Grand Lodge of Indiana. In 1875, after 
holding various minor political offices, he was chosen to 
represent Wayne County in the state Legislature, and 
in that capacity acted on the Committee of Educa- 
tion and the Committee on Sinking Fund. In 1876 
he was nominated by the State Horticultural So- 
ciety, and appointed by the Governor, a trustee of 
the Purdue University, and was reappointed in 1877 
for the term of three years. In 1876 he was chosen 
a trustee of the Richmond Savings Bank, and, in the 
following year, a director of the First National Bank 
of Centerville, which positions he still holds. In 
1870 he was elected president of the Wayne County 
Turnpike Company. In politics he is a Republican, 
having been formerly a Whig, then an Abolitionist. 
He became imbued in youth with the principles of 
Abolitionism in a conversation with Levi Coffin, who, 
as president of the celebrated ‘‘Underground Rail- 
road,” helped thirty-three hundred slaves to escape to 
freedom. Mr. Ratliff saw five negroes glide into the yard 
and disappear, and learned next day that they had been 
concealed in the house of Mr. Coffin through the night. 
According to the ‘¢ Reminiscences of Levi Coffin,” that 
noble man and his equally noble wife were the verit- 
able Simeon and Rachel Halliday of ‘*Uncle Tom’s 


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Ford es PRS ope Oe ae 
wuskd aay be rr pe re 


6th Dist.] 


Cabin,” and the ‘‘Eliza’’ who escaped across the Ohio 
on the ice was secreted in the house two weeks, while 
a fugitive slave who sought their care and protection, 
and died there of previous hardship and exposure, be- 
came, through the magic of Mrs. Stowe’s pen, the 
“‘Uncle Tom” himself. Mr. Ratliff is a birthright 
member of the society of Friends, and is active in the 
interests of that Church. He has been assistant clerk 
of the quarterly-meeting and a teacher in union Sunday- 
schools, and he is in earnest sympathy with the cause 
of temperance. He is deeply interested in the natural 
sciences, especially entomology, having been the ento- 
mologist of the Richmond Horticultural Society. He 
has a fine collection of specimens, many of which he 
himself has gathered, illustrative of this science, and 
also of geology and archeology. Among the antiqui- 
ties is a long-barrel shot-gun that has been in the fam- 
ily over one hundred years. It is still a perfect weapon, 
and deserves an equal fame with Hawkeye’s ‘<kill-deer,” 
in the ‘*Last of the Mohicans,” for it never has been 
untrue to the hunter’s aim. With it our subject’s 
grandfather, though a man of peace, was wont to wage 
war upon those thieving gleaners of his grain, the squir- 
rels, and, in one day, killed ninety-five in the same num- 
ber of consecutive shots; and his son Cornelius Ratliff, 
at one murderous discharge, slew seven of nine wild 
turkeys, as, with heads together, they intently discussed 
the merits of an ear of corn. Joseph C. Ratliff was 
married, October 19, 1852, to Miss Mary F. Crawford, 
daughter of Daniel B. Crawford, of Richmond. Of 
their six children, four are living, three boys and one 
little girl, The sons have grown nearly to man’s pro- 
portions, but, what is far better, they bid fair to attain to 
the stature of men in character, especially in the vir- 
tues of temperance, frugality, and industry. He is a 
man of good mental capacity, fitted naturally for both 
business and scholarly pursuits, having been successful 
in the former, and having shown, as above mentioned, 
much fondness for the latter. He is careful and correct 
in judgment upon practical affairs and grave questions 
of public interest. He exerts a marked influence in 
whatever associations he may join, and, though not a 
professional speaker, addresses them, when his duties 
require it, with fluency and good effect. He is widely 
respected as a courteous, kind-hearted, generous man, 


of perfect integrity and pure moral worth. 

Or 

i is the son of Iredell and Anna (Nixon) Redding, 
i and was born in Henry County, Indiana, Decem- 
“Od ber 27, 1831. At the age of sixteen he entered 


Asbury University, from which he graduated in 1854, 
with the degree of A. B., having received the degree 


—~>-Gate~<-— 


EDDING, THOMAS B., lawyer, of New Castle, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


69 


of A.M. in course. While in the university he defrayed 
his expenses, in part, by teaching phonography, and also 
by acting as tutor in the university during his senior 
year. He knew no idle hours, for, besides these labors, 
he added to the regular classical course the study of 
French and German. On leaving college he taught 
school in Richmond one year, also in New Castle for 
the same length of time, devoting his spare hours mean- 
time to the study of Hebrew. Then he turned his at- 
tention to journalism, and became editor of the New 
Castle Courier, but after a little more than one year 
abandoned it for the practice of law. Soon afterward, 
in 1857, he was elected, on the Republican ticket, pros- 
ecuting attorney, an office which he soon resigned. He 
then went to Racine, Wisconsin, and engaged in pub- 
lishing maps until the fall of 1858, when he removed 
to Chicago and entered upon the practice of law, in 
partnership with Hon. G. A. Johnson, now of Califor- 
nia. In 1860 he returned to New Castle. Having 
found the legal profession well adapted to his tastes, he 
made it his chief pursuit. With strong mental faculties, 
disciplined by collegiate training, he entered upon the 
further study and practice of the profession, not with 
undue mercenary motives, but to master the science of 
law. His skill, ability, and success are fully attested by 
his large practice. Mr. Redding has, by the closest 
economy of his time, devoted much attention to science 
and literature. In these pursuits he has made such at- 
tainments as to win the recognition of various societies, 
both literary and scientific. His favorite studies are 
microscopy and biology. He is a member of the Amer- 
ican Society of Microscopy, was a member of the Na- 
tional Microscopic Congress of 1878, and is a corre- 
sponding member of other associations, He contributes 
to the Proceedings of these societies and to the press. 
The philanthropist and the statesman may base new 
hopes on the fact that many of the most gifted and cul- 
tured men devote their abilities to the moral training 
of the young, inspired by the divine injunction, ‘‘ Feed 
my lambs.” Mr. Redding is one of these benefactors, 
being a very able Sunday-school worker. His monthly 
reviews of the Sunday-school lessons during the year 
1877. were models of their kind, and attracted much 
favorable comment. He is also a trustee of the Asbury 
University. He is an honored member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and at the annual session of the Dis- 
trict Conference of Richmond District, which met at 
Fountain City, in Wayne County, in June, 1879, he 
read a paper entitled, ‘God in Creation and Revela- 
tion; or, No Conflict between Science and Christianity.” 
Of this, the New Castle Courter speaks as follows: 


‘“« Those who heard it pronounced it one of the finest 
and most exhaustive productions on that subject to which 
they ever had the pleasure of listening. He met the 
materialistic scientists on their own ground, and showed 
clearly, from a scientific stand-point, that many of their 


7O 


assertions were nothing more than false assumptions, and 
that the only true theory is to believe in the existence of 
an unoriginated superintending power, who is God; that 
he controls matter and spirit, and that he is the author 
of life from its faintest perceptions to its highest possible 
culminations, etc. Mr. Redding’s paper does not con- 
tain a mere speculative or uncertain theory, but, on the 
contrary, it is the result of the carefully prepared labor 
of years. If it were read in all our high schools and 
colleges throughout the state, it would, no doubt, exert 
an excellent, wholesome influence in favor of Christian- 
ity and revelation.” 

Mr. Redding was married, December 2, 1858, to Miss 
Sarah W., daughter of Rev. Elijah Corrington, of the 
Central Illinois Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Mrs. Redding was a teacher, and is a highly 
educated and accomplished lady. Three children have 
been born to them, but only one, Rosa M., is living. 
In honor of this daughter they have named their de- 
lightful home ‘‘Glen Rosa.” The grounds are very 
beautiful, the Jawn being planted with many graceful 
and'some very rare trees, also shrubs and plants, while 
scattered over it here and there are parterres of flowers 
and cosy nooks with rustic seats, urns, and vases. 


—~ $00--— 

Ae) 
Gi) IBLE, WILLIAM, farmer, of Selma, Delaware 
‘) County, was born in Montgomery County, Vir- 
ginia, October 10, 1819. He is of German de- 
scent, and the son of David and Mary (Surface) 
‘Ribble. In 1830 his parents removed to Delaware 
County, Indiana, and bought the farm on which he now 
resides. His father died in 1839, at the age of fifty- 
two; and the death of his mother occurred in 1852, 
when she was sixty-three years old. William Ribble re- 
ceived the most important part of his early instruction 
in the common schools of Virginia, as the advantages 
afforded in the newly settled districts of Indiana were 
very meager, and much of his time was employed in the 
work of the farm. After the death of his father, being 
then about twenty years of age, in buying the shares of 
his brothers and sisters, and assuming the management 
of the farm, he took a step that at once revealed his 
sound business qualities. He set to work with new 
vigor, clearing and improving the place, and from time 
to time purchased adjoining fields, till now he has three 
hundred and forty-four acres, one of the choicest farms 
In 1858 he formed with his brother-in- 
law the firm of Hutchings & Ribble, at Selma, and en- 
gaged in the sale of general merchandise, and in buying 
and selling grain and wool, still carrying on the farm. 
Though few farmers, without previous experience, suc- 
ceed as merchants, Mr. Ribble made this venture suc- 
cessful. Nevertheless, at the death of Mr. Hutchings, 
which occurred in 1865, he sold his interest in the busi- 
ness, and again turned his whole attention to agricul- 


in the county. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


ture. In his younger days, in 1843, he was elected, by 
the Whigs, Justice of the Peace, and some time after- 
ward was-appointed by Governor Whitcomb major of 
the state militia. He helped to organize the Republi- 
can party, and in 1874, being regarded as one of the 
worthiest and most influential men in the county, was 
nominated on that ticket and elected to the Legislature 
entirely without effort on his part. Mr. Ribble has been 
foremost in various public improvements; among them 
thé Smithfield and Burlington Turnpike, of which he was 
president and a director, and the Muncie and Burling- 
ton Pike, of which he was secretary and a director. 
He has expended much money in these and other enter- 
prises conducive to the general good. In 1856 he 
joined the Burlington Lodge of Free and Accepted 
Masons, and in 1867 took the chapter and commandery 
degrees. He has been for thirty years a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, holding during part of 
that period the office of steward. Mr. Ribble has a 
well-balanced mind, with no very dominant trait. Such 
has been the tenor of his life that men pronounce him 
an honest, true-hearted man, quiet and unassuming, but 
possessed of the requisite energy and capacity to make 
every undertaking successful. In official position he has 
done his duty faithfully and well, and, under all cir- 
cumstances, shows due consideration for the rights of 
others. He is very kind and affectionate in his family, 
which now consists of his wife and nine children, three 
sons and six daughters. Their mother, whom he mar- 
ried in November, 1843, was Miss Harriet Ribble, 
daughter of George and Sarah (Surface) Ribble. 


>So — 


GAfy 
saa NATHAN, bank president, of Winchester, 
'). is of Scotch descent, his father emigrating to this 
country while yet a mere lad. He made his 
home in Pennsylvania, where, in Fayette County, 
June 7, 1813, Nathan was ushered into existence. His 
boyhood was spent among that class of people who for 
generations have been distinctively known as ‘ Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch.”? They are a hardy, industrious class, 
thrifty in habit, and domestic in taste. Unfortunately, 
at the period spoken of above, they cared less for the 
acquisition of knowledge than for the accumulation of 
wealth. As a logical sequence, an education was almost 
unattainable, and Mr. Reed states that fifteen months 
would cover the entire extent of his school-days. When 
a young man of twenty-two, he emigrated to Indiana, 
and, choosing Winchester as the scene of his future 
operations, he located there, and has ever since been a 
resident of that charming little city. In 1878 he was 
elected president of the Farmers’ and Merchants’ Bank. 
Previous to this, he had been engaged at different times 
in farming, merchandising, and speculating. For thir- 


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bth Dist. 


teen years of his life he filled the various township and 
county offices of constable, deputy sheriff, sheriff, and 
county commissioner. He is a member of the Grand 
Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, and 
in religious belief worships with the Universalists. He 
has been twice married—first in 1836, and again in 
1873. Three of six children, born of the first marriage, 
are still living. 
$00 — 


} 


\ of Richmond, was born in Wayne County, Indi- 
ana, December 16, 1822. His parents, Solomon 

and Elizabeth (Bond) Roberts, came to the terri- 
tory of Indiana from South and North Carolina, re- 
spectively, about the year 1811. Thomas Roberts is 
the eldest son of thirteen children, five of whom are 
still living. His education was acquired in the com- 
mon subscription schools of that new country, which 
continued but a short time each year. His last and 
hest opportunity for study was while attending a school 
at Whitewater, in 1844, taught by the well-known 
educator, Barnabas C. Hobbs. He began business for 
himself at an early age, when he displayed unusual 
talent as a mechanic and builder. He first worked at 
the carpenter’s trade under Caleb Bond, when the old 
‘try rule” in framing timbers was still in use, After- 
wards, when working for Lawrence Campbell, who 
showed him the new ‘‘square rule,” he grasped the 
principle and mastered it in fifteen minutes. Such is 
his genius in this direction that, aided by his knowledge 
of mathematics and mechanical philosophy, his calcula- 
tions work out to perfection, and the timbers come 
together without the noise of saw or hammer. During 
his earlier experience as a carpenter the times were 
hard, and he worked for fifty cents a day, or eleven 
dollars per month. Finally, business began to revive, 
and in the year 1847 he removed to Richmond, where 
he took the leading place as contractor and builder. 
An evidence of the improvements in building since that 
time is seen in the fact that when he put in the first 
open front in Richmond, for Doctor Howell’s drug- 
store, between Front and Pearl Streets, he used glass 
twenty-six by forty inches, which was considered very 
large and rather extravagant. Mr. Roberts has built 
many of the best dwelling and business houses in Rich- 
mond. In 1877 he erected the ‘* Roberts Block,’”? which 
for light, convenience, and style of finish has few 
equals in this part of the state. July 15, 1847, he 
married Miss Lucinda Lough. They have had four 
children, only one of whom, a son, survives. Though 
not a member, Mr. Roberts is a vestryman in the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church. He has served as city coun- 
cilman nearly ten years, and is a member, in good stand- 
ing, of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows. He is a 


cg 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


71 


man of calm and quiet demeanor, courteous in manner, 
of superior judgment, and is respected by the commu- 
nity in which he lives. 


ville, Indiana, was born in Oxford, Ohio, October 
| 28, 1824. His father, Alanson Roots, moved to 
Oxford, in 1816, from Vermont, for the purpose 
of educating his sons at Miami University. An account 
of his journey through the wilderness, from Vermont to 
the south-western part of Ohio, with his wife and little 
children, in a mover’s wagon, would of itself form a 
volume of thrilling interest. The material of which 
these early pioneers were made is nearly extinct; let 


us honor their memory. His ancestors were descended 
from the old Puritan stock, who fled to the inhospitable 
shores of New England that they might have the privi- 
lege of worshiping God according to the dictates of their 
own consciences. Josiah Roots came from the parish 
of Great Chart, near London, England, to Beverly, in 
the plantation of New England, in the ship ‘‘ Hercules,” 
in the year 1634. He brought with him letters show- 
ing his good standing in the Church of Great Chart. 
The first known of him after his arrival in this country 
is his joining in a petition to the Church of Salem, 
Massachusetts, for the organization of a new Church at 
Beverly, on Bass River, with one John Lake as pastor 
of its Church. From that time to this, the Roots, as a 
family, have been identified with the Church of Jesus 
Christ, with very few exceptions; belonging to the Con- 
gregational Church in New England, and in the West 
to the Presbyterian Church. Some of the old stock 
have remained about Rutland, Vermont, where they 
have always been honored and respected, and have filled 
positions of trust and responsibility in the pulpit, on the 
bench, and in the Legislature of the state. Others have 
been scattered over the length and breadth of our coun- 
try, and wherever found, with but few exceptions, have 
been known as good citizens, industrious, energetic, en- 
terprising, and intelligent leaders in society, and engaged 
in promoting those enterprises that have made our coun- 
try what it is. At an early date Alanson Roots estab- 
lished a woolen manufactory in Oxford, in which he was 
assisted by three of his elder sons, his son Francis as- 
sisting in the summer and going to school in the winter. 
Such opportunities as he had were eagerly improved, 
and when sixteen years old he entered college, with a 
view of taking a classical course, but, owing to the 
failing health of his father, he was compelled to give 
up this, the cherished ambition of his life, and take a 
scientific course instead. From this time on he was 
identified with the woolen manufactory. One brother, 
G. Y. Roots, had withdrawn, and gone into the commis- 


72 


sion business in Cincinnati, where he still is. Franklin, 
another brother, after several years of ill-health, died. 
The business was carried on under the firm name of A. 
& P. H. Roots, Francis representing his father in the 
business. About the year 1845 they commenced making 
arrangements to remove their woolen mill to Conners- 
ville, Indiana, being attracted there by its fine water- 
power and other business facilities. In the year 1847 
the change was made, and the woolen mill was in suc- 
The business at Oxford was still car- 
ried on in a modified form. Alanson Roots continued 
to reside there till his death, in the year 1850. After 
this the style of the firm was changed to P. H. & F. M. 
Roots, and has remained unchanged ever since. Soon 
after the discoveries of gold, in 1848-49, F. M. Roots 


cessful operation. 


decided to try his fortunes in the Western El Dorado, 


and early in the year 1849 commenced his arrangements 
He joined a company of 
weeks later 


for a trip across the plains. 
gold-seekers in Cincinnati, and a few 
left home and commenced his journey across what 
was then an almost unexplored region, there being 
at that time not a single white settler in Kansas. 
Of course, much could be said, if space permitted, of 
the incidents of the trip across this unknown conti- 
nent, where the noble red man reigned supreme; suffice 
it to say, after many hardships, dangers, and narrow 
escapes, the party arrived in the ‘*Gold Diggings”’ 
about the ist of August. After a varied experience 
of disappointments and successes, sickness and health, 
he started on his homeward journey to the Atlantic 
States about the middle of May following (1850), wa 
the Isthmus of Panama, Havana, and New Orleans, ar- 
riving in Cincinnati about the first of July. The net 
results of the trip were, financially considered, success- 
ful. 
Miss Esther E. Pumphrey, a young lady to whom he 
was engaged before starting on his Western trip. This 


In October, after his return, he was married to 


achievement he always considered as the most successful 
one of his life. By this marriage he had six children, 
three of whom are still living. After his marriage he 
applied himself most assiduously to the business of 
woolen manufacturing, and, in connection with his 
brother, succeeded in making their mill one of the 
largest and best in the state. 
a number of contracts with the government for army 
clothing. They succeeded in securing these contracts 
because their goods were made of pure wool and filled 
every requirement, and yet were furnished at as low 
rates as those of other parties who used inferior material, 
and often shoddy. About the year 1860 the brothers de- 
veloped their invention of a rotary force blast blower, 
which has since become well known to the mechanical 
world, both in this country and in Europe. In Eng- 
land alone there are now fully three thousand of these 
blowers in use, and as many more on the Continent. 


During the war they had 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[Oth Dist. 


They have been awarded first premiums at three inter- 
national expositions: in 1867 at Paris, in 1873 at Vienna, 
and at the Centennial Exposition of our own country, 
at Philadelphia, in 1876. In this field they were 
pioneers, making the first successful force blast rotary 
blower: Until 1864 these blowers were manufactured 
at other machine shops. In 1864 they purchased a small 
foundry and machine shop of W. J. Hankins, which 
they were constantly enlarging until the panic of 1873. 
During the whole of that time their shop was crowded 
with more orders than they could fill; and quite a large 
portion of the time they ran with two sets of hands, 
and still they were unable to supply the demand. Since 
that time their business in that line has been compara- 
tively dull, but their machines have been brought up 
to the highest standard of mechanical perfection. In 
1870 F. M. Roots sold out his interest in the woolen 
mill to his brother, P. H. Roots, but retained an equal 
interest in the blower manufactory. In 1872, in con- 
nection with his brother, William Huston, and Charles 
Mount, he bought of the Messrs. Claypool the stock of 
the First National Bank of Connersville, which they 
have since owned, in about equal proportions. In the 
prosecution of his business he has twice visited Europe, 
and visited not only the celebrated mechanical works 
of the old world, which were especially interesting to 
him, but also most of the places and objects of interest 
visited by tourists and travelers. He has also, with his 
family, visited California, Colorado, and most of the 
places of interest in our own country. At home he has 
endeavored to be in sympathy with the best interests 
of the community in which he lives. It is believed 
there has not been a turnpike, railroad, or church built 
in which he has not borne his part. He has been an 
active member of the Presbyterian Church from early 
youth, and an earnest worker in the Sabbath-school, 
Young Men’s Christian Association, and the various 
temperance organizations; and his only hope for salva- 
tion is in a crucified and risen Savior. 


2-400 — 


try renowned in the early history and intellectual 
and material development of our country. The 
Roots, for several generations, were large land-owners, 
and members of the clerical profession, while one of the 
Yales, from which family his mother was descended, 
was the founder of the celebrated college of that name 
at New Haven, Connecticut. Early in life, Mr. Roots 
displayed an inventive genius and a taste for mechanics 
quite unusual in one so young. While he was a mem- 
ber of the junior class of Miami University, where he 
hoped to complete his education, his father engaged in 


* 


bth Dist.] 


the manufacture of woolen goods; but knowing nothing 
about a steam-engine, of which his subordinates were 
likewise ignorant, he recalled his son from college, to 
superintend its working. This was a sad blow to the 
boy’s ambitious dream of becoming a finished scholar. 
However, with true filial obedience, he suppressed his 
disappointment, and, with no knowledge of the engine 
save that which seemed intuitive, he entered upon the 
discharge of his duties. Under his instructions others 
were qualified to run it, and he assumed the duties of 
superintendent. He was led to this step by the failing 
health of his father; and as rapidly as possible mastered 
all the details of the business. 
progressive, Mr. Roots kept pace with the new im- 
provements as they gradually came into use. At this 
time he was the designer, and in fact the general man- 
aver, of the 
that he could take almost any pattern of cloth and re- 
produce it in his looms. Being in England, he procured 
many beautiful patterns from owners of mills which he 
had the privilege of inspecting. His calculations were 
so accurate, and based upon such scientific principles, 
that the mills produced goods equal to the best foreign 
manufactures. In 1847 the machinery was moved to 
Connersville, Indiana, where, with his brother, Mr. Roots 
continued the manufacture of woolen goods, under the 
firm name of P. H. & I’. M. Roots.- Many of their suc- 
cesses and improvements, both in machinery and in 
fabrics, were achieved after this removal. In 1860 their 
greatest invention was patented as ‘Roots’ Patent 
Rotary Blower.” This was subsequently developed, and 
their various patents, running from 1860 to 1870, were 
covered by fifteen different issues. 


Always enterprising and 


mills. His skill as a designer was such 


Francis M. Roots, 
brother of the subject of this sketch, is an excellent 
mechanic, and by his suggestions important improvements 
and modifications have been made from time to time, as 
Mr. Roots’s original ideas were being developed. All 
of their patents have been taken out by P. H. & F. M. 
Roots. The causes which led to the invention of the blower 
were as follows: Their water-wheel at Connersville was 
giving out, and Mr. Roots visited Cincinnati with a 
view of substituting a turbine wheel; but after careful 
examination, and subsequent thought on the philosophy 
of its construction, he became convinced that much 
power was lost by this wheel, and at once set about the 
invention of something better. The final result was the 
production of the great rotary force blower. This ma- 
chine has now a world-wide reputation, being exten- 
sively used, not only in the United States and in Can- 
ada, but in Great Britain and on the Continent of 
Europe, where they are also largely manufactured. Its 
application in manufacturing and commerce is various, 
as it is used for forced-air blasts in foundries, forges, 
etc.; also for ventilating rooms, withdrawing dust, dry- 
ing purposes, etc. A few years ago this firm con- 
A—25 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


73 


structed, as an experiment, an immense blower, which 
propelled a street-car under Broadway, New York City. 
This plan had to be given up, not on account of the 
motor power, but, it is stated, on account of immense 
moneyed corporations combining against it. One of these 
blowers is now used to ventilate a coal mine in England, 
which machine has a capacity of two hundred and fifty 
thousand cubic feet of air per minute. In October, 
1837, Mr. Roots was united in marriage to Miss Susan 
Brown, of Cincinnati. Seven children have been born 
to them, five of whom are now living. A little son, 
Eddie, who died at the age of two years and nine 
months, was a remarkable illustration of the ability of 
young children to comprehend the gospel. His love 
and unwavering faith in God were delightful to witness 
and sweet to remember. Both Mr. and Mrs. Roots are 
members of the Presbyterian Church, 


—<-4006-— 


sf) surgeon, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
(35 January 29, 1808. His father, William Salter, 
» came to this country from England in 1805. His 
mother was Hannah Wilson, whose ancestors settled in 
Philadelphia during the life of William Penn. Her 
grandfather purchased, at one shilling per acre, a square 
mile of land within what are now the city limits, and 
built his house of brick imported from England. Doctor 
Salter’s early instruction was such only as could be ob- 
tained in the common schools of that day, with the 
addition of the rudiments of French and Latin; but he 
was observing and thoughtful, and fond of plants and 
insects, studying, to the extent of a child’s ability, their 
variety and structure. This predilection led him to 
acquire in youth some knowledge of the natural sci- 
ences, and finally induced him to enter upon the study 
of medicine. He commenced in 1826, as a pupil of 
Professor George McLellan, and soon entered the Jeffer- 
son Medical College. He took three full courses of 
lectures, and was graduated March 6, 1830, receiving 
the degree of M. D. Doctor Salter immediately began 
practice in Philadelphia, and continued it successfully 
until May, 1836; he then removed with his family to 
Richmond, Indiana, making the journey, which required 
twenty-one days, in a private carriage. He at once 
engaged in the duties of his profession, and was toler- 
ably successful until his retirement from active practice, 
in 1855. The following year he purchased the Zelegram 
and became editor and publisher of that paper. Having 
had no previous knowledge of the business, this venture 
resulted in the loss of about six thousand dollars; and, 
although he had established it on a good basis, and it 
was beginning to prosper, he sold the 7elegram in 1868. 
During the draft, in the Civil War, Doctor Salter served 


74 


as examining surgeon for Wayne County. He has never 
held any other office than that of trustee of the public 
schools, and it-is quite evident that he does not desire 
political distinction. He has generally voted with the 
Republican party since its organization. 
in the Christian faith, he has never united with any 
religious denomination, nor become a member of any 
society. Doctor Salter married, October 4, 1832, Miss 
Caroline L. Pyle, eldest daughter of Joseph Pyle. This 
marriage was blessed with seven children, all of whom 
are living; the mother died May 21, 1869, passing away 
in peace after a happy and worthy life. Doctor Salter 
has lately resumed. practice, and for the past eight 
years has devoted much attention to microscopy, chiefly 
with a view to testing the theories of pathology. The 
_ extent of his researches, and the conclusions derived 
therefrom, are not known; but, -certainly, his investiga- 
tions have not been devoid of important results in the 
elucidation of questions in histology, pathology, diag- 
nosis, microscopic chemistry, etc. Doctor Salter has 
reached the age of threescore and ten, and still retains 
his mental vigor, though his physical powers, once ca- 
pable of great endurance, have been somewhat impaired 
by the severe duties of his profession. His scientific 
acquirements and medical skill have caused him to be 
widely respected, and his personal virtues have endeared 
him to many friends. 


@ AMPLE, THOMAS J., lawyer, of Muncie, was born 
XK in Cecil County, Maryland, November 4, 1800. His 
& father, John Sample, a native of North Carolina, was 
By of English extraction, and a man of intelligence and 
good moral and religious character. His mother, whose 


—>-3¢06-0— 


maiden name was Margaret Russell, was born in Penn- 
sylvania, of Welsh parents. In the words of her son, 
‘««She was one of the best of women, and took great 
pains in the moral and religious training of her chil- 
dren.’’ Both his parents were Presbyterians. Thomas 
Sample acquired the elements of an English education 
in the village school, and at the age of fifteen com- 
menced work with his father at carpentry, which he 
continued until the spring of 1819, when he became a 
clerk in a dry-goods store at Elkton, Maryland. He 
remained there till October of that year, and then re- 
moved with the family to Lebanon, Ohio, where they 
spent the winter, and thence went on to Connersville, 
Indiana. There he followed his trade for several years. 
On August 31, 1826, Mr. Sample married Miss Juliet 
Watten, eldest daughter of Samuel Watten, of Conners- 
ville, formerly of Dayton, Ohio. By industry and 
economy he acquired at his trade a small capital, besides 
a good residence, and in 1836 engaged in the dry- 
goods business, as a member of the firm of Meredith, 
Helm & Co. This was continued until June, 1837, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Although firm | 


[ 6th Dist. 


when, fearing disaster, because of the effects of the 
‘‘specie circular,” he sold his interest to Colonel D. 
Ilankins, and went into the general mercantile business 
in Yorktown, Delaware County, with O. H. Smith, 
United States Senator, under the firm name of Smith & 
Sample. This not proving successful, he was induced 
by Colonel Hankins to return to Connersville and enter 
into trade with him, which he did in 1841; but through 
the perfidy of his partner was compelled to leave the 


7 


firm. 
property was of such a character that it could not be 
of immediate use; hence the question what he should 
do for subsistence became a serious one. He thought 
of returning to the carpenter’s bench. His wife sug- 
gested that he study law; but what an undertaking at 
the age of forty-one! The result, however, showed that 
she knew him better than he himself did. At her re- 
quest he consulted his friend Caleb B. Smith, who 
kindly encouraged him to begin a course of legal study. 
Although Mr. Sample had a new and pleasant residence 
in Connersville, his means were at Yorktown, in notes 
and book accounts; therefore, he returned to the latter 
place, and, amid the greatest trials and discourage- 
ments, entered upon the study of law. Heavy judg- 
ments had been rendered against him in the Federal 
Court, upon which executions were issued and put in 
the hands of the marshal, while his assets were scat- 
tered and unavailable. With all this burden on his 
mind, he was in no condition to grapple successfully 
with the abstruse problems of the law. The following 
from his own pen is an interesting portrayal of his 


Mr. Sample was now out of business, and his 


situation: 


“JT read page after page, with my mind so abstracted 
from the book that I had no idea of what I was doing; 
yet I entered upon the work, and, through strength 
given from above, and the encouragement of my excel- 
lent wife, succeeded beyond my expectation. I read as 
few men read. Ihad astern master—necessity. I was 
at it early and late. Sometimes, in the fall and winter, 
I awoke as early as three o’clock, and generally at five. 
In the early morning I read in the room where my wife 
was sleeping. One morning, I remember, I was among 
pleadings, when discouragement seized me, and I con- 
cluded I could never master the subject. I threw my- 
self across the bed where my wife was, and wept aloud. 
It aroused and greatly alarmed her, but what could I 
do? She encouraged me to press on; I made the effort, 
and succeeded. She was in poor health, and it was the 
burden of her prayer that she might survive to see me 
established in the practice of law, and her son attain 
manhood. God granted both her desires. I was ad- 
mitted to the bar in March, 1842, after a thorough ex- 
amination, and to the state Supreme Court in June, 
1844. I often wonder how I accomplished it, but I 
did, through my excellent wife and divine grace.” 


Mr. Sample was admitted to the Federal Court with- 
He removed to Muncie, April 13, 
1843, where he is still engaged in his profession. He 
has taken a deep interest in the general welfare, becom- 


out examination. 


LIBRARY 


OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


6th Dist.) 


ing identified with certain public improvements, among 
which is the Cincinnati, New Castle and Michigan (now 
the Fort Wayne, Muncie and Cincinnati) Railroad. He 
was associated with Tom Corwin as a commissioner of 
this road, and for several years was secretary of the 
company. In the summer of 1861 he was sent as com- 
missioner to the Winnebago Indians, at the agency near 
Mankato. Mr. Sample is a devoted member of the 
Methodist Church, which he joined in 1835. He is a 
Republican, and cast his first vote for John Quincy 
Adams. The devoted wife of Mr. Sample died June 
22, 1845, leaving one son, Charles Parker Sample. 
December 8, 1846, he married Miss Hannah Garst, a 
woman in whose character were many virtues. She had 
two daughters, Kate and Ada Pearl, and died January 
11, 1876. About three years prior to her death, oc- 
curred that of Mr. Charles Sample, a great loss not only 
to the family, but also to the community; for he was 
one of the best men in Muncie. November 2, 1876, 
Miss Kate Sample became the wife of Rev. Frank A. 
Friedley, of Vincennes, Indiana. Though Mr. Sample 
embraced the profession of law at an advanced age, he 
has attained a degree of success surprising even to him- 
self. Few indeed have overcome so great difficulties in 
legal study and practice. His life illustrates the worth 
of a true wife’s loving encouragement, the influence of 
faith in an overruling Providence, and the efficiency of 
This faith in divine aid is a 
He says: 


an inflexible purpose. 
dominant trait in Mr. Sample’s character. 
<‘T have been kept all these years by the power of God 
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the 
last time. I am satisfied that salvation is by faith in 
Jesus. On that rock I stand, and not of works, lest any 
man should boast.”” Mr. Sample is in sympathy with 
educational interests, and has ever been an earnest 
worker in moral reforms, especially that of temperance. 
Kindness and affection have always characterized his 
domestic life, ‘while his relations with his fellow-citizens 
have been marked by probity and a strict regard for 
every virtuous principle. 


—>- ote — 


HIPLEY, CARLTON ‘E., lawyer, of Muncie, was 
) born in Philadelphia, March 22, 1827, and was 
Jy; the son of William and Abigail (Lynde) Shipley. 
His mother was a native of Jefferson County, New 
York. His father was born in Chester County, Penn- 
sylvania, on Christmas-day, 1798. He was a wholesale 
and retail hardware merchant in Philadelphia till about 
1841, when he engaged in the manufacture of iron in 


Northumberland County. He died in Delaware County, | 


Indiana, March, 1854. Mr. Shipley’s grandfather, John 
Shipley, was an Englishman, one of the Quaker pioneers 


of Pennsylvania. Carlton Shipley attended a Friends’ 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


75 


school in Philadelphia until he was fourteen years of 
age. Two years later, in 1843, he emigrated with his 
father’s family to Muncie, in this state. In the follow- 
ing spring he became a clerk in the store of Charles F. 
Willard, where he remained about four years. At the 
expiration of that time he studied mathematics and the 
languages for nearly three terms in the Delaware County 
Seminary. Here he applied himself to his work with 
great diligence, and made rapid progress. On leaving 
the institution he engaged in teaching a district school 
in Randolph County; but he found the occupation un- 
| congenial, and abandoned it after one term’s practice. 
He then returned to Muncie, and, although in poor 
health, devoted himself to the study of medicine. He 
relinquished this study at the end of six months, know- 
ing that his constitution was not strong enough to un- 
dergo the hardships of medical practice in that region. 
In the fall of 1849 young Shipley became a druggist’s 
clerk, and remained in that situation two years. A 
mercantile occupation, however, did not offer to him 
the attractions held forth by the legal profession. While 
a clerk he commenced to read law, and on leaving the 
drug business entered the office of Hon. J. S, Buckles. 
In the spring of 1852 he was admitted to the bar. In 
October of the same year he was elected district attor- 
ney of the Common Pleas District, composed of Hamil- 
ton, Tipton, and Howard Counties; and, removing to 
Tipton, he entered upon the duties of the office in con- 
Being in delicate health, his 
increasing business overtaxed his strength, and at the 
expiration of two years he returned to Muncie. ‘There 
he soon resumed the duties of his profession, and rap- 
Hitherto feeble health and unfav- 
orable circumstances had caused Mr. Shipley to seem 
irresolute; but now, in spite of these hinderances, he 
proved himself the possessor of a fine mind; and his 
practice steadily increased. In 1865 the Legislature 
elected him one of the three directors of the Northern 
Indiana Penitentiary, at Michigan City, in which posi- 
tion he served one term. He has been a memher of 
the city council for about six years. In 1864 he was a 
candidate for nomination before the Republican State 
Convention for the position of reporter for the Supreme 
Court of the state, but was defeated by Hon. Benjamin 
Harrison. .In 1873 he was a candidate for the office of 
Judge of the Twenty-fifth Judicial Circuit, but was de- 
feated by General Silas Colgrove. Mr. Shipley has 
identified himself with the growing interests of Muncie 
and Delaware County, giving efficient aid in various 
public enterprises. In 1869 he helped to organize the 
Lafayette, Bloomington and Muncie Railroad, can- 
vassed the county to secure the levy of the tax to build 
it, and for one year was a director of the company. 
' He has been secretary of the Muncie and Granville 
| Turnpike Company ever since its organization; and was 


nection with his practice. 


idly grew in favor. 


76 


one of the incorporators of the Citizens’ National Bank, 
in which he has always been a stockholder and a 
director. Mr. Shipley became a Freemason in 1849, 
and has taken all the degrees through those of the 
Commandery. In Tipton he was Master of Austin 
Lodge, No. 128; and has held offices in the Muncie 
Chapter and the Muncie Commandery. His parents 
belonged to the society of Friends; his family attend 
the Episcopal Church; he is not connected with any 
religious body. A Democrat at the breaking out of 
the Civil War, he then became a Republican, believing 
that the platform of that party was more in accordance 
with the principles of just government and the rights 
of man. He now has a strong disposition to be inde- 
pendent in politics. Mr. Shipley was united in mar- 
riage, March 22, 1852, to Miss Clara Jackson, of Delaware 
County. They have three children. Mr. Shipley is de- 
voted to his profession, and being endowed with capac- 
ity and force is well fitted for his work. As a close 
student, a clear, profound thinker, and an able coun- 
selor he has no superior in Delaware County. He has 
often been called to the bench temporarily, and in that 
position has shown himself well qualified in learning 
Mr. Shipley has other claims upon 
He 
is not wanting in moral qualities of a high order. 
Candor and probity mark all his intercourse. 
encourages useless litigation; if a client has no grounds 
for a case he frankly tells him so. 
dealing he has won general confidence; and his industry 
and ability have gained him a moderate fortune. In 
social life he is a general favorite. He is pronounced, 
not only an able lawyer, but also one of the worthiest 


and native talent. 
the public esteem than those of intellectual worth. 


He never 


By this conscientious 


citizens, 
—+-4006-o— 


of Indiana’s ablest surgeons, was the first male 
child born in that village, that event happening on 
January 29, 1823. He was the son of Doctor H. 
G. and Hannah (Pugh) Sexton. His father was a na- 
tive of Massachusetts, and came West to Cincinnati in 
1818. He read medicine under Doctor Crookshank, of 
that city, a man of considerable note, and then entered 
upon the duties of his profession at Springboro, Ohio, 
but removed in November, 1822, to Indiana and located 
at Rushville. There he remained in active practice 
until June, 1865, the date of his death. He never 
sought other than professional distinction, though he 
served in the capacity of major-general in the Indiana 
state militia, 


As a pioneer physician he took eminent 
rank, and his name is held in sacred remembrance by 
many, especially the poor, to whom he was a great 
benefactor. His wife was the daughter of David Pugh, 
a prominent business man in Warren County, Ohio, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ 6th Dist. 


and a member of the society of Friends. Marshall 
Sexton had the limited advantages afforded by the 
schools of the time, and then, under the care of Rev. 
D. M. Stewart, Presbyterian minister of Rushville, was 
prepared for the freshman class of Hanover College, 
which he entered in October, 1840. Ill-health, caused 
by too close application to study, prevented his com- 
pleting the course, obliging him to leave the institution 
at the beginning of the junior year. Soon afterward, 
in 1841, he began the study of medicine with his 
father, having as a fellow-student Doctor N. P. How- 
ard, of Greenfield, Indiana. Having finished his pre- 
liminary course, he entered the Ohio Medical College, 
from which he was graduated in 1844. In that year he 
commenced practice with his father in Rushville, and, a 
fact not unworthy of note, never has exchanged that for 
another location. He seemed naturally adapted to sur- 
gery, as shown by the success of his first operation, 
which was cutting a kernel of corn from the windpipe 
of a child. 
establish a reputation as a surgeon. 
plied year after year, till his practice became very ex- 
In 1861, at the breaking out of the Rebellion, 
Doctor Sexton entered the army as surgeon of the 52d 
Indiana Volunteers. Here was a field of great useful- 
ness, but, unfortunately, after he had stayed long 
enough to demonstrate how invaluable were the services 
of a skilled surgeon, he was compelled to resign, 
being utterly broken down in health. 
months, and was present at the capture of Fort Donel- 
son, where he rendered most efficient surgical aid. He 
returned home in May, 1862, and did not recover so as 
to warrant his again entering the service. Doctor Sex- 
ton is a member of the Rush Medical Society, and 
is chairman of its committee of surgery. He is a 
charter member of the Indiana State Medical Society, 
and has always borne a prominent part, contributing 
very often to its Transactions. He is also a permanent 
member of the American Medical Association, and has 
been sent many times as a delegate to that body from 
the Rush Medical Society and the Indiana State Med- 
ical Society. He excels as a writer upon subjects per- 
taining to his profession, and his contributions form 
some of the most interesting matter in the various 
Western journals of medicine. Many of his essays de- 
livered before the State Medical Society have been pub- 
lished in their columns. Doctor Sexton is the peer of 
his associates as a physician, and in surgery ranks 
For years he has 


This was in 1844, enabling him soon to 
His duties multi- 


tensive. 


He served six 


among the most eminent in the state. 
performed some of the more difficult operations in Rush 
and the adjacent counties, and in the thirty-four years 
of his practice has accomplished many of the most skill- 
ful surgical feats known to the profession. Though en- 
dowed by nature with superior talents, he has attained 
his enviable position only by long and patient effort. 


6th Dist.) 


From the beginning of his career as a physician he has 
devoted himself closely to his profession, permitting 
neither the attractions of foreign travel nor the entice- 
ments of political office to turn him from his high pur- 
pose. He is strong in his political convictions as a 
member of the Republican party, but has consented to 
occupy no official position except that of councilman. 
He has been connected with no other than medical so- 
cieties. Doctor Sexton was married, in May, 1844, at 
Wilmington, Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth S. Brooks, a na- 
tive of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Thgy have had five 
children. The eldest, Mr. H. G. Sexton, began busi- 
ness in Cincinnati in the firm of Maddox Brothers, 
from which he retired in 1876, While on business in 
New Orleans he died with yellow fever in the fearful 
epidemic of that disease in 1878. The eldest daughter 
is the wife of Mr. George Havens, a successful mer- 
chant of Rushville. The second daughter, Miss Ruby 


Sexton, a graduate of the Wesleyan Female College in’ 


Cincinnati, has for two years been an acceptable teacher 
in the graded school at Rushville. The third daughter, 
Miss Sallie Sexton, a young lady, resides at home. 
John Chase, the second son and youngest child, is at 
Hanover College, in this state, and designs, after com- 
pleting the course, to pursue the study and practice of 
Mrs. Sexton finished her educa- 
tion in 1842, at Augusta, Kentucky, when that town 
could boast of one of the best female colleges in the 
West. It was under the control of the Methodist 
Church and the presidency of Bishop Bascom. Doctor 
Sexton is a man of fine presence and of dignified bear- 
ing. He is courteous in his general intercourse, and 
especially so with members of the medical profession, 
with whom, under all circumstances, he is very scrupu- 
lous to observe the code of ethics. He is bold and dar- 
ing, yet feeling and sensitive, as a surgeon, and though 
eminently successful as such is none the less distin- 
guished as a physician and obstetrician. He is social 
with friends, and has a certain magnetism that attracts 
the most polished to his acquaintance, and his conver- 
sation is characterized by good sense and solidity. 


medicine and surgery. 


FOO —_ 


; LEETH, GEORGE B., lawyer, of Rushville, was 
tf born in New York City, July 4, 1838, six weeks 
oS after the arrival from Ireland of his parents, whose 
c} names were John B. and Eleanor Sleeth. Both 
died before George reached his eleventh year, leaving 
him an orphan. He worked on a farm and supported 
himself until his seventeenth year, when he drifted into 
the state of Indiana, and found a home with Mr. Joseph 
Winship, a prominent farmer of Rush County. Up to 
this time he had received a very limited education, but 
was now sent to the district schools by his new-found 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


77 


friend, and a strong attachment was formed between 
the two. Subsequent to this he was adopted by Mr. 
Winship, and made one of the family. Mr. Sleeth still 
expresses in the strongest terms his feelings of gratitude 
and affection for every member of that household. He 
was sent to the common schools during the winter 
months, and in summer was employed on the farm. 
He qualified himself to teach by attending the Rich- 
land Academy for two terms, an institution of learning 
located in the same county. Having a desire to advance 
still farther, he was encouraged hy his benefactor, from 
whom he borrowed the necessary money, and entered 
Farmers’ College, College Hill, Ohio. Here he com- 
menced the study of the law, which had been his choice 
of professions from early youth. In 1862 he entered 
the office of Hon. L. Sexton, at Rushville, and com- 
pleted his studies with Hon. George C. Clark, of the 
same place. In 1864 he entered upon the practice of 
his profession, and soon was in command of a lucrative 
income, the first receipts of which went to pay the debt 
he had contracted to finish his education. He served 
as state Senator four years, from 1872 to 1876, and was 
elected Representative in 1878, and served on impor- 
tant committees. The following article, published in the 
Indianapolis Sentinel, of recent date, shows how highly 
he is esteemed by his friends as a lawyer and legislator; 

“©*T am a lawyer myself,’ said a Senator to us the 
other day, ‘and I give it as my judgment that Judge 
George B. Sleeth, of Rush, is the ablest lawyer in either 
House.’ In legal knowledge he is evidently at home, 
as his speeches fully demonstrate, and as a legislator he 
certainly ranks among the foremost. He has in him the 
elements of a marked future usefulness, if he will watch 
well the outer door. Success in life, in some sense, 
must exist in the man, and where one guards well the 
citadel of his own prowess he may look with hope on 
the future for the reward of his virtues. Judge Sleeth 


is a strong man and an able jurist, and worthy of any 
position in the gift of the people.” 


He is plain and unassuming in his manners, of a very 
sociable disposition, and loves well the rod and gun. 
He makes no attempt at oratory, but seems to approach 
a subject in an easy, quiet way; but, before he is done 
with it, it will be found that he has most thoroughly 
accomplished his task. In his preparation of cases for 
trial he is a most untiring student and worker, and it is 
generally found that his thoughts have crept into every 
cranny and loop-hole on each side of the case. He is an 
honest man, and despises meagness or trickery in lawyer 
or client as thoroughly as any man living. In 1863 he 
was made a Mason, and is now a Knight Templar. In 
politics he is an ardent Republican, and was a great 
admirer of Governor Morton, as he now is of ‘‘ honest 
John Sherman,” as he calls him. He was happily mar- 
ried, in July, 1869, to Miss Charlotte, daughter of the 
late Doctor William Frame, of Rushville. This union 
is blessed with a family of three daughters, 


78 
oS eee GEORGE W., of Muncie, was born De- 
S . cember 10, 1828, at Nienburg, on the river Weser, 
in the kingdom of Hanover. His father, George 
A. Spilker, came to America when the son was ten 
years of age, and located first at Germantown, Mont- 
gomery County, Ohio, removing thence to Muncie, Del- 
aware County, Indiana, in April, 1842. His father died 
at Muncie in the year 1851. Mr. Spilker has at differ- 
ent times been occupied in mercantile business. In 
April, 1852, he went to California, engaging in mining 
for gold in Yuba and Nevada Counties in that state, 


G 


Os 


and, having been reasonably successful, returned to | 


Muncie in February, 1854. Again embarking in mer- 
cantile pursuits, in 1858 he was persuaded by his 
friends to offer himself as a candidate for the office of 
clerk of the Circuit Court of the county, on the Repub- 
lican ticket, and was elected to that position by a large 
majority in October of that year. He was re-elected in 
1862, thus serving for two full terms of four years each. 
From the close of his official term, in 1867, until 1875, 
he was engaged in the management of his property, as 
a private banker and broker, and as insurance agent. In 
1875, in connection with others, he aided in the organ- 
izatiéfi of the Citizens’ Bank of Muncie, under the 
state law, being one of its principal stockholders and its 
president. After a short time the charter under which 
it was acting was surrendered, and the Citizens’ National 
Bank of Muncie, was substituted for it. Mr. Spilker 
retained his interest in the new institution, and was 
elected its first president, which position he still holds. 
Mr, Spilker deserves the name of a successful business 
man, and his good luck has been due to his own perse- 
verance, energy, and industry. 
opinions and convictions, formed more from impulse 
than from connected thought; but his hasty views are 
as trustworthy in their results as the thoughtful conclu- 
sions of other men ordinarily, and he seldom finds cause 
to regret having submitted to their guidance. In his 
business relations he has earned the reputation of a man 
of strict integrity, and is unwilling to make allowance 
Politically, his 
affiliations are, and have always been, with the Republi- 
can party, but he has little of the partisan about him; 
and his one experiment in office-holding seems to have 
fully satisfied all his aspirations toward the life of a pol- 
itician. The city and county of his residence are in- 
debted to his counsel and aid, conjointly with others, 
for several of their public improvements, and his own 
home shows evidences of his taste and skill in the erec- 
tion and adornment of private residences. Possessing a 
fair English education, his knowledge of his mother- 
tongue has proved advantageous to him in life. His 
features show but few of the traits of the nationality 
from which he sprang. His wife is a daughter of the 
late Job Swain, Esq., long a prominent and highly es- 


He is a man of positive 


for a lack of that quality in others. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


' associated himself with the Liberal party. 


[67h Dist. 


teemed citizen of Muncie, of which city for a time he 
was mayor. They have but one child, a son, Carl A. 
Spilker, who has lately attained to manhood, and is ! 
now fairly entering business life, who promises fairly to 
reflect the merits and virtues of his parents. This 
sketch was written by a disinterested person who has 
known Mr. Spilker for nearly forty years. 


—-$a0-— 


x. TEPHENSGN, GEORGE W., an enterprising and 
fh) successful business man of Muncie, was born in 
y; Mason County, West Virginia, June 15, 1838. His 
parents were James and Mary (Barnett) Stephenson, 
both of whom were natives of West Virginia. His pa- 
ternal ancestors came from Scotland, while his mother’s 
were of Irish extraction. Mr. Stephenson is the twelfth 
in a family of thirteen children. He was allowed the 
privileges of a common school education, attending dur- 
ing the winter months. There was generally no school 
during the summer. After he had become strong 
enough, he assisted in the general labors of his father’s 
farm. In his fifteenth year he became clerk of a small 
store in Leon, Mason County, at a salary of five dollars 
per month during the first year. Here he remained five 
years, his compensation being increased each year. Havy- 
ing reached his majority, he felt the need of a better 
education, and accordingly entered the academy at 
Point Pleasant, the county seat of Mason County, where 
he remained one term. After leaving this institution 
of learning, he went to Gallipolis, Ohio, and engaged 
as clerk in one of the largest dry-goods establishments 
of that city. Here he was employed until the breaking 
out of the Civil War. In August, 1861, he removed to 
Delaware County, Indiana, and for two winters was em- 
ployed as a teacher in one of the common schools. 
During the summer months he was engaged in working 
on a farm. In 1863, with a borrowed capital, he 
opened a small store in Wheeling, Delaware County, 
and after one year’s successful operations he removed 
to New Cumberland, Grant County, where he opened a 
larger establishment. Here he continued three years. 
In 1868 he removed to Muncie, Delaware County, and in 
copartnership with Mr. S. A. Haines engaged in business, 
with an increased capital and on a much larger scale. 
This partnership lasted about eighteen months, when it 
was dissolved. Mr. Stephenson then opened his present 
store, which is to-day the finest in the county. He has 
a very extensive wholesale and retail trade in dry-goods. 
Every detail of his business is conducted under his per- 
sonal superintendence. He has been a decided and ac- 
tive politician. He cast his first vote for Abraham 
Lincoln, and was a strong supporter of the Republican 
In the Horace Greeley campaign he 
Since that 


party until 1872. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY QF ILEINGIS 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOI® 


ZF 


Pea 


6th Dist.] 


time he has generally voted the Democratic ticket, al- 
though often casting his vote for the man whom he 
considers most eligible for the office, without reference 
to party. He is at present a member and president of 
the board of school trustees of the city of Muncie, and 
takes a great interest in educational matters. As a 
business man, he is careful, industrious, and prudent. 
His present position and influence he has attained en- 
tirely by his own exertions, and he is essentially a self- 
made man. He is a Master Mason. His religious con- 
victions are in accordance with -the teachings of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he and his fam- 
ily are members. Mr. Stephenson married, February 7, 
1864, Amanda, daughter of David and Malinda Thomp- 
son, of Delaware County. Four children have been 
born to them—Florence May, Frank Julian, Walter 
Thompson, and Wilfred Vigus. 


—2-400-<— 


| \) the ee ehurck of oe Rich ane 
os was born in Warren County, Ohio, May 16, 1809. 
%) He is one of the few survivors of that bold army 
of Christian soldiers who carried the blessings of the 
Bible and religious teachings into the state of Indiana. 
They struggled under disadvantages that those of the 
present generation can never feel, even if stationed on 
the frontiers as pioneer preachers. There were then no 
aids to them. They fought the whole battle themselves. 
He is the eldest of three sons of Samuel and Rhoda 
(Mills) Stewart. The father was one of the pioneer 
settlers of that county, and lived there until March, 
1831, when he removed to Delaware County, Indiana, 
where he died in the spring of 1839. The mother died 
in 1814, a victim of what was known as the ‘‘cold 
plague,’ which prevailed and was very fatal through- 
out that region. While a boy, David Stewart was a 
lover of books, but, in the straitened circumstances 
of the family, these could not be obtained. 
for reading matter, and its scarcity, are seen in the fact 
that he made weekly trips on foot to Lebanon, eight 
miles distant, to get and carry back to a subscriber the 
Western Star, their only source of news, that he might 


” 


have the coveted privilege of perusing its contents. 
The schocl-houses of those days were of the most prim- 
itive kind, built of unhewn logs, with glazed paper 
windows, and rough blocks for desks. Feeling that he 
must have better advantages than were there afforded, 
Mr. Stewart obtained his father’s consent—soon after 
the latter’s second marriage—to attend a so-called acad- 
emy in the village of Montgomery, fourteen miles from 
Cincinnati. Accordingly, in the month of December, 
1826, he set out on foot, with his wardrobe tied up in 
an old handkerchief, and on reaching his destination 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


His desire 


‘the winter 


79 


secured board with a kind family, whom he was to pay 
by doing chores. The school building formed a great 
contrast to that at his country home, and with the 
change in his situation all seemed, as he says, a new 
world to him. He studied there three winters, paying 
his board in the manner above stated, and clothing him- 
self by doing farm work at low wages in summer. At 
length he took charge of a common school. In the 
previous year, 1828, however, he had become interested 
in a great religious awakening and joined the Presby- 
terian Church. Shortly after this his attention was 
called to the ministry as a life work; and, upon the ad- 
vice of friends, he resigned his school in May, 1829, 
and entered Miami University, then under the presi- 
dency of Rev. R. H. Bishop, D. D. He graduated in 
1833, receiving the second honor in a large class, in 
which were Hon. Samuel Galloway, Rev. D. McDonald, 
Rev. J. F. Sawyer, B. W. Chidlaw, and Hon. W. 
Wright. Mr. Stewart’s college life was a period of 
self-denial. He was compelled, most of the time, to 
board himself in his room, which he did at a cost of 
about fifty cents per week. His college course com- 
pleted, years of hard study must elapse before he could 
begin the work of the ministry. For nearly a year he 
taught a school in Elizabethtown, Ohio, and, subse- 
quently, one year and a half in the seminary at Brook- 
ville, Indiana. During this time he was reading the- 
ology, and in October, 1835, was licensed by the 
Presbytery of Oxford, in their meeting at Somerville, 
and requested to enter the pulpit at once. The school 
board, however, insisted on his completing the year, 
and he remained until the following spring. During 
he twice preached at Rushville, and 
in April, 1836, accepted invitation to supply 
the pulpit at that Church. In the following No- 
vember he was ordained, and installed as its pas- 
tor. In that relation he remained about eighteen 
years, during which the Church greatly increased in 
numbers and influence. At the end of that time the 
members who resided in the country west of the town, 
desiring a division, formed an organization by them- 
selves; Mr. Stewart went with them, and continues to 
minister to his flock, some of whom have listened to his 
preaching for half a century. During this long period — 
he has been closely connected with the courts of the 
Church, and familiar with her history. In the Civil 
War, Mr. Stewart was identified with the various meas- 
ures for the support and comfort of the soldiers. While 
he was on a mission of that kind to the army at Vicks- 
burg, the citizens of Rush County nominated him, 
without his knowledge, to represent them in the Legis- 
lature. Thus pressed into the political field, he made 
the canvass, was elected in 1864, and re-elected in 1866 
and 1868. While he held this office there were two 
called sessions, during which were passed important 


an 


80 REPRESENTATIVE 
acts of legislation, among them bills for founding the 
Soldiers’ and Orphans’ Home, the House of Refuge, 
the Women’s Prison, and the Girls’ Reformatory. The 
last bill, appropriating fifty thousand dollars, was intro- 
duced and carried through by Mr. Stewart. At the 
close of the last session he retired from politics. In 
1834 he married Miss Fannie, daughter of Isaac and 
Laura Stone, of Franklin County, Indiana, and sister of 
Rev. J. M. Stone, D. D., and of Judge E. Sa Lome: 
She died in 1839, leaving one son, Major J. S. Stewart, 
now of Washington, District of Columbia. In Septem- 
ber, 1840, Mr. Stewart was united in marriage to Mrs. 
C. A. Pugh, of Rushville, whose father, Isaac Arnold, 
came from the Isle of Wight, England, and settled in 
Indiana in 1821. She is still living; her only surviving 
children are Doctor W. A. Pugh, and Sophia S., wife 
of Rey. W. W. Sickles, of Indianapolis. About ten 
years ago, Mr. Stewart took an active part in organiz- 
ing the Old Settlers’ Society, became its first president, 
and has been the statistician during its entire existence. 
He is president of the Cemetery Board and of the 
Building Association, is the owner of several residences, 
and has put up more buildings than any other citizen 
of the place. A poor man when he came to Rushville, 
he is now the possessor of a competence, and is regarded 
as a good financier. He is president of the reading 
club; and has had intimate relations with the schools 
and literary interests of the county for more than forty 
years, having witnessed, in his special work in the field 
of morals, great improvement. Mr. Stewart is a man of 
extended knowledge. He preaches in a conversational 
style, and endeavors to convince by the logic of facts 
rather than to move by the power of imagination. 
Though unassuming in all his intercourse, he is strong 
and persistent in purpose, and seldom fails in an under- 
taking. He is greatly attached to home, and has a 
fondness for the young, in whose society he often 
mingles. Asa clergyman, a legislator, and a citizen, he 
has sought the moral and intellectual good of the peo- 
ple, and filled his days with usefulness, 


—=-420-o— 


@ TONE, GENERAL ASAHEL, of Winchester, was 
sf) born in Washington County, Ohio, June 29, 1817. 
Js His parents, Ezra and Elizabeth (Dye) Stone, were 
p) 

married in New York State, and removed soon 
after to the vicinity of Marietta, Ohio. Remaining there 


but a short time, they proceeded to Cincinnati, where 


they resided many years, with the exception of a short 
Ezra Stone was a first- 
class mechanic; and in the spring and summer pre- 


time spent in Aurora, Indiana. 


pared wooden buildings, which he shipped to New 
Orleans on flat-boats during the winter, disposing of 
them after erection and completion. *General Stone ob- 


MEN OF INDIANA. [Oth Dest. 
tained his education in the public schools of Cincinnati, 
He also 
attended Sunday-school regularly, and made commend- 
able progress in all his studies. His natural fondness 
for mechanics led him to adopt the business of his 
father, and he became an extensive contractor and 
builder. He removed to Winchester, Indiana, in June, 
1839, and by exercising those habits of industry acquired 
in boyhood he arose to prominence in his profession 
and accumulated a fortune. His skill, taste, and judg- 
ment as a builder are beautifully illustrated in his 
palatial residence, which, for size and beauty of design, 
October 15, 1862, he 
was appointed quartermaster-general of the state, and 
Prior to this he had 
served as commissary-general, and, in the language of 
the adjutant-general’s report, ‘‘had already proved him- 
self a most capable and faithful officer, and his appoint- 
ment to this new position was a fitting and deserved 
tribute to his usefulness and efficiency.” Again the 
‘“‘The demands on the 
quartermaster-general during the time General Stone 
served in that capacity were of a very miscellaneous 
character; in fact, he came nearer being an officer of 
all work than any other officer connected with the state 
military service.” His duties, which were so incongru- 
ous, manifold, and often vexatious, were discharged 
with promptness and scrupulous fidelity. Under the 
wise and economical management of General Stone, the 
state bakery during his term of service yielded a profit 
of nearly one hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars. 
The important business of the quartermaster-general 
having been closed, General Stone resigned, March 11, 
1867. In 1847 he was elected a member of the Legisla- 
ture on the Whig ticket, defeating the Democratic and 
anti-slavery candidate. He was an efficient and influen- 
tial member of the House of Representatives, and was 
instrumental in changing the proposed route of the Belle- 
fontaine Railroad, so that it should pass through Win- 
chester. In 1860 he was elected to the state Senate by 
a large majority, and also served as Senator during the 
extra sessions called by Governor Morton in 1861. He 
was a member of the House in 1873. He has been 
prominently connected with the development of his 
county and vicinity, such as the projection and comple- 
tion of railroads, turnpikes, and other internal improve- 
ments. General Stone has served in the Grand Lodge 
of the Order of Odd-fellows, and is highly esteemed by 
its members. He has always been a strong advocate of 
temperance, both in theory and practice, having taken the 
Washingtonian Pledge and organized many divisions of 
the Sons of Temperance. He was the second Chief Tem- 
plar of the Grand Lodge of Grand Worthy Good Templars 
of the state. His fine physique and robust health show 
the blessings of a temperate life. In September, 1837, 


which were excellent, even at that early day. 


has few equals in the state. 


was stationed at Indianapolis. 


above-named authority says: 


Lune of 


F72C 


ac, te ai 


a 


bth Dist.) 


General Stone married Lydia B. Preston, of whom, 
after a union of more than forty years, it may truly be 
said that ‘‘her price is far above rubies; she stretcheth 
out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her 
hands to the needy.” General Stone has never associ- 
ated himself with any religious body, but has con- 
tributed liberally to many, without regard to denomi- 
national lines. His wife is an estimable member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. He is now president of 
the Randolph County Bank, of Winchester, and is a suc- 
cessful financier, an esteemed citizen, and an influential 
member of society, Since the above was in type we 
have received the Winchester /era/?, and copy from it 
the following extract from a long article on the subject: 


‘FOUNTAIN PARK CEMETERY—A Magnificent Dona- 
tion— The Grounds and their Adornment as Contemplated— 
General Asahel Stone, who has been eminently successful 
in financial operations, has for some time contemplated 
the purchase of a tract of ground suitable for a ceme- 
tery and donating it to the corporation of Winchester. 
Forty acres of ground were recently purchased, immedi- 
ately south of the corporation limits, for that purpose, 
and a survey and draft has been made after the most 
approved style, with convenient drives and walks per- 
meating the grounds. The whole is a most beautiful 
and novel arrangement, rendering every lot readily ac- 
cessible and admirably arranged for taste and conve- 
nience in adorning and beautifying the grounds. 

«At a regular meeting of the town board last night 
a formal presentation of the premises was made and the 
title passed. The following resolution was unanimously 
adopted by the board: 

“«¢ Whereas, Asahel Stone and his wife have this day 
donated by deed to the town of Winchester a tract of 
land lying south of said town, for the purpose of mak- 
ing a burying-ground and park, to be called Fountain 
Park Cemetery, 

‘« «Resolved, therefore, That we, the trustees of the 
town of Winchester, on behalf of the people of said 
town, tender our most sincere thanks to said Asahel 
Stone and wife for said donation, and accept the same 
with gratitude, and assure them that the gift is highly 
appreciated by the citizens of said town, and that they 
will ever be remembered by a grateful community.’” 


—<>-9D0H->—__ 
Ki; URFACE, DANIEL, editor of the Richmond 7¢/- 
of gram, the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Redman) 
es Surface, was born in Preble County, Ohio, May 19, 
%) 1836. He graduated at Otterbein University in 
1862, and immediately became principal of the Michi- 
gan Collegiate Institute, at Leoni. At the close of that 
school year he entered a wider and far different field of 
labor, as army correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazeéée. 
He was first sent to West Virginia, and three months 
afterward to Chattanooga, with Hooker, when that gen- 
eral joined the Army of the Cumberland. The duties 
of a war correspondent were very difficult, for he was 
obliged to encounter not only hardship and danger, but 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 8I 


also the jealousy and opposition of officers, because of the 
greater liberties granted him, and the fact that some corre- 
spondents had unwittingly given information to the en- 
emy. Yet Mr. Surface won the confidence of the authori- 
ties, especially of General Grant, who gave him a privilege 
allowed only two other correspondents in the West: 
‘¢HEADQUARTERS MIL. Dis. OF THE MIss., 
NASHVILLE, TENN., December 26, 1863. } 

‘«Guards, pickets, and military authorities will pass 
the bearer, Mr. D. Surface, correspondent Cincinnati 
Gazette, throughout the entire command without hin- 
drance; and government steamers and military railroads 
will furnish him free transportation to and from any 
point within this military division until further orders. 
By order of Major-general U. S. GRANT. 

“Gro. K. Leet, Asststant Adjutant-general.” 

Mr. Surface witnessed all that series of battles that 
began with Mission Ridge and culminated with the cap- 
ture of Atlanta. The Cincinnati Gazette of that period 
contains many interesting letters from his pen, among 
which is one in particular that attracted much attention. 
It is a clear and comprehensive account of Sherman’s 
great flank movement, which compelled Hood to evacu- 
ate Atlanta, and severed and demoralized his army, to- 
gether with a description of the captured city. He 
remained a few months at Washington with Whitelaw 
Reid on the Gazette bureau of correspondence, and also 
as correspondent of the Chicago 77zbune. He accom- 
panied Grant through the battles of the Wilderness, and 
then went by ship to Savannah to meet Sherman at the 
close of his famous march to the sea. He stayed there, 
contributing to the Gaze¢/e and the Philadelphia Jugzzrer, 
until the war had nearly ended. On his return from 
the South he bought an interest in the Toledo Commer- 
ctal, and became its editor. At the end of one year he 
sold his share, and resumed connection with the Gazette. 
From July to October of 1866 he traveled through the 
South, attending the state conventions held there for the 
purpose of reconstruction. His communications ai that 
time are replete with information concerning; not only 
the proceedings of those conventions, but also the spirit 
of the Southern people, the condition of the country, etc. 
In 1870 he purchased an interest in the Richmond 7e/- 
gvam, editing that journal ever since. Under his manage- 
ment it has been placed on a firm foundation, and has 
attained a larger weekly circulation than any paper in the 
city. The 7e/egram is Republican, as Mr. Surface has 
been a zealous member of that party from its organization. 
It requires a rare combination of abilities to make the 
successful war correspondent. The stirring scenes that 
Mr. Surface witnessed he has described with an able 
pen. He does not always confine himself to prose, 
but has written a number of poems, of which ‘*An Ad- 
dress to the Alumni of Otterbein University” is espe- 
cially worthy of mention; and another, entitled ‘‘Sym- 
posiac,” won an encomium from Charles G. Leland, 


82 


the editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine. Mr. Surface 
is unassuming and courteous; but in political strife his 
opponents find him vigorous, pungent, and_ severe. 
Mr. Surface married, December 24, 1867, Miss Kate 
Kumler, of Butler County, Ohio, daughter of John 
Kumler. 

—-2-g906-0— 


cn JAMES ELI, M. D., of Richmond, was 
born in Sewellsville, Ohio, April 5, 1843. His 
parents were Barnett and Letitia (McPherson) Tay- 
lor, both of Ohio. He first attended the village 
primary school, then the Fairview High School. Hav- 
ing finished the preparatory course, he entered college ; 
but soon the sounds of war called him from the class- 
room to the camp. October 15, 1861, he enlisted in the 
5th Ohio Cavalry, in General Wallace’s division. The 
first important service performed by his regiment was 
tearing up the track of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, 
probably the first destroyed in the West. Mr. Taylor 
rose by meritorious service to the positions of orderly 
sergeant, first lieutenant, captain, acting assistant adju- 
tant-general, and assistant adjutant-general on the staff 
of General Thomas T. Heath. He had enlisted at the 
age of eighteen, as a private, and was not twenty-one 
when he received a captain’s commission. He was in the 
army over four years, participating in the following en- 
gagements: Shiloh, Tennessee; siege of Corinth, Cold 
Water, Mississippi; Hernando, Mississippi; Matamora, 
Tennessee; Grant’s campaign in Mississippi; Cherokee 
Station, Alabama; Resaca, Georgia; Dallas, Georgia; 
Allatoona Mountain; Atlanta, Georgia; Jonesborough, 
Lovejoy Station, Georgia; Bear Creek Station, Georgia ; 
Macon, Georgia; Buck Head Creek; Savannah, Georgia; 
Altamaha River, Georgia; Blackwell, South Carolina; 
Aiken, South Carolina; Monroe Cross Roads, North Car- 
olina; Averysborough, North Carolina; Bentonville, 
North Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina. The regiment 


took part in many skirmishes. After the triumphant march 
to the sea and into North Carolina, Captain Taylor was 
mustered out of the service at Charlotte, in that state, 
October 30, 1865. In December he entered the Iron 
City Commercial College, in Pittsburgh, staying until 
May, 1866. He then commenced the study of medi- 
cine, to which his tastes had inclined from boyhood. 
Soon afterward he engaged in the drug business in 
Bay City, Michigan, continuing his medical studies, and 
began practice there. In 1869 he attended a course 
of lectures at the Miami Medical College, graduating 
in 1871 from the College of Medicine and Surgery in 
Cincinnati. He then removed to Richmond, where he 
has ever since actively practiced his profession. He 
joined the Masons in September, 1867, and has held 
every station below that of Master, and taken the 
degrees of Chapter and Commandery. From 1873 to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dest. 


1875 he was Captain-general of the Richmond Com- 
mandery, and next year was elected Eminent Com- 
He is now a Past Eminent Commander. He 
In 
1869 he bore an active part in the Republican conven- 
tion of the Sixth Congressional District of Michigan, 


mander. 
is a Republiean, and was formerly very prominent. 


one of the most important and exciting political assem- 
blies ever held in that state. While a member of the 
council of Portsmouth—now incoraported with Bay City— 
he was instrumental in saving that township seventy 
thousand dollars by his ingenious and able efforts. He 
married, November 8, 1871, Miss Sarah H. Snell, of 
Fort Plain, New York. Doctor Taylor is one of the 
most genial of men. He is noted for his shrewdness, 
energy, and perseverance. In his profession he is dili- 
gent in study, and judicious and skillful in treatment. 
He has a sympathetic and benevolent nature, often at- 
tending gratuitously the destitute sick. He possesses 
those qualities by which men acquire popularity, and 
in politics might have won a high degree of distinction. 
His war record is a worthy one. During four years of 
hard service he proved efficient in every situation; he 
was resolute and brave in battle, and correct, even to 
the smallest details, in the duties of assistant adjutant- 
general. In perfect health and having good mental 
powers, the better part of his career undoubtedly lies in 
the future. 
920 


EMPLER, JAMES N., lawyer, of Muncie, was 

born near Xenia, Ohio, February 8, 1836. He is 
ch the eldest son, in a family of eight children, of 

©, George W. and Hannah S. (Medsker) Templer, all 
living. His ancestors emigrated from England in 1685, 
settling in Loudon and Prince William -Counties, Vir- 
ginia, where, and in England, representatives of the fam- 
ily yet remain. The original name was Temple, and the 
final ‘«r”? was affixed about the year 1750 by the Virgin- 
ian branch. They were industrious, enterprising people, 
at once becoming planters; and most of their descendants 
have engaged in agriculture. In 1838 his father removed 
to Jay County, Indiana, and pre-empted some wild land. 
The region was an unbroken wilderness, and the clearing 
the farm continued until 1843. Then the father was 
elected to a county office, and removed to Portland, where 
Mr. Templer ac- 


he and most of the family yet reside. 
quired a fair education in Liber College, and at eighteen 
began the study of law, under the instruction of Judge 
Jacob M. Haynes, of Portland. By teaching school 
at intervals, he continued his studies, and in April, 
1857, was admitted to the bar. He opened an office 
in Portland, but soon afterward formed an equal part- 
nership with Hon. John P. C. Shanks, then a leading 


He remained in that connection for ten years, 
In 1861 


lawyer. 
enjoying an extensive and lucrative practice. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 


LE 
eae age 
SRT 
ages 


Sores 
pasa Pg Dg 
eee 


6th Dist.) 


Mr. Templer was elected prosecuting attorney of the 
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, and held the office three 
consecutive terms of two years each, seldom failing to 
sustain his cases, and never having a judgment reversed 
by the Supreme Court because of errors or inefficiency 
on his part. His successes were usually the result of 
hotly contested trials, of which the opposing counsel 
were the ablest criminal lawyers of the state. In 1871 
he removed to Muncie, and, with Ralph S. Gregory, 
Esq., formed the present successful law firm of Tem- 
pler & Gregory, which has long been in the front rank 
at the bar. In 1868, Mr. Templer was nominated for 
contingent presidential elector for the Eleventh District, 
in which he then lived, and made a canvass of the same 
that contributed not a little in giving the electoral vote 
of Indiana to General Grant. 
put in nomination for presidential elector for the Sixth 
District, of which he also made a thorough canvass, 
and secured thereby a majority of about two thousand 
in the district; but, as the result is determined by the 


In 1876 he was again 


entire vote of the state, his opponent was elected. 
Templer was a Democrat until 1861, when, following 
the example of such Democratic statesmen as Stephen 
A. Douglas, he took strong grounds against the asserted 
right of a state to secede, and in favor of a vigorous pros- 
ecution of the war for the suppression of the Rebellion 
and the preservation of the Union. This course identi- 
fied him with the Republican party, with which he is 
still connected. He has taken an active part in every 
political campaign, in conventions, on the stump, and 
with his pen; though he has not sought office, nor held 
any, except that of prosecuting attorney, above men- 
tioned. He has declined to be a candidate for Congress, 
although often solicited to serve. Mr. Templer fosters 
educational interests to the extent of his ability, and 
favors a system of compulsory instruction. He is not 
identified with any branch of the Church, but is friendly 
to all; a firm believer in the orthodox doctrines of 
Christianity as taught in the New Testament, and vio- 
lently opposed to sectarianism, he desires a union of all 
the Churches. A selfish indifference to the public good 
has no place in his nature, and schools, religious insti- 
tutions, and all movements looking to the advancement 
of the city, county, or state, receive his cordial support. 
He has long been connected with the Masonic Fra- 
ternity, has been High-priest of the Chapter, and now 
is a Knight Templar. In Odd-fellowship he is a mem- 
ber of the Encampment. His name is also enrolled on 
the records of the Improved Order of Red Men, the 
Knights of Pythias, and the Murphy Temperance Club. 
Mr. Templer married, October 4, 1857, Ann, eldest 
daughter of John J. and Mary A. Adair. They have 
had five children, three of whom are living: Edward 
Rutledge, a student in Holbrook Military Academy, 
Sing Sing, New York, a youth of much promise, who 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. : 


Mr,. 


83 


has chosen the profession of law; Miss Flora, who re- 
sides with her father; and Emma, wife of Thomas J. 
Slinger, of Muncie, a portrait painter of much ability. 
Mrs. Templer died in the spring of 1874, of consump- 
tion. Mr. Templer was again married July 9, 1876; his 
second wife being Mrs. Susan Kilgore, widow of the 
late Hon. Alfred Kilgore, an account of whose life ap- 
pears in this volume. James N. Templer is the peer of 
his fellows as an advocate, and has few equals and no 
superiors in the preparation and management of cases. 
As a writer he is terse, racy, and fluent; and, as a 
speaker, clear and concise in statement, logical and con- 
vincing in argument, rising at times to impassioned elo- 
quence. He is all this from natural endowments and 
self-culture, and has attained his present position solely 
through the impelling force of his own genius. He 
possesses not only those powers that render men efficient 
in court and the political arena, but also those gentler 
traits that mark refined social intercourse. In all his 
daily affairs he manifests a generous regard for others, 
and a strict allegiance to principles of honesty and 
honor, and no man in Delaware County more fully 
merits and commands the hearty good will of the 
people. 


09 


INHOMPSON, DAVID, of Delaware 
+ County, was born in Butler County, Ohio, Octo- 
A ber 27, 1817. His parents, David and Mary 
<4 (Swope) Thompson, were natives of Virginia. 
The following article of interest we copy from the 
Muncie 7Zzmes, published December 27, 1879. The 
David Thompson referred to was the father of the sub- 
ject of our sketch: 


—>- Fate — 


a pioneer 


‘<The bearer hereof, David Thompson, has served as 
a corporal in my company of riflemen in the army of 
the United States, from which he has obtained an hon- 
orable discharge. But in justice to the said corporal, 
for many services he has rendered the public, I consider 
it my duty, and am fully warranted to say, that his 
conduct has uniformly met with my approbation, as 
well as with that of all other officers who had an oppor- 
tunity to know him. Corporal Thompson was employed 
in reconnoitering the Indian country, and paths leading: 
to and from their several towns and villages, as well as 
being constantly in advance of the army during the 
campaign. While thus engaged, he assisted in taking 
seven Indian prisoners—all warriors except one—from 
their towns and villages, in order to gain information 
for our army. In accomplishing this great object sev- 
eral skirmishes ensued, in which he behaved in a brave 
and soldier-like manner; and when the garrison of Fort 
Recovery, which I had the honor to command, was at- 
tacked, and surrounded by nearly two thousand savages, 
this Corporal Thompson made an escape through them 
with intelligence to the commander-in-chief, who was 
twenty-four miles distant from the place. For this serv- 
ice I now beg leave to return him my sincere thanks, 
and hope that all good people who are friends to their 


84 


country may receive and treat with respect the said 
David Thompson, a reward which he has merited. 
‘¢Certified under my hand and seal, at Staunton, in 
the state of Virginia, this twenty-ninth day of Octo- 
ber, 1795. ALEX. GIBSON, 
“* Captain in the Tenth Legion.” 


There is also another letter approved by General 
‘Wayne, who was at that time in command: 


“<< By his lxcellency, ANTHONY WAYNE, EsQ., Major- 
general and Commander-in-chief of the Legwon of the 
United States : 

‘These are to certify that the bearer thereof, David 
Thompson, a corporal in the Fourth Sub. Legion, has 
served in the above Legion, and in Captain Gibson’s 
company, for the space of three years, and is for the 
reasons below mentioned discharged from the said 
Legion, he having received his pay up to the first day 
of January, 1795, clothing of all kinds, and all other 
just demands, from the time of his enlisting in the 
Legion to the day of his discharge, as appears by the fol- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


lowing receipt. He is discharged, having faithfully served | 


the full term of time for which he engaged. To prevent 
any ill use that may be made of his discharge by its fall- 
ing into the hands of any other person whatsoever, here 
follows the description of said David Thompson: He is 
twenty years of age, five feet eleven inches tall, dark com- 
plexion, black hair and black eyes; born in the county 
of Amherst, in the state of Virginia; a farmer. 

**Given under my hand and seal, at headquarters, 
this nineteenth day of August, 1795. 

‘© WILLIAM CLARK, 
‘“* Lreutenant, Acting Sub. Legion Major and Inspector to 
the Fourth Sub. Legion. 
“‘ ANT’y WAYNE. 

‘© To whom tt may concern, civil and military.” 


David Thompson continued to reside in Virginia until 
1816; he then emigrated with his family, consisting of 
his wife and ten children, to Butler County, Ohio, 
where, in the year following, his son David, the subject 
of this biography, was born. 
about the year 1824, when they again started westward 
and located in Henry County, Indiana. Mr. Thompson 
labored on his father’s farm, and attended school as op- 
portunity offered, until 1837, when he married, and 
with his newly made wife removed to Delaware County. 
After two years, during which time he was employed 
upon a farm, he purchased a tract of wild land, consist- 
ing of eighty acres, which he cleared and prepared for 
In 1840 he sold this land and bought one 
hundred and sixty acres in the north-western part of 
the county. Here he resided until 1871, when he re- 
moved to Muncie, the county seat. He has added to 
until it now contains three hundred and 
seventy-two acres of land, most of which is under culti- 
vation. Since his residence in Muncie he has devoted 
his time chiefly to buying and selling stock and land. 
Mr. Thompson has held no public office, never having 
taken an active part in politics, but has devoted his ener- 
gies to every enterprise undertaken to benefit the city 
of Muncie. He was originally an old-line Whig, and 


Here they remained until 


cultivation. 


his farm 


[Oth Dist. 


cast his first vote for General Harrison. When the Re- 
publican party was organized he associated himself with 
it until 1872, when he supported Horace Greeley for the 
presidency, and since that time he has been inde- 
pendent in politics. 
accordance with the teachings of the Church of the 
United Brethren. He married Miss Malinda Davis, 
August 24, 1837. They have had six children, five of 
whom survive. Mr. Thompson is now sixty-two years 
of age and enjoys good health. From early manhood 
he has relied entirely upon his own resources, and by 
industry, perseverance, and integrity has acquired his 
present handsome competence, and established a reputa- 
tion among his fellow-citizens of which he may be 


His religious convictions are in 


justly proud. 
—FEte-— 


\INGLEY, BENJAMIN F., of Rushville, was born 
; in Clermont County, Ohio, August 26, 1823. He 
| is of English-Welsh descent. His father, Benja- 
“2, min J. Tingley, was a native of New Jersey, and 
the son of Levi Tingley, who emigrated to that state 
from England at the outbreak of the Revolution, in 
which he rendered active service. His mother, whose 
maiden name was Susannah Brown, was descended from 
One 
of them, George Brown (father of Professor R. T. 
Brown, of Indianapolis), afterward removed to Lewis 
County, Kentucky; thence to Clermont County, Ohio, 
and thence to Indiana Territory. 
companied the family to Indiana in October, 1837, 
where they located on a farm within one mile of Rush- 
ville. 
assist his father in the field. 
mon school in Ohio, and during as much time as could 
be spared from work he continued his studies in a sim- 
ilar school near his new home. Year followed year and 
he did his part of the hard toil cheerfully and well. 
In the spring of 1847, at the age of twenty-three, hav- 
ing just married, and preferring mercantile pursuits to 
agriculture, he removed to Ashland, Wabash County, 
and there engaged in trade. He soon gained the re- 
spect of the citizens, and obtained the appointment of 
postmaster, which position he occupied until the fall of 
1848, when he removed to Wabash, the county seat. 
There he continued the sale of merchandise for a time, 
but in 1851, soon after the death of his father, he re- 
turned to the farm, which he carried on about six years. 
At the end of that period he became a clerk and book- 
keeper in Rushville, where he located permanently. In 
August, 1863, while engaged in his business, he was 
nominated, without his solicitation, for the position of 
clerk of the Rush Circuit Court. This office, which he 
accepted with reluctance, he held for two terms of four 
In 1872 he was elected to represent Rush 


ancestors who emigrated from Wales to Virginia. 


Benjamin Tingley ac- 


He was then fourteen years of age, and able to 
He had attended a com- 


years each. 


bth Dist.) 


County in the Legislature, and served in the special 
and regular sessions of 1872-73. He was a member of 
several important committees, among which were the 
Committee on Ways and Means, and that on Benevo- 
lent Institutions. During the past five years he has been 
engaged in farming, and in managing his brother’s 
estate. Mr. Tingley rendered the Jefferson, Madison 
and Indianapolis, and the Cincinnati, Hamilton and 
Indianapolis Railway, efficient aid by his own contribu- 
In 1865 
he joined the Free and Accepted Masons, and for four 
years was treasurer of the Blue Lodge. His wife is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but his re- 
ligious opinions are not restricted to the creed of any 
one denomination—his support being extended to all 
alike. In his younger days Mr. Tingley was ardently 
attached to the Whig party, and cast his first ballot for 
Henry Clay. In keeping with those early political con- 
nections, he has been since 1854 a stanch Republican. 
His marriage occurred November 12, 1846. Mrs. Ting- 
ley’s maiden name was Susannah M. Cassady; she is the 
daughter of Thomas and Rachel (Crawford) Cassady— 


tions, and in obtaining subscriptions for stock. 


the former one of the pioneers of Rush County, and the | 


latter a native of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Tingley’s chil- 
dren, two in number, died when young. 
has readily adapted himself to the various kinds of 
business in which he has engaged, and to the official 


Mr. Tingley 


positions he has held, always acquitting himself with | 
His life has been one of industry and just deal- | 
ing; and, as implied by the unsought political favors | fireplace, 


| Mr. Turner made the most of them during two and a 


credit. 


conferred upon him, he has a strong hold upon public 
regard, and is deemed a capable and _ trustworthy 
citizen. 


+g 


(HOMPSON, WILLIAM M., treasurer of Wayne 
County, was born in Randolph County, Indiana, 

( October 6, 1838, and is the son of Montgomery 
and Piety (Horne) Thompson. His educational 
advantages in youth were quite limited; for, upon the 
death of his father, which occurred when Mr. Thomp- 
son was sixteen years old, he was obliged to employ his 
time upon the farm. In 1864, at the age of twenty- 
three, he removed to Richmond, in this state, and be- 
came a grocer’s clerk. Active, honest, and efficient in 
these duties, he was advanced, at length, to the posi- 
tion of traveling salesman, in which he was very suc- 
cessful. He remained in this business until 1876, when 
he was elected to the office he now holds, that of treas- 
urer of Wayne County. Mr. Thompson joined the 
Order of Free and Accepted Masons in 1860, and has 
since taken all the degrees to and including that of 
Knight Templar. He is a Republican and an active 
worker in that party. He is not a member of any re- 
ligious society, but his family are connected with the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN Ol INDIANA. 


| finally, in 1828, to Muncie. 


85 


Presbyterian Church. Ne married, February 2, 1859, 
Miss Lucinda Vannuies, of Wayne County, by whom he 
has had two children, a son and a daughter. As a 
salesman, Mr. Thompson was one of the best, and in 
the office of county treasurer he has acquitted himself 
so well that he has been renominated without opposi- 
tion. In person and manner he is well fitted to impress 
He has what might be termed a 
Czesarian memory of names, and in genuine kindliness 


others favorably. 


he recognizes every casual acquaintance and wins his re- 
gard. By his sterling worth of character Mr. Thompson 
has won the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and a popu- 
larity in the county that he richly deserves. 


—>- G0 -- 

(\URNER, MINUS, for half a century a citizen of 
Muncie, was born in Sussex County, Delaware, 
May 22, 1807, and is of pure Anglo-Saxon descent. 
In 1812, when he was about four years of age, 
the family removed to Lexington, Kentucky, and from 
that place, in 1817, to Covington, in the same state. 
In 1823 they came to Randolph County, Indiana, and 


During his residence in 
Kentucky, Mr. Turner attended the common schools, 
which were held in rough log school-houses, with oiled 
paper windows. 
comfortable that it was sometimes necessary to build a 
fire in the center of the room, in addition to that in the 
The methods of instruction were crude, but 


In winter these buildings were so un- 


half years. When not in school his time was chiefly 


| employed in brick-laying and plastering, having learned 


those trades under his father. On his arrival in Muncie, 
at the age of twenty-one, he possessed only twelve and 
a half cents, yet he was not discouraged; for, with 
youth, health, and a determined spirit, he felt confident 
of winning success. His mother having died, he re- 
mained with his father five years, when he began life 
on his own account. The village was improving rapidly 
and there was employment for all. He soon engaged 
in the manufacture of brick and lime. Prosperity at- 
tended his enterprise, and he erected a neat brick resi- 
dence, which was the first of the kind in the county. 
About the year 1837 he also built and opened the first 
brick tavern in the country, known as Turner’s Hotel. 
In 1850 Mr. Turner disposed of the hotel and under- 
took the dry-goods business; but this was not suited to 
his tastes, and in less than one year he retired, and en- 
gaged in building and selling houses. While so em- 
ployed he constructed twelve good dwellings, five of 
which he still owns. In many respects Muncie bears 
the impress of his well directed labors; he was among 
those who cut the brush from the land where the prin- 


cipal street is now located, and was the first supervisor 


86 


and one of the first school trustees of the place. He 
has been a stockholder in several turnpikes, and in all 
the railroads passing through Muncie. Mr. Turner cast 
his first vote for Andrew Jackson, but afterwards joined 
the Whigs, becoming a Republican on the organization 
of that party. He is a firm believer in spiritualism, or 
the Harmonial philosophy. Mr. Turner has ever pur- 
sued the ‘‘even tenor of his way,” never seeking noto- 
riety of any kind, but always taking an active part in 
advancing the interests of the city of Muncie. His 
characteristics are prudence, firmness, and frugality, and 
in his intercourse with others he manifests a spirit that 
wins many friends. During his long and-active life he 
has amassed considerable wealth, the result of his own 
honest labor. Though past threescore years and ten, 
he retains his mental and bodily vigor, and it may yet 
be many years before the final, and to him undreaded, 
summons shall come. Mr. Turner married, October 6, 
1831, Miss Eliza Courtney Bowen, by whom he had two 
children, who died in infancy. The mother also died 
October 1, 1833. The following year he married Miss 
Fannie Marshall, his present wife. She is still living, 
and their marriage has been blessed with seven children, 
of whom three survive: Melissa, wife of N. F. Ethell, 
editor and proprietor of the daily Muncie News; and L. 
L. and Charley Turner, successful bankers at Sedan, 
Kansas. 
—~-gote->—@_ 


AL] ATSON, ENOS L., was born in Greene County, 
y / Ohio, December 22, 1830. He is the son of James 
@N9 and Nancy (Linsey) Watson. His father died 
OF when he was but an infant, and his mother, with 

her family of seven children, removed to Randolph 

County, Indiana, in 1832, and settled on a farm in 

His early education was obtained at 

such schools as. the country districts afforded at that 


Ward ‘Township. 


time, but, being ambitious to learn, he attended the 
county seminary at Winchester, and so well did he im- 
prove his opportunities that he began teaching at the 
age of nineteen, and for some time he taught in winter 
In the fall of 1852 he was 
elected county surveyor on account of his skill in math- 
In the 


and studied law in summer. 
ematics. This office he held for four years. 
mean time he pursued the study of law, and in 1856 
was elected prosecuting attorney for the counties of 
Jay and Randolph. This was a great compliment, 
especially when we consider that he had only been ad- 
mitted to the bar that year. He was re-elected in 1858 
for two years more, when the circuit was enlarged by 
the addition of Delaware and Blackford Counties. Here 
he served two years. In 1863 he was appointed United 
States internal revenue assessor, but resigned in a few 
months. In 1864 he formed a partnership with Judge 
Cheney, which continued for eight years. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


During this | 


[6th Dist. 


period he had gained a lucrative practice. He was elected 
to the Legislature in 1867, serving one term, and was 
again elected in 1878. In 1874 he formed a partnership 
with L. J. Monks, the present Circuit Judge. Judge 
Cheney was then again with him until the latter retired 
from business in 1877, and now he has associated with 
him William E. Monks, cousin of his former partner. 
While Mr. Watson has been advancing in his chosen 
profession, he has not been indifferent to the public im- 
provements of the country around, but has contributed 
to the building of railroads, turnpikes, etc. He is not 
a member of any religious organization, but Mrs. Wat- 
son is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
As a newspaper editor and proprietor, he has recently . 
been active. In February, 1876, he purchased a half 
interest in the Winchester Herald, and changed it from 
an independent to a Republican paper, and in July, 
1876, he became sole proprietor, and refitted and refur- 
nished his office, buying a new Taylor steam press, and 
is now making the business successful. As a member 
of the Republican party, Mr. Watson has proved him- 
self a peace-maker, and has had an important agency 
in causing his adopted county to stand without dissen- 
sions, and with an overwhelming Republican majority. 


— 3-400 


"I HITESELL, JOSEPH M., M. D., was born in 
> Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, October 19, 
CAD 1804. He is the son of Jacob and Catherine 

G (Markle) Whitesell. The former was a native of 
Holland, and the latter of Pennsylvania. He is the 
youngest of nine children, three of whom are yet living, 
including among them the second son, who was born in 
1789, and a sister, born in 1794. Joseph spent his time 
as a boy on a farm. He was left an orphan, by” the 
death’of his father, when but six years old. At the age 
of seventeen he entered college, and was considered an 
excellent mathematician for his opportunities. In Latin 
he was still reading Caesar when he was obliged to dis- 
continue his school life. It should be stated that while 
here he had to work in order to pay for his board and 
as in other cases, this had the effect of 
sharpening his appreciation of knowledge. He then stud- 
ied medicine under the celebrated Doctor James R: Speer, 
of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who, it is thought, performed 
the first operation for cataract west of the Alleghany 
Mountains. After three years of application, he began 
practice in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, where he continued 
one year. On August 20, 1829, he reached the village 
of West Liberty, Henry County, Indiana, near where 
Knightstown now stands, a village which has crippled 
and finally annihilated its rival. But at that early day 
it was headquarters for many whisky-loving citizens of 
ITenry, Rush, and Hancock Counties, and the place 


tuition; but, 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY QF ILLINOIS 


6th Dist.] 


where on Saturdays many disgraceful drunken brawls 
occurred, in which even justices, judges, and other of- 
ficers of the law, participated. These scenes were 
shocking and repugnant to Doctor Whitesell, whose 
sense of propriety and temperance principles forbade 
such degrading practices. Men would come out of a 
bloody fight, and at once both proceed to wash from the 
same basin of water, and then walk into a doggery and 
drink together. We are thankful that those scenes 
have passed away. ‘‘ Moderation,” says Fuller, ‘is 
the silken string running through the pearl-chain of 
all virtues.” On reaching his new home, the young 
physician’s property consisted of a horse, bridle and 
saddle, and five dollars and eighteen cents in cash. In 
September he was taken sick, and so continued until 
about Christmas of that year; and during this sickness, 
when far from his native hills and alone, the five dollars 
were borrowed, and the borrower ran away, which re- 
duced his cash to eighteen cents. But z2/ desperandum 
was his watchword, and he went boldly forward in the 
practice of his profession until he now (1878) owns near 
seven hundred acres of land, besides other valuable 
property. To practice medicine in those times was no 
child’s play. Long, muddy, and crooked roads, through 
almost impenetrable forests and swamps, were part of 
his hardships, year in amd year out. And of the suc- 
ceeding twenty-one years, he believes he was astride of 
his horse for seven years of the time, riding through an 
area of country near twenty miles in circumference. 
He is now in his fiftieth year of active exertion in the 
medical profession, and is believed to be the oldest 
practicing physician in the state of Indiana, with one 
exception. He mentions two instances in which he was 
riding at midnight. The darkness was so profound 
that he became bewildered and lost, and finally had to 
dismount from his horse, and sit or lie on the ground 
till morning; and that, too, when there were many 
wolves and other savage animals in the woods. On 
August 19, 1831, he married Eleanor D. Carey, the 
daughter of Waitsell M. Carey, who owned the land 
on which Knightstown was afterwards built. Their 
family consists of two sons, both of whom are married. 
One is on a farm near by, and the oldest lives in 
Knightstown. Doctor Whitesell has long been an active 
temperance man, and was a member of the Washing- 
tonians in their day. He joined the Masonic Order in 
1840. Both he and his wife are members of the Presby- 
terian Church. In 1862 Doctor Whitesell was appointed 
assistant surgeon of the 36th Indiana Regiment. At 
this time, being near sixty years of age, he had no 
thought of entering the army ; but as the fires of patri- 
otism burned in his heart, and as he thought he might 
make his medical knowledge and experience instru- 
mental in saving some poor soldier’s life, he resolved to 
accept the position, and went promptly to the field of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


87 


action. Here he continued for six months, sharing 
with his comrades the hardships and privations of camp 
life. But it was too much. He was reduced almost to 
a skeleton, having lost fifty-four pounds in weight. 
With this unmistakable warning before him, he retired 
from the army to save his own life. He afterwards re- 
covered his tone of health, and is now sprightly and 
active for his age, is a good member of society, and is 
highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens. 


—-90te-o— 


}ILCOXON, LLOYD, miller, grain and coal 
¥ \' dealer, of Muncie, was born in Scioto County, 
a Ohio, May 11, 1821. He inherits an industrious, 
frugal, and thrifty disposition. His 
grandfather was an Englishman, a very extensive land- 
owner in Scioto County. His mother’s father was also 
a native of England, and a farmer in the same county. 
His father, Lloyd Wilcoxon, was born in Maryland, 
carried on farming and carpentry in Ohio, served in 
the War of 1812, and died at the age of seventy-five in 
Muncie. His mother, Elizabeth Truitt, was of English 
descent and a native of Pennsylvania. They were 
both persons of good sense, quiet demeanor, and per- 
severing industry. Lloyd Wilcoxon came to Indiana 


with his parents in 1832, and settled in Delaware 
County. He had only the limited advantages of far- 


paternal 


mers’ sons in those days—one term of school per year. 
Hard labor on the farm, though it prevented attendance 
at school, kept him from idleness and vice, and was the 
means of laying the foundations of an excellent charac- 
ter. Though fond of mechanism, he worked chiefly at 
agriculture, and before long was the owner of a farm. 
On this he was employed until 1852, with so much suc- 
cess that he was able then to engage in buying and 
selling grain. After five years of prosperity he added, 
in 1858, the milling business. This was begun on a 
small scale, but has been enlarged until it embraces all 
the late improvements. In 1870 he entered into part- 
nership with his son-in-law, Mr. J. M. Long, in the 
sale of farm implements, but abandoned it four years 
later, as the mill required much of his attention. In 
1874 he established a coal-yard, of which the business 
is now flourishing. The demands of his business have 
made Mr. Wilcoxon fully alive to the importance of 
having good means of transportation; and therefore he 
has become a stockholder in every road, either railway 
or turnpike, entering Muncie. These are eight in num- 
ber. He is treasurer of the Walnut Street and the 
Middletown Turnpike Companies. The cares of a 
large business have not engrossed his mind to the 
exclusion of the needs of his fellow-men, or the re- 
quirements of religion. He has ever sought, through 
various organizations, to benefit the needy and reform 


88 


the erring. This is especially true in the cause of tem- 
perance. He is an active worker in several societies, 
and sets before his workmen the example of perfect 
sobriety, making it an imperative rule that no one shall 
remain in his employment who drinks intoxicating 
liquor. Mr. Wilcoxon has been a member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church since the age of sixteen, and 
has been a trustee for twenty-five years, besides holding 
other offices. In 1854 he joined the Independent Order 
of Odd-fellows, and at the close of that year had taken 
ali the degrees of the subordinate lodge and of the 
Enéampment. Two years later he was sent to the 
Grand Lodge of the state as a representative of the 
subordinate lodge and the Encampment. Although 
brought up a Democrat, he was one of the first to unite 
with the Republican party. He has always held de- 
cided political views, but has never sought office, beliey- 
ing that business duties are more important and more 
profitable. Mr. Wilcoxon is one of that class to whom, 
in great measure, is committed the welfare of the na- 
tion; for upon the enterprising, upright business men 
depend the vital interests of the people. He has been 
untiring in his efforts to develop the resources of the 
country and provide outlets for its products; while, by 
example and substantial aid, he has labored to confer 
upon his fellows the benefits of moral and religious 
culture. Decision, judgment, executive force, and hon- 
esty are the qualities that appear prominent in his 
business; and they have made him successful in every 
undertaking. He has accumulated considerable prop- 
erty. Generous, sympathetic, and just, Mr. Wilcoxon 
wins many friends, and exerts a salutary influence. 
He married, March 28, 1842, Miss Rhoda Moore, a 
native of Ohio, daughter of Lewis and Patience (Truitt) 
Moore. They have had nine children, seven of whom 
are living. 
—~300~<— 


ILLSON, VOLNEY, farmer and capitalist, of 
‘ "p Muncie, was bornin Easton, Washington County, 
On New York, April 12, 1816. His father’s ancestors 
(3 were Scotch-Irish in the paternal line and Scotch 
on the mother’s side; the McCrackens, to which family 
she belonged, having come from Scotland and settled 
in New England. Her grandfather, Colonel David Mc- 
Cracken, sacrificed an arm in the cause of American in- 
dependence; her father, Isaac Clapp, and his brother 
also served in the Revolutionary army. Volney Willson’s 
father, Osborne Willson, was a native of Vermont, and 
he is still living, at the age of eighty-seven, at Green- 
wich, Washington County, New York, which has been 
his home for sixty years. His mother, whose maiden 
name was Susan Clapp, was a native of Salem, Washing- 
ton County, New York, and was of Welsh descent. She 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| 


[6th Dist. 


Willson’s ancestors were industrious, frugal, and re- 
markable for their longevity. He was the oldest of 
twelve children, eleven of whom have been teachers. 
He was instructed in a district school until he was 
twelve years old, and then attended during the summer 
months of the next four years a seminary in Union vil- 
lage. After that he taught winter schools at from ten 
to fourteen dollars per month, with board, and worked 
on his father’s farm. At the age of twenty-one he 
came West to Muncie, Indiana, and again engaged in 
teaching, at a higher salary of twenty-two dollars per 
month, without board. At the end of two years he be- 
came a grocer, in partnership with John A. Gilbert, 
but two years later resumed teaching. He was occu- 
pied in this manner for several years, and also in per- 
forming the duties of deputy county treasurer, and in 
superintending a farm of about five hundred acres 
which he had purchased. In 1844 Mr. Willson was 
elected county treasurer, and held that office by re-elec- 
tion three terms, discharging his duties with faithfulness 
and ability. He has increased his landed possessions 
from time to time, until they now comprise nine hun- 
dred acres. Since 1853 his time has been spent chiefly 
in farming, stock-raising, buying and selling wool 
and cattle, and in brokerage. He is deemed one of the 
principal farmers in Indiana, and has been connected 
officially with most of the state fairs. 
Mr. Willson was a director of the Muncie branch of the 
State Bank of Indiana. He has taken stock in most of 
the turnpikes leading to the city; he was director and 
treasurer of the Muncie and Granville Turnpike from its 
beginning to its completion, and held the same posi- 
tions in the Muncie and Yorktown Turnpike Company. 
He has also been a stockholder in the Cincinnati and 
Chicago, the Lafayette, Muncie and Bloomington, and 
the Bee-line Railroads. Mr. Willson has been a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows since 
1852, and has passed all the chairs in the subordinate 
lodges. He is independent in his religious views, yet 
he contributes largely to all the Churches of Muncie. 
Strongly attached to the cause of education, he has 
served as a school examiner and director; he is an ar- 
dent advocate of free schools. In politics Mr. Willson 
was formerly a Whig, and now is a Republican. He 
has been a delegate to several political state conventions, 
and has attended all of them during the last twenty-five 
years. He was chosen one of the delegates to the Re- 
publican National Convention that met in Philadelphia 
in 1876, but declined to serve. Shrewdness, sagacity, 
financial ability, and integrity mark Mr. Willson’s busi- 


For eight years 


ness transactions, and have enabled him, with industry, 


to accumulate a large property. In all his affairs he is 
governed by a high sense of honor and justice, one evi- 


dence of which is seen in the fact that during the forty- 


died in August, 1875, in her seventy-sixth year. Mr. | one years of his residence in Muncie he has never been 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY GF ILLINOIS 


6th Dist.) 


sued on his own account. He is very decided in all his 
views and fearless in their expression. He is public- 
spirited, very benevolent, and is regarded as one of the 
worthiest citizens of Delaware County. Mr, Willson 
married, in February, 1843, Miss Elizabeth Gilbert. 
They have had six children, two daughters and four 
sons; three of the latter are still living. 


—>- $006 


ILLARD, CHARLES F., one of the earliest and 
| most successful business men of Muncie, was 
A’) born in Charlestown, New Hampshire, September 

27, 1812, and died in Painesville, Ohio, November 
23, 1871. He was of pure Anglo-Saxon origin, as his 
parents, Roswell and Elizabeth (Taylor) Willard, were 
born in New Hampshire, of English ancestors. His 
grandfather, Major Simon Willard, came from Kent 
County, England, and settled in Massachusetts in 1649. 
During his boyhood, Mr. Willard attended a common 
school in his native town, and subsequently an academy 
at Plainfield, Vermont. After leaving school he became 
a clerk in a store at Lewiston, New York, and remained 
there one year. He then obtained a similar situation in 
Rochester in that state, and was there employed two 
years, at the end of which time he went to Dayton, 
Ohio, but after six months he proceeded to Muncie, In- 
diana, arriving there on the sixth day of February, 1831. 
The village had been laid out only four years prior to 
this, and was yet a mere hamlet of log huts, isolated 
from older towns by wide, almost trackless forests, in- 
habited only by Indians and wild beasts. In partner- 
ship with Thomas Kirby, Mr. Willard engaged in the 
fur trade with the Indians and the squatters, and kept a 
store of general merchandise. This he continued very 
successfully until 1847, then sold out to Moses L. Neely, 
and retired from active business. In 1866, after a res- 
idence of thirty-five years in Muncie, he removed to 
Painesville, Ohio, where he died suddenly of rheuma- 
tism of the heart. Mr. Willard was liberal in religious 
views, and never was connected with any Church or 
secret society. He was a member first of the Whig, 
then of the Republican party; but, though very influ- 
ential, and urgently solicited at times to accept certain 
political offices, he always declined the honor. It re- 
quired no little enterprise and fortitude, as well as other 
sterling qualities, to penetrate the wilds of Indiana in 
those early days, and build up a large and prosperous 
trade; but Mr. Willard seemed specially adapted to the 
work, and accumulated a handsome fortune. He led a 
worthy life, and was widely known and respected. Mr. 
Willard was united in marriage, October 9, 1834, to 
Miss Mary Adams Putnam, of Quincy, Massachusetts, 
who still survives him. They had eight children, of 


whom only two are now living: Charles A., and Mary 
A—26 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


89 


C., wife of Frederick A. Preston, of Evansville. Mr. 
Charles A. Willard, a prominent lumber merchant and 
manufacturer of Muncie, was born in that city February 
20, 1842. After acquiring a knowledge of the English 
branches in his native place, he went in 1860 to Vevay, 
Switzerland County, and there learned the art of watch- 
making. At the end.of three years he removed to 
Cincinnati, and worked at his trade until 1866, when 
he established himself in the jewelry business in Paines- 
ville, Ohio. Remaining there till 1871 he then returned 
to Muncie and engaged in the lumber trade. He mar- 
ried, June 24, 1874, Miss Georgia Warren, of Union- 
ville, Lake County, Ohio, who died February 16, 1877. 
Mr. Willard has inherited fine business capacity, and, 
though a young man, has already done much to advance 
the growth of Muncie, having erected within its limits 
a considerable number of buildings. Personally, he is 
unassuming, courteous, considerate of the feelings of 
others, and somewhat reticent, except when among con- 
genial friends, with whom he is agreeably social. No 
man of his age in that county has been more useful than 
he or is regarded with higher appreciation. 


—-o-99¢6-0— 


OLFE, ADAM, merchant, of Muncie, was born 
in Washington County, Pennsylvania, December 
9, 1807. His paternal grandfather came from 
Germany before the American Revolution, and 
settled in Little York, Pennsylvania, where he married a 
German lady, and afterward removed to Washington 
County, of that state. His father was John Wolfe; and 
his mother, Catherine Devore, of Irish descent. Adam 
Wolfe was the seventh of eleven children, all of whom 
have reached adult age, and have reared large families. 
During his infancy his parents removed to Coshocton 
County, Ohio. Reading, writing, spelling, and arith- 
metic were the extent of his early acquisitions. Ilis 
time was mostly employed on the farm until he reached 
the age of twenty-one, at which time his father died. 
Having always had an inclination to trade, he engaged 
in 1829 in the mercantile business at New Guilford, 
Coshocton County. There he remained until May, 
1830, when, having entered into a partnership, he lost 
ali his capital through his partner’s dishonesty. He 
then removed to Westfield, Delaware County, and there 
established another store. In this he was engaged till 
1841, when he went into the pork-packing business. 
He soon lost all he had accumulated, and became in- 
volved in debt to the amount of two thousand dollars. 
From 1842 until 1855 he engaged in the manufacture 
and sale of fanning-mills in connection with the mercan- 
tile business, and during this period amassed over one 
hundred thousand dollars. Having debtors in Indi- 
ana, and having opened three stores in that state, Mr. 


G 


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Wolfe removed in 1855 to Muncie. He also entered 
the banking business at Marion and at Columbus City. 
Prosperity still attended his enterprise; and now, be- 
sides two banks, he owns five stores, all in thriving con- 
dition—one in each of the counties of Delaware, Madi- 
son, Grant, Huntington, and Blackford. Mr. Wolfe is a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows; has 
passed all the chairs of the subordinate lodges, and is 
now connected with the Encampment. Politically, he 
has always been a Democrat, having cast his first vote 
for Andrew Jackson. His large business has prevented 
his engaging in politics, and, though often urged, he 
has always refused to accept office. He is a member of 
the Universalist Church. Mr. Wolfe married, April 
26, 1832, Miss Elizabeth Elliott, daughter of Samuel 
Elliott, of New York. By this marriage he has had 
seven children, four of whom are now living: Sobrina, 
wife of Jason Willson, banker, of Marion; Emeline, 
married to General Thomas J. Brady, second assistant 
postmaster-general; Frances Amelia, who lives at home; 
and Clara, wife of Robert C. Bell, a prominent lawyer 
of Fort Wayne. Mr. Wolfe has been steadily engaged 
in business for forty-eight years; and the large fortune 
he has accumulated proves him to be possessed of 
superior abilities. His wealth has been gained honor- 
ably, and is used worthily. He is engaged in both 
public and private charities, and has assisted in building 
schools, colleges, and churches. He attributes his suc- 
cess, in no small degree, to the precepts and example 
of his parents, whom he holds in affectionate remem- 
brance. Though now seventy-one years of age, he is 
still hale and strong, and manages his extensive busi- 
ness with systematic care. He has many admirable 
traits of character, being so kind, forbearing, and con- 
scientious that his home is always peaceful, and his re- 
lations with others have never been broken by a quar- 
rel. It is said that he has no enemy; and the entire 
community regard him as an excellent man and a model 
merchant. 
-——»-990@-—_ 


Airavrow, ROBERT, M. D., of Muncie, was born 
> in Rossville, Butler County, Ohio, November 14, 
1820, and has devoted most of his life to the study 
and practice of medicine. He removed to Craw- 
fordsville, Indiana, in 1831, where, four years later, he 
entered Wabash College, with the intention of taking 
the full course, but, on account of the death of his 
father, which occurred in 1832, he was unable, through 
lack of means, to remain in the institution more than 
two years. After leaving school he became a clerk in 
the store of his brother, Matthew H., in Lafayette, and 
stayed there till the fall of 1838. During the succeed- 
ing winter he read medicine in the office of his brother- 
in-law at Dayton, Indiana. 


The next year he accepted 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6ch Dest. 


a place as salesman in the general mercantile establish- 
ment of Bloomfield, Russey & Jack, Muncie, with whom 
he remained one year, and then entered the employ of 
Willard & Putnam, merchants, and held that situation 
the same length of time. Then he went to Crawfords- 
ville, and for one year spent all his leisure in the study 
of medicine, under the direction of his brother, William 
R. Winton, M. D., after which he returned to Muncie 
and entered the office of Doctor W. C. Willard. His 
previous medical studies had prepared him for a ready 
comprehension of the science, and he now made very 
satisfactory progress. Two years later he married Elmira, 
daughter of Stephen Long, former treasurer of Delaware 
County. In October of that year he removed to Wheel- 
ing, Delaware County, and commenced the practice of 
medicine. Hitherto the force of circumstances had 
made Mr. Winton apparently capricious, but now he 
had secured a vantage ground from which he could not 
be easily moved. Here he remained eleven years, 
steadily engaged in the duties of his profession. Through 
his experience and study thus far he had attained a de- 
gree of proficiency with which many are content; but, 
aspiring to a more extended knowledge, he entered 
Rush Medical College, at Chicago, in 1855, and gradu- 
ated in the following February. In the fall of 1856 he 
returned to Muncie, and in January, 1857, formed a 
partnership with his old preceptor, Doctor W. C. Wil- 
lard, but, because of that gentleman’s ill-health, this 
relation was dissolved in the fall of 1858. During the 
four subsequent years he was associated, first, with Doc- 
tor W. J. Andrews, and then with his nephew, Doctor 
Horace Winton. In June, 1872, he entered into his 
present partnership with Doctor G. W. H. Kemper. 
While in Wheeling, Doctor Winton was connected with 
the Grant County Medical Society, and, after locating in 
Muncie, he helped organize the Delaware County Med- 
ical Society, and was for some time its president. In 
March, 1866, he was a member of the convention that 
reorganized the old State Medical Society into a dele- 
gated body, and has ever since been associated with it, 
and he is also a member of the American Medical As- 


sociation. He is a member of the Independent Order 


of Odd-fellows, and has taken all the degrees of the 


Encampment, and been a representative to the Grand 
Lodge of the state. In politics the Doctor has been 
content to remain in the rank and file of his party—the 
Republican—never having sought political favors, nor 
held any office except that of member of the city council. 
Educational and religious interests have been to him a 
more congenial field, and im this he has acted officially as 
a school trustee and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. 
Doctor Winton has had five children, four of whom are 
living: Emma J., wife of A. S. Haines, commission 
merchant, of Kansas City; Mary L., married to J. W. 
Perkins, of the Muncie 77zmes; George W. Winton, 


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druggist; and Carrie L., who is ‘still at home. Doctor 
Winton’s ability to trace the devious paths of disease 
through the system, and to remove it with its effects, is 
recognized in the successful results of his practice, and 
the enviable reputation he has gained. Those qualities 
of mind and heart that do not pertain to the mere 
knowledge of medical science, but greatly enhance the 
true worth of a family physician, are not wanting in 
him. In social and religious circles he is justly es- 
teemed, and his influence in the community is that of a 
man of culture and moral refinement. 


$000 — 


oO) 
CoV ot 
\(3 YSOR, JACOB H., capitalist, miller, and farmer, 
p is one of the earliest pioneers and most promi- 
nent business men of Muncie. His parents, 
Jacob and Margaret (Miller) Wysor, were of 
German descent, and were born in Virginia. His pa- 
ternal grandfather was a commissioned officer in the 
War for American Independence. All the Wysors’ an- 
cestors engaged, more or less, in tilling the soil, and 
were honest, hard-working people, endowed with that 
strength of body and mind characteristic of the Teu- 
tonic race. As a valued heirloom, Mr. Wysor preserves 
a quaint old wine chest made in Germany one hundred 
and eighty years ago. Mr. Wysor was born in Mont- 
gomery (now Pulaski) County, Virginia, December 6, 
1819. He was the only child of his father, who died 
before his birth. His mother married again. She re- 
mained in Montgomery County, and there her son grew to 
boyhood. In 1835 he removed with the family to Dela- 
ware County, Indiana, an event for a boy who had 
In his new home 


scarcely been out of his native county. 
he attended school, but only for two winter terms; and 
after five years he returned to Virginia, and there studied 
diligently for one year. Having acquired a good knowl- 
edge of the English branches, Mr. Wysor was ready to 
carry out his long cherished purpose of becoming a busi- 
ness man. Accordingly, in the following year (1841), 
he returned to this state, and engaged in the grocery 
and dry-goods trade in Muncie. He felt in some degree 
conscious of the abilities that have since marked his 
career and won him success, and he anticipated imme- 
diate prosperity. His way to fortune, however, lay 
through loss, for only a few months had passed when 
nearly all his property was burned. In March, 1843, he 
made another venture, by renting what was known as 
the Gilbert Mills; and, after two years, in partnership 
with John Jack and James L. Russey, he bought the 
mills, and conducted the business as one of the firm of 
Russey, Jack & Co. In 1849 Mr. Wysor joined the 
throng of gold-seekers that hurried toward California. 
His course was down the Mississippi, across the Gulf of 
Mexico to the Isthmus, thence over to Panama, where, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| still owns, known as the Muncie Mills. 


gl 


owing to the rush for berths, he was compelled to wait 
five weeks before a passage up the coast could be se- 
cured. At length he embarked in a sailing vessel, 
which was thirty-four days in making the voyage to 
San Francisco. After he had been there about two 
months, Mr. Russey followed by the same route, but 
was killed by the Indians in the summer wf 1850. Mr. 
Wysor engaged successfully as miner, teamster, and 
stock-trader, until May, 1852, when he returned to 
Muncie. In 1854, with the remaining partner, Mr. 
Jack, he began building the large grist-mill, which he 
It was com- 
pleted in 1850. It contains six run of stone, is pro- 
vided with every needed facility, and is considered at 
least equal to any mill of like capacity in the state. 
The firm was Wysor & Jack until the death of the 
latter, in October, 1859. In 1858 William B. Kline 
had been admitted asa partner, and on the death 
of Mr. Jack the firm became Wysor & Kline. In 1872 
Mr. Wysor built the Wysor Opera-house, one of the 
finest buildings in the city, and said to be the best hall 
of its size in Indiana. Through the crisis of 1857, and 
the depression of trade that resulted from the late war, 
he steadily and safely conducted his increasing business. 
He dealt largely in land, and availed himself of his 
early experience by engaging also in farming. As 
wealth increased, it was employed in useful enterprises— 
the building of railroads, turnpikes, and other improve- 
ments. He has been the president of the Muncie and 
Granville Turnpike Company ever since its organization. 
Mr. Wysor is a Democrat, but has never aspired to 
political honors, nor taken an active interest in politics. 
He married, April 5, 1854, Miss Sarah Richardson, 
daughter of John and Martha Richardson. She was born 
in Virginia, and comes of a long line of worthy English 
ancestors. She is a lady of refined taste and true Chris- 
tian graces, and, with her husband, takes great pride in 
the education of their children—Harry, Mattie, and 
William. The first named, their eldest, is a young man 
of culture, whom ill-health has caused to relinquish a 
professional for a business life. The daughter early 
evinced artistic talent, painting with skill at the age of 
twelve; she is now devoting herself to that art. Will- 
iam, the youngest, is attending the Muncie high school. 
Mr. Wysor has succeeded through natural adaptation to 
business rather than by acquired ability. In trade he 
acts intuitively, and every enterprise is attended with 
prosperity. He has gained his wealth by honorable 
means, sharing its benefits with others, in promoting 
the growth of Muncie and the surrounding country. 
He is a silent, thoughtful man, possessing genuine 
worth of character, which is fully revealed only to inti- 
mate friends. To know him well is to respect him, 
and he holds a high place in the esteem of the people 
of Delaware County. 


92 


id 
for 


\ RADY, GENERAL THOMAS J. In the corps 
‘\ of active, able, intelligent, and sagacious young 
men which that born leader of men, Oliver Perry 
Morton, called around him during the stormy 
scenes of the late bloody Rebellion, there was not one 
who obtained and retained his confidence and respect 
in a higher degree than the subject of this brief sketch, 
Thomas J. Brady. While the great chieftain and patriot 
lay dying, his thoughts frequently reverted to his young 
friend, and many messages of love and esteem passed 
between them. Senator Morton had good reason to 
place implicit confidence in his ardent admirer, for 
never had a great chieftain a truer or more devoted, 
unselfish friend. During all the varying vicissitudes of 
the Rebellion, and amid all the assaults of his political 
opponents after peace had returned, General Brady 
stood unflinchingly and devotedly by his great leader, 
executing his commands with unshrinking firmness, and 
repelling the vicious attacks made upon him with de- 
And, to the very last, Governor Morton 


voted courage. 
confided implicitly in General Brady, and leaned more 
and more upon him as the burden of physical infirmities 
and public duties grew more and more onerous and 
crushing. General Thomas J. Brady was born in the 
city of Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana, on the 
twelfth day of February, 1840, just in the opening 
scenes of the great Harrison-Van Buren campaign. His 
father, Hon. John Brady, was born in Lebanon, the 
shire-town, of Warren County, Ohio. His mother, whose 
maiden name was Mary Wright, was born in Queen 
Anne County, eastern shore of Maryland. They were 
married in the city of Richmond, Indiana, settling in 
the now city of Muncie (then village of Muncietown) 
soon after their marriage, where Judge Brady opened a 
saddlery and harness shop, that being his trade. By 
his honesty, industry, and integrity, he soon built up a 
flourishing business, thus securing an honored and 
respected position in society. He soon became one of 
the Democratic leaders of the county, and was appointed 
postmaster of the place by President Polk in 1845, a 
position he held uninterruptedly until 1861, Fillmore’s 
Whig administration not deeming it advisable to make 
He was also elected Associate Judge of 
the Common Pleas Court of Delaware County for sev- 
eral terms under the old Constitution of Indiana, and 
served to the entire satisfaction of his fellow-citizens. 
He was also elected trustee of Center Township, an 
important position under the Indiana township organ- 
ization, being, in fact, the treasurer, and handling large 
sums of money annually. He was also, in 1865, chosen 
the first mayor of Muncie under its city charter. All 
these positions he filled with honor to himself, and to 
the entire satisfaction of the people. Although a de- 
cided Democrat, yet, when the war broke out, he 
promptly took ground against the Rebellion, and, during 


any change. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


‘its chairman. 


[Oth Dist. 


the entire struggle, he did all in his power to uphold 
the Government and crush out the Rebellion. He was 
the father of four sons, the third one being the sub- 
ject of this sketch. General Brady received a good 
English education at the Muncie Academy, then one of 
the best educational institutions of Eastern Indiana. 
After graduating therefrom he entered the law office of 
the late Hon. Thomas J. Sample, a leading member of 
the Muncie bar. During the winter of 1858-59 he 
served as clerk to the Judiciary Committee of the Indi- 
ana state Senate, Hon. Waiter March, of Muncie, being 
Being admitted to the bar, he removed 
to Bethany, Missouri, and entered into partnership with 
Hon. D. J. Heaston, of that place, which connection 
lasted about one year. Returning to Muncie thereafter, 
he took the census, in 1860, of five townships in Dela- 
ware County. He was superintendent of the Muncie 
schools during the winter of 1860 and 1861, and in April, 
1861, under the call for seventy-five thousand three 
months’ troops, he enlisted the first company raised in 
Delaware County, and one of the first companies to 
enter the capital of the state. 
its captain April 16, 1861. He was attached to a pro- 
visional regiment, organized by Governor Morton from 
the first ten companies that reached Indianapolis, with 
Lew Wallace as colonel, to hurry to the defense of 
Washington City. This idea being found impracticable, 
General Brady and his company were made Company C, 
8th Indiana Infantry, William P. Benton colonel. He 
served with his regiment through the campaigns of 
McClellan and Rosecrans in West Virginia. The reg- 
iment was in the battle of Rich Mountain, and captured 
a rebel battery at that pass. Upon the reorganization 
of the 8th as a three-year regiment, he reorganized his 
company, which became Company A. It was ordered 
to the Department of the Missouri, serving gallantly un- 


He was commissioned 


der General Fremont till sent to General Curtis. It par- 
ticipated in the bloody battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, 
and he was soon after promoted to the majority of the 
regiment. It marched across to Helena, in 1862; moved 
up the river to St. Louis with Davidson, and then started, 
under orders, for Arkansas again, but before reaching 
its destination was sent to the Mississippi River, at 
Cape Girardeau, and thence to Grant, in Mississippi, 
being there attached to McClernand’s Corps. He was 
selected by his division commander, General Carr, to 
take four companies of the 8th and cover, as skirmishers, 
the landing of the division at Grand Gulf. The rebel 
water batteries could not be silenced, and the landing 
was not effected. A landing was finally made at Bruins- 
burg, General Brady, with his four selected companies 
of the 8th Regiment, being the first to gain the bluffs. In 
the battle of Port Gibson he bravely led his men into 
the thickest of the fight, having his horse shot under 
him. He took an active part in Grant’s grand strategy 


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in the Black River and Champion Hills campaign, 
which eventuated in Pemberton’s being shut up in 
Vicksburg. He was in various charges during the cel- 
ebrated siege of that rebel stronghold, and was highly 
complimented, by both Generals Carr and Benton, for 
gallant conduct in the field. On the 19th of September, 
1863, General Brady was promoted by Governor Morton 
for gallant and meritorious conduct in the field, and 
was commissioned as colonel of the 117th Indiana In- 
fantry, six months’ troops. With his new command, he 
was ordered to East Tennessee. After doing duty at 
various points in that section of Tennessee, he, with his 
command, was finally stationed at Bean’s Station. Dur- 
ing Longstreet’s attack on General Hascall’s command 
the 117th was stationed at Clinch Mountain Gap, three 
miles from the former point. From Bean’s Station a 
road ran to and through the Gap, and another road ran 
north along the side of the mountain to its top, inter- 
secting the first road at a point between General Brady’s 
command and the force under General Wilcox. Along 
these two roads Longstreet sent a brigade, to intercept 
General Brady before he could unite with General Wil- 
cox. This movement completely isolated the 117th 
and its commander, and friend and foe alike sup- 
posed their capture was inevitable, as there seemed no 
possible way of getting out of the trap save by a sur- 
render. Surrender was the last thought of General 
Brady and his gallant regiment. Ordering all baggage, 
stores, and camp equipage to be destroyed, he then, by 
unfrequented paths and by-roads, and down seemingly 
impassable precipices, led his regiment out of the trap, 
thus winning the plaudits of the whole Union army of 
the West. This retreat is still talked of by all who 
understood its difficulties as one of the brilliant feats 
performed in East Tennessee during the war. October 
20, 1864, General Brady, after the expiration of the en- 
listment of the 117th, was commissioned as colonel of 
the 140th Indiana Infantry, one-half of which he had 
raised during the summer months in the counties com- 
prising the ‘‘Old Burnt District.” November 15 he, with 
his command, left for Nashville, and then for Murfrees- 
boro, and was in garrison at Fort Rosecrans during the 
siege of Nashville. During this General Brady and his 
command participated in all the fighting around Murfrees- 
boro, doing their full share of the bloody work. Then 
the command was ordered to Columbia, Tennessee, where 
it was assigned to the Third Brigade, First Division, 
Twenty-third Army Corps, General Cox commanding. 
January 16, 1865, it embarked for Cincinnati, va the 
Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, and thence to Washing- 
ton City. February 3 it took steamer at Alexandria, 
to join the expedition against Fort Fisher, North Caro- 
lina, On the 8th it landed, crossed Cape Fear River 
on the 16th, and on the 17th started for Wilmington. 
It took part in the storming of Fort Anderson, the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


93 


140th winning the honor of capturing the rebel garrison 
flag. On the 20th it aided in routing the enemy at 
Town Creek Bridge, two companies of the 140th being 
the first to enter the rebel works. Camped in vicinity 
of Wilmington till the 6th of March, it then left for 
Kingston, marching over seventeen miles per day, over 
roads that were simply horrible, taking the belt for 
rapid marching in that army. On the 11th of July, 
1865, the 140th was mustered out of the service at 
Washington, and ordered to Indianapolis for final pay- 
ment and discharge. A grand ovation was extended to 
it by the state authorities and citizens at Indianapolis 
on the 21st of July, 1865, and on the 25th General 
Brady’s gallant command was resolved into its original 
elements as part of the civic population of the state of 
Indiana. Subsequently, General Brady was made by 
the President and Senate a brigadier-general of volun- 
teers by brevet, an honor well earned and worthily be- 
stowed; so that he comes by his title of ‘* general” 
legally and honestly, having earned it by constant de- 
votion to military duty from the first boom of the can- 
non in 1861 to the return of peace in 1865. Life and 
death, peace and war, joy and sorrow, are inextricably 
commingled in this life. One day shows the wreath of 
the joyous, happy bride, and the next exhibits the sable 
plumes of the cortege of the dead. The joyful acclaims 
which salute the birth of the smiling babe are discord-_ 
antly intermingled with the wails for the dying grand- 
While the cannon were booming, and the shock 
of contending hosts was making the very earth neels 
General Brady, after the muster-out of the 117th, in the 
winter of 1863-64, was united in wedlock to Miss Eme- 
line Wolfe, of Muncie, daughter of Adam Wolfe, Esq., 
a leading capitalist of that city. Scarcely had the happy 
pair time to realize the joys of home, the sweets of 
domestic happiness, before the groom was called by 
stern duty to play a manly part in the drama of 
‘‘grim-visaged war.” From this union have sprung 


sire. 


three beautiful children, two girls and one boy, 
the pride of their parents, around whose future 
gather all their hopes and_ bright anticipations. 


After leaving the army General Brady returned to the 
practice of his profession in Muncie, having formed a 
copartnership with Hon. A. C. Mellette, ex-member of 
the Indiana Senate. Though very successful, General 
Brady was not satisfied, and in 1868 purchased the 
Muncie 7¢mes, which he so enlarged and improved, both 
mechanically and intellectually, that it soon became the 
leading Republican journal in central Eastern Indiana. 
In fact, his connection with the Zimes may be consid- 
ered an epoch in journalism in Eastern Indiana. He 
purchased an entirely new outfit, enlarged the news- 
paper to a first-class size, and put in steam power and 
presses, etc. His enterprise stimulated the publishers 
in all the neighboring counties to greater efforts in im- 


94 


proving their respective papers; and the impetus thus 
given to Indiana journalism is felt to this very day in 
that section of the state. He continued his connection 
with the Zzmes till 1870, when, having been appointed 
United States Consul to the Island of St. Thomas, 
West Indies, he virtually severed his connection with 
it, though he remained part proprietor for a year or 
more afterwards, having first sold one-half interest to 
his old law partner, Hon. A. C. Mellette, and subse- 
quently transferred to him the other moiety. He re- 
tained his consulate till 1875, though he obtained a 
year’s leave of absence in 1874. While at home in 
1874 he was appointed chairman of the Republican state 
central committee of Indiana. Though the canvass was 
not entirely successful, so far as the Republicans were 
concerned, yet General Brady did succeed in preventing 
the opposition from gaining their great point—the con- 
trol of both branches of the Legislature, and the subse- 
quent redistricting of the state on an unjust and an 
offensively partisan basis. Having resigned his con- 
sulate, on the first day of July, 1875, General Brady 
was appointed supervisor of internal revenue for Ohio 
and Indiana. He took charge of his district at a time 
when the country was filled with rumors of frauds of 
the most gigantic character at Cincinnati and other 
points in his jurisdiction. He investigated these rumors 
thoroughly, following out every clue and seeming clue 
with unflagging energy, and demonstrated, to his own 
satisfaction at least, that the rumors were unfounded. 
A coterie of interested 
“sharps” still continued to asseverate that there were 
great frauds being perpetrated at Cincinnati, and, by 
assumptions of superior acumen, made such an impres- 


small pretended revenue 


sion at Washington that General Brady was not, as was 
intended, made commissioner of internal revenue on the 
retirement of Hon. D. D. Pratt. Time has vindicated 
the integrity and sagacity of General Brady in this 
matter, for, although three years and more have elapsed 
since the inauguration of President Hayes, yet not a 
scintilla of evidence has been produced that the gov- 
ernment has ever been defrauded of a single cent by 
whisky rings or revenue thieves of any kind at that 
point. Subsequently, General Brady was transferred to 
the internal revenue district embracing the states of 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Lou- 
isiana. While in charge of this district he was emi- 
nently energetic and successful in unearthing and de- 
feating schemes for defrauding the revenue. Through 
his tact and watchfulness the New Orleans end of the 


great St. Louis whisky swindle was brought to light, — 
the parties thereto arraigned for trial, and forced to | 


disgorge vast sums which they had hoped to divert into 
their own pockets. By this action the entire scheme, in 
all its parts and ramifications, was brought to light and 


defeated, and the whisky thieves so overwhelmed with | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[Oth Dist. 


terror that they have been unable to make a rally ever 
since. Soon after this General Brady resigned this 
position and retired, to give attention to his private 
affairs, which had been badly neglected for years. On 
the 20th of July, 1876, General Brady was tendered the 
position of Second Assistant Postmaster-general; Judge 
Tyner, who had previously filled the position, having 
been tendered the portfolio of the Post-office Depart- 
ment. He accepted the post, and, from the moment he 
entered upon its duties, it was evident that a master’s 
hand was wielding its power. Throughout the entire 
mail service, embracing in its ramifications almost the 
entire continent, a new impetus was given to the affairs 
of the bureau, and the service-was soon placed in a 
condition so efficient as to enlist the commendations of 
the people of the entire Union. During four years’ 
service his work has been investigated again and again 
by hostile inquisitors, who were forced to report that 
they could find nothing whatever worthy of reproba- 
tion in his administration. During the fiscal year 
1879-80 he largely extended what is known as the 
‘¢star service’? of his bureau, which includes every 
thing outside of the railroad and steamboat service. 
General Brady took the ground that the enterprising 
pioneers who left behind them most of the comforts 
and all of the luxuries of the older states, and 
who penetrated the wilds of the far West for the 
purpose of founding new homes for themselves and 
their descendants, and who were building up new 
commonwealths, were entitled to the very best mail 
facilities the department While 
such a policy might not immediately pay in dollars and 
cents, yet he contended that it would pay in the in- 


could give them. 


creased development of the new states and territories. 
In pursuance of this enlightened and _ statesman-like 
policy, he very largely increased the star service, so 
much so that it became evident that, if the service was 
continued on the new basis till the end of the fiscal 
year, there would be a large deficit in the Post-office 
Department revenues. General Brady promptly reported 
the condition of affairs to Postmaster-general Key, who 
at once transmitted General Brady’s report to Congress, 
asking for an increased appropriation of over two mill- 
ions of dollars for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1880. His action at once created a storm in the House 
of Representatives, and General Brady and his policy 
were bitterly assailed by Blackburn, Democrat, and 
Hawley and Cannon, Republicans, of the Committee 
on Appropriations. For days the fight raged in the 
House with unmitigated bitterness, the assailants of 
General Brady and his policy striving to the utmost to 
defeat that policy, and destroy its projector. His foes 
were gallantly met at every point, and his friends, hay- 
ing reason and the facts on their side, overwhelmingly 
defeated his assailants, and covered them with confu- 


6th Dist.) 
sion. He came out of the fiery ordeal unscathed, and 
without even a spot on his character. The contest was 
the most remarkable one that has yet occurred in the 
Forty-sixth Congress. Party lines entirely disappeared 
during the fierce onset, and Democrat encountered 
Democrat, and Republican met Republican, in a hand 
to hand contest, and not an inch of ground was yielded 
save as it was won by superior logic and resistless 
strategy. Truth and right won the victory in the 
House, and General Brady’s triumph was complete. 
The contest was then transferred to the Senate, where 
the same ground was fought over again, and with the 
same result. Victory every-where perched on the ban- 
ner of progressive mail service, and the triumph was 
recently clinched by the passage of an annual appro- 
priation bill for the Post-office Department, which ap- 
proved most emphatically every principle and measure 
contended for by General Brady and his friends; so that 
in the future, as in the past, the hardy pioneer and the 
dwellers in the remote and sparsely settled sections will 
have at their command the very best postal facilities the 
government can possibly afford to give them. General 
Brady is in the prime of life, and in vigorous health, 
and, if the past is any criterion of the future, he will 
be called to still higher positions in the public service. 
Of spotless character and unflagging energy, he has as 
fair a prospect before him of eminent success in public 
life as any young man now in public life. Whatever 
may be that future, or whatever position he may be 
called upon to fulfill, one thing is certain: no man 
will bring to the discharge of his duties more ardent 
zeal or clearer perceptions of the claims of duty. 


+800 — 


| 


IRAVIS,- T. HENRY, Ms D., Richmond, Indiana, 
4] was born on the Island of Nantucket, Massachu- 
eis setts, September 29, 1836. 

‘ Henry W. and Lydia Cartwright Davis. Born in 
rugged New England and reared on her stormy coast, 
he inherited a robust constitution and imbibed the 
energizing influence of his early surroundings. The sub- 
ject of this sketch was educated under the public school 
system of his native island. An apt scholar, he found no 
difficulty in maintaining his rank in his class; his 
special taste, however, was for mathematical studies, in 
which he excelled. Having completed his school life at 
the early age of 17, he commenced the study of medi- 
cine with William P. Cross, M. D., of Nantucket. For 
three years this was continued, during which time he 
attended two courses of lectures at the Cleveland Med- 
ical College, subsequently graduating at the Homceo- 
pathic Medical College of Missouri, St. Louis. During 
the year 1857 a few months were spent in the South, 
where, finding no satisfactory location, he again turned 


He is the oldest son of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


95 


toward the New England states, but on his way was 
arrested by the thought that to return was no evidence 
of success. Suddenly he determined to try the West, 
and without any particular point in view he drifted to 
Richmond, Indiana (his present residence), where the 
evidences of thrift and prosperity arrested his course 
and determined his future. The following year he was 
married to Louisa G. McDonald, of Oxford, Ohio, and to 
her rare endowments he attributes much of his subse- 
quent success in life. Having no aspirations except to 
succeed in his profession, twenty years of fixed residence, 
with hardly a month’s respite, have resulted in a com- 
petency that is satisfactory and a professional reputation 
that is unquestioned. Buoyant of disposition and of 
untiring energy, he has overridden many obstacles in 
life and resolved what would otherwise have been 
failures into success. Enthused with local pride he has 
served since 1869, except a brief interval, as a member 
of the City Council, and for a similar period as Presi- 
dent of the Board of Health, sacrificing much time to 
promote the city’s interests. He is a member of the 
Knight Templars and the Masonic Order. He is also a 
member of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church. Of 
unblemished personal character, he still lives one 
among the many examples of what energy and applica- 
tion will accomplish. 
$40 


ORRISON, JOHN IRWIN, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, was born in 1806, and emigrated to In- 
diana 1826. He settled in Washington 
County, where he taught school the first winter 
on Walnut Ridge. The next spring he was elected 
to take charge of the Salem Grammar School. His 
school prospered so much that a larger house was de- 
manded, A commodious county seminary was built, 
of which he was chosen Principal. This school was 
liberally patronized and was eminently successful. Its 
fame was not confined to state limits, but extended 
throughout the whole West. He was twice elected 
Treasurer of Washington County, and also served in 
both branches of the General Assembly of the state of 
Indiana. He was the Senatorial Delegate from Wash- 
ington County to the Constitutional Convention in 1850, 
and was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Edu- 
cation. He was the sole author of the section that 
provides for the election of a state superintendent of 
public instruction. For three years, from 1840 to 1843, 
he was a professor in the State University, and was 
president of the Board of Trustees, both before and 
after he acted as professor. He was appointed by Pres- 
ident Lincoln a Commissioner of Enrollment during the 
Rebellion. While serving on this board in 1864, Mr. 
Morrison was nominated by the Union Republican Con- 
vention to the office of Treasurer of State, and was 


in 


96 


elected, removing to Indianapolis in 1865. In 1873 he 
went to Knightstown, Henry County, where he was 
soon afterwards appointed by the city council a mem- 
ber of the School Board. He took an active part in 
the erection of the new academy, and holds the office 
of Township Trustee at the present time. 


—>-390@-<—— 


oy OCKHART, HORATIO J., a prominent citizen 


qf of Muncie, was the son of Randal and Elizabeth 
o (Waln) Lockhart, both of whom were natives of 

Virginia. His paternal ancestry were of Scotch 
and English extraction, while on his mother’s side they 
came from Germany and England. His grandfather, 
H. J. Lockhart, after whom the subject of this sketch 
was named, was a brave and patriotic soldier during 
the Revolutionary War. He entered the ranks as a 
private in his sixteenth year, and was finally promoted to 
the rank of captain. He participated with his com- 
mand in many of the hard-fought battles, and was 
wounded several times. Randal Lockhart was a man 
highly esteemed for his many noble traits of character. 
He was quiet and unassuming in his demeanor, and 
carved a way through adverse circumstances to a posi- 
tion of usefulness and distinction. In the year 1827 he 
migrated to Highland County, Ohio, where Horatio 
was born, on the twenty-fifth day of May, 1833. In 
those primitive days the country lads had very meager 
opportunities for learning. They were allowed the 
winter months for study, and the summers were spent 
in preparing the soil for cultivation, it then being in a 
wild and unbroken state. He was studiously inclined, 
however, and his spare moments were spent to ad- 
vantage. By the aid of hickory-bark light he prepared 
himself to teach by the time he had reached his seven- 
teenth year. In 1847 the family removed to Jay 
County, Indiana, and bought another farm of unim- 
proved land. Here his attention was again directed to 
clearing and renovating the soil, to which he industri- 
ously applied himself until the year 1855. His earliest 
inclinations were to be a good scholar, and with this 
motive in view he started for Fayette County, Ohio, 
there to prepare for college, though he had now reached 
his twenty-second year. He procured a scholarship 
with money which he earned during the summer by 
working on a farm, and the following winter by teach- 
ing, and was about to enter when the sad intelligence 
came that his brother had died, and that some members 
of the family were sick. He hastened home, and until 
the year following the duty of caring for the family de- 
volved upon him. He then became a partner in a store 
situated in Fairview, Randolph County, Indiana, where 
he remained until March, 1858. From there he moved 
to Albany, Delaware County, and was employed as 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[Och Dist. 


clerk in a ‘‘ general store” until 1863. He then be- 
came an equal partner in the firm of Maynard & Lock- 


| hart, which was favorably known in Albany until 1867, 


when it became Lockhart & Brother, which existed until 
1872. In the following year he moved to Muncie, the 
county seat of Delaware County, where he has since re- 
sided, principally engaged in the insurance business, 
and superintending two good farms which he owns, not 
far distant from the city limits. He has always been 
active in advancing the best interests of humanity, and 
of the community. He has been a stanch temperance 
man, and for some time has filled the position of presi- 
dent of the County Temperance Union, and has been 
a delegate to several state organizations. He was the 
second son in a family of nine children, six of whom 
were boys. Five of them reached the estate of man- 
hood without having used tobacco or strong drink, or 
indulged in profanity. Mr. Lockhart was brought up 
in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with 
which he united when he had reached his eighteenth 
year. He has held the positions of class-leader and 
steward for more than twenty years, and has always 
taken a deep interest in Sunday-school work. He has 
ever manifested a generous, intelligent interest in edu- 
cational and public enterprises. Being truly patriotic, 
he has been active in politics since casting his first vote 
for J. C. Fremont. He has been a delegate to all the 
Republican state conventions since 1860, and was elected 
by that party as Representative to the state Legislature 
in 1877, and served on important committees. When 
he had reached his majority he was made a member of 
the Independent Order of Odd-fellows. He passed all 
the chairs in both branches, and was made a member 
of the Grand Lodge in 1858, and the Encampment in 
1872. He discharges his duty with energy and fidelity, 
and is a man of acknowledged substantial acquirements 
and irreproachable character. In social and domestic 
life he is a genial companion and a courteous gentle- 
man; in business transactions he is scrupulously honest 
and honorable; in all respects his character stands high 
with those who know him. He was married, on the 
twenty-fourth day of September, 1857, to Miss Ruth 
Brotherton, daughter of John Brotherton, and sister to 
Hon. William Brotherton, a prominent lawyer of 
Muncie. Three children have been born to them, two 
surviving: Mary E., an accomplished young lady, a 
graduate of the Muncie high school; and John Will- 
iam, a young man of fourteen years. Mr. Lockhart 
possesses a warm and generous heart, and is a kind 
husband, tender parent, and true friend, and has ac- 


-cumulated a fair competence while yet in the prime 


of life. He has afforded an example to the youth of 
Indiana, showing them how industry, care, and _ strict 
probity can win distinction and honor. He is much 
esteemed by those who know him. 


6th Dist.) 


Water, Wayne County, Indiana, September 26, 

>) 1836. 
~)2 both were natives of Wayne County, Indiana. His 
father was a farmer, and the son was kept on a farm 
until 18 years of age, attending the district school. 
The father died in May, 1851, and the mother in Oc- 
tober, 1854, when the farm was sold, and the family 
separated. He taught school the following winter and 
In October, 1855, he began clerking in a 
store at White Water, and continued until the spring of 
1858. In the fall of 1858, he commenced attending a 
select school at White Water, kept by Milton Hollings- 
worth, studying the higher mathematics and beginning 
Latin. In February, 1860, he entered the scientific 
course of Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio; but after six 
months his presence was found to be incompatible with 
the good of that institution, and he was suddenly gra- 
duated, 2. ¢., withdrew to avoid. expulsion. He then 
went South, intending to teach in Tennessee, but found 
the probabilities of war between North and South so 
great that he decided not to remain. Returning North, 
he entered the Medical Department of Mithigan Univer- 
sity, at Ann Arbor, as a student of R. G. Branden, 
M. D., of White Water, Indiana. He attended one full 
term of lectures, giving special attention to practical 
anatomy, and working four months in the dissecting room. 
He returned home the first of April, 1861, and com- 
He 
volunteered in the army, April 16, 1861, but was not 
mustered until July, as private in Company I, 16th Indiana 
Volunteers, He was detailed for special duty in the 
regimental hospital, and served in the capacity of med- 
ical cadet until the regiment was mustered out of sery- 
ice, in May, 1862. Then he returned to his preceptor’s 
office, and continued reading medicine until March, 1863, 
when he entered the Medical College of Ohio, where 
he graduated July 6th following. Prior to this he was 
resident physician of ‘*St. John’s Hotel for Invalids,” a 
hospital kept by the sisters of charity, of which the cele- 
brated Sister Anthony was superior. After graduating, he 
entered the ‘*Commercial,’”’ now the Cincinnati, hospital 
as house surgeon, being appointed to that position from 
the graduating class. At the same time he entered the 
hospital he made an application to Governor Morton for 
appointment as assistant surgeon of Indiana Volunteers, 
but not receiving the position soon enough, he wrote to 
the Secretary of the Navy, and received permission from 
him to appear before a medical examining board for 
appointment as assistant surgeon in the United States 
Navy. He resigned his position in the hospital after a 
service of two months, and reported to the Board of 
Medical Examiners, at the Naval Asylum, Philadelphia, 
September 10, 1863, and was dismissed by them, Oc- 
tober 26th. He was appointed an assistant surgeon in 


Water, ¥ WILLIAM, M.D., was born at White 


His parents were American born Irish, and 


summer, 


menced reading medicine in Doctor Branden’s office. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


97 


the United States Navy, October 26, 1863, and reported 
to Admiral Paulding, commanding Brooklyn Navy Yard, 
for duty on board the receiving ship ‘* North Carolina,” 
at that place. January 1, 1864, he was transferred to 
United States flag-ship ‘‘ Hartford,” and saw his first sea 
service with Farragut. He was assistant surgeon of 
the ‘‘Hartford”’ during 1864, participating in the battle of 
Mobile Bay, being on duty on the berth deck, and 
though his nurses and assistants were all killed, and 
twice during the battle being the only one left able to 
keep his feet, he came off unhurt. The “ Hartford” re- 
turned North in December, 1864, and was put out of 
commission, and Assistant Surgeon Commons was given 
two weeks’ leave of absence, from December 20th. He 
returned home, and at the expiration of his leave was 
ordered to New York, to take passage for Port Royal, 
South Carolina, for duty on board United States steamer 
‘¢Patapsco,” a single turret monitor. On the way from 
Richmond, Indiana, to New York, a railroad accident 
delayed his arrival twelve hours, and he lost his pas- 
sage in the steamer. This detained him one week, 
during which time the ‘‘ Patapsco” ran on a torpedo, 
and was lost, with all on board. His orders were 
changed to the ‘‘ Passaic,” which he joined February, 
1865, and in May following he was ordered to the 
Pacific squadron, for duty on board the flag-ship ‘ Lan- 
caster,’’ in June, 1865, and soon after was detached for 
special duty to the ‘*Saginaw,’’ to cruise in search of 
the privateer ‘* Florida,” which was destroying our 
whaling fleet in the North Pacific. He was ordered to 
Panama in November, 1865, to rejoin the ‘*Lancaster,” 
but the office of United States consul for that port 
having become vacant, he was detailed to special duty 
in the consul’s office, and as special inspector of 
customs, ad znferim, for that place. During this time 
he witnessed a revolution in the local government. 
Upon the arrival of the new consul he served on the 
*«St. Mary’s,” in Panama Bay, and was then ordered to 
Callao, in Peru, to take charge of the United States 
hospital ship ‘* Fredonia.” During this period he wit- 
nessed the bombardment of Callao by the Spanish fleet. 
In June, 1866, he was transferred to United States steamer 
‘*Suwanee,” and with her remained cruising on the 
coast of South and Central America, and Mexico, until 
May, 1867, when he was detached and ordered to the 
United States. He landed in New York June 2d, and 
reached home two days later. Four days thereafter he 
received orders from the Navy Department to repair to 
Philadelphia and prepare for a three years’ cruise in the 
Asiatic squadron. Upon this he proceeded to Phila- 
delphia and tendered his resignation, which was ac- 
cepted, July 24, 1867. He settled in the practice of his 
profession in his native town of -White Water, and re- 
mained until January, 1870, when he moved to Brad- 
ford, Ohio, there continuing until May, 1873, when he 


98 


removed to Union City, Randolph County, Indiana, of 
which place he is still a resident, practicing medicine 
and surgery. He was married January 1, 1865, to Miss 
Lydia J. Starbuck, a school-mate and daughter of his 
guardian. They have two children. 
—+-Gote->—_— 


ADWAI.LADER, NATHAN, president of the 
Citizens Bank, Union City, Indiana, was born in 

) Warren County, Ohio, July 12, 1826. His father, 

> Abner Cadwallader, was born in Virginia, and his 
mother, Mary (Thomas) Cadwallader, was a native of 
Nathan was the eldest and only son 
His father died, leaving him an orphan, 


South Carolina. 
of five children. 
when but fourteen years of age. 
the head of the family, his responsibilities at so young an 
age had a tendency to develop the latent energies within 
him. His opportunities for education were limited to 
the common schools, except one term in the Winchester 
He began business about the age of four- 
When about 
twenty-one years of age he entered the store of F. F. 
Needham, at Newport (now Fountain City), Indiana, as 
a clerk. Afterwards he was employed by D. J. Manzy, 
of Spartanburg, in a country store. After three or four 
years he bought out his employer, and after a time 
bought the stock of his first employer at Newport, 
where he continued in the mercantile business till De- 
cember, 1859. During that year he, with his family, 
moved to Union City, Indiana, where he has since re- 
sided. Here, with the exception of a few months, he 
continued his business till 1864. In 1865, in connec- 
tion with Colonel I. P. Gray, he started the ‘‘ Citizens, 
Bank.” It continued as a private institution till the 
year 1873, when it was incorporated under the old 
name, and Mr. Cadwallader was made president, a posi- 
tion he yet holds. He was elected to the state Senate 
in 1876 for four years. In politics he was a Whig with 
strong anti-slavery preferences, and has been a Repub- 
lican since the organization of that party. In religious 
belief he holds more nearly with the Society of Friends 
than with any other denomination, while his wife and 
two daughters belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
His only son, Charles H., was born in March, 1851. 
Mr. Cadwallader was first married in March, 1850, to 
Elizabeth C. Manzy, the daughter of his second em- 
ployer, the Hon. David J. Manzy, of Union City, who 
soon afterwards died, and in December, 1854, he mar- 
ried Sarah A. Griffis, his present wife, and mother 
of his three children. Mr. Cadwallader is possessed of 
an ample fortune, and such has been his judgment, 
benevolence, and good character, that he has acquired 
this without engendering jealousies and envy in the 
minds of those whose circumstances have been less 


Thus left, as it were, at 


Seminary. 
teen, and at first worked on a farm. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6th Dist. 


favorable. He is deservedly popular, with a high social 
and business standing in the community in which he 
lives. 

G00 


{k;ONVERSE, JOEL NEWTON, M. D., was born 
JI, in Madison County, Ohio, December 13, 1820. 

He is the grandson of Rev. Jeremiah Converse, 

formerly of Massachusetts, in which state the father 
of the subject of this sketch, Lathrop Converse, was 
born on June 6, 1788. The mother of Doctor Converse, 
Laura A. Newton, of Hartford, Connecticut, was born 
February 26, 1795. As young people they came to 
Madison County, Ohio, a part of a colony who settled on 
Darby Plains in that county in the year 1814 and 1815, 
and were married at that place on January 20, 1816. 
They had four children, all sons, of whom Joel New- 
ton was the third. His father died October 3, 1823, 
leaving him a young child, but his mother having mar- 
ried again, he received very great advantages from the 
counsel and discretion of a kind step-father. By him 
the latent energies that were destined to make the man 
were developed and wisely directed. The mother of 
Doctor Converse died August 18, 1872, in her seventy- 
eighth year. The difficulties of obtaining an education 
in those early times in that new wild country were 
many and formidable. 
and greased paper as window lights, were the best that 
could be afforded, while the style of teaching was in 
keeping with the surroundings. Notwithstanding all 
these obstacles this third son acquired more than an or- 
dinary education under the circumstances, and began 
teaching school at about the age of seventeen. He 
taught in the winter, worked on the farm in summer 
for three or four years, and also, during this time, ob- 
tained a medical education under the direction of Doc- 
tor John A. Skinner, of West Jefferson, Ohio. At the 
age of twenty-two he began the practice of medicine in 
Union County, and in 1845 he graduated at Starling 
Medical College, Columbus, Ohio. He attended the 
regular lectures at that institution for the next three 
years. He continued his practice in Union County 
until 1852, when he virtually abandoned the profession 
and, with his family, moved to Union City, Indiana, 
Here he appears in a 


Poor log-houses, puncheon floors, 


which has since been his home. 
new role, as farmer, real estate agent, and general pro- 
moter of common schools and of higher education in its 
wider sense as applied to the development of the phys- 
ical, the mental, and the moral powers of the human 
race. He has ever been a great friend and advocate of 
free schools, having been a director in the school 
board fourteen years since moving to his Indiana home. 
In school government Doctor Converse is an advocate of 
kind, firm discipline, but opposed to corporal punishment. 
He has been actively engaged during this time in build- 


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6th Dist.) 


ing school-houses, hiring and paying teachers and look- 
“ing after the general interests of education. As a rail- 
road builder and manager, Doctor Converse excels, and 
fourteen years’ experience in this business proves his 
ability. In 1864 he began the building of the road 
from Union City to Logansport, Indiana, which was 
completed in 1865. Of this line he was president 
and general superintendent until he resigned in 1870, 
and is now a director in the consolidated line (C. C. 
& I. C.). Within five days after his release by the di- 
rectors from this responsible position, he was in the 
state of Nebraska, and began the contract of building 
the Midland Pacific Railway, extending from Nebraska 
City vza Lincoln to some point on the Union’ Pacific. 
Up to 1877 two hundred miles of this road had been 
made ready, and the iron laid on one hundred and fifty 
miles, extending from Brownsville to York City, Dur- 
ing this time Doctor Converse was vice-president and 
general superintendent, and was the life and soul of the 
corporation. He was relieved of this responsibility by 
the leasing of the road to the Burlington and Missouri 
River Road in Nebraska, this latter being a part of the 
Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. After an 
active life of fourteen years among the railroads, where 
large sums of money and far-reaching interests have 
been intrusted to him, we now find him withdrawing 
somewhat from the bustle of business to the influences of 
home and family. He has beena Master Mason for near 
twenty years, and is now a Royal Arch Mason; and in 
Odd-fellowship he has been a member for thirty years. 
He has passed all the degrees within the jurisdiction of 
the Grand Lodge and Grand Encampment of the state. 
‘He is not a member of any Church, but is quite liberal 
in his religious belief, while he discards the idea of end- 
less punishment. He has contributed to the building 
and sustenance of all the churches at his home, regard- 
less of denomination. Doctor Converse has always been 
an ardent temperance man, both in practice and theory, 
and has frequently been called before public audiences 
to instruct and entertain them on this subject. He is 
the owner of several fine farms, and it should be noticed 
that his love for agricultural pursuits has been shown 
by him in his commdnity in a practical way, by under- 
draining, deep plowing, and in improved methods of 
farming, while the beautiful grounds surrounding his 
ample home show taste in horticulture and landscape 
gardening. On November 5, 1840, he married Miss 
Ann Eliza Phillips, a native of Vermont. Mrs. Con- 
verse is the daughter of Seth Phillips, who was born in 
New Hampshire, July 19, 1795, and who died May 14, 
1875, her mother having died on April 28, 1840. She 
is the oldest of ten children, nine of whom ‘are daugh- 
ters, and with one exceplion are all living. She has 
led an active life, and her great love of flowers and 
plants, by which their beautiful home is surrounded, has 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


99 


taken her much into the open air. To her we may apply 
the words of Solomon: ‘She openeth her mouth in 
wisdom ; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. . . . 
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband 
also, and he praiseth her.” ‘The family of Doctor Con- 
verse consists of two daughters. The eldest, Laura A., 
wife of David H. Reeder, of Union City, Indiana, and 
Lois R., the wife of Doctor J. R. Flowers, of Colum- 
bus, Ohio. As daughters they are obedient and affec- 
tionate, and as wives they are faithful and efficient, and 
are honored members of society. The former has two 
sons, Ifarry G. and George L. Reeder. Harry was 
born March 25, 1860. In complexion and bodily con- 
formation he resembles his father’s family, is very steady 
and reliable, and is depended on as a regular hand in 
the mill of which his father has charge. He is an 
artist by nature, and two beautiful crayon copies on 
the walls show the skill in his handiwork. George 
was born July 17, 1861, and conforms in personal ap- 
ete meismscy 
natural mechanic, and finds work congenial to his tastes 


pearance to his mother and grandfather. 


in running and taking care of the engine and machinery 
of the mill. 
and the careful training of the parents have borne their 
good fruit in their descendants, and these young men 
we heartily commend to the rising generation for steadi- 
ness of habits and industry. Three generations here 
have two representatives each in this household, and we 
trust many more years may pass over their heads before 
the happy union is broken. Mrs. Flowers, his other 
daughter, was unfortunate enough to lose her only child, 
May, on the 17th of June, 1873, aged eight years, eight 
months, and thirteen days. She was a brilliant and 
precocious little girl. 


The salutary counsels of the grand-parents 


—>-qote-~-— 


ad 


| URME, REV. ARTHUR A,, president of the in- 
\}!) corporated firm of Curme, Dunn & Co., Richmond, 
kd Indiana, was born September 8, 1835, in Cerne- 
“2° Abbas, Dorset County, England. His parents, Job 
Curme and Jane S. Foote, were married in Cerne-Abbas 
October 24, 1834. They emigrated to this country in 
April, 1846. Soon after landing at New Orleans young 
Arthur was entrusted by his father with a large bundle. 
He led the way through the city and expected his 
twelve year old son to keep up with him. But having 
the weight of his bundle and a large stock of curiosity 
to carry, he soon lost sight of his guide and began to 
gratify himself by looking at the many sights of the 
great metropolis. Steam was up, and their boat was about 
to leave the wharf for the north country, when the parents 
realized the startling truth that their son was lost. For 
several hours the captain waited, while the father 
searched the city for the little wanderer. Just as he 
was giving up all hope of ever seeing him dgain, he be- 


100 


held him leisurely sauntering about, in blissful ignorance 
of the distress of his parents. It may be believed he 
was quickly hurried on board. From the Crescent City 
they proceeded to Cincinnati, where they made their 
home. The subject of this sketch there acquired an 
education by attending school in winter, while the sum- 
mer and autumn seasons he improved at work. At the 
age of sixteen he was apprenticed to the trade of tanner 
and currier for the succeeding four and a half years. 
At fifteen he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at 
Salem, now Raper Chapel, corner Elm and Findlay 
streets, and was elected Sunday-school librarian. After- 
wards he attached himself to Finley Chapel on Clinton 
Street, and at the age of seventeen was appointed a 
Sunday-school teacher in the school. During these 
years of his life he was frequently called on to speak in 
Sunday-schools on Christmas and pic-nic occasions, thus 
inciting his young mind to greater interest in the sub- 
ject, as well as training him to public speaking, which 
proved to be of great advantage to him in later life. 
He was licensed to exhort at the age of eighteen by 
Rey. Moses Smith and the Board of Finley Chapel, and 
was also promoted as leader of the young men’s prayer 
meeting. After receiving his license he frequently ac- 
companied local ministers, and assisted them in con- 
ducting religious exercises in the suburbs of the city. 
On October 26, 1856, he married Miss Elizabeth J. 
Nicholas, daughter of Rev. William Nicholas, of the 
United Brethren Church of Cincinnati. In 1857 he re- 
moved to Richmond, Indiana, which place has ever 
since been his home. On his arrival there his entire 
capital was less than two hundred dollars, but having 
established a good moral and Christian character while 
living in the city, he had no difficulty in getting all the 
credit he needed for a start in business. His first efforts 
were in avery limited way, opening a small leather store 
on North Pearl Street. 
east bank of White Water, in the western part of the 
city, and resumed his trade of tanning by sinking one 
single vat. He cautiously increased the number one at 
a time, as his growing business demanded it, until now 
he is president of the large incorporated establishment 
of Curme, Dunn & Co., employing a capital of more 
than one hundred thousand dollars. And notwithstand- 
ing the introduction of steam and modern appliances 
of labor saving machinery, they employ, constantly 
about fifty hands. 


He soon purchased a lot on the 


In addition to their tannery they 
have a large horse-collar factory. From these branches 
of industry are manufactured goods sent to all parts of 
the United States, and also to England and Prussia. 
No firm anywhere has a better commercial standing 
than that of Curme, Dunn & Co.; and this high char- 
acter has been fully earned, for through all the times 
of depression and panic that have swept over the coun- 


try during the past six years, all of their paper has been 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[Oth Dist. 


taken up on or before maturity, and every draft promptly 
honored. Mr. Curme has not only been active and in- 
dustrious in business, but also in Church affairs, since 
moving to Richmond. At first he associated himself 
with Pearl Street Methodist Episcopal Church, where 
he served the Sunday-school as librarian, and after- 
wards as teacher. He was one of the founders of 
Union Chapel, on Main Street, and class-leader in the 
same for five years; was afterwards class-leader and 
Sabbath-school superintendent at Central Church. Af- 
ter this organization was discontinued he joined Grace 
Church, corner of Seventh and Broadway, of which he 
We clip the following, under the 
head of ‘‘Sabbath-schools in Wayne County :” 


is now a member. 


‘“¢Rev. Arthur A. Curme, who is a local minister in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, went to the village of 
Chester. . in the latter part of 1863, and opened a 
Sabbath-school. He labored faithfully, . . . until suf- 
ficient interest was awakened to warrant the organiza- 
tion of a Church. . . . A small neat frame house was 
completed in the autumn of 1864.” 


He did a similar work at Dover, in the same county: 


‘“¢Thus by the efforts of one man two Churches and 
two Sabbath-schools have been put into operation, with 
all their influences for good—and this, too, while he 
was discharging the active duties of a partner in a large 
and growing mercantile and manufacturing firm.” 

In this good cause he has worked effectually at Beech 
Grove, Middleboro, and Sevastopol. During these years 
he has been an active member of the Independent Or- 
der of Odd-fellows in Woodward Lodge, No. 212, where 
he has passed the chairs, and has had the honor of 
representing in the Grand Lodge. Mr. Curme was 
one of the originators and a member of the committee 
on the building of their fine hall, on the corner of 
Main and Fifth Streets, and is now president of the 
board of trustees that control the business management 
of the lodges of Richmond, and has served as deputy 
grand master of the lodges of Richmond. He is also 
a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias, and 
has held various and important positions in the lodge, 
and now is the second officer in the state. Mr. Curme 
has been elected three times in succession a member of 
the city council, and during one year he served as 
He 
has been president of the Local Preachers’ Association 
for the past six years. In October, 1877, he was elected 
vice-president of the National Local Preachers’ Associa- 
tion held at Philadelphia. Through all these promo- 
tions to office and responsible positions in political, 
secret, and religious organizations, the subject of this 
sketch has been regarded as an earnest and industrious 
worker for the advancement of the cause in which he 
was engaged. In 1877 Mr. Curme delivered an address 
before the Local Preachers’ Association, at Winchester, 
Indiana, on ‘‘ Ministers’ Duties and Opportunities,” 


chairman of the board of public improvements. 


6th Dist.] 


which was highly appreciated, and the association re- 
quested a copy for publication. The family of Mr. and 
Mrs. Curme now consists of seven children—two sons 
and five daughters. The oldest, George Oliver, is now 
a student in Asbury University. He is a Christian 
young man of superior intellectual endowments and 
learning for one of his age. He began teaching in the 
city schools of Richmond when he was less than eighteen 
years of age. The Latin professor of the University, 
writing under date of July 11th, 1877, says: 

‘*Mr. Curme is a young man of very superior attain- 
ments, standing among the first of his class, and has 
always exhibited an accuracy and breadth in scholar- 
ship that has been almost surprising.” 

His reports sent home show that in belles-lettres, 
mathematics, Greek, Latin, and in deportment he was 
perfect, receiving one hundred per cent. 
ployed as a Sunday-school teacher in the institution, 
and teaches half of the time in English, and half in 
the German language. 


He is em- 


ol { AGLE, J. C., A. M., superintendent of the public 
I schools of inion City, Indiana, was born in 
. Montgomery County, Ohio, March 23, 1846. He 
© is the third of seven children born to David B. 
and Ann (Mason) Eagle. His ancestry on the paternal 
side were German, while his mother’s were Scotch and 
Irish. His school privileges were meager till he was 
about fourteen years of age. Prior to that time he was 
in the habit of attending a common district school some 
three months each year, and in the succeeding nine 
months the little knowledge acquired was almost oblit- 
erated, or crowded out of the memory, by the scenes 
At this time of his life there 
came an awakening of ambition in his mind to be a self- 
educated man, and to make his mark in the world. 
Among the influences that stirred an inspiration in his 
soul, was the reading of an Encyclopedia of English 
Grammar and hints contained in it for the guidance of 
students in developing memory. To accomplish these 
desires he began a systematic study of the Latin and 
Greek languages. These he pursued for a few months, 
while his only preceptor during ‘this time was Professor 
William Sunderland, of Dayton, Ohio, to whom he oc- 
casionally recited. He was then about fourteen years 
of age. He was apt in mathematical studies, and so 
readily did he master the problems in his text books 
that he needed no one to instruct him in this branch. 
If at any time he was puzzled over an example he 
would carefully review the work gone over to discover 
the principle that he had failed to master and which 
was the source of difficulty. 


and incidents of farm life. 


At this early age he began 
to shape his work so as to cover a course of six years’ 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


IOI 


study in Dennison University, Granville, Ohio. In this 
he was successful, for his good reasoning faculties, 
added to a remarkable memory, enabled him almost un- 
aided and.alone to master the difficulties and prepare 
himself to enter the senior class of that institution. In 
1867, a few months after he became twenty-one years of 
age, he graduated. Prior to this he taught one year, 
to procure the means of paying his expenses through 
college, and is a striking illustration of a man educated 
through self-help. So tenacious was his memory that 
when a mere boy he committed the whole of the New 
Testament and the book of Genesis to heart, and pro- 
posed to memorize the whole of the Bible. But the 
family physician, fearing sad consequences, advised his 
mother to restrain him in this, which was done. Pro- 
fessor Eagle is now thankful for this escape from a lop- 
sided development, which he believes would have re- 
sulted from a continuance in that course. After receiving 
his diploma he taught one year in his native state, then 
was called as principal of the Clay City Schools of 
Illinois, and the next year was at the head of the 
schools of Louisville, the county seat of Clay County. 
At the expiration of that year he gave up teaching on 
account of ill health, caused by the malarial influences of 
that district, and accepted an agency that kept him 
much in the open air, by which his health was regained. 
In 1873 he took the position of principal of the Union 
City School, which he now holds. Professor Eagle is a 
Master Mason, and an acceptable member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. In 1873 he married Miss 
Maggie Grant, of Illinois, who is also a member of the 
same Church. Mr. Eagle is a good judge of human 
nature, a good organizer, and by self-culture and close 
application has acquired distinction in his profession. 
The high character he has won as an educator is suffi- 
ciently attested by the character and attainments of the 
pupils he has had under his charge. His abilities in 
this line are great, and he has great facility for imparting 
information, while at the same time keeping a steady 
control over his schools. 


—~~ -8906-—_ 


“ROSE, GENERAL WILLIAM, was born near 
the mouth of Mad River, Montgomery County, 
Ohio, December 16, 1812. He is the son of Wil- 
rete liam Grose and Sarah (Hubbell) Grose, the former 
a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of New Jersey. 
His grandfather, Jacob Grose, was killed in the Revo- 
lutionary War, and his father served six months under 
General William Henry Harrison. His grandmother 
Grose was a remarkable woman, born in 1762 and dying 
in 1867, at the surprising age of one hundred and five 
years. Within a few years of her death she was able 
to relate many incidents of Revolutionary times from 


102 


her own experience. General William Grose was the 
third of five sons, there being besides two daughters in 
the family. In the spring of 1817 his father moved to 
Fayette County, Indiana, after a sojourn of several 
months in Hamilton County, Ohio. 
home, they found the country covered with dense forests, 
which must be subdued by hard work, that the ‘‘wil- 
derness might blossom as the rose.”” In common with 
the sons of those hardy pioneers, the subject of this 
sketch knew what it was to ‘‘endure hardness as a good 
soldier” in the battle of frontier life. When William 
was about seventeen years of age his father moved with 
his family to Henry County, Indiana, in which he has 
ever since lived. Here he had a second installment of 
frontier life. Game was plenty, but the clearing of lands 
and other necessary work allowed but little time for hunt- 
Rude 
log schvol-houses, slab benches, and slab writing-tables, 
fastened to the wall, are representations of the oppor- 
tunities for an education in those days. But both then 
and later in life he studied hard and mastered many 
things alone, that laid the foundation for his after suc- 


Here, in their new 


ing to those who were to be successful farmers. 


cess. He never had the privilege of studying grammar, 
except during his last term at school, which he attended 
in his nineteenth year. He continued to help his father 
on the farm till a few months before he was twenty- 
one years of age, when his time was given him and he 
left home to take care of himself. His first work was 
on a farm at eight dollars per month, including har- 
vesting. When he was twenty-three years old he mar- 
ried Miss Rebecca Needham of Henry County. They 
reared a family of five children, three sons and two 
daughters. One son and the daughters are married. 
One of his unmarried sons is in the government revenue 
service in Cincinnati. The homes of the daughters un- 
til recently were in Salt Lake City, but they now live 
in New Castle. After being married Mr. Grose studied 
law under Judges Elliott and Test, though the most of 
his reading was done at home. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1843, and the Supreme and Federal Courts 
in 1844. In 1846 he moved from New Lisbon to New 
Castle, since which time he has had all of the law busi- 
ness he has wanted. As Mr. Grose accumulated money 
he invested it, largely, in land, which advanced in 
price and added to his wealth. At present he owns 
about five hundred acres. Mr. Grose was a Democrat 
until 1854, and was an elector under President Pierce. 
He was one of the body which met in Pittsburgh in 
February, 1856, to organize the Republican party. He 
was elected to the state Legislature ir 1856, but de- 
clined a re-election in 1858. In 1860 he was elected 
Common Pleas Judge. He resigned this place in July, 
1861, and was tendered a commission as colonel of the 
36th Indiana Volunteer Infantry by Governor Morton, 


which he accepted. In a few days the regiment was 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[Oth Dist. 


filled, and with it he left for the front, reporting to 
General Sherman at Louisville, Kentucky, in Septem- 
ber. 
General Buell to New Haven, Kentucky, where he re- 
mained until the regiment was organized with and as 
part of Ammen’s brigade in Nelson’s division at Camp 
Wickliffe, Kentucky. In February, 1862, the division 
marched to the Ohio River, took boat to the Cumber- 
land, and up that river to the city of Nashville, arriv- 
ing there on the 25th of February; and the 36th with 
the 6th Ohio was the first body of troops to enter that 
city ard displace the rebel cavalry. Thence going with 
the division to Shiloh, his regiment was the only por- 
tion of Buell’s army that took part in the first day of 
that battle. The second day, April 7, on account of 
the disability of Colonel Ammen, he became brigade 
commander, acting as such until the organization of the 
Army of the Cumberland. He then continued to com- 
mand the Third Brigade, First Division, Fourth Corps, 
in that army. With his brigade he was in the first 
battle at Corinth, Mississippi, thence through Mississippi 
and Alabama back into Tennessee, and to Louisville, 
Kentucky, in the battle of Perryville, and thence again 
to Tennessee. He took part as brigade commander at 
Stone River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga, and was 
with Hooker up Lookout Mountain, ‘‘above the clouds,” 
Mission Ridge, and in all the battles of the Atlanta 
Campaign. While in front of Atlanta, in July, 1864, 
he was commissioned brigadier-general, and was in com- 
mand of the brigade, division, and corps alternately un- 
til the close of the war. He was in the battles of 
Jonesboro and Lovejoy Station with his corps. He 
then returned to General Thomas, and took part in the 
battles of Franklin and Nashville, and in the pursuit of 
Hood’s army to the Tennessee River; and at Hunts- 
ville, Alabama, in January, 1865, received a commission 
as major-general of volunteers. Thence he marched to 
East Tennessee, toward Richmond. But the news of 
the fall of the latter city, and the surrender of Lee’s 
army to General Grant made it unnecessary to advance 
further in that direction. Returning to Nashville with 
his command, all of his men, except the veterans, were 
mustered out. In June, 1865, by order of General 
Thomas, he was detailed as president of a court-martial, 
and thereby relieved of further active command, serving 
upon the court-martial until January 1, 1866. General 
Grose then resigned and returned home to his family 
and friends. He served his country faithfully and gal- 
lantly, and received the plaudits of the people of Indi- 
ana for his active and energetic services in their behalf. 
In May, 1866, he was appointed revenue collector Fif- 
teenth Indiana District, where he served eight years. 
There are few persons who have done more for the 
community in which they have lived, or who enjoy 
more of its respect, than General Grose. 


Soon after he, with his regiment, was ordered by 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINGIS 


Pip 


ee 


6th Dist.) 


ENNINGS, LEVI ALLEN, an enterprising and suc- 
cessful business man of New Castle, Henry County, 
was born on the 6th of May, 1834, in Wayne County, 

ey Ohio. He is the son of Obadiah and Mary Jen- 

nings. His father was descended from the Jennings of 

England, where many of the same name and relationship 


have attained positions of trust and great personal influ-- 


ence. His mother was of German extraction, coming 
from that patient and industrious stock that has produced 
so much of the wealth and stalwart character of the great 
state of Pennsylvania, of which state both Mr. Jennings’ 


father and mother were natives, and where they cons | 


tinued to reside until their marriage. When Ohio and 
Indiana were still new, and spoken of by people be- 
yond the Alleghanies as ‘‘the West,” Mr. Jennings’ 
parents crossed the mountains, in a wagon drawn by a 
single horse, and settled in Ohio. There they engaged 
in farming, or, more properly speaking, in opening and 
improving a farm, and farming. In these occupations 
the subject of this sketch spent his boyhood, only alter- 
nating the labors of the farm with such brief terms of 
neighborhood schools as offered chances for gaining a 
little rudimentary learning, until he was eighteen years 
of age. During these years of his minority, however, 
his brain was not idle, and the hard toil of his willing 
hands by no means exhausted his energies or extin- 
guished his ambition. Nerved by the desire for knowl- 
edge and the purpose to be and do something worth 
living for, he made the ‘best use of such limited facili- 
ties as were afforded for storing his mind with useful 
information. Thus, like many another ambitious boy 
who has risen to eminence, he often carried his books 
with him to the field, and memorized rules and defini- 
tions as he walked behind the plow. 
added to the little gained in the short winter terms of 
neighborhood schools, until by the time he had reached 
the proper age to support himself at school he had ac- 
quired a fair knowledge of the primary branches of 
He then, with the consent of his parents, 
entered the college at Hayesville, Ohio, remaining 
there through two collegiate terms, and going thence 
to the high school at Ashland, Ohio, where he contin- 
ued for two and a half years, mastering much of the 
mathematical and scientific courses, and giving consid- 
erable study to English language and literature, and 
also.to Latin and Greek, which he began to read and 
translate with readiness and ease. At the end of this 
time, however, it became necessary for him to pause in 
his studies and engage in teaching for a while, to secure 
the means to enable him to finish his collegiate course. 
Here was a break in the chain, that was never welded 
again, and which caused his life-work to be directed 
into the channel for which nature had most amply fitted 
and qualified him, and where his restless and deter- 
mined energy, which had enabled him, under adverse 


In this way he 


learning. 


Ul 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


4 


103 


circumstances and with little to incite his aspirations, 
to store his mind with useful knowledge and lay the 
foundations of future successes, might find full play and 
produce adequate results. For, during the progress of 
his first winter’s term of school, he was offered a posi- 
tion as principal deputy in the clerk’s office of the Com- 
mon Pleas and District Courts of Ashland County, Ohio, 
by his uncle, a prominent banker of Ashland, the 
county seat, who had just been elected to that office. 
Accepting the offer, he filled the place with fidelity for 
three years. At the close of his time in the clerk’s of- 
fice he embarked in the boot and shoe trade with a 
man who, much to Mr. Jennings’ surprise and_ loss, 
proved to be a bankrupt. Seeing his excellent qualities 
as a business man,*the Ball Reaper & Mower Company 
soon after this engaged him as their agent, in which 
capacity he labored for three seasons. In 1867 Mr. 
Jennings left Ohio and removed to Indiana, and settled 
in New Castle, where ne has since remained; and in 
that same year began business there in conjunction with 
his father, and, soon after, with his brother. The next 
year he opened a planing-mill, lumber-yard, and sash and 
door factory, which business he has followed ever since, 
with singular activity, and, at the same time, care and 
scrupulous attention to all the details and minutiz of 
the trade. For several years past he has been exten- 
sively engaged in the manufacture of furniture, turning 
out all grades of work, from cheap to very fine and 
costly, and his lumber trade has assumed large propor- 
tions. In 1877 he erected a fine brick business house, 
one hundred and thirty-two feet deep and four stories 
in height—including the basement—in which he carries 
on a large and constantly increasing business in furni- 
ture, carpets, hardware, and house furnishing goods. 
His sales, altogether, amount to about $150,00 per year. 
Mr. Jennings lives in a beautiful home, his house being 
a handsome frame upon the summit of a gentle eleva- 
tion that overlooks the little city. His grounds are 
tastefully laid out, planted in forest trees, ornamented 
with shrubs and flowers, while two beautiful pools of 
water, fed by a strong spring, add their attractions to 
the cool and pleasant surroundings. He was married 
on the 2d of December, 1858, to Miss Martha W. 
Coffin, a lady of excellent family, good mind, and fine 
musical ability. She is a woman of pleasant manners 
and fine personal appearance. The result of their union 
has been three children, two of whom survive—a son, 
Winslow De Vere, and a daughter, Helen Ettie. The 
son, like the father, displays a fondness for business, 
and exhibits much the same energy that has led to his 
father’s successes; while the daughter is a highly ac- 
complished lady and a musician of much éxcellence and 


promise. Mr. Jennings is an outspoken, square, prompt 
business man, who has made his way by indomitable 
energy and pluck. He takes a deep interest in the 


104 


progress of his adopted town, and has done much to 
advance its material interests. In politics he is well in- 
formed and possessed of decided opinions, which he 
does not seek to conceal. He is a Republican. While 
not loud or pretentious, he is deeply interested in the 
spread of religion and morality, and has been an active 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1871. 
Mr. Jennings’ character stands very high. He is a man 
of sterling integrity and is widely known and respected. 


— ~>G0te<-— 


cGUIRE, EZEKIEL WHITNEY, general agent 
for the Eaton and Hamilton Railroad Company, 
of Richmond, Indiana, was bom in Saratoga 
County, New York, December 25, 1813. He is 
the son of Daniel McGuire and Sarah A. Whitney, and 
is the fifth of seven children, three sons and four daugh- 
ters. His father died when he was but ten years of 
age, leaving the family in destitute circumstances, and 
at the tender age of thirteen the subject of this sketch 
left the parental roof to fight life’s battles for himself. 
Says Shakespeare: 
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, 

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.” 

He first served in a general grocery store in Water- 
ford, New York, at five dollars per month. At eighteen 
he entered the employment of Eli M. Todd, of Water- 
ford, New York, as deputy postmaster and clerk in the 
store, where he remained four years; then went to Lan- 
singburg, in that state, continued as clerk for one year, 
and then started West, with sixty dollars in his pocket. 
On November 18, 1837, he reached Cincinnati, stopped 
at the Broadway Hotel, and while at supper the first 
night his room was entered, though left locked by him, 
and the contents of his trunk stolen. He was a stranger 
in a strange city, far from home, with but twelve dol- 
lars in money and a single suit of clothes at his com- 
mand. He formed the acquaintance of the hotel-keeper, 
and through his influence obtained a situation as bool:- 
keeper in a flour-mill and distillery at Lawrenceburg, 
Indiana. Here he worked very hard almost night and 
day, and besides bookkeeping he traveled and bought 
grain for the establishment. An attempt was made by 
the farmers to form a combination to advance and con- 
trol the price of grain. The buyers were determined 
to break up this combination; so Mr. McGuire was 
sent to the Wabash country to buy a large amount. 
Near Vincennes he bought one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand. bushels of corn at one time, in the fall of 1841. 
Then came the tug of war in getting it to Lawrence- 
burg, for there were no steamboats running on the 
Wabash River above the falls at Mt. Carmel, which 


were twenty-five miles below. His plan was to form a 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[6c Dist. 


line of flat-boats and float the corn on these to the foot 
of the falls, and transfer it to the steamboats. He was 
unacquainted with the bed of the river, and could get 
no pilot to help him. 
days had taught him not to recognize the word fail; so 
he began, and explored the shallows and difficult places 
of the river for the twenty-five miles by wading it him- 
self. Here were scenes of peril and exposure, as month 
after month they piloted these flat-boats down stream, 
run the rapids, and discharged their cargoes. Hard as 
this was it was much harder to get the boats back to 
the point of loading. With hawsers attached at one 
end and the other fastened to their guide poles and 
drawn over their shoulders, they would set out for their 
long up pull of twenty-five miles. By the aid of trees 
and bushes which grew on the banks, they slowly 
worked their way along. At night they slept on the 
ground, exposed to the elements, and many of them 
were attacked with chills and fever. Mr. McGuire’s 
well-developed physique served him well in these emer- 
gencies. Almost every week his gang of men, whom he 
always led instead of following, would break down and 
have to be replaced by a fresh lot. This transportation 
was not finished till August the next year, and through 
it all the subject of our sketch never failed to be at the 
head of his column of men. Such was the care exer- 
cised that no accident or loss occurred, and the firm 
made money out of the transaction. But other agents 
who bought corn there became discouraged at the many 


But the adversity of his younger 


obstacles to be overcome, abandoned their enterprise, 
and thousands of bushels of their grain were thus left 
to rot on the ground. In 1845 Mr. McGuire took the 
proprietorship of Hunt’s Hotel in Lawrenceburg, and 
was there during the remarkable freshet of 1847, and, 
notwithstanding his house was the highest hotel in the 
place, the water covered the lower floor to the depth 
of eighteen inches. In 1850 he removed to Covington, 
Kentucky, and did a produce business on Front Street, 
Cincinnati. In 1853 he went to Eaton, Ohio, to exam- 
ine the books and accounts of the Eaton and Hamilton 
Railroad Company. The company saw his ability and de- 
clined to let him leave them. After being in their employ- 
ment about one year he was elected treasurer of the road, 
and in 1858 was chosen secretary. Afterwards he was 
appointed receiver by the courts of Ohio and Indiana. 
In 1863, by a decree of the court, the road was sold, 
and in 1864 Mr. McGuire was made general agent at 
Richmond, where he has since continued. He has had 
no political aspirations, and, with the exception of sery- 
ing eighteen months in the state militia of New York, 
under the commission of Governor Marcy, he has: no 
military record. He has had no connection with secret 
societies whatever. One special point in Mr. McGuire’s 
success has been that he has acted on this motto, ‘¢‘Owe 


no man any thing.” Mr. McGuire became a member 


6th Dist.) 


of the Presbyterian Church at Eaton, Ohio, in 1866. 
He married Miss Eliza A. Hunt, daughter of Jesse 
Hunt, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, by whom he has 
Mrs. McGuire deceased in 1864, aged 
He now 


three sons? 
forty-four years, four months, and four days. 
enjoys the blessings of a temperate life. 


—~<>+-Gore<-—_—_ 

(@ MITH, WILLIAM KENNEDY, merchant, the. son 

\) of Jeremiah and Cynthia (Dye) Smith, was born in 
G3; Randolph County, Indiana, April 27, 1836. His 
ye) father was a native of South Carolina, and was an 
honored minister in the Christian Church, while his 
His ancestors on his fa- 
His great-great- 


mother was a native of Ohio. 
ther’s side are of English extraction. 
grandfather, who was a Quaker, came from Yorkshire, 
England, and settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 
under the auspices of the Penns, about the year 1727. 
His great-grandfather, David Smith, was born in 1736, 
and died in 1801. His grandfather, William Smith, was 
born in 1779, and died in 1831. The education of 
young William was obtained principally in the Win- 
chester Seminary; and as he improved his opportunities 
his scholarship on leaving school was considered good, 
and well calculated to prepare him for his business in 
life. His father was anxious that he should be a law- 
yer, but having no taste in this direction he entered a 
dry-goods and general store in Union City as a clerk in 
the year 1857. He continued in that about one year, 
then served as agent in the railroad office of his adopted 
town for a short time, and in the latter part of 1858 he 
began a course in the Commercial College of Cincin- 
nati. On finishing this he returned home, and in the 
fall of 1859 began his life occupation as a retail dealer 
in boots and shoes. This business increased so rapidly 
that from 1862 to 1870 the establishment did a wholesale 
and jobbing trade. Mr. Smith shouldered his musket 
and served his country during the great excitement 
caused by Morgan’s raid north of the Ohio River dur- 
ing the war. He has no religious connection, but Mrs. 
Smith is a member of the Presbyterian Church. In 
1863 he married Miss Elizabeth Farley, a native of 
Michigan, by whom he has but one child now living. 
He has a good social and business standing in the com- 
munity, and desires peace with all mankind. 


—+- G00 — 


|ANSEY, EDWIN M., city treasurer, and cashier 
of the Citizens’ Bank, Union City, Indiana, was 
born in the village of West Elkton, Preble 
County, Ohio, January 16, 1845. He is the 
son of Lewis E. and Huldah J. (Lamm) Tansey, and 


is the only one of the three children born that is now 
A—27 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


105 


living. When but an infant his parents went to Boston, 
Wayne County, Indiana, thence to Hillsboro, and 
shortly to Muncie. In 1852 he with the family moved 
to Cincinnati, and during their four years’ stay in that 
city young Edwin had the advantage of the excellent 
public schools, which was of great advantage to him in 
after life. His father died when he was about eleven 
years of age, and the remains were taken to Newport, 
Wayne County, Indiana, where the family were then 
living. Being in limited circumstances, it was neces- 
sary that Edwin should seek some business by which 
he might be self supporting. 
live with Nathan Cadwallader, who then and in after 
life proved to be his earnest friend. Here he remained 
eighteen months, going to school part of the time. 
After a short interval he contracted with Abram Brower, 
a farmer living near, to work one year for fifty dollars, 
out of which his expenses for washing and mending 
were to be paid, and during the time he was to be sent 
to school for three months. By the closest economy at 
the end of the year he had a few cents more than half 
of the fifty dollars left. Henceforth, life and health 
granted, his pecuniary success was assured. Here he 
remained a few months longer at advanced wages; but 
the war breaking out the fever to enlist took hold of 
him, and though but little more than sixteen years of ° 
age he joined the 57th Indiana Regiment. Being so 
young, his mother would not consent to his going, and 
through the advice of Mr. Cadwallader he agreed to 
work in a general store at South Salem, a few miles 
away, for one year, for one hundred dollars and board 
and washing. But the martial spirit was in his blood, 
and he made another ineffectual attempt to enlist in the 
war. Still ambitious to join the army, in August, 1862, 
he enlisted in Company F, 69th Indiana, under Captain 
Harris. In just three weeks he participated in the bat- 
tle of Richmond, Kentucky; after which he was re- 
turned to Camp Wayne, Richmond, Indiana: Here he 
was taken with typhoid fever, and in November was 
discharged as a consumptive. Then he went to his 
mother’s, who was living in Union City, Indiana. He 
was soon appointed assistant postmaster of the place, 
but, on account of ill health, soon gave it up, and went 
to work on a farm, and in August, 1863, he enlisted in 
the 7th Indiana Cavalry, under General Thomas M. 
Browne. This proved to be of great advantage to his 
health, and on September 19, 1865, he was mustered 
out of the service a healthy man. At this time he was 
first sergeant of Company B. In January, 1866, he 
entered the Citizens’ Bank as book-keeper, where he re- 
mained till 1873, when on the reorganization of the 
bank under the state law he was elected cashier, a 
position he yet retains to the satisfaction of all con- 
cerned. 


Very soon he went to 


Mr. Tansey is a Royal Arch Mason, and served 
one year as Master of Turpen Lodge, No. gor. In 


106 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


March, 1877, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, | 


and is now an earnest, working Christian. In April, 
1878, he was appointed superintendent of the Sabbath- 
school, a position he now holds. On April 30, 1867, 
he married Miss Maria J. Gregory, of Union City. 
They have had five children born to them at three 
births—two pairs of twins, the youngest of whom are 
living. Two of their children have deceased. Mr. 
Tansey is an efficient officer, a courteous gentleman, 
and is highly esteemed in the community. 


—+ FOC 


YVGARD, THOMAS, was born in Champaign County, 
A)\/; Ohio, January 9, 1819. His parents, Joab and 
a Amy (Grave) Ward, were married and first 

settled in Ross County, Ohio, but afterwards 
moved to Champaign before the subject of this sketch 
was born. They then went to Randolph County, In- 
diana, with their three children, including their son 

Thomas. who was but.an infant at that time. The 

county was an almost unbroken wilderness, and wolves, 

bears, deer, and other game abounded. . So great were 
the numbers that on one occasion his father, who was 

a good hunter, actually killed six deer and wounded a 

seventh one morning before breakfast. The Indians 

had not yet removed from that territory, and Mr. Ward 


well remembers a tragic occurrence which took place 


when he was about five years of age. A dissipated In- 
dian, in company with two others, rushed upon three 
white men, including the father of Mr. Ward, in the 
latter’s own house, brandishing a large knife and mak- 
ing terrible threats. In repelling the attack the savage 
was shot through the leg when running, and a few 
days afterwards was killed while threatening vengeance 
against the whites. For about three months each win- 
ter ‘Thomas was sent to school, his opportunities for an 
education being very poor. Early in life he developed 
the faculty for accumulating money, and by buying and 
selling furs, deadening timber for owners of newly en- 
tered lands, etc., he came into possession of about six 
hundred acres of land, including one hundred and 
twenty acres given him by his father. This occurred 
before he was twenty-one years of age. He walked to 
Fort Wayne and back, through deep snow, making 
a distance of about one hundred and thirty miles, 
when a boy, carried his silver in his hand, and paid for 
eighty-four acres of land for a home. This incident 
shows his great perseverance. Being in the country be- 
fore the organization of the county, one of the northern 
tier of townships was called ‘‘ Ward” in honor of the 
family name. He moved to Winchester, his present 
home, in 1845, went into the mercantile business in 
the same year, and continued it till 1871, with slight 
interruption. He was elected to the state Senate in 


[Och Dest. 


1864 for four years, and was urged to continue, but de- 
clined the proposition. He had the honor to introduce 
the first bill to repeal the odious law which forbade the 
evidence of colored citizens to be received in our courts 
of justice. He has never belonged to any Church, but 
believes in the creed of the Society of Friends, except 
their doctrine of endless punishment. Politically in his 
early days he was a, Whig, and latterly has affiliated 
with the Republican party. He served from 1865 to 
1868-as president of the First National Bank of Winches- 
ter, and again served one year, but declined the office 
in 1875. The history of his married life in some 
respects is a sad one, having lost by death three most 
estimable wives. The subject of this sketch is an hon- 
est, honored, and trusted citizen of the community in 
which he lives. 
+400 — 


&TILLIAMS, CHARLES R., of Connersville, auditor 

of Fayette County, was born in that county June 
OS 10, 1830, and was the third of the eight children 

X32 born to Charles and Lydia (Job) Williams. His 
father was a native of New York state, and his mother of 
Pennsylvania. He attended the common schools of his 
native county, and as these were poor his early acquire- 
ments were limited. Being industrious and ambitious, 
he soon, however, passed the average student, and at 
the age of eighteen began teaching. ‘This he continued 
for twenty-one years in Fayette and Madison Counties, 
working at farming in summer. In 1869 he began the 
manufacture of drain-tile in his native county. He 
afterwards served as county surveyor for several years. 
In 1874 he was elected county auditor for four years, 
and in 1878 was re-elected. During the late Civil War 
Mr. Williams was twice drafted, but each time sent a 
substitute, feeling it his duty to remain at home to care 
for his large family. Being drafted the third time, 
however, he shouldered his musket and went to the field, 
presenting a singular coincidence, whereby a man and 
his two substitutes served in the army at the same time. 
All remained until the close of the war. August 3, 
1851, he married Miss Caroline Ellis, of Fayette County. 
They have a family of nine children. Mrs. Williams and 
her daughter are members of the Baptist Church. Mr. 
Williams’s politics are strongly Republican. He is a 


| quiet, unobtrusive gentleman, and a respected member 


of society. 


TOODS, ROBERT, president of the First National 
Bank, Knightstown, Indiana, was born in Bracken 
C County, Kentucky, December 26, 1806. He is 

G the second of ten children born to Jeremiah and 
Margaret Woods. His father, with his family, went to 
Ohio about the year 1810, and about 1815 he removed 


6th Dist.] 


to Indiana Territory, and located on a farm in Union 
County, where the subject of this sketch was brought 
up. As a natural consequence, his school privileges 
were very limited; for, in the first place, the teachers 
were few, and those few very poorly qualified to teach, 
and as water never rises higher than its level, so the 
scholars in these primitive days, in rude log school- 
houses, could not well surpass the teacher in scholar- 
ship. Notwithstanding all of these discouraging cir- 
cumstances, he acquired sufficient education for- the 
transaction of his business in after life. In those days 
the bread and butter question was always at the front, 
and every man, woman, and child that was able to do 
so was compelled to work. Young Robert helped clear 
up one hundred and thirty acres. In those days the 
woods were infested with bears, wolves, deer, and 
smaller game; and the night sport of boys frequently 
was to hunt raccoons and opossums till midnight or day- 
light. On these occasions many fine trees, oak, ash, 
and poplar, were sacrificed for the sake of a coon-skin. 
Shortly after reaching manhood, on January 3, 1828, he 
married Miss Hannah Heaton. They have had ten 
children born to them, seven of whom are now living, 
married, and in comfortable circumstances. In 1829 
Mr. Woods, with his wife and one child, removed to 
Henry County, which has since been his home. They 
first settled in West Liberty, then a village of three 
stores, situated one mile south-west of the spot on 
which Knightstown was afterwards built. At that time 
West Liberty was the town between Rushville and New 
Castle. Subsequently, the National Road was laid out, 
and this place went back into its original farms. He 
here raised hemp, sold it, and kept a grocery for a few 
months, obtaining possession of sixty dollars in cash. 
At this time there was a certain eighty acres of land, 
since known as the Ballard Farm, which Mr. Woods 
wanted to enter, but another party coveted it at the 
same time. The land was worth a dollar and a quarter 
per acre. The government would not sell in less quan- 
tities than eighty acres, and the question with him was, 
‘««Where can I get the other forty dollars?” Having 
walked to Connersville and back without getting the 
money, he heard, through a friend, on Sunday, of a 
man who had forty dollars to loan. He was to go to 
that friend the next morning and get a line to this third 
party. He retired that night with his mind full of the 
scheme of money-getting the next day. Not having 
any time-piece, and thinking it better to be early than 
late, he arose at what he deemed a seasonable hour, 
went to his friend’s house, roused them up, and found 
it was only two o’clock in the morning. With a line 
of introduction to the third person, he set out in the 
night and walked across the country to his house. 


was in the month of February, and the weather was | 
His sense of propriety was such that he would | 


cold. 


It | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| in battle. 


107 


not wake up this stranger, but, perched on the fence 
about one hundred yards from the cabin, he looked 
with longing eyes for the approach of day. To keep 
frcm freezing, he alighted from his seat and paced back- 
wards and forwards as the dull, dark hours passed 
slowly by. Finally, his great patience was rewarded by 
seeing the man of whom he was in quest. He ap- 
proached, saluted him, and delivered his paper, which 
was slowly read. The capitalist then went into the 
house without a word, not even an invitation to come 
in. This was a painful suspense; but it was all right. 
In a short time the farmer brought out the forty dollars, 
for which he refused to take a note, and Mr. Woods 
went on his way rejoicing. The land was secured, and 
he began in earnest to open a farm. This forty dollars 
was borrowed and paid and reborrowed from various 
persons nine different times before it was all paid up. 
Having cleared out some twenty-five acres of land, he 
sold this farm in 1833 for seven hundred and fifty dol- 
lars, and about forty years afterwards he bought it back 
for seven thousand five hundred. dollars. Of this seven 
hundred and fifty dollars he laid out four hundred dol- 
lars in land, and with a partner he invested the three 
hundred and fifty dollars in business in Knightstown. 
After some four years his partner sold out, and Mr. 
Woods continued in trade for fifteen years, making a 
large amount of money for that time. He bought farms, 
built houses, and went largely into the cattle-grazing 
business, in which he was quite successful. In 1860 he 
entered into an extensive business in Cincinnati as a 
member of the firm of Gilbert, Ogborn & Co: In four 
or five years they lost one hundred and sixteen thousand 
dollars, and Mr. Woods had the whole of it to pay. He 
could have compromised with his creditors, no doubt, 
for fifty cents on the dollar, but would not. He ob- 
tained an extension of time for one year by paying ten 
per cent interest. He began to sell his property, and 
in two months he paid off the whole debt, and was 
again a free man with his fair name untarnished. The 
subject of this sketch has given farms or property to 
each of his seven children, five of whom are settled 
about them, and he now owns some fifteen hundred 
acres. Both of his sons went into the army, and re- 
mained till the close of the war; and both were wounded 
The youngest was but little more than fifteen 
years old when he enlisted. Mr. Woods is a member 
of the Masonic Fraternity, and both he and Mrs. Woods 
are acceptable members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The latter as a faithful wife has stood by and 
cheered her husband through all their eventful married 
life. And now in old age they have the consciousness 
of having done their duty. Mr. Woods is a man of 
the highest standing in his community. His reputa. 
tion has been gained by a long course of honest and 
straightforward conduct. 


en 
a) BcK, WILLIAM H., first mayor of Connersville, 


iat merchant tailor, and member of the school board, 
Cc% was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 30, 
ack 1818. He is the son of David and Catherine 
(Harb) Beck, the former a native of the Keystone State, 
the latter of Maryland. In 1821, when their son Will- 
iam was three years old, they moved to Connersville, 
Indiana, where he was brought up, and has lived for 
more than half a century. He was educated in the 
common schools ofthe then small town, Samuel W. 
Parker being his principal teacher. Mr. Beck’s father 
was a tailor, and brought his son up in the same occu- 
pation. He remained at Connersville. until about the 
age of nineteen, when, for one year, he traveled as a 
journeyman tailor. He soon tired of this, having veri- 
fied in his own experience the truth of the adage, ‘‘A 
rolling stone gathers no moss.” On settling at Falmouth, 
a few miles from his home, he had but fifty cents in his 
pocket. He remained in that village about eleven years, 
and while there was elected treasurer of Rush County, 
which position he held four years. When about thirty- 
eight years of age, in partnership with his brother, he 
started as a merchant tailor in a small frame building on 
the corner lot on which his handsome brick building 
now stands. By industry, good management, and close 
attention to business, they extended their trade, until 
larger quarters were demanded, and in 1868 they erected 
the building above referred to, which they now occupy. 
Mr. Beck has filled various offices; among others that of 
member of the city school board, which he held some 
twelve or fifteen years. For the past thirty-three years 
he has been a member of the Baptist Church, to which 
Mrs. Beck also belongs. In 1843 he married Miss Chris- 
tiana Skillman, of Fayette County, by whom he has two 
sons. The elder, Samuel Beck, is now in business with 
his father. Mr. Beck had the honor to be chosen first 
mayor of Connersville; and under his administration 
the Holly system of water works was constructed, which 


has proved a great benefit to the city. 
—~+-$906-— 


USTON, WILLIAM, banker, late of Conners- 
ville, was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, 
s}\ on the 3d of September, 1801. He was of Scotch- 
“, Irish descent. After reaching the age of maturity 
he followed the business of farming and milling, be- 
ing associated in business with James Huston, his 
brother, under the firm name of J. & W. Huston, for 
many years, in fact until the death of James Huston, 
which occurred in August, 1872. The firm of J. & W. 
Huston did an extensive milling business, both in Frank- 
lin County, Pennsylvania, and also in Indiana, to which 
state Mr. Huston removed in 1851. He had acquired by 
this time considerable means, and began money lending. 


C 5 iS 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[6th Dist. 


His neighbors had great confidence in him, from his 
weil known integrity of character, and he frequently 
had sums of money lodged in his hands in a fiduciary 
character. He was an extremely scrupulous man in re- 
gard to religious and moral observances, and would 
allow no desecration of the Sabbath. Early in life he 
joined the Presbyterian Church, and after its division 
was an adherent of the Old-school branch, serving as 
an elder in the congregation for nearly fifty years. He 
In 1870 he, with others, opened a 
private bank in Connersville, since known as the Citi- 


was very zealous. 


zens’ Bank, which proved very successful, and he con- 
tinued in that line until his death. He was married in 
1847 to Isabella Elizabeth Duncan, whose ancestors 
were also Scotch-Irish, having by her one child, J. N. 
Huston, now the proprietor of the Citizens’ Bank. Mr. 
Huston was an excellent business man; he understood 
human nature well, and his judgment was rarely at 
fault. Perhaps the most marked trait of his character 
was his great decision. 
and was very positive in his beliefs. 


He made conclusions rapidly, 
While the Whig 
party still had an existence he was a member of that 
organization, pleased when it was successful and pained 
when it was defeated. He was a strong anti-slavery 
man, and when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
broke up the lines of former parties he joined the Re- 
publicans, being active and earnest in promoting their 
welfare. He lent his aid and encouragement to the 
Union cause when it needed it most during the Civil 
War, and during Morgan’s raid shouldered his musket 
and helped to defend his home and fireside. He never 
sought nor would accept office, but was always ready to 


_help in the improvement of the place of his adoption. 


Connersville owes much to him. He was a great reader 
of books, although he had received no advantages of 
education, and was an ardent friend of the temperance 


cause. In person he was very tall and erect, measuring 
six feet and two inches. His death occurred January 
5, 1875. 


4006-2 
USTON, JAMES N., banker and capitalist, of 
Connersville, was born in Franklin County, Penn- 

S5P\ sylvania, on the 11th of May, 1849. His mother 
ae died when he was but twenty days old, and he 
was consequently deprived of her watchful care. His 
father emigrated to Indiana when James was only two 
years and a half of age. He attended the graded 
school at Connersville, and at fifteen went to college at 
Hanover, Indiana, and afterwards to the Miami Uni- 
versity at Oxford. He began his preparation for col- 
lege, in the study of Latin and Greek, with James C. 
McIntosh, Esq., a well known lawyer of Connersville. 
After graduation he studied medicine under Doctor 
George W. Garver as preceptor, and attended one 


N 


) 


‘a 


WILLIAM HUST 


| 
‘ ' 
_ LIBRARY 
Pras Obs HED eee. 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


6th Dist.) 


course of lectures at the Bellevue Hospital Medical Col- 
lege, New York City. On his ‘return he entered the 
law office of Judge John S. Reid. About this time he 
spent one year in Kansas in the stock business and in 
herding cattle. He was married April 9, 1871, at Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, by the Rev. L. L. Pinkerton, D. D., 
to Miss Ree C. Peebles, of Woodford County, in that 
state. She was the niece of the officiating clergyman, 
a very celebrated’ preacher, and daughter of Doctor D. 
Peebles. They took up their residence on a farm, 
where they lived one year, but afterwards removed to 


Huston received a subordinate 


the town, where Mr. 
position in the bank, after three months becoming as- 
sistant cashier, and subsequently .acting as cashier. 
After the death of his father he was engaged in many 
lines of business as his father’s successor. He is now 
sole owner of the bank, having bought out the other 
partners. His success in this has been very great; his 
bank does much the largest portion of the business of 
the town. He has been an active and public spirited 
citizen. He has been president of the Coffin Company, 
employing about one hundred hands. The Gas Works, 
now in successful operation, owe largely to him in tak- 
ing hold of it, and he now owns a majority of the 
stock; he is a large stockholder in the White Water 
Silver Plating Company, and is interested in many other 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


109 


He has been elected to the 
city council twice, in a Democratic ward, although a 
Republican, and was elected a member of the state 
Legislature on the 12th of October, this year, by 791 
majority over the most popular man in the district. 
He has a strong support from the laboring and work- 
ing classes, for whom he feels a deep sympathy. He 
was president of the Agricultural Society for several 
years, and takes a warm interest in agriculture. He 
is a large land owner, and carries on his farms him- 
self by foremen, realizing a fair profit. He has taken 
an active part in the temperance movement, and for 


manufacturing enterprises. 


two years was president of the county society. In 
this cause he has lectured at home and elsewhere, 
speaking effectively and to the point. He does not 
conceal his opinions on this subject for party considera- 
tions. Mr. Huston is now thirty-one years of age. He 
is tall and slender, and is noticeably erect in his bear- 
ing. His manners are easy and unaffected ; his language 
well chosen and free from slang or provincialisms; his 
way of living is quiet and unostentatious. There is 
no citizen of his town who is called upon oftener to 
give aid or advice in any benevolent enterprise. He 
has three children: Ellen Isabella Carlysle, born June 
10, 1872; William, born January 11, 1875; and Marie, 
born August 5, 1877. 


‘a 


t= 


THE 


SEVENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 


DAMS, THOMAS BIGELOW, of Shelbyville, son 

#\ of William B. and Martha Adams, was born April 

< 9, 1826, in Fayette County, Indiana. His educa- 
tion was acquired in the common schools. He 

early manifested a taste for the study of useful books, a 
fondness for debate, and a strong inclination to the 
study of the law. By the time he reached manhood he 
had a mind stored with Biblical and historical lore, and 
enriched with a goodly share of scientific knowledge. 
To the careful and judicious habits and studies of his 
youth may be largely attributed his success in after life. 
Not possessing the necessary means with which to pur- 
sue his studies, he began the business of farming and 
saw-milling in 1849, those being the pursuits he had 
been reared in. From that time until the present he 
has been engaged, more or less directly, in the same 
business, in partnership with his brother, W. D. Adams, 
at and near Laurel, Indiana, where they now own a 
planing and saw mill and farming and timber lands. 
On the first day of December, 1857, he ceased a per- 
sonal supervision of that business, and began the study 
of his chosen profession at his home. In August, 1858, 
he entered the law office of Jones & Berry, at Brookville, 
Indiana, as a student, and remained there until March, 
1860, when he formed a partnership, for the practice of 
his profession, with Fielding Berry, junior, at Brook- 
ville, under the firm name of Adams & Berry, where 
they continued to practice with great success until 1874, 
when the firm was dissolved, owing to the desire of 
Mr. Adams to remove from the county. During this 
time the firm had enjoyed an extended reputation, and 
had the largest and best legal business in the neighbor- 
hood. On the first day of October, 1874, he began the 
practice of law in Shelbyville, with Louis T. Michener, 
under the firm name of Adams & Michener. They 
soon acquired a good business, and now have probably 
the largest litigating practice in the county. Early in 
life Mr. Adams accustomed himself to debating in the 

Cc—1 


lyceums and debating societies then existing in his local- 
ity. He soon acquired a wide reputation as a successful, 
logical, and eloquent debater, and was pitted against 
some of the finest speakers that the exigencies of the 
times produced. In this way he discussed before large 
audiences many of the religious, temperance, and polit- 
ical questions which then engaged the attention of 
thinking men, and always with unvarying success. His 
first vote was cast for Henry Clay. Shortly after he 
united with the Democratic party, and voted its ticket 
from that time to and including the year 1862. In 
the campaigns of 1856, 1858, 1860, and 1862, he can- 
vassed his portion of the state in the interests of his 
party. The beginning of the late war found him a 
stanch defender of the Union, and an earnest advocate 
of the doctrine of coercion. From the beginning to the 
end of the war he was constantly engaged in making 
Union and war speeches, and his services in that respect 
were highly appreciated. During this time, and after- 
wards, he was a trusted friend and adviser of the late 
Governor Morton. He volunteered once and was drafted 
once, but each time was rejected on account of physical 
disability. . Despite the warnings of disease and repeated 
threats of personal violence, by individuals and mobs, 
he persisted in his gallant advocacy of the Union cause 
until the last gun was fired. After the election of 1862 
he became dissatisfied with the political course of the 
Democratic party, and cast his lot with the Republicans. 
From 1864 to the present time he has voted its ticket, 
and advocated its cause on the stump in every cam- 
paign. In the remarkable campaign of 1864 he often 
spoke three times in a day. By his efforts at that time 
the late Colonel John H. Farquhar was elected to Con- 
gress, although the district was Democratic by a large 
majority. In 1876 he was a member of the Republican 
state central committee, and made a canvass of a por- 
tion of the state. He has several times been offered 
congressional nominations, but has uniformly declined 


2 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


to accept. His participation in political affairs has 
not been through yearnings after office and distinc- 
tion, but from a feeling of conscious duty. Although 
his family were and are Methodists—the father having 
been a local minister in that Church—Mr. Adams is not 
a member of any religious denomination. He was mar- 
ried, in February, 1849, to Sarah L., daughter of John 
Malone. He is of medium stature and weight, dark 
brown hair, and a florid complexion. His well-known 
physical and moral courage, unyielding will, integrity, 
love of justice, high sense of honor, morality, and un- 
flinching advocacy of that which is right, are well de- 
fined elements of his personal character. Add to these 
industry and great intellectual capacity, and we have 
the key to his marked success as a business man, lawyer, 
and orator. Among his professional brethren he is 
noted for his thorough knowledge of the law, not only 
of its great underlying principles, but also of its niceties 
and its exacting details, and for his faculty of clearly 
presenting to court and jury the law and the facts of 
the case. 
—~- - theo —_ 

1 MES, EDWARD RAYMOND, Indianapolis, was 
m\ born in Amesville, Athens County, Ohio, May 20, 
oof 1806. His parents were persons of much intelli- 
gence and of pronounced Christian character. His 
own educational advantages were limited, but carefully 
improved, and at the age of twenty, with a decided 
inclination toward more liberal culture, he entered the 
Ohio University at Athens. He remained in college 
two or three years, during which time he became a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the 
fall of 1828 he accompanied Bishop Roberts to Madison, 
the seat of the Illinois Conference, though he does not 
seem to have been licensed as a preacher at that time. 
From that conference he went to Illinois, and at Leb- 
anon, in that state, founded the school which afterward 
became known as McKendree College. He was received 
on trial in the Illinois Conference at the session held in 
Vincennes, in this state, in 1830, and was sent as junior 
preacher to Shoal Creek Circuit, in the Kaskaskia Dis- 
trict. He was next sent to Vincennes, then to New 
Albany and Jeffersonville Circuit, then to Jeffersonville 
Station, and from there he came to Indianapolis, as 
pastor of Wesley Chapel. During 1836 and 1837 he 
was agent of the Preachers’ Aid Society of the confer- 
ence. In 1837 he was sent to St. Louis, Missouri, but 
at the end of his pastoral term in that city returned to 
Madison, in this state, again becoming a member of the 
Indiana Conference, into which he fell by the division 
of the Illinois Conference in 1832. He was presiding 
elder of the Greencastle District in 1839 and 1840, until 
the General Conference in May. It is proof of the 
recognized ability of young Ames that he was made 


ey 


[7th Dist. 


presiding elder, and elected a delegate to General Confer- 
ence, before he had been an itinerant minister ten years; 
and it is a still stronger proof of his power and promise 
that the first General Conference of which he was a 
member elected him one of the missionary secretaries 
of the Church when he was but thirty-four years old. 
He was probably the youngest man ever elected to that 
office. In this secretaryship he did an immense amount 
of hard work. His travels, mostly in the South and 
West, were very extensive, and at a time when travel- 
ing in these sections of the country was no holiday 
affair. He was again elected to General Conference in 
1844, from which he returned to the itinerancy as pre- 
siding elder of the New Albany District. From that 
work he became presiding elder of the Indianapolis 
District, with his residence in Indianapolis. In 1848 he 
was elected president of Asbury University, but declined 
to accept the position. From 1850 to 1852 he was on 
the Jeffersonville District, but resided in Indianapolis. 
He was well known through all this country, and in 1842 
was elected chaplain of a council of Choctaw Indians, 
the first man in the world, probably, who was elected 
by the red men to such a position. The General Con- 
ference of 1852 met in Boston, Massachusetts, and Doc- 
tor Ames was a delegate. Four bishops were elected 
by that conference, and Indiana furnished two of them, 
namely, Matthew Simpson and Edward R. Ames. Levi 
Scott and Osmon C. Baker were the other two. Of the 
bishops elected in 1864 not one remains; but of those 
elected in 1852 only one died before Bishop Ames. 
They were men of robust physical strength and of much 
intellectual power. Bishop Baker died some years ago. 
The other two are still alive and have done large 
work until now. On the second day of April, 1870, 
Bishop Ames held a conference session, Bishop Scott 
met the North Indiana Conference on the ninth, and 
Bishop Simpson closed the Wyoming Conference at 
about the same time. For twenty-seven years these 
brave men had been facing the perils and shouldering 
the burdens of the Episcopacy of that Church. Bishop 
Ames visited the Pacific Slope when it meant a stage- 
ride of thousands of miles or a more extended voyage 
by sea. He used to say that when he was elected 
bishop the field of his responsibility seemed instantly to 
enlarge, the borders apparently receded from him, and 
he stood in the midst of space, almost without a boun- 
dary. He realized afterward that this seeming bound- 
lessness of his field was not all a dream, for the scene 
of his toil was limited only by the seas. He crossed 
the rivers and climbed the mountains, and stopped only 
when he came to the ocean. Bishop Ames seldom 
erred in his judgment of men. He was sagacious in his 
plans, whether for himself or for the Church. His views 
were always large, generally clear, logical, and strong. 
He ignored rhetorical adornment of speech, and de- 


7th Dist.] 


pended for his success upon sound sense, strongly stated, 
and charged with passion. When fully aroused he was 
mighty. 
tion, and in almost every way great. 


the Church, and had he engaged in politics its range 
would have been unlimited. His prominent character- 
istics, as shown forth in his life, were accuracy, firm- 
ness, devotion to duty, greatness of mind combined with 
tenderness of heart amounting to childish simplicity, 
controlled by a great soul that promptly acknowledged 
his mistakes. Bishop Ames, as a speaker ranked among 
the best, not in the glowing passion of eloquence of a 
Simpson, but in clearness and comprehensiveness of 
thought, and a delivery of forcible simplicity, strength- 
ened by reserve power. His cool and apparently unsym- 
pathetic manner often caused him to be misunderstood, 
for on nearer acquaintance one was convinced that 
greater piety and more genuine sympathy for all classes 
few men possessed. His prayers, full of pathos, were 
sweet and earnest communions with God. He died 
April, 1879. 
—>-40+—_ 


DDISON, JOHN, Greenfield, commissioner of 

- Hancock County, was born in Preble County, 
Ohio, January 22, 1820. He is the son of John 

© and Sarah Addison, formerly of Randolph County, 
North Carolina. His father removed to Indiana in 
1827, and located in Rush County, where young Addi- 
son labored with untiring zeal in clearing the forests 
and tilling the soil. During the winter season he at- 
tended the common schools of the county, where he 
obtained the only schooling he ever enjoyed. He re- 
mained with his parents until twenty-one years of age, 
when he was married; and, receiving the gift of a small 
tract of land from his father, he moved on it and began 
his exertions for an independent living. January 17, 
1854, he removed from Rush to Hancock County and 
purchased a farm in Jackson Township, where he now 
resides. In the autumn of 1861 he was elected treas- 
urer of Hancock County, a position in which he distin- 
guished himself for efficiency and careful attention to 
his duties. In 1878 he was again called to the duties 
of official life, being chosen a representative to the state 
Legislature. Mr. Addison has always contributed liber- 
ally to the various public enterprises of his county. He 
aids and encourages county and district fairs, and takes 
great interest in improvements in stock-raising and agri- 
culture. He has been a faithful member of the Chris- 
tian Church since 1840. He is now, and always has 
been, a steadfast Democrat, casting his first presidential 
vote for James K. Polk. On the 13th of February, 
1840, he was first married to Miss Nancy Hall, daughter 
of Curtis Hall, of Henry County, Indiana. His second 


He was wise in counsel, strong in administra- | 
He was a born | 

. . . * | 
leader of men, which gave him a wonderful influence in | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


3 


union occurred on the ninth day of January, 1868. Mr. 
Addison is the father of ten children, seven. of whom 
are living. 

ee 


Ci ANNISTER, SAMUEL N., business manager and 
part owner of the Indianapolis Herald, was born 
in Baltimore, Maryland, July 4, 1832, of English 
ancestry. His father, Joshua Bannister, was the 
elder brother of the eminent tragedian and dramatic 
author, N. H. Bannister. He is perhaps distantly re- 
lated to Jack Bannister, now of the theatrical profession. 
The father and mother of Samuel Bannister both came 
to America during early childhood; his mother, whose 
maiden name was Jane Draper, being but four years old 
when she was brought by her parents to this country. 
In 1834, or when the subject of this sketch was still an 
infant, his parents moved to Cincinnati, where they re- 
mained twelve years. Thus the son was enabled to ob- 
tain a fair education in the free schools of that city. 
When he was fourteen years old his father removed to 
Dayton. Here he attended school for two years, and 
when he arrived at the age of sixteen left home to seek 
his fortune, or carve out his own destiny in life. His 
uncle desired to make an actor of him, offering every 
advantage for study and practice; but the actualities of 
life had more attraction for him than the presentations 
of their semblance. To grapple with realities seemed 
better than to ‘* bully the bulky phantom of the stage.” 
Returning to Cincinnati he entered the employment of 
the O’Reilley Telegraph Company, acting as messenger 
boy. He remained with them nearly two years, becom- 
ing an excellent telegraph operator. About this time 
he lost both father and mother by death, and the care 


of his younger sister devolved in a great measure upon 
him. Finding that telegraphy was not altogether to his 
taste, and the remuneration not sufficient to satisfy his 
ambition, he served an apprenticeship as a carriage 
trimmer, and at this trade for a number of years he 
worked as a number one hand. In September, 1860, 
Mr, Bannister was married to Miss Mary A. Lucas, of 
Winchester, Indiana, with whom his life has been spent 
peacefully and happily. A year later, September, 1861, 
he volunteered in the 26th Indiana Regiment. Here 
he served eleven months as quartermaster’s sergeant and 
was then promoted to a lieutenancy, following the for- 
tunes of the regiment all through Missouri, and partici- 
pating in all its engagements and skirmishes. At Prairie 
Grove, Arkansas, where a thousand men, as a result of a 
two hours’ battle, were killed and wounded, Lieutenant 
Bannister received four bullet wounds in less than fif- 
teen minutes, a shattered shoulder being the most seri- 
ous one. Often leading his company into the thickest 
of the fight, he was conspicuous for his bravery. 
Being quite diminutive in size, he obtained from his 


4 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


messmates the nickname of “The Jack of Clubs.” His 
enlistment expiring, he entered the roll of veterans and 
participated in the sieges of Vicksburg and Mobile and 
the campaign of Alabama, serving four years and two 
months. Returning to Winchester, in October, 1865, 
-Mr. Bannister entered the dry-goods trade, building up 
‘a prosperous business, identifying himself with the place 
by acting as councilman, and performing all the duties 
devolving upon a wide-awake citizen. In 1873 he bought 
a partnership with George C. Harding in the Indianapo- 
lis Herald, then trembling on the verge of bankruptcy, 
and by skillful financial management, indomitable en- 
ergy, and unceasing effort established it upon a paying 


basis. Here his thorough business qualities became most 
apparent. The facile pen of George C. Harding, who 


could say as much in a paragraph as another would in 
a page, and the business management of Mr. Bannister, 
have made the Herald one of the most successful papers 
in the West. January 1, 1880, Mr. Bannister bought 
out Mr. Harding’s share in the Hera/d and sold a one- 
third interest to A. H. Dooley, former editor of the Aod- 
ern Argo, of Quincy, Illinois. Mr. Bannister was educated 
in the Baptist Church, but is a liberal in belief. Mrs. 
Bannister is a Methodist, and a member of Roberts Park 
Church. They have one child, Georgie, a bright boy 
twelve years of age. Mr. Bannister, while not bigoted 
in politics, is a stanch Republican, and the kind of man 
who is of service to every community. <A shrewd busi- 
ness man, his investments are always paying ones. At 
the age of twenty-one he was initiated in the order of 
Freemasonry, passing through all the degrees and hold- 
ing important official positions. He is a Knight Tem- 
plar, and has also taken the thirty-second degree of the 
Scottish Rité. He belongs to Raper Commandery, and 
was one of the forty-five whose recent drill at Chicago 
resulted in their winning the capital prize. Mr. Ban- 
nister’s career proves that energy and industry are the 
roads to success. His probity is unquestioned, and he 
is a man whose ‘‘word is as good as his bond.” 


40th — 
ides 
“e ARNES, HENRY FRANKLIN, M. D., of In- 
»)) dianapolis, Indiana. 


i 


“A man of experience is he— 
One accustomed to life.”’ 

Doctor Barnes was born in Orleans, Orange County, 
August 11, 1829. His great-uncle, Daniel 
Dean, was a native of Ireland, a gentleman who early 
came to America, settling in Greene County, Ohio, and 
purchasing there extensive tracts of land, yet occupied 
by his descendants. Henry Barnes, the Doctor’s pater- 
nal grandfather, was captain of the light-horse in the 
siege of Fort Meigs, Ohio. His maternal grandfather, 
Judge Joseph Athon, of Virginia, was connected with 


Indiana, 


[7h Dist. 


the famous ‘‘ Blue Bonnet” regiment from Scotland and 
England, under Lord Fairfax, to whom he was dis- 
tantly related, as well as to the Stuarts. Mrs. Athon 
was Mary Woolverton, a cousin to General Woolverton, 
of Maryland. Prior to their location in Virginia, his 
maternal ancestors settled in Georgia, owning there no 
less than twenty thousand acres of land, the best af- 
forded by the state; subsequently, they moved to Alex- 
andria, Virginia, and obtained possession of a large 
tract on which the city, or a part of the city, of Alex- 
andria now stands. It is a fact beyond question that a 
large fraction of this purchase, and that, too, on the 
very site of the city to-day, was ‘‘sold for a mess of 
pottage’”’—given away for a bowl of punch. Dean 
Barnes, the father of Henry F. Barnes, was born in 
Lexington, Kentucky, in 1803, and was of German and 

Trish extraction. His mother, Mahala, six years his 
father’s junior, was born at Rockbridge, Virginia. Her 
father, Judge Joseph Athon, was known as a superior 
instructor—teaching mathematics in Washington, Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and Alexandria, Virginia, many 
years. Thus we have in brief the history of Doctor 
Barnes’s ancestry, and in the whole of it there is nothing 
of which he is not always proud. The Doctor obtained 
a thorough common school education in Southern In- 
diana. While he was yet a mere lad, his father moved 
from Orleans to Springville, Lawrence County, where 
he lived for many years; not long after placing his son 


in the Union School of Xenia, Ohio, in which, after 


an attendance of eight months, he was selected to de- 
liver the valedictory address. At this time there were 
about four hundred students in the institution. In 1848 
he went to Greencastle, Indiana, and took an irregular 
scientific course in Asbury University, including the lan- 
guages, but he did not remain at the university to com- 
plete his course. His professional education was begun 
in Charlestown, Clarke County, Indiana, im 1849, where 
he studied medicine with Doctor James S. Athon, who 
afterward, within the circle of his acquaintance and in 
the state, stood at the head of his profession, and 
obtained, likewise, considerable eminence as a poli- 
tician. He (Doctor Barnes) attended both courses of 
lectures at Jefferson College, Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania, and at the same time graduated at the Col- 
lege of Pharmacy. This was in 1852, 1853, and 1854, 
between which times he practiced for a season 
at New Washington, Clarke County, Indiana, and 
afterwards awhile at Philadelphia, whence he went 
to Pottstown, Pennsylvania; at Bedford, Indiana, he 
remained eight months; at Paoli, ten months. Then 
it was that he was appointed assistant physician in the 
Indiana Hospital for the Insane. During most of the 
time of his service here he was senior physician, which 
position he held from 1856 to 1861, when he retired, 
and entered general practice at Indianapolis. Governor 


7th Dist. 


Morton, in 1862, selected him to make a tour in the 
South, to make inspection of the wounds received by 
the soldiers in the battle of Fort Donelson. Accom- 
panied by the Governor’s private secretary and a state 
auditor’s clerk, he visited all the hospitals from Fort 
Donelson to Paducah, Mound City, Cairo, and St. 
Louis; having done which, he came to Indianapolis. 
He was in the army but a short time. He was, how- 
ever, appointed an assistant surgeon of the 11th Indi- 
ana Regiment Independent Zouaves, taking charge of 
several wards of the hospital at Shiloh. During John- 
son’s administration he was pension surgeon in this dis- 
trict. The Doctor has been one of the leading politi- 
cians of the state. In 1868 he made the race for the 
Senate, in which year he was also a candidate for Sec- 
retary of State, subject to the decision of the Indiana 
Democratic State Convention. From 1868 to 1870 he 
was a member of the Democratic state central com- 
mittee, representing the central district, at Indianapolis. 
He was one of a committee of seven appointed to re- 
ceive Andrew Johnson, then the President of the United 
States, General Grant, and a number of other distin- 
guished persons, in 1866, while ‘¢swinging around the 
circle.” He continued in a large and lucrative practice in 
Indianapolis until 1870; thence he went to Louisville, 
remaining there till 1877; then returned to Indianapolis 
by special request, and entered upon his former practice 
after the death of his distinguished preceptor, relative, 
and friend, Doctor James S. Athon. He has been an 
expert in the courts of Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky 
on insanity, and his opinion has been allowed the high- 
est credence, as he is recognized as authority in many 
cases of law. On this subject he has published a num- 
ber of important articles, which are rife with the evi- 
idences of hard study, thorough investigation, and 
logical deduction. He is a member of the orders of 
Odd-fellows, Masons, and Knights of Pythias; has be- 
longed to the Indiana State Medical Society; was a 
founder of the Academy of Medicine of Indianapolis; 
a member of the Kentucky State Medical Society; a 
member of the Medico-chirurgical Society of Louis- 
ville, a society in which the membership is limited to 
thirty, and to enter which is no little compliment to a 
man’s professional ability; and a member of “the Ken- 
tucky Club,” a state social organization. Doctor Barnes 
is regarded as a physician and surgeon of consummate 
ability, as reliable, and as eminently worthy the exten- 
sive practice he now has, reaching, as it does, far be- 
yond the limits of his community and state. The Doc- 
tor, in appearance, is about the usual height-—perhaps 
five feet six and a half inches—and of about one hun- 
dred and seventy-five pounds weight; hale, hearty, 
genial; and of a disposition keenly to enjoy the com- 
forts he has so richly deserved, so hardly won. 
ion is of weight in the community. 


His opin- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 5 


(\AYLISS, REV. JEREMIAH H., D. D., of Indi- 
“) anapolis, was born in Wednesbury, England, De- 
cember 20, 1835. He was the son of Samuel and 
Priscilla (Smith) Bayliss. His parents emigtated 
from England to America in 1837, and located in Troy, 
New York. In 1841 they removed to Wyoming County. 
In 1853 the subject of this sketch became a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church at Wales, Erie County, 
New York, and in 1854 was there licensed as an ex- 
horter. In 1856, at the age of twenty-one, having in 
the mean time removed to Aurora, Erie County, he was 
licensed as a local preacher. In 1857 he was received 
on probation in the Genesee Conference; and in 1859 
he was received into full connection, and ordained to 


the office of deacon by Bishop Simpson, at Brockport, 
New York. In 1861 he was ordained to the office of 
elder, at Albion, New York, by Bishop Edward R. 
Ames. He attended school every year from four years 
of age until twenty-one, in public or select school, sem- 
inary or college, the last-named at Lima, New York, in 
the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary and Genesee College. 
He received the degree of A. M. from this college in 
1868, and the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the 
Ohio Wesleyan University in 1874. For nine years he 
was a member of Genesee Conference; was transferred 
to the Rock River Conference, Illinois, and stationed at 
Park Avenue Church, Chicago, for three years; and 
afterwards at Trinity charge, in the same city, for 
two years. The Chicago fire occurred in 1871, and as 
one of the results of that catastrophe Doctor Bayliss 
was transferred to Indianapolis, and stationed at Roberts 
Park Church for three years. The ensuing three years 
he was at~Trinity, Indianapolis; and at the present 
writing is again at Roberts Park. He was thus at 
Chicago for five consecutive years, and, to date, eight 
years in Indianapolis. Doctor Bayliss was married to 
Miss Sarah A. Britton, at Boston, Erie County, New 
York, September 28, 1859. This union has been blessed 
with two sons and three daughters. As a writer for 
newspapers and periodicals, his services are greatly in 
demand, and his publications in this direction have 
been numerous, and would, if put into proper shape, 
make at least half a dozen volumes of five hundred 
pages each, duodecimo. Scores of his sermons have 
been reproduced in the columns of the leading dailies 
of Chicago and Indianapolis. His sermon on the death 
of the sister of Senator Twitchell, of Louisiana, was ex- 
tensively copied by the Northern papers in every state, 
and millions of copies of it distributed in various forms. 
His funeral address at the burial of Senator O. P. Mor- 
ton was reported by the agents of the Associated Press, 
and generally published in the daily papers of the coun- 
try. The funeral sermon at the burial of General Canby 
was also extensively circulated. His writings for the 
secular and religious press have been voluminous for 


6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


one not professionally connected with newspapers. Doc- 
tor Bayliss is aggressive in speech, and argues rather 
than persuades. He occupies a front rank among the 
ministers of his denomination, and ordinarily has crowded 
audiences to hear him. His language is well chosen, 
often eloquent, always forcible. He is characterized 
by great boldness in seizing upon and handling living 
topics; and every event of local or general importance, 
as affecting the social or moral life of the city or coun- 
try, is sure to be made a topic for a Sunday evening 
service, and held up in the light of God’s Word for ap- 
proval or condemnation. His congregation are always 
on the alert for something new, and are seldom disap- 
pointed. Doctor Bayliss has that quality in him that 
makes men respect his opinion, however they may differ 
with him. His sermons are delivered from notes, but so 
carefully are they studied that they have all the effect 
of extemporaneous discourses. He visited Europe in 
the summer of 1878, and his lectures on his experience 
abroad are said to be very entertaining and instructive. 
He is a man of marked traits of character, and would 
have made his influence felt in whatever channel he 
might have chosen to direct his energies, 


—+>Gote-<—_—__ 

ige 
Ga eto PLINY WEBSTER, <A. B, 

»)) A. M., of Indianapolis, was born August 4, 1840, at 
Cabotville, Hampden County, Massachusetts. He 
is the son of Hon. H. Harris Bartholomew, now 
of Cambridge City, Wayne County, Indiana, who was 
a Whig Representative in the Massachusetts Legislature 
of 1850, from the Hampshire District. 
whose maiden name was Betsey Moore, died when the 
subject of this sketch was six years old. For his second 
wife his father married Deborah S. Coleman, of Buck- 
land, Massachusetts, a woman of great talent and noble 
character. Pliny is the third of twelve children. 
When fifteen years old his father failed in business, 
and the son was thrown upon his own energies for sup- 
port and education. By hard study and economizing 
his earnings, he was enabled in 1861 to enter Union 
College, at Schenectady, New York, and graduated with 
the honors of his class in 1864. He then read law with 
J. S. Lamoreaux at Ballston Spa, New York, for two 


years, and was admitted to the Supreme Court of New 


York in May, 1865. He soon afterwards entered into 
partnership with J. 5. Lamoreaux, Esq., at Ballston 
Spa, New York, and continued in practice there about 
eighteen months, when he came to Indianapolis, In- 
diana, and opened an office early in 1867. In 1868 he 
was made commissioner for New York and Connecticut 
in Indiana. We is a lover of his profession, and has a 
large civil legal business. He is naturally a jury law- 
yer, and his special talents are in cross-examination and 


His mother, 


[7A Dist. 


advocacy, backed by a thorough knowledge of his case. 
He is a Presbyterian in religious faith; a member of the 
Knights of Pythias, and Past District Deputy Grand 
Chancellor. He was one of the charter members of 
the Knights of Honor; the first Past Dictator; Past 
Grand Dictator, and representative to the Supreme 
Lodge from Indiana, and has been chairman of the 
law committee of the Supreme Lodge ever since. He 
is a leading Democrat of Indianapolis and Indiana, 
and one of the speakers of the party. In 1876 he 
wrote a detailed account of the nomination of Hon. 
Thomas A. Hendricks, at St. Louis, for the Indianapolis 
daily Sentenel, of July 4, 1876, which was copied by 
many other papers. He married S. Belle Smith, of 
Crawfordsville, Indiana, January 30, 1873, who was the 
daughter of George W. Smith. She is a granddaughter 
of the late Joshua Cromwell, of Lexington, Kentucky, 
who was of the same family as Oliver Cromwell. They 
have one daughter, Isadora Belle. Mr. Bartholomew is 
now the law partner of Hon. E. C. Buskirk, ex-Crim- 
inal Judge, under the firm name of Buskirk & Barthol- 
omew, Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a man of medium 
stature, of pleasant and agreeable address, and courteous 
to all he meets. He has won a desirable position, both 
in business and social circles, and is esteemed not only 
for those attainments acquired by long and arduous 
study, but also for those inherent and finer qualifica- 
tions that go to make up a true man and a gentleman. 


—~- FS Ch -—_ 


Tt EHARRELL, REV.. THOMAS G., LL.D. of 
»)) Indianapolis, was born in Huntingdonshire, Eng- 

C land, Deceinber 17, 1824. His parents emigrated 
to America in 1837, and settled in Evansville, In- 
diana. His father, Rev. H. Beharrell, began his min- 
istry in the Wesleyan Church when quite young, and 
continued it until his death, which occurred in 1874. 
For many years he resided in New Albany, Indiana, as 
a local minister. His mother, an educated lady, was a 
licensed preacher, subjéct to the rules and regulations 
governing the ministry of the Wesleyan Church. Doc- 
tor Beharrell had no early advantages, but he had an 
ardent desire for knowledge, which led him in early life 
to study diligently in the common schools, and two 
years in a select school in the city of New Albany, under 
the care of William Harrison, a graduate of Augusta Col- 
lege, Kentucky. He spent nearly two years in reading 
text-books in medicine, with a view to becoming a phy- 
sician, but his attention was turned toward the ministry 
as a profession, and after securing a certificate from his 
preceptor for teaching he opened a school in Moores- 
ville, Floyd County, Indiana, and at the same time was 
earnestly engaged in fitting himself for the ministry, 
and in his twenty-second year entered the Indiana An- 


7th Dist.) 


nual Conference, of which he has been an honored mem- 
ber ever since. For thirty-two years he has been engaged 
in the ministry in Southern Indiana, and has been pas- 
tor of Churches in Shelbyville, Madison, Jeffersonville, 
and other cities, and is now pastor of a Church in the 
city of Indianapolis. While pastor of the Church at 
Moore’s Hill, Dearborn County, on the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi Railroad, forty-five miles west of Cincinnati, he 
took an active part in founding and establishing a seat 
of learning known as Moore’s Hill Male and Female 
Collegiate Institute, an institution which has been an 
honor to the colleges of Indiana for the last twenty 
years. He assisted in procuring the stock, and after- 
ward in securing its transfer to the South-east Indi- 
ana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He accepted the position of agent until the institution 
had begun. He was married, in Indianapolis, Septem- 
ber 15, 1849, to Miss Sarah Ellen Hughes, daughter of 
Nixon Hughes, Esq., formerly of Kentucky, and related 
to two extensive and honored families in Henry and 
Trimble Counties; one the Buchanan family, and the 
other the Robbins family. They were the descendants 
of Revolutionary soldiers, and of those engaged in the 
War of 1812. He turned his attention in early life to 
the use of the pen, and for twenty-five years has been 
a contributor to various periodicals, some of which 
have had wide circulation; and his efforts in this direc- 
tion have given him a good degree of celebrity as a 
writer, and have materially strengthened the periodicals 
to which he has contributed. In the year 1860 the In- 
diana Asbury University conferred upon him the hon- 
orary degree of A. M., which title has been borne by 
him and attached to his productions for the press until 
1877, when the Indiana State University made him an 
LL. D. He became a member of the fraternal organ- 
ization known as the Independent Order of Odd-fellows 
in 1856, and has attained eminence there, having filled 
important offices in the grand bodies, and for two years 
represented the jurisdiction of Indiana in the Grand 
Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, the 
supreme legislative head of the order; and he has been 
for several years the Historiographer of the Grand Lodge 
of Independent Order of Odd-fellows of Indiana. He 
has been for seven years the associate editor of the Za/- 
isman, a monthly periodical of that fraternity pub- 
lished at Indianapolis, and an organ of the order. He 
became the author of a text-book of Odd-fellowship in 
1860, entitled the ‘‘ Brotherhood,” which attained a 
circulation of twenty-five thousand copies. It has been 


supplanted by a larger work, entitled the ‘‘ Monitor | 


and Guide.” This is a production of his riper years 
and experience, and is being sold as a subscription 
book, and the sale of it promises to be very extensive. 
He is also the author of a very popular ‘‘ Bible Bi- 
ographical Dictionary,” containing six hundred -and 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. rf 


twenty pages octavo, double column, brevier type, which 
cost him the labor of three years. Several thousand 
copies have already been sold, and it is now being vig- 
orously circulated by a popular subscription book com- 
pany in the city of Indianapolis. It is a very valuable 
reference and reading book for theological students and 
for all Bible readers, and is indorsed and recommended 
by eminent men of all denominations. He has just pre- 
pared, and has ready for publication, a large octavo book, 
«‘ History of Odd-fellowship in Indiana.” He was em- 
ployed by the Grand Lodge of Indiana in 1875 to pre- 
pare this work, and its publication is ordered, and will 
be executed as soon as practicable. The work will 
contain a complete history of the order in Indiana, and 
will be seven hundred royal octavo pages. Doctor Be- 
harrell is now editing and publishing for the author (a 
lady of ability as a writer) the ‘‘Odd-fellow’s Orphan.” 
The book is being executed in an attractive style, and 
will, it is hoped, secure a large sale in the trade, to 
which it will be committed. He is widely known as a 
minister, as an author, and as an earnest worker in the 
effective fraternal organizations of the country. Besides 
being a Past Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge 
of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, he has been 
from early life an effective temperance advocate and 
worker. His first adventure in public speaking was 
under the Washingtonian movement. He became a 
member early in life of the Sons of Temperance, and 
attained eminence in that order as presiding officer of 
the grand division of the state of Indiana; and he rep- 
resented this state two years in succession in the Na- 
tional Division—one year at Philadelphia, and the 
other at Portland, Maine. He was one of the organ- 
izers of the Grand Lodge of Good Templars in Indiana, 
and served in grand offices several times, but has 
wrought faithfully in subordinate lodges, and his in- 
fluence has been of great benefit to temperance workers 
He has been 
a member and worker in the Temple of Honor. Mr. 
Beharrell has for more than twenty years been an ardent 
Mason, having connected himself with the Blue Lodge 
at Moore’s Hill, Dearborn County, and received the 
Master’s degree there. He became a member of King 
David Chapter in Rising Sun, Indiana, and was exalted 
to the Sublime degree of a Royal Arch Mason a year 
About one 
year after receiving the degree of Royal Arch Mason, 
he reached the degree of Royal and Select Master in 
the Council at Shelbyville, Shelby County, Indiana. 
Eighteen years ago he was admitted to membership in 
the Commandery at New Albany, Indiana. The de- 
grees of the Order of the Red Cross and Knights Tem- 
plar were conferred upon him during a session of the 
Grand Commandery then being held there. He has fa- 
miliarized himself with the work in the higher depart- 


in all communities where he has resided. 


after receiving the degree of Master Mason. 


SY : 


ments of Masonry, and has been in demand as a worker 
in many Chapter Councils and Commanderies. His 
present membership in all these bodies is at Vincennes, 
Knox County. 

—o-9906-o— 


oi gaigen? WILLIAM ALLEN, was born January 30, 
)} 1833, near Jefferson, Clinton County, Indiana. 
His father moved to Michigantown, in the same 
county, when he was six years old, and this place 
and vicinity continued to be his home until he was 
twenty years old. His early education was such as the 
common schools afforded. He taught for the first time 
the winter he was eighteen years old, and received as 
compensation sixty dollars for a term of sixty-five days, 
out of which sum he paid his board. In 1853 he en- 
tered the preparatory department vf Antioch College, 
Ohio, which was at that time under the charge of 
Horace Mann. Three years were spent here in the 
preparatory department, and four more in the regular 
college course, at the end of which he graduated, 
He very largely paid his own way while at college. 
During the three years spent in the preparatory depart- 
ment, he sawed wood, dug cellars, rang the college bell, 
etc.; and in the four years spent in the regular college 
‘course, one term in the freshman and one term in the 
sophomore year were spent in teaching country schools, 
and one term in the junior year was sacrificed to the 
selling of fruit trees. This lost time was made up by 
extraordinary diligence. Immediately after graduation, 
in 1860, he went to Mississippi to teach, but the break- 
ing out of the Rebellion caused him to return before 
the close of the year. In 1861 he was elected principal 
of the schools at Williamsburg, Wayne County, Indi- 
ana, where he met with excellent success. He left Will- 
iamsburg, to accept the principalship of the Second 
Ward school in Indianapolis, in 1863. In 1864 the 
present Indianapolis high school was organized, and 
Mr. Bell was made its principal. The following year 
he superintended the Richmond (Indiana) schools, but 
in the fall of 1866 returned and again took charge of 
the Indianapolis high school, at an increased salary. He 
remained at the head of this until the close of the 
scholastic year in 1871. From 1867 to 1871 he was 
also school examiner of Marion County. The summer 
of 1870 was spent in a tour to and about Europe. He 
was married to Eliza C. Cannell, July 20, 1871. Miss 
Cannell was born in Waterford, New York, and for the 
five years previous to their marriage had been his first 
assistant in the high school. In August, 1871, he be- 
came editor and sole proprietor of the Zzdiana School 
Journal, and since that date has given his entire time 
to its interests. He has greatly improved its character, 
increased its size, and largely extended its circulation. 
He makes the Journal a power for good in the state, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ 7th Dice. 


and Indiana teachers have reason to be proud of it. 
In 1873 Mr. Bell was president of the Indiana State 
Teachers’ Association, He has been a member of the 
Indianapolis school board since 1873, and is at this time 
(1880) its president. For the past five years he has 
spent much time in traveling over the state working in 
teachers’ institutes and lecturing upon education. Mr. 
Bell’s chief characteristics are sincerity, earnestness, and 
force. With these he unites a pleasing address, and 
thus is a man who makes and keeps friends. No man 
in the state has a wider acquaintance among school men 
or is more universally respected by them than he. For 
many years his services have been in constant demand 
at teachers’ institutes. As a lecturer, he is forcible and 
practical, and always commands attention. His large / 
and varied experience makes him an able worker and a 
valuable instructor of teachers. He is acknowledged to 
be one of the most prominent leaders in educational 
matters in Indiana. He has through his journal and 
in other ways exerted an influence upon -school legisla- 
tion and upon the schools of the state that will be felt 
for many years to come. 


—>-Fate->—_ 


oi )LESSING, JOHN, of Shelbyville, was born in 
)) Middletown Valley, Frederick County, Maryland, 
March 3, 1828. His father, John Blessing, was 

a native of Virginia, of German descent; his 
mother, Mary (Keserling) Blessing, was born in Mary- 
land, her parents coming from Pennsylvania. When 
John was in his infancy his father died. His mother 
soon married again, and kept him with her until he had 
become nine years old. At this tender age he left 
home, and engaged with a neighbor to work for his 
board and instruction, his attendance at school being 
limited to the winter terms. When eighteen he was 
induced by an acquaintance from Ohio to remove to 
that state, hoping to secure better wages. His first em- 
ployment was in the distillery of Neddy Smith, near 
Dayton, where he worked two months, then became en- 
gaged in a distillery below Dayton, in the village of 
Alexandersville, in which he remained until January, 
1848. There being a recruiting office at Dayton, he 
then enlisted as a private soldier for service during the 
War with Mexico. He was mustered into the regular 
army at Newport Barracks, February 11, 1848, and was 
transported with his regiment to Vera Cruz. As hostili- 
ties were nearly over, they were held at that city for 
several weeks, and on marching being resumed news 
reached them that peace was declared. They were then 
at Jalapa, and here he was taken sick and confined to 
the hospital, recovering so as to return with his regi- 
ment to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, where they were 
discharged August, 1848. He went back to Alexanders- 


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Tl ( Mba Peat 


7th Dist.) 


ville, and, having given good satisfaction previously, was 
readily given a place in Dryden’s distillery, where he 
remained until the winter of 1850. Soon after this, on 
Christmas Eve, 1851, he was united in marriage to Miss 
Martha J. Oty, a native of Montgomery County, Ohio, 
Then, impelled by new hopes and aspirations, he in- 
vested the hard-earned results of his labor in the busi- 
ness of tobacco-raising and general farming. In 1853 
he turned his attention from this to the management of 
a canal boat plying between Cincinnati and Toledo. 
But he had gained so much skill as a distiller that, in 
1854, his services were required to take charge of his for- 
mer employer’s distillery at Alexandersville, and also 
one for A. L. Charles, at Amanda, near Middletown. 
Three years later he retired from this situation and en- 
gaged in conducting an establishment of the same kind 
for J. W. Turner and Joseph Hughes, on the Stillwater. 
A year after he formed a partnership with these gentle- 
men and rented another place, at Little York, but in six 
months it was sold at assignee’s sale, Messrs. Blessing 
and Hughes becoming the purchasers. They remained 
in copartnership, under the firm name of Blessing & 
Hughes, until the death of the latter, in 1859. From 
that time until 1861 the firm was known as Blessing & 
Yount, when the former sold his interest to his partner, 
and in the fall of the following year removed to Dayton, 
and during the ensuing winter engaged in the pork- 
packing trade. In April, 1863, he bought the Shelby- 
ville distillery, and in August of that year moved his 
family to that place. The business was successfully 
conducted first by Blessing & Andrews, soon suc- 
ceeded by Blessing & Dodds, who remained in busi- 
ness until 1867, when the firm was again changed 
to Blessing & Saylor, continuing thus until 1868, 
when Mr. Blessing retired from the firm. Possessing 
superior abilities for the management of various busi- 
ness interests, he not only superintended the distillery, 
but entered into other important relations. In 1864 he 
bought stock in the banking firm of Elliott & Co., with 
which he was identified until 1865, when it was merged 


into the First National Bank, he becoming one of its | 


directors. He also entered into the hardware and agri- 
cultural implement trade in Shelbyville, for three years, 
from 1866 to 1869, and during a portion of this time 
was connected with the dry-goods firm of Elliott & Co., 
Indianapolis. He has also been occupied in the buying 
and selling of grain. In addition to these extensive 
operations he has been one of the foremost in beautify- 
ing the city by the erection of fine buildings. In 1869 
he commenced, and in 1870 completed, Blessing’s 
Opera-house, which for internal finish and arrangement 
is not exceeded by any similar edifice in the state. In 
1869, in partnership with S. J. Saylor, he bought what 
was then known as the Ray House, which they remod- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 9 


House. In 1864 he built his present brick residence. 
He has thus added to the value of the real estate, and 
increased the attractiveness of Shelbyville, and has 
made it readily accessible from all parts of the state by 
encouraging the building of turnpikes and railroads. 
From 1873 to 1875 he served the city as a member of 
its board of aldermen. In 1870 he sought recreation 
by taking a tour to California, and has since gratified 
his taste for mountain scenery by spending four sum- 
mers in Colorado. Mr. Blessing’s opinions on the great 
political questions were based on the platform of the 
Democratic party until 1861, when, in the general dis- 
ruption of party ties occasioned by the war, he became 
a Republican, and on that ticket was a candidate for 
the office of county commissioner in 1864, and again 
in 1866 for that of Representative in the Legislature. 
Though he was defeated at both elections, his party be- 
ing in the minority in that county, he was shown to be 
very popular by the fact that he ran ahead of his ticket 
some two or three hundred votes each time. Mr. Bless- 
ing has had four children; three daughters survive. 
Their mother died February 25, 1875. Becoming de- 
pendent when a mere child upon his own exertions, 
Mr. Blessing, with characteristic strength, persistence, 
and integrity of purpose, has made his way upward, 
over every obstacle, to his present position of wealth and 
influence. Soon after he located in Shelbyville he made 
himself felt in business circles, and as he gradually ex- 
tended his operations he imparted new life to trade and 
manufactures. This has been achieved only by abilities 
of a high order. His faculties have been developed 
and matured, not by scholastic training, but by inter- 
course with the world through business and travel; and 
he is justly regarded as one of the ablest self-made men 
of that part of the state. 


—-$20@-o— 


RADLEY, NELSON, banker, of Greenfield, was 
born in Clermont County, Ohio, May I9, 1822. 
>, His parents were William and Mary Bradley, the 
54 former a native of London, England, emigrating 
1797. He located 
County, Ohio, where he taught school for several years, 
but subsequently engaged in farming. During the War 
of 1812 he joined the American army, and served with 
honor till the close of that contest. Nelson Bradley, 
the subject of this sketch, is eminently a self-made man. 
His opportunities for acquiring an education in early 
life were very limited. His time was chiefly employed 
in assisting his father on the farm, and his schooling 
was restricted to a few months’ attendance at the log 


to this country in in Clermont 


school-house of the pioneer settlement. 
however, through that firmness of purpose and energy 


He managed, 


eled and improved, changing its name to the Jackson | of character which have been a prominent quality of 


10 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


his life, to acquire sufficient knowledge of books to 
serve him as an educational basis in his successful busi- 
The inclination for trade, which indicated 
the bent of his mind toward the business of after life, 
was early developed, and while yet a boy he made 
frequent visits to the markets of Cincinnati with pro- 
duce purchased at the farm-houses of the various settle- 
ments. In 1852 he made a visit to Indiana, and, being 
pleased with the country, purchased a small tract of land 
on the then newly constructed Bellefontaine Railroad, 
at the site of the present town of McCordsville, in Han- 
cock County. In September of the same year he located 
there, and in the spring following opened a store. This 
may be considered the beginning of his prosperous busi- 
ness career. Always public-spirited and energetic, he 
soon succeeded in having a post-office and a railroad 
station established at his new place of residence, and 
became the first postmaster and the first railroad agent of 
the town. In connection with this store he carried on 
a general trading business, buying corn, wheat, hogs, 
etc., from the farmers, and by promptness and integrity 
established himself in the confidence and esteem of the 
people, and soon became known throughout the county 
as aman of ability and honesty. As a natural result 
of this public confidence he was elected in 1863 treas- 
urer of Hancock County, which position he held for two 
consecutive terms, although he did not remove his family 
to Greenfield, the county seat, until 1866. After the ex- 
piration of his last term of office he engaged in the gro- 
cery business at Greenfield, and continued in this until 
1871, when, with several other gentlemen, he established 
the Greenfield Banking Company, of which he is now 
the president. He is also connected, as half owner, with 
the Hancock Flouring-mills. Mr. Bradley has been a 
large stockholder in nearly all the gravel roads center- 
ing in Greenfield. He has contributed liberally toward 
the erection of churches and public buildings, and has 
always been ready to aid in all that has tended to im- 
prove and develop the town and the county. 
honored member of the Masonic Fraternity, having 
joined that order in Georgetown, Ohio, in 1845. He 
took the Chapter degrees in Felicity, Ohio, in 1848, and 
the Council and Scottish Rite degrees at Indianapolis at 
a later date. He assisted in organizing Oakland Lodge, 
No. 140, of which he was the first Junior Warden, and 
also McCordsville Chapter, No. 44, of which he was the 
the first High-priest. Ile is now a member of Hancock 
Lodge, No. 101, of which he has been treasurer and 
trustee for many years. He has been a consistent mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1845. He 
was a Whig during the days of that party, and is now 
an enthusiastic Republican. He was married, Septem- 
ber 29, 1844, to Elizabeth Gray, daughter of. Christian 
Gray, formerly a resident of Pennsylvania, and subse- 
quently one of the pioneers of Ohio. As before indi- 


ness career. 


He is an 


[7th Dist. 


cated, Mr. Bradley is a man of great energy of charac- 
ter, with ability to plan and skill to execute, as is fully 
attested by his success in every department of business 
he has undertaken. He possesses an even temper and 
fine social qualities; enjoys a good joke and a hearty 
laugh; and has a host of warm friends, endeared to him 
by his genial manner and kind disposition. 


420-0 


yOYD, JAMES T., M. D., of Indianapolis, Indiana, 
was born in Albany, New York, April 14, 1823, of 
Scotch-Irish parentage. He obtained his literary 


under the private tutelage of Rev. J. B. Johnstone, D. D., 
now of St. Clairsville, Ohio, and Rev. John French, now 
of Michigan. He commenced his medical education as 
a student with Doctor A. H. Lord, of Bellefontaine, 
Ohio, April 20, 1845, and studied with him one year. In 
the spring of 1846 he went to Cincinnati and placed him- 
self under the instruction of Professor George Mendenhall 
and Professor H. Raymond. While in Cincinnati he at- 
tended the Commercial Hospital. He has attended six 
college courses of medical lectures, was connected with 
the Marine Hospital, occasionally lectured on surgery 
in the College of Medicine and Surgery, and received a 
very flattering letter from Professor Baker on leaving 
that institution. He graduated in the Starling Medical 
College in 1850; and received the ad eundem degree 
from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Cincin- 
nati in 1854. April 20, 1847, Doctor Boyd was married 
to Miss Orit V. Mead, a daughter of Doctor Stillman 
Mead, of Richland, Ohio, a soldier of 1812. The result 
of the marriage was six children, five daughters—two 
of whom died in infancy—and one son. After practic- 
ing allopathy until 1857 his attention was directed to 
homceopathy by a newspaper controversy with a member 
of that school. One of Doctor Boyd’s articles against 
homceopathy gave so great satisfaction to his allopathic 
brethren that they urged him to make a thorough in- 
vestigation of the subject and expose the fallacies of the 
school. With this view he commenced the study of home- 
opathy, securing the best authors on the subject. The is- 
sue was different from what he and his allopathic brethren 
had anticipated; for, like many other scientific investi- 
gators, he soon became convinced that homceopathy, as 
represented by some of the illiterate who practice it, is 
a very different thing from what it is when scientifically 
applied. After a very rigid examination of its princi- 
ples, as presented by its learned authors, and a careful 
application of those principles in actual practice, he be- 
came convinced of their truth, and, to use his own words, 
issued his ‘*Declaration of Independence” of the old 
school and his adhesion to homceopathy in the same 
paper in which he had previously lampooned it. Dur- 


and classical education in the Cherokee Academy, 


“=. } 


7th Dest.) 


ing the time that he practiced allopathy Doctor Boyd 
was censor, vice-president, and president of the Central 
Ohio Medical Association, and a member of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association (old school). He is at present 
a member of several literary and scientific societies: of 
the Academy of Science of Indiana; of the Indiana 
State Institute of Homceopathy; vice-president of the 
Western Academy of Homceopathy; and is consulting 
surgeon to the City Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana, etc. 
Doctor Boyd has always been an earnest and consistent 
friend of temperance. He was editor and proprietor of 
the Western Independent, a temperance paper; and of 
the Curopathist, a liberal medical journal, both conducted 
with signal ability. During the late war Doctor Boyd 
was sent to the South as a special surgeon, to examine 
into and relieve the wants of the sick and wounded sol- 
diers of Indiana; and on his return his report was de- 
clared to be the most complete and accurate of all the 
reports furnished to the Governor. During his visit 
South he found the ‘‘contrabands” flocking into the 
Union lines, with no one to look after their wants; and 
he obtained the following letter from Governor Morton 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


to General Grant, to enable him to make a more thor- , 


ough examination of the condition of the colored 
people: 

‘STATE OF INDIANA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 

INDIANAPOLIS, Jay 25, 1863. } 
‘‘ MAJOR-GENERAL U. S. GRANT, commanding army 
South-west, Vicksburg: 

« Siy,—This will introduce Doctor J. F. Boyd, a loyal 
citizen, and one of the first physicians in this city. The 
Doctor-visits the army for the purpose of looking into 
the condition and welfare of the contrabands in that 
vicinity, with the view of bettering or relieving their 
wants. I trust he may be afforded every facility and 
opportunity. All favors shown him will be properly ap- 
preciated. O. P. Morron, Governor of Indiana.” 

After returning from the South he organized ‘‘The 
Indiana Freedmen’s Aid Society,” for the purpose of 
collecting funds to aid the poor refugees, and to send 
them instructors and agents to look after their wants. 
The officers of this association were: President, Calvin 
Fletcher, senior; vice-president, Colonel James Blake; 
treasurer, James M. Ray; secretary, J. V. R. Miller; 
corresponding secretary, Doctor J. T. Boyd. In the 
spring of 1868, when it became evident that the colored 
people would be allowed to vote, there was a primary 
election held in Indianapolis to nominate officers. This 
was held in February, a much earlier period than usual, 
to satisfy some of the Republican party, who wished to 
_ have the nominations made before the colored people 
could be allowed to vote, fearing they might try to 
get some one of their own color on the ticket; for, 
although the Republican party was compelled to grant 
the right of suffrage to the colored people of the South 
as a necessity, yet many of them were not willing to 
extend this right to them at the North. 


II 


of that fact, the state platform adopted that year by 
the Republican party of Indiana had this plank in it: 
‘The suffrage of the negroes of the South is the direct 
result of the rebellious spirit maintained by the Southern 
people, and it was necessary to secure the reconstruction 
of the Union, and the preservation of the loyal men 
therein from a state worse than slavery. 
of suffrage in the loyal states belongs to the people of 
those states.” Doctor Boyd had been an Abolition- 
ist; he was born of Abolition parents, educated in an 
Abolition Church, and of course these views were not 
his. He demanded that the colored people should have 
the right at the nominating election to say who should 
be the candidates, as they would be expected to help 
elect them. The Doctor carried his point, as the fol- 
Jowing will show: 


The question 


“ INDIANAPOLIS, Jandary, 1876. 
‘This certifies that it was Doctor J. T. Boyd’s influ- 
ence and importunity that induced the county central 
committee to allow the colored men to vote at the pri- 
mary election held in February, 1868, the first time they 
were allowed to vote in this city. 
‘© WILLIAM M. FRENCH, 
“‘ Chairman County Central Committee.” 
Doctor Boyd is a Presbyterian, as were his ancestors 
in Scotland, as far back as they can be traced. His 
father, Robert Boyd, was an elder in the Presbyterian 
Church for over fifty years; he was a contractor in 
Albany for many years, but afterward retired to a farm 
in Northern New York. Doctor Boyd’s mother was 
Eliza Frazier, who came of a good and pious race, Pres- 
byterian ancestors. He was very active during the late 
war in preparing and furnishing sanitary supplies to the 
brave men that were fighting the battles of the country, 
as the following will show: 


“First Indiana Sanitary Fair. 


“To Doctor J. T. Boyp, Indianapolis: 


«As the agents-of the sick and wounded soldiers, 
and in their behalf, it is with pleasure we acknowledge 
your generous donation to the Indiana Sanitary Fair, 
held at Indianapolis, on the state fair grounds, October 
3 to 15, 1864. In token of our appreciation of your 
gift we subscribe this testimonial, ‘The Lord loveth the 
cheerful giver.’ THOMAS HANNAMAN, 

‘‘ President Indiana Sanitary Commission. 
“E. Locke, Gen’l Supt, 
‘First Indiana Sanitary Fatr.” 

It is needless to say Doctor Boyd. was a firm Repub- 
lican from the first, of soft-money proclivities, and still 
holds to the position adopted by the wisest and best of 
the Republican statesmen in 1868. During the dark 
and.gloomy days of the Rebellion, Doctor Boyd was 
acting president of the Union League of Indianapolis, 
and this league had its spies in the midst of ‘*The Sons 
of Liberty,’’ a traitorous organization. The league and 
Governor Morton were thus kept advised of every move 


As evidence | of that disloyal association, and were prepared to cir- 


12 


cumvent their efforts at liberating the Confederate pris- 
oners confined at Indianapolis, and other contemplated 
acts of disloyalty. When the Southern rebels laid down 
their arms, Doctor Boyd was the first to favor the most 
liberal terms of amnesty to them, and the endeavor, by 
a united effort, to repair the loss and miseries to both 
sides, and to alleviate the animosities engendered by 
the war. 
$00 


aS 


=) 


)ROWN, AUSTIN HAYMOND, of Indianapolis, 
>) ex-clerk of Marion County, was born at Milroy, 
,, Rush County, Indiana, March 19, 1828. His 
<] father, the late Hon. William J. Brown, was an 
early settler in that county, having followed his father, 
George Brown, from Clermont County, Ohio. Remoy- 
ing to Rushville, William J. studied and practiced law 
for some years, and was prosecuting attorney in a cir- 
cuit extending from the Ohio River to the Michigan 
state boundary. He was married, in 1827, to Susan 
Tompkins, daughter of Nathan Tompkins, of Milroy, 
and of the children born to them (three of whom are 
still living) Austin H. was the eldest. William J. 
Brown was actively engaged in public life and was re- 
garded as a sagacious, shrewd, and effective politician, 
open and fair in his opposition, faithful to his friends, 
and true to his principles. He held, with honor, re- 
spectively, the offices of Secretary of State, member of 
Congress, and Assistant Postmaster-general, and died on 
the 18th of March, 1857, respected by all who knew 
him. The mother, Susan Brown, still lives, and, al- 
though she is now seventy-three years old, is yet an ac- 
tive, intelligent woman, whose wonderful energy of 
character is the subject of remark by her many acquaint- 
The early education of the subject of this sketch 
was but meager, the country and village schools of that 
day being held but a few months in the year. 
an ambition to become a newspaper man, soon after the 
removal of the family to Indianapolis, in 1837, he entered 
the /udiana Democrat printing-office as a ‘*printer’s 
devil” and carrier. The paper being a weekly one, he 
could also attend school part of the week and work at 
the printer’s trade the rest of the time. In this way he 
obtained most of his education. The Messrs. Chapman 
purchased the paper and changed its name to the State 
Sentinel, and our young printer boy continued with the 
new proprietors until the fall of 1844, when he went to 
Asbury University, at Greencastle. His college career 
was brief, for in February following he was summoned 
to Washington, and in a few weeks after was appointed 
clerk in the sixth auditor’s office, at the age of seven- 
teen.. He entered as a copying clerk and left it five 
years afterward as assistant chief clerk and disbursing 
officer. Returning to Indianapolis, he became the pro- 
prietor of the State Sentinel newspaper, which he con- 


ances, 


Having 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[7th Dist. 


ducted ably for five years, first as a semi-weekly and 
then as a daily, assisted in the editorial management by 
his father, William J. Brown, Nathaniel Bolton, John W. 
Duzan, A. F. Morrison, O. B. Torbett, and Charles 
Nordhoff. After this, in 1855, he was elected, on the 
Democratic ticket, auditor of Marion County, serving 
four years. In 1861, after the Civil War broke out, he 
entered the office of the adjutant-general of Indiana as 
clerk, and assistant adjutant-general as well. During 
the war he was employed in that position, assisting 
Generals Noble and Terrell in all of the detail work. 
During the War of the Rebellion Mr. Brown supported 
and sustained the administrations of Governor Morton 
and President Lincoln, as a war Democrat, and when 
it ended he took his place in the Democratic line again, 
and was appointed in September, 1866, by President 
Johnson, collector of internal revenue for the Indianap- 
olis District, was confirmed by the United States Senate, 
and continued in that office until 1869. The year fol- 
lowing he entered the banking house of Woollen, Webb 
& Co., as its cashier, and continued in that employment 
until 1873, when he engaged in insurance and brokerage. 
In 1874, as the Democratic candidate for county clerk, 
he was elected, after one of the most energetic cam- 
paigns ever known in the county; and Mr. Brown’s 
efforts secured not only his own election, but that of the 
entire ticket of his party. He continued in this office 
for four years, retiring with honor and a good record, 
the entire bar uniting in commending him as having 
made the best clerk the county had ever had. Since 
then Mr. Brown has not been engaged in any business 
of an active or public nature. Since 1861 he has served 
thirteen consecutive years in the city council, and nine 
years as one of the board of school commissioners, of 
which he is still an influential member. He is, also, a 
member of the national Democratic committee. Mr. 
Brown’s father’s family, immediate and remote, were 
Baptists, but Mr. Brown is not a member of any Church. 
He is a member and officer of all the Masonic bodies, 
to which work he devotes much time. On the 17th of 
December, 1851, he was married to Margaret E. Russell, 
daughter of Colonel Alex. W. Russell (an early pioneer 
of Indiana, former sheriff of Marion County, and post- 
master at Indianapolis under General “Taylor), and 
granddaughter of General James Noble, one of Indi- 
ana’s first United States Senators. They have living 
two sons: William J., now nearly twenty-three; and 
Austin H., junior, nineteen years of age. The former is 
being educated in the mercantile business, and the lat- 
ter is a student at the Ann Arbor (Michigan) University. 
Both children have graduated from the Indianapolis 
high school. Mr. Brown is a little above medium 
height, strong, compact, and well proportioned, having 
a physical carriage and demeanor which commands at- 
tention and respect, and a gentlemanly bearing and ad- 


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7th Dist.) 


dress. Although a prominent politician and active 
worker in his party, he retains universal popularity and 
personal esteem. With character above reproach, his 
career as a business man has been a marked success. 
Prominent in the highest social circles, his urbanity and 
largeness of heart make him a general favorite, and im- 
part a genial influence among his numerous friends. 


408 


>) ROWN, GEORGE PLINY, Indianapolis, superin- 
tendent of the public schools, was born at Lenox, 
4 Ashtabula County, Ohio, November 10, 1836. His 
eG father was William P. Brown, and his mother 
Rachel Piper Brown. His education was received at 
Grand River Institute, Austinburg, Ashtabula County, 
Ohio, failing health preventing him from completing a 
full college course of studies. This may have seemed 
an unfortunate circumstance, but Mr. Brown rose supe- 
rior to it, and perfected himself by subsequent assiduous 
self-culture, and the development that early schooi-teach- 
ing so well promotes. .Few men at their first start in 
life are so fortunate as to strike the vocation which 
they are best adapted by nature to make their life work. 
In this respect Mr. Brown was favored by commencing 
teaching at the early age of sixteen, and has, with a 
brief interval, been an educator to this day. He taught 
his first school in 1854, in Cherry Valley, Ashtabula 
County, Ohio; subsequently was an instructor in Geauga 
_ County, and from 1855 to 1860 had charge of the public 
schools in Waynesville, Ohio. During the latter year 
he removed to Richmond, Indiana, where he was teacher 
and superintendent of schools five years. He was then 
for one year superintendent of the public schools of 
New Albany, Indiana. Returning to Richmond in 1867, 
he was school superintendent there the next two years. 
He was then engaged in the study and practice of law 
until February, 1872, when he was elected principal of 
the Indianapolis high school, and served as such until 
June, 1874, when he was chosen superintendent of pub- 
lic schools of the same city, which responsible office he 
still retains. Professor Brown is also secretary of the 
State Board of Education. He was, for two years, with 
Mr. A. C. Shortridge, editor of the Zducationalist, an 
educational paper published in Indianapolis, which was 
subsequently consolidated with the Indiana: School Jour- 
nal, For two years he was associate editor of this latter 
paper, which is the organ of the educational interests 
of this state, of extensive circulation, wide influence, 
and a power in its line of usefulness. The Professor 
was married to Mary L. Seymour, of Geauga County, 
Ohio, in 1855. They have four sons, all of whom have 
graduated from the high school of Indianapolis. Two 
are pursuing their studies at- Michigan University. Mr. 
Brown is in the prime of manhood, tall and well formed, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


13 
of remarkably fine address, ready in decision and 
prompt in action, a gentleman of heart and intellect, 
whom both teachers and children would intuitively love 
and fear, and, in fine, the right man in the right place. 
The many and repeated sacred trusts that have been 
placed in his keeping fully sustain this estimate of his 
character. 


di 


$00 — 


hUSKIRK, CLARENCE AUGUSTUS, Princeton, 
»)) ex-attorney-general of the state, was born at 
Friendship, Alleghany County, New York, No- 
vember 8, 1842. His father was Andrew C. Bus- 
kirk, and was of Holland descent, and his mother’s 
maiden name was Diantha E. Scott, of Scotch and Irish 
ancestry. The subject of this sketch was educated in 
Western New York until seventeen years of age, in 
Friendship Academy, and afterwards completed his 
course of instruction at the University of Michigan. 
He commenced teaching school when seventeen years 
of age, and taught five terms in all. He studied law 
in the office of Balch & Smiley, at Kalamazoo, Michi- 
gan, attended a course of law lectures at Ann Arbor, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1865. Coming to In- 
diana in 1866, he located at Princeton in the practice 
of his profession. Rapidly rising in popularity, his 
fellow-citizens called upon him to enter public life by 
electing him their Representative to the Indiana Legis- 
lature in 1872, and re-elected him the succeeding year. 
In that body he served on the Committee on the Judi- 
ciary, and on other important committees. Acquitting 
himself in his duties with such marked ability and de- 
votion as to give him a wide reputation throughout the 
state, he was, in 1874, nominated for the office of attor- 
ney-general on the Democratic ticket, and elected, and 
was re-elected in 1876, occupying the position until 
November 6, 1878. His administration of the office 
gave universal satisfaction to the people of the state, 
and has added greatly to his legal reputation. He mar- 
ried Amelia Fisher in 1868, at Princeton, Indiana. In 
person this gentleman is of notable presence, compactly 
and harmoniously formed, with a pleasing address and 
social bearing, and drawing friends around him. 


$00 


yyYRANHAM, ALEXANDER K., merchant, of 
\) Greenfield, Hancock County, was born at George- 
C¢f town, Kentucky, on the 20th of February, 1826. 
g His parents were Tavner R. and Fannie Bran- 
ham; the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of 
North Carolina. He received a fair English education 
in the schools of his native town, where he began his 
studies at the age of eight years. At the age of five 
he suffered the loss of his kind and loving mother; and 


14 


at the age of eight, in that memorable cholera year, 
his father died of that fell disease. While yet a boy 
he learned the smithing business, and continued to 
labor earnestly and faithfully at that calling until he 
was nineteen years old. The healthful exercise conse- 
quent upon this avocation tended to develop his phys- 
ical strength, and gave him a liking for athletic sports, 
in which he excelled in earlier life, and, no doubt, laid 
the foundation of the vigorous manhood he has since 
attained. At the age of twelve he went to Stamping 
Ground, Kentucky, where he remained until he was six- 
teen, when he returned to Georgetown. There he re- 
sided four years, when he emigrated to Indiana, and 
located at Greenfield, Hancock County, his present 
home. Although his early life had been spent at the 
forge, his natural inclination led him to seek a mercan- 
tile career; and, on arriving at his new home, he engaged 
with Mr. A. T. Hart, merchant, as a clerk, at a salary 
of ten dollars per month, boarding himself. Notwith- 
standing this rather unpropitious beginning, by assidu- 
ous attention to business, and probity of life, he won 
his way to the esteem of his employer, and a more 
prosperous career soon opened before him. In 1850 he 
began mercantile business for himself, by entering into 
partnership with Orlando Crane. This partnership con- 
tinued for one year, when Mr.-Hart, his former em- 
ployer, purchased the interest of Mr. Crane, and the 
firm became Hart & Branham, and continued in pros- 
perous and reputable business for fifteen years, during 
which time Mr. Branham did much to encourage and 
advance the growing interests of the town and county. 
This partnership was dissolved, and he engaged in the 
stove and tin business, in 1869, at which he continued 
until 1871, when he sold his establishment and opened 
a grocery store in connection with his early and esteemed 
friend, James M. Morgan, conducting that until 1874. 
He is now the owner of an extensive jewelry store, and 
is still engaged in active and prosperous business. In 
early life Mr. Branham developed a decided talent for 
military exercises, and at the age of eighteen became a 
member of the Georgetown artillery, and took lessons in 
military training from such men as Cassius M. Clay, Hum- 
phrey Marshall, and the venerable John Pratt. This 
knowledge served a good purpose in his after life, and 
many an efficient soldier and officer of the Union army 
in the late war received his first drill under his instruc- 
tion. In 1859 he organized an independent military 
company, which he drilled and kept in organization 
until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when most of 
its members entered the Union army. In 1863 he com- 
manded a company of state troops, who joined in pur- 
suit of John Morgan, at the time of his memorable 
invasion of Indiana and Ohio, and was present with his 
company at the terrible and lamentable disaster at Law- 
renceburg, Indiana, where several citizens of Han- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


cock County, members of his company, were killed or 
wounded. This unfortunate affair is a matter of general 
history, and need not’be described here. Mr. Branham 
has occupied many positions of public trust, having 
been school trustee of Greenfield for eight years, and in 
other capacities aiding greatly in developing the town, 
and at the same time contributing both in money and 
influence toward the building of gravel roads and other 
enterprises for the improvement of the county. He 
joined the Independent Order of Odd-fellows in 1854, 
and the Masonic Fraternity in 1849, and served as No- 
ble Grand in the former for some time. He was for- 
merly a Republican, but, being an admirer of Horace 
Greeley, supported him for President in 1872; since 
which time he has acted with the Democratic party. 
Mr. Branham, although a man of earnest convictions, 
is not what would be termed a politician, always voting 
in accordance with his honest belief, but taking little 
part in political excitements. He joined the Christian 
Church in 1853, for which organization he worked ear- 
nestly and persistently for many years, and did much 
toward its advancement in the home of his adoption. 
He was married, August 16, 1847, to Amanda M. Se- 
bastian, daughter of William Sebastian, one of the 
pioneers of the country, and a soldier in the War of 
1812, being present at Hull’s surrender at Detroit. 
This estimable lady died May 18, 1875, and her loss 
was deeply mourned by a large circle of friends. Mr. 
Branham’s career has been a successful one, which fact 
is due largely to his own energy of disposition and 
uniform probity of character. 


400-0 — 


4 


UCHANAN, JAMES, Indianapolis, lawyer and 
>) American citizen, was born on a farm near Wavye- 
~, land, Montgomery County, Indiana, October 14, 
1837. His grandfather was George Buchanan, 
who lived in Northern Virginia, removed to Ken- 
tucky, and then to Tennessee, and finally to Indiana in 
1828. The father of James Buchanan was Alexander 
Buchanan, who was born and reared in Rutherford 
County, Tennessee; and his mother was Matilda Rice 
Buchanan, who was born and brought up in Shelby 
County, Kentucky. The early education of James Bu- 
chanan was in the common schools; and at the age of 
eighteen he entered the Waveland Academy, now de- 
nominated the Collegiate Institute of Waveland, where 
he completed a full course in mathematics, graduating 
in 1858 with the highest honors of his class. His tastes 
inclined very strongly for the law. He had been, also, 
a close and proficient student in logic and political 
economy. To qualify himself for practice, he began 
study in the office of his uncle, the Hon. Isaac A. Rice, 
at Attica, Fountain County, this state, remaining there 


7th Dist.) 


until the death of that gentleman, in August, 1860. 
Having been admitted to the bar in February, 1861, he 
entered upon his profession at Attica, whence he re- 
moved to Indianapolis in the fall of 1870, opening an 
office there. His practice has since been extensive, and 
entirely successful. In addition to his legal business, 
Mr. Buchanan has devoted much time to a close study 
of political economy. Until 1874 he was an ardent 
Republican, when he espoused the Greenback cause, 
and became the leader in organizing the National party 
of 1877. In public addresses, through newspapers, and 
in his private efforts, Mr. Buchanan is a strong advocate 
of the financial system upon which that party is founded, 
and has done more, perhaps, than any other one man to 
crystallize the principles of the party into a system; for 
which reason the opposition has christened him ‘The 
Plan.” On December 25, 1862, Mr. Buchanan was 
married to Miss Ann Cordelia Wilson, eldest daughter 
of Doctor William L. Wilson and Elizabeth Wilson, of 
Attica, Fountain County, Indiana. 
are of the Presbyterian faith, and he is a member of 
the Second Presbyterian Church, at Indianapolis. Mr. 
Buchanan is five feet nine and a half inches in height, 
weighs two hundred and sixty pounds, and is erect and 
well proportioned. He has a fresh look, earnest man- 
ner, and a courteous demeanor;. is a good conversation- 
alist, a fluent and forcible public speaker, and, alto- 
gether, a live, active man, aggressive and progressive, 
cut out for a leader, and always has a numerous fol- 
lowing, standing high at the bar and in the community 
in which he lives, as well as elsewhere. 


His religious views 


4006-2 — 


UTLER, JOHN MAYNARD, Indianapolis, law- 
yer, was born at Evansville, Indiana, September 
b, 17s 1834. Calvin Butler and Malvina (French) 
Butler were his parents, and both were from Ver- 

The Reverend Calvin Butler, his father, was 
employed at shoemaking until he was thirty years of 
age, when, having a taste for the acquisition of learning, 
he undertook to work his way through college, which 
he successfully accomplished at Middlebury College; 
and, intending to enter the ministry, he went, subse- 
quently, through a course at the Andover. Theological 
Seminary, Massachusetts. Having acquired in this way 
a thorough education and theological preparation, he 
came West to preach, and settled in Evansville. Subse- 
quently, he removed to Northern Illinois, where he died 
in 1853 or 1854. During the younger days of his son, 
John Maynard Butler, there was a large family of chii- 
dren in the household, with limited income, which com- 
pelled the subject of this sketch to rely upon his own 
exertions; and, consequently, when twelve years of age, 
he began working as clerk in a store, and afterwards at 


mont. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN .OF INDIANA. 


15 
other employments. Having inherited a desire for learn- 
ing and a determination to acquire it, he succeeded in 
entering Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, in 1851; 
and through his own exertions, with partial help, he 
was enabled to graduate in 1856. The same day he 
graduated he was elected president of the Female Sem- 
inary at Crawfordsville, which position he held three 
successive years, At this time the seminary building 
was sold to the city, and converted into a high school, 
of which Mr. Butler then became the principal. Dur- 
ing al] the time he was employed as instructor he pur- 
sued the study of the law, with the intention of adopt- 
ing it for a profession. Shortly after becoming president 
of the seminary, Mr. Butler was married to Miss Sue W. 
Jennison, of Crawfordsville. In November, 1861, he 
made an extended tour through the North-western 
States, in pursuit of a location for the practice of law. 
Returning, he settled down at Crawfordsville, November, 
1861. From the very first day, on opening an office, Mr. 
Butler has had all the law business he could attend to, 
and has never to this day ceased to be busy. His prac- 
tice commenced by being retained on the first day of his 
new business in an important case that passed through 
the Circuit and Supreme Courts of Indiana, ending in 
the complete success of the young lawyer. This gave 
him an early prestige, and his practice continued to in- 
crease in the town and surrounding counties. He was 
thus employed until 1871, when he came to Indianap- 
olis, and succeeded Judge A. L. Roache as partner with 
the Hon. Joseph E. McDonald. Mr. Butler is still in 
the firm, which has a large and increasing practice, not- 
withstanding the absence of Mr. McDonald a large por- 
tion of the year, as United States Senator, at Washington. 
Differing from his distinguished partner politically, Mr. 
Butler has always affiliated ardently with the Republican 
cause, and has taken no inconsiderable part in forward- 
ing the interests of that party. Aspiring to no office, 
and repeatedly declining nominations, he has taken an 
active part in political campaigns, speaking throughout 
this state, and extending his labors into other states. 
Mr. Butler wisely holds that lawyers should not be 
office-seekers, and consequently has been free to speak 
his mind on all occasions, which is no small advantage 
in stump speaking. Mr. Butler is a popular political 
orator, and speeches he has made have been extensively. 
published. Mr, Butler is an active member of the Sec- 
ond Presbyterian Church, and president of the board of 
trustees and ruling elder. His children are a daughter 
of sixteen and a son thirteen years of age. In physical 
make-up, Mr. Butler presents a fine specimen of the per- 
fect man, being fairly tall, of light build, and well pro- 
portioned; a large head, well set upon broad shoulders, 
and a countenance and eye indicative of intellectual 
vigor and force of character, blended with evident kind- 
ness of disposition and innate honesty of purpose. As 


16 


a jurist, he stands in the front rank in a bar that em- 


braces in its list many of the first lawyers in the coun- 
try. The practice of his firm is with cases of the 
weightiest importance, and attended with unusual suc- 
cess in results. Wisely avoiding the paths that lead to 
military and civic distinction as a public man, Mr. But- 
ler has a far more enviable record as a successful lawyer, 
a useful and respected citizen, and a living Christian 
gentleman, identified with those whose character gives 
tone to society, and whose labors enhance the prosperity 
of the city in which he has his home. 


—>-4006-—— 


1) i Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, near Braddock’s 
joc) Field, April 12, 1824. He was the son of William 
oye Caven, whose genealogy was Scotch-Irish, and Jane 
(Loughead) Caven, of English-Scotch descent. John’s 
education was of the most primitive kind, of the old 
English reader, Daboll’s arithmetic, and log school- 
In studying the life and character of emi- 


' Loe JOHN, mayor of Indianapolis, was born in 


house type. 
nent men, nothing is more important than to know as 
much as possible of their youthful surroundings and 
educational advantages. The subject of this sketch, if 
judged by estimates too often introduced in biograph- 
ical history, was confronted in boyhood by a rough pros- 
pect for future success in life. Born to toil, and with 
limited facilities for acquiring an education, he began a 
long way in the rear of the youth of fortune, but it 
may be said that these adverse circumstances were in 
fact a valuable inheritance. They tended to develop 
the robust qualities of the boy, and the Scotch-Irish 
traits of character of integrity and fidelity for which 
that race is pre-eminently distinguished—qualities that 
overcome obstacles and disadvantages, and wring from 
the grasp of fate the trophies of success. The log 
school-house in the wilderness was his Alma Mater, and 
when he graduated, if not a master of arts, he was 
something better—master of himself, and ready for the 
battle of life. His father was the owner of a salt-works, 
and the son boiled salt, or boated salt and coal in flat- 
boats. Three days before he attained legal manhood, 
on April 9, 1845, he left home, came to Indiana, and 
September 10, following, reached Indianapolis, his pres- 
ent place of residence. Here he engaged as a salesman 
in a shoe store until July, 1847, when he began the 
study of law with Smith & Yandes. It will be ob- 
served that young Caven steadily developed in the right 
direction. A close observer, a patient student, and a 
devotee of industry, he abandons the vocation of a com- 
mon laborer at the salt-works, or at the oar of a salt- 
flat, to take a position, at twenty-three years of age, in 
a law office, determined to master the problems of juris- 
prudence, and take his rightful place in one of the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


learned professions. To the young men of the country 
such examples of courage, of perseverance, industry, 
and unyielding will power, are of the highest value. 
They are certain indications of a life of usefulness. 
They teach all observers that every man may fully equip 
himself for ‘‘the world’s broad field of battle,” and 
that success is always assured when there is a determi- 
nation to live ‘sublime lives” for the good of society. 
In 1851 he went to Clay County, Indiana, and engaged 
in mining coal for one year, and then returned to In- 
dianapolis, and resumed the practice of law with suc- 
cess. In May, 1863, he was elected mayor of Indianap- 
olis without opposition. In 1865 he was renominated 
by acclamation, and again elected without opposition . 
In 1868 he was elected to the state Senate, and there 
his votes will be found recorded in favor of the fifteenth 
amendment, and in favor of schools for colored chil- 
dren. He was again elected mayor in 1875, 1877, and 
1879. It would be difficult, in few words, to express 
the great popularity of John Caven. The strong hold 
he has upon the regard of the people of Indianapolis 
is exceptional. There is not, probably, another instance 
of the kind to be found in the life of any other public 
man in the country. As the chief executive of the 
largest inland commercial city on the continent, the 
converging center of the wealth, intelligence, and enter- 
prise of a great state, the man who could be elected to 
the office of chief magistrate so frequently, and with 
so little opposition, must possess not only great powers 
of administration, but also large comprehension of the 
business wants of the community; and in these respects 
Mayor Caven is pre-eminently distinguished. There is 
no question relating to the needs and progress of the 
city, its commercial expansion, and its industrial enter- 
prises, that has not had his personal and official in- 
fluence. Mayor Caven early saw the great advantages 
that would accrue to the city by building the Belt Rail- 
road and the establishment of the union stock-yards, 
now in successful operation. On Monday, July, 1876, 
in a message to the common council, he discussed in- 
telligently and forcibly the local advantages of Indian- 
apolis. Referring to the importance of the Belt Rail- 
road, he said: 


“‘The construction of a railroad around this city is 
important. The blockade of our streets_has long been 
a great inconvenience, and a remedy must be found. 
To bridge or tunnel is very expensive, and not at all 
satisfactory. A road running from the Lafayette on the 
north of the city eastwardly, and around to the Bloom- 
ington and Western, would be about twelve miles in 
length, and, measuring each side, would make twenty- 
four miles of railroad.frontage around the city, exceed- 
ingly desirable for locations for manufactures. Coal, 
ore, and heavy raw material could be delivered at the 
furnace door, and the manufactured articles carried 
away, reducing the expenses of hauling to the mini- 
mum. Experience has demonstrated that certain im- 


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7th Dist.) 


provements had better be made by private enterprise. 
Certain local improvements, however, seem to fall within 
the province of cities themselves—as harbors, docks, 
etc. Suppose Indianapolis were surrounded by a navi- 
gable water, into which poured eleven navigable rivers, 
navigable to every county in the state, and to every 
state in the union—to every fertile valley, to every hill- 
side with its exhaustless mines, to every quarry of stone 
and forest of timber—and, in addition, this surrounding 
water was especially adapted for the location of innu- 
merable manufactories, would it be deemed an improper 
expense for the city to improve such harbor? What 
that harbor would be to the city on the water, that road 
might be to us. The stock-yards would come before 
the road was finished, and grain elevators would be 
built. Its peculiar advantages would invite the tcation 
of manufactures, and these would furnish a demand 
and a market for fuel and farm products, thus building 
up state industries to aid us further in furnishing a 
market in turn for the manufactured wares. The Sulli- 
van coal road would soon be built; perhaps finished 
first. I think, however, I might safely say if the cir- 
cular road were an assured fact that it would at once 
decide the coal road as an assured. fact. The pit value 
of three hundred acres of coal would build it, and Sul- 
livan County has two hundred and seventy-five thou- 
sand acres, worth, at one-half cent per bushel royalty, 
five hundred and eighty-three million two hundred and 
ninety-seven thousand dollars, enough to build six hun- 
dred roads to this city. Six hundred thousand cars pass 
through this city yearly. Passing outside the city they 
might run at greater speed, and tolls might be charged 
which would, in all probability, be sufficient to pay ex- 
penses and interest on the cost. By building a depot 
at each intersection, and a union freight depot in the 
city, we would attain the maximum benefits of railroads 
with the minimum of disadvantage.” 


The road was completed, and the most sanguine ex- 
pectations of Mayor Caven have been realized. Mayor 
Caven is among the most advanced and eminent Masons 
in the state. He was made a member of the Blue 
Lodge, July 28, 1863, and has served as Worshipful 
Master five terms. He took the Ancient and Accepted 
Scottish Rite, March 3, 1864; Chapter Degrees, Novem- 
ber 10, 1865; the Thirty-third Degree, May, 19, 1866; 
and was Deputy Grand Commander of the State until 
some time in 1877. He took the Council Degree, March 
8, 1866, and the Commandery Degrees, January 4th, of 
-the same year, and has served as Prelate. July 24, 
1869, he took the degrees of the Order of Knights of 
Pythias, and was elected First Grand Chancellor of the 
Grand Lodge of Indiana, October 20, 1869. Mayor 
Caven is a Republican in politics, and, like his ancestry, 
inclines to the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church. 
Such is, very briefly, the faint outline, the mere skel- 
eton, of a busy life. It would be a curious and instruct- 
ive study to analyze the elements which form the basis 
of Mayor Caven’s popularity and influence with the 
people. Quiet in his manner almost to the point of 
reticence, modest and unassuming in dress and speech, 
he never resorts to artifice to bring himself into public 


notice, And yet honors fall into his lap unsought, and 
Cc—2 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


I7 


he is a bold man who contests with him the palm of 
popular favor. All parties unite in his praise, and it is 
doubtless true that, outside of that dissolute class whom 
he is so often called upon to condemn, he has not an 
enemy in the world. Those who have been permitted 
to know the private life of Mayor Caven can testify 
that his numerous charities and donations nearly absorb 
his salary as mayor, and yet this is all so quietly dis- 
pensed that many, except his intimate friends, will here 
learn it for the first time. The demands upon his purse 
are almost incessant, and his kindness of heart makes it 
a most difficult thing to say ‘*No.” As mayor, too, he 
is expected to be prepared, at a moment’s warning, to 
welcome with a flow of eloquent words every society 
which chooses to make Indianapolis its place of meeting, 
and some of his most hastily prepared efforts have been 
models of literary taste. His addresses on such occa- 
sions would fill volumes. This sketch would be incom- 
plete if not embellished with some of the gems of 
thought which are to be found in all of Mr. Caven’s 
public addresses. In the course of an oration delivered 
upon the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the 
Masonic Temple in Indianapolis, Mr. Caven, in speak- 
ing of the mysteries of the universe, said: 


‘All things are mysterious. The smallest insect, 
invisible to the eye, is perfect in all its parts. It has 
hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows; it labors to lay up its 
stores, it has reason, learns from experience, and has 
conceptions of the ownership of property. The whale 
in the ocean, the fierce lion in the forest, the lamb in 
the meadow, every leaf and flower, is a mystery. Each 
grain of sand, this moment beneath your feet, was made 
when creation was. Cast it into the street, tread it 
under foot, grind it in the mill, crush it upon the anvil, 
burn it in the furnace, and we can not destroy it. That 
grain of dust is a mystery beyond human knowledge. 
All the wisdom of all the world, from Adam down, can 
not decipher it. All the gold and precious stones in 
all the different treasuries of the world, or still buried in 
the mines, could not purchase the mystery that sur- 
rounds a single grain of dust. All the armies that ever 
marched could not tread it out of existence, and all the 
alchemists could not destroy or create it. Yes, each 
grain of dust is old as creation. 

- “Had it a tongue what a history it could tell! Here 
it lies in your street to-day, defying man, time, earth- 
quakes, and fire. There it lies, undestroyed and inde- 
structible. Here a drop of water that rose in the first 
mist that went up from the earth, mingled in the first 
rain that ever fell. It flowed from the rivers that 
watered the Garden of Eden, it gushed from the rock 
which Moses smote, and was troubled by the angel in 
the healing pool of Siloam. It has hung upon the rose, 
welled in the eye of sorrow, and trembled upon the lash 
of beauty, damped the brow of toil, and cooled the 
parched lip of the fevered one. It watered the tree of 
good and evil in Paradise. It has fallen upon the 
burning desert, and the parched sands have drank it. 
It watered the thirsty land, and made the earth to laugh 
with harvests and plenty, the valley to bloom from 
every cranny. It has voyaged in the clouds, the brook, 
the rivulet, the river, lake, sea aud ocean. It has 


18 


sparkled in the dew, rested in snow upon the mountain 
top, rolled in ceaseless moaning in the ocean billow, 
overwhelmed the gallant ship standing out upon its 
ocean pathway from continent to continent, rushed in 
torrents down the mountain side; leaped Niagara in 
foam; thundered in the avalanche, desolated plains, 
swept cities away, and drowned the world. Dropped in 
the burning deserts of Africa it was not lost ; in mid- 
ocean it was secure; floating in fleece in the sky it was 
still in God’s all-preserving hands; in snow upon the 
bleak and frozen mountain top, it was still safe; poured 
into the burning volcano, it was still preserved; ever 
rising unharmed from the dust, the ashes, the flame, 
pure as the sinless tear, on wings of white, forming 
rainbows of peace, rewriting, in hues of glory, a con- 
tinual covenant of God in the sky. 

‘‘That drop sparkles to-day in the goblet, at the fount- 
ain, clear, soft and still, with many a voyage through 
the skies and round the world yet before it, unde- 
stroyed and indestructible. A drop of water only, yet 
a mystery beyond the wisdom of man to fathom. The 
simplest flower is a mystery, its blush, its fragrance. 
Where did it gather these sweets and these glories? 
From out the dark, damp earth and the invisible air. 
But by what mysterious process? Gather up the snow- 
flake, and, as it melts in the hand, read, if you can, the 
mysterious message it brought from the sky. Why is 
it that it is only by age we acquire the experience which 
would have been so valuable in youth? Why do we 
only learn the world as we are about to leave it? acquire 
worldly wisdom when we have no longer use for it? 
only learn to wear the coronet of life when, all glowing 
with the glittering gems of experience, we must lay it 
down in the dust? The old sage can not bequeath a 
tithe of his garnered wisdom to the babe just born. 
The child of the sage must blunder and stumble as did 
his sire before him. 

“Tf, then, a single grain of sand, a drop of water, 
is a mystery so profound and unfathomable, baffling 
human wisdom, what are oceans, : continents, worlds, 
stars, suns, the universe, God, the Omnipotent? What 
a mystery is life, the union of soul and body, the action 
of the human mind! and what a mystery is death! 
Death in the physical world is a renewal of life; decay 
is nature seizing upon dead, useless matter, to remold it 
into new forms of life and beauty. Yes, what a won- 
derful mystery is death! All fear to die. The meanest 
insect will fight fiercely for life; and yet death can not 
be an evil. The inevitable can not be an evil. The 
God that made the universe made us. He is all wise 
and all good, and he has appointed to all once to die. 
The great of all times have died; the good, the wise, 
the learned, have died; the mighty warrior, the wise 
ruler, the world’s great benefactors, have died; the 
stalwart youth, the fair young bride with the orange 
blossoms yet shining in her hair, the pure babe 
but a span long, the good old mother with her sweet 
white hair and wrinkled but loving hand. All these 
have died, and been buried away from the sight of 
loving eyes and breaking hearts. Death can not be an 
evil, or they would not have died. 

«‘The good must be immortal. The king from his 
throne and the beggar from his poverty all have gone 
down to the tomb, and in a few years we too must 
sleep with them. And then, how mysterious the hope 
of a future existence—that the tomb is but the portal 
to a higher and better life is strong in all. Even where 
the light of revelation has never shone, this belief is 
found. The wild Indian goes smiling to the stake, not 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


. 


[7th Dist. 


doubting that he shall enter at once to the happy hunt- 
ing grounds. We can not believe that existence ends 
with this life. It can not be that wronged and suffering 
virtue falls into the grave to sleep forever unavenged ; 
that the wrong-doer here sleeps as quiet as the wronged. 
Even the heathen reason that, as God is just, there 
must be a future existence. God has implanted within 
us the hope and longing for immortality; yet what that 
future is, is veiled by a shroud which only death 
can lift. 

“The grain of dust, the drop of water, are inde- 
structible. Our physical frames are composed of water 
and dust. Man’s thoughts are God-like. The works 
of his hands, of his genius, are immortal and imperish- 
able. Can it be that every atom of his physical frame, 
the wofks of his hands, of his genius, are immortal 
and indestructible, while he himself, his genius, his 
mind, his intellect, that which is nearest God, is indeed 
God-like, is all in all the wide universe that is mortal 
and destructible? Can it be that the sculptured marble 
image lives, and the hand that carved it dies? The 
temple reared to the skies, defying the storms of centu- 
ries, and the genius that planned it blotted out forever? 
The grand thought, the God-like conception, lives on 
forever, an eternal inspiration. The mind that con- 
ceived it has ceased to be; the teeming brain turned to 
dust, that dust imperishable, and the intellect that ani- 
mated it passed into nothingness!” 


During the strike in 1877 he did not hesitate what 
It was a time full of peril to life 
A single injudicious word would have 


course to pursue. 
and property. 
kindled a flame that could but result in wide-spread 
ruin. Blatant seekers after popularity were doing all in 
their power to awaken a mob spirit. It was reserved 
for John Caven, one of the most quiet and least intru- 
sive citizens of Indianapolis, to step between the ex- 
cited strikers and those who would mow them down 
with shot and shell, and by his firm but quiet speech 
and manner allay the mad passions that prevailed, and 
thus save this city from the fate that befell Pittsburgh. 
His conduct in that hour of danger is a bright chapter 
in his history that will illuminate his life; and his 
course, when the laboring men of the city held meet- 
ings in the state-house yard, and were beginning to 
whisper of ‘bread or blood.” Mayor Caven met them 
on their own ground, told them firmly but kindly that 
their demands could not and would not be conceded, 
but he emptied his own purse to buy bread for the 
hungry, and promised them that he would do all in his 
power to obtain them work shortly on the Belt Railroad 
and at the stock-yards—two great public improvements 
that were bitterly opposed at the time, but to which 
Mayor Caven gave his best endeavors and urged to 
successful completion. Time has already demonstrated 
the wisdom of this great undertaking, and the large 
body of influential tax-payers who strenuously opposed it, 
now are among the foremost to acknowledge the effi- 
ciency and importance of the two enterprises, and honor 
their mayor for his judgment and foresight. It would 
be difficult to overestimate the obligations Indianapolis 


7th Dist.) 


is under to John Caven for the splendid triumph gained 
by him, as mayor of the city, during the period of what 
is justly termed the ‘great strike,” and which won 
universal applause. With untiring energy he combined 
inflexible firmness and an exalted comprehension of the 
threatening danger. Considerate and just, he won the 
confidence of the working classes, and from that hour 
the safety of the city was assured. After the storm had 
passed away an Indianapolis newspaper, not of Mayor 
Caven’s politics, and therefore uninfluenced by partisan 
considerations, referred editorially to the course Mayor 
Caven had pursued, and paid him the following tribute 
of merited approval : 

‘‘Indianapolis was eminently fortunate in this trying 
crisis in having such a man as John Caven for its ‘chief 
magistrate. It is not our purpose to deal in fulsome 
eulogy or strained panegyric in commenting upon the 
course of Mayor Caven, but we regard it as eminently 
proper to allude to the wisdom of his course, for we 
are satisfied that it has been the chief factor in the 
maintenance of the peace and quiet of the city. The 
fact is evident that Mayor Caven saw clearly the right 
way through and out of the storm, that he estimated 
with consummate sagacity the magnitude of the difficul- 
ties that environed the city, and clearly appreciated the 
value of prudence. To understand human nature is a 
quality of mind and heart that few possess. To say the 
right thing in the right way and at the right time isa 
test of the highest ability; and when it so happens that 
aman in authority exhibits such great skill in times of 
trial and peril, it is impossible to overestimate its value. 
Mayor Caven, fortunately for Indianapolis, has evinced 
an appreciation of patience in the hour of threatened 
violence, and maintained a self-poise and moral courage 
that were fully equal to the occasion. For the prudent 
exhibition of these excellent qualities—always valuable, 
but of incalculable worth when the well-being of large 
communities depends upon their exercise—the people of 
Indianapolis owe Mayor Caven a large debt of grati- 
tude.” 


Mayor Caven’s name has been frequently mentioned 
in connection with the gubernatorial chair, and it is 
safe to say that he can be elected to any position he 
would consent to fill. He is, in its best sense, a man 
of the people, and to-day controls and guides public 
sentiment to a greater degree than any other citizen of 
Indianapolis, and yet without evincing the least desire 
to lead. He is a man of unexceptionable morals, tem- 
perate even to abstinence; is a bachelor, and outside of 
business hours devotes himself to social intercourse with 
his friends and to his studies. 


400 


ITANDLER, MORGAN, banker, Greenfield, the 
youngest of a family of three sons, was born on a 
farm in Owen County, Kentucky, September 30, 
1827. His parents, Uriah and Lydia Chandler, 
were respectively natives of Virginia and North Caro- 
lina. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the War 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


1) 


of the Revolution, serving with honesty and fidelity to 
the close of that contest. Young Chandler was bereft 
of his father at an early age, which left him to the 
counsel and guidance of a widowed mother. His early 
opportunities for intellectual culture were of little or 
no value. A few weeks’ attendance, snatched from a 
life of unceasing toil, in the schools of Owen County, 
was the sum total of his scholastic career; and the little 
benefit he derived from such schooling is evidenced by 
the fact that at the age of twenty-one he could neither 
read nor write his own name. But he had been think- 
ing, and to a purpose, for at this time he determined 
to educate himself, and this, too, without teachers or 
school, alone. How well he succeeded may be inferred 
when it is stated that within eighteen months, or at the 
age of twenty-two, he was at the head of a school in 
his county as teacher. The aptitude with which he 
learns whatever he undertakes, as is here indicated, has 
few, if any, equals in the history of mental acquire- 
ments. His career as a teacher was of the most suc- 
cessful and’satisfactory nature from the very start, and 
it encouraged him to pursue the work for fifteen months. 
In October, 1851, he removed to Hancock County, In- 
diana, and again engaged in teaching. At the expira- 
tion of his second term he returned to the home of his 
childhood, spending the summer there, visiting his old 
friends and pupils. Returning to Indiana in the au- 
tumn of 1852, he taught another term of school, and 
then entered the store of G. G. Tague, where he re- 
mained six months, at a salary of ten dollars a month. 
Then, in partnership with Samuel Bear, he engaged in 
business for himself. April 22, 1855, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Nancy M. Galbreth, daughter of Will- 
iam Galbreth, formerly of Kentucky. In the autumn 
of the same year he was elected sheriff of Hancock 
County. He sold his store and applied himself assidu- 
ously to his official duties, which he discharged with 
satisfaction to the people of the entire county. At the 
expiration of his term of office he began farming, at 
which he continued until 1861, when he was elected 
clerk of the Hancock Circuit Court, holding the office 
four years. In the summers of 1867 and 1868 he spent 
considerable time traveling through the western states 
and territories, the winters of the same years being in 
Washington City. In 1869 and 1870 he was engaged in 
the store of Walker & Edwards. In 1871, he, with four 
other gentlemen, established the Greenfield Banking 
Company, of which he is the cashier. Referring back 
to his younger days, it is proper to state that at the age 
of twenty-two he was unanimously chosen lieutenant- 
colonel of the state troops of his native county, a po- 
sition he filled with honor to himself and satisfaction to 
his comrades. At the age of fifteen Mr. Chandler 
united with the Baptist Church, and still remains stead- 
fast to his early convictions. He has been an active 


20 


Democrat all his life, but has conducted himself with 
such frankness and candor that he has never incurred 
the displeasure or hatred of his political opponents. 
He has been, and is now, an advocate of all improve- 
ments or reforms, either material, intellectual, or moral. 
He has devoted both time and money to the building 
of turnpikes, churches, and school-houses, and has 
always taken a lively interest in agricultural pursuits 
and improvements, being president of the District Fair 
Association, composed of the counties of Rush, Henry, 
and Hancock. Mr. Chandler is unaffectedly kind, hos- 
pitable, and obliging, and in consequence his personal 
popularity is as extensive as his acquaintance. His 
perception is quick and accurate, enabling him to read 
character almost at a glance. This faculty, together with 
his thorough acquaintance with monetary affairs, and 
his financial standing in the business community, lends 
great weight to his judgment on matters of finance. 
His courteous and affable bearing, added to a rare busi- 
ness tact and talent, eminently fit him for his position 
as cashier of one of the strongest moneyed institutions 
in the country. Considering the limited opportunities, 
privations, and hardships of the early life of Mr. Chan- 
dler, and that he began in the world without a dollar, 
all must agree that he is pre-eminently a self-made 
man, and as such is entitled to the confidence and es- 
teem of mankind every-where. 


—-$006-— 


(fi HARLES, EMILY THORNTON, whose maiden 
‘, name was Thornton, but who is best known in 
) literary circles by her xom de plume of ‘* Emily 
sy? Hawthorne,” was born in Lafayette, Indiana, 
March 21, 1842. She is of English ancestry. “Her 
maternal grand-parents, Parker and Gachell, were the 
offspring of Puritans, and resided in Pepperell, Massa- 
chusetts, the home of the historian Prescott, of whom 
her grand uncle, Samuel Farrar, was a most intimate 
friend and near neighbor. Her great-grandfather, Jonas 
Parker, was a son of the noted Deacon Edward Parker, 


whose residence is still standing on Mount Lebanon, 
near Pepperell. On her father’s side the Thorntons 
also were of English origin, first settling in Bennington. 
Her great-grandfather, Elisha Thornton, was in the Rev- 
olutionary War; her grandfather, also Elisha, was born 
at Bennington in 1779. He also displayed the martial 
spirit by serving in the War of 1812. In the early 
part of the present century the family removed to the 
western part of New York, settling at Lyons, Wayne 
County, to which place the Parkers also came a few 
Here Emily’s parents, James Madison 
Thornton and Harriet Parker, were born, and it was 
here that they were married. Shortly after their union 
the young couple came West to Lafayette, in this state, 


years later. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7% Dist. 


where the father was largely engaged in manufacturing. 
He was a natural genius, possessing great mechanical 
ingenuity, and thoroughly understanding both railroad 
and civil engineering. Although of an age to exempt 
him from the draft at the time of the late war, he. vol- 
unteered in the 127th Illinois Regiment, and died in a 
hospital at Paducah, Kentucky, December 25, 1865. 
Her eldest brother, Charles H., served in the 63d In- 
diana Regiment, and died at Knoxville, Tennessee. 
Her only other brother, Lieutenant G..P. Thornton, 
when a lad of seventeen, marched in General Ben. Har- 
rison’s 7oth Indiana Volunteers. With the exception 
of a few years passed in Lyons, New York, the whole 
life of Mrs. Charles has been spent in Indiana, and of 
the state and its capital she is enthusiastically proud. 
She is particularly attached to the city of Indianapolis, 
with which she has grown up, for here her childhood 
and most of her mature years have been passed, and 
here too is the field of most of her struggles, sorrows, 
joys, disappointments, and successes. When she was 
only twelve years of age Mr. Calvin Fletcher, senior, 
whose kindness she remembers with heart-felt grateful- 
ness, took an interest in the little girl; and once, when he 
was visiting the schools in company with some Boston 
ladies, her originality of thought won for her the warm- 
est compliments from the party, and Mr. Fletcher told 
the teacher that Emily was the brightest little girl he 
ever knew. She was.extremely sensitive and diffident, 
and this, added to the misfortune of a slight defect in 
hearing, caused her to shrink from observation. At 
the age of fifteen she took charge of one of the free 
schools of Indianapolis, and had the distinction of a 
responsibility greater than any one else of her age at 
that time. In this position Mr. Fletcher encouraged 
and advised her, and so much did she revere him and 
feel his kindness that when he died she was so over- 
come with grief that she could not, or dared not, attend 
the funeral. In 1861 she was married to Daniel B. 
Charles, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who had, however, 
been a resident of Indianapolis for some time. He was 
a man greatly esteemed by all who knew him, and 
loved for his genial manners and noble principles. Six 
years after this marriage his life was brought to an un- 
timely close by consumption, and she was left with two 
small children, a boy of five and a girl of two years, to 
battle for life in a world which is in no wise remark- 
able for its care of the unfortunate. But the stout- 
hearted young mother was successful in maintaining her- 
self and children. The boy, now seventeen years old, is 
a manly, self-poised youth, inclined to mathematics and 
mechanics, and is taking a thorough course in Purdue 
University, at Lafayette; and the little girl, just budding 
into womanhood, is spirituelle and strongly individ- 
ualized, and has her mother’s talent for writing (some 
of her productions having already been published ana 


7th Dist.) 


widely copied). 
sketch took an active interest in public matters, espe- 
cially in every thing tending to ameliorate the condition 
of her own sex. Five years since she came before the 
public as a candidate for the office of state Librarian, 
and, although she was not elected, as she could not file 
an official bond, thus rendering her ineligible, yet her 
indomitable energy and her direct appeals to the lead- 
ing politicians of the state in behalf of women afterward 
resulted in the election of a woman to that position. 
As a writer of prose sketches, Mrs. Charles is very suc- 
cessful. She is ready at description, and has a quick 
perception of the salient features of a subject; but it is 
as a writer of poetry she is best known. ‘In 1876 her 
poems were collected into a volume of one hundred and 
sixty-five pages, entitled ‘‘ Hawthorne Blossoms,” “and 
published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia, a 
rare compliment to the first volume of a Western writer. 
These verses possess a high order of merit, and some 
of them have the sapphic ring, and are marked with the 
fine and passionate love of the beautiful. Many of her 
best poems have been written since this volume was pub- 
lished, and are fast winning for her a national reputation. 
The first publication was received with favor, and proved 
a financial success. Mrs. Charles did not develop her 
marvelous gift early. Her sensitiveness kept her from 
the public gaze, and a happy love satisfied her heart. 
“Her genius slumbered, hushed in love— 
An untouched harp that never rang— 
Till wrong its snare around her wove, 
Then sorrow taught her—and she sang.” 

She attempts nothing in verse beyond the simple and 
true éxpressions of her heart, and a gentle, womanly 
spirit- pervades every thing she writes. An eminent 
critic has said of her, ‘She has a vigorous mind, an ac- 
tive imagination, a fine literary taste, and a true poetical 
genius—a rare combination of superior faculties.” Mrs. 
Charles has lectured and given readings in the principal 
cities and towns of Indiana with decided success. Her 
reception at Lafayette—her birthplace and childhood 
home—and the complimentary benefit tendered by state 
officers and leading citizens at the opera-house in Indi- 
anapolis were literary ovations. An address delivered 
by her before the United Order of Honor was so earnest 
a plea for women that shortly afterward ladies were ad- 
mitted to full membership in this society. At Muncie, 
in September, 1878, as Daughter of the Brigade, she de- 
livered to the regiments drawn up in line a historical 
poem commemorating events of the war. In .October 
she was the poet at the annual convention of Indiana edi- 
tors at New Albany, her lines being the feature of the 
occasion, and eliciting unbounded applause. In 1880 
she visited Washington, reading a poem before the Grand 
Army of the Republic on Decoration Day. She ap- 
peared before literary societies in the capital, and was 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


21 


Very early in life the subject of this] asked by more than fifty members of Congress and 


heads of departments to give a literary entertainment 
there. She visited New York and Boston, and at Cam- 
bridge was a guest of Mr. Longfellow, who complimented 
her highly on her writings. In September she accepted 
a position as editor of the Cvtzzen-Soldier, of Washington. 
She is a practical woman, but of a confiding disposition, 
and has a heart which beats in sympathy for whatever is 
unfortunate. No matter how much glory her verse may 
win her, the noble qualities of heart and mind which she 
possesses are her greatest claims for praise. She is always 
ready to do any thing that is right for her friends, among 
whom are many of the most eminent persons of this and 
other states. She is entirely free from the vices of envy 
and deception. She possesses the qualities, in a high de- 
gree, of the following ideal picture of a true woman: 


‘She has the strength of her sex without its weak- 
ness; she is strong, yet tender, and has all the amia- 
ble and innocent amenities which so engage us, without 
the ostensible and aggressive severity which repels. 
Wherever she is placed, or happens to be thrown, she 
is sure of her position without defending it by demon- 
strations; if left to her own resources for support and 
protection, she meets the struggles of life with unfaint- 
ing nerve, and endures its severest trials with composure 
and with a fortitude that would do honor to a hero— 
and all without complaint. No one knows better than 
she what to guard against, and none can be more 
watchful of their womanhood; yet she always conducts 
herself as though all men were gentlemen and all wo- 
men ladies, and as if there was no such thing’ as passion, 
deception, treachery, or wrong in the world. Making 
no parade of modesty herself, and seeing nothing im- 
modest in others, there is yet a delicacy in her man- 
ners which shames rudeness and hushes insult far more 
effectively than the most scrupulous fastidiousness or 
the severest austerity. With a large mind, a bright 
genius, a warm heart, and a pure soul, she is wholly 
without pride, malice, or envy. An affectionate daugh- 
ter, a loving sister, a faithful wife, a good mother, a 
retiring widow, a discreet neighbor, and a generous 
friend—the most perfect work of God on earth, the 
shrine of beauty, goodness, love, and truth.” 


—-900@-<—_ 


Occupy- 
|) ing a very prominent position among the distin- 
guished members of the Indianapolis bar, and 
oy coming pre-eminently into the ranks of self-made 
men, is the name which stands at the head of this 
sketch. Judge Claypool, as he has been long and 
familiarly known in Indianapolis, is a native of the 
state of Indiana. He was born in Fountain County, 
August 17, 1829, and is the third son of a family of 
eight boys and two girls, of whom six sons and two 
daughters survive. One brother died in infancy; and 
his youngest brother, Jacob Claypool, a lieutenant in 
the Federal army, after having passed through several 
battles, died in camp of fever, in July, 1864, Judge 


il LAYPOOL, SOLOMON, of Indianapolis. 
.) 


22 


Claypool’s parents, Wilson and Sarah (Evans) Claypool, 
were respectively of English and Welsh ancestry. In 
1823 they emigrated to Indiana, and settled on Shawnee 
Creek, in Fountain County, where all their children 
were born, and where the husband and father died in 
1876, at the ripe old age of seventy-eight. The spot 
which they selected for their future home was at that 
time a wild, unbroken forest, but is now one of the 
largest and most beautiful farms in the county, on 
which the aged mother of Judge Claypool still resides, 
with her oldest son, Evans Claypool, surrounded by a 
loving family, having lived to see changes in her sur- 
roundings which the brightest dreams of her youth 
could scarcely have pictured. The childhood and youth 
of Judge Claypool were spent on the farm, and the old 
log-cabin school-house, with its unplastered walls and 
rough benches, figured exclusively in his early school- 
ing, and upon this foundation was erected the super- 
structure of bis subsequent education. His father 
became able and willing to give him a more liberal edu- 
cation, and he, being naturally of a studious disposition 
and ambitious to make his own way in the world, en- 
tered «Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, where 
he graduated in July, 1851. After graduation he felt 
that the time had come to show his parents that he 
was able to succeed in life alone and unaided. His 
father pressed upon his acceptance two hundred dollars, 
and with this capital he commenced the battle of life. 
He had determined to take up the profession of law, 
and began a course of reading in the law office of Lane 
& Wilson, at Crawfordsville. Here he remained a short 
time, when he went to Terre Haute and entered the 
office of Hon. S. B. Gookins, of that city. After a 
few months’ reading at Terre Haute he began practice, 
in 1852, at Covington, in his native county. In Sep- 
tember, 1855, he removed to Terre Haute, and there 
married Miss Hannah M. Osborn, sister-in-law of his 
former preceptor, Judge Gookins, with whom he became 
acquainted while a law student at Terre Haute. The 
reader will readily divine a reason why that city pos- 
sessed peculiar attractions for the Judge, both as a place 
for legal instruction and for settling down in practice. 
Although a very young man when he opened a law 
office in Terre Haute, he soon built up a fine practice, 
and took a leading place at the bar of Vigo County. 
Too deep a thinker not to have decided political opin- 
ions, and too fearless and independent not to give them 
expression, he soon became actively identified with the 
politics of the county, and in 1856 was elected a mem- 
ber of the state Legislature from Vigo County, taking a 
leading part in the deliberations of that body. In No- 
vember, 1857, he was appointed Circuit Judge of the 
Vigo Circuit, and in 1858 was elected by the people for 
the full term of six years. By the time Judge Claypool 
was thirty-five years of age he had been on the circuit 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7A Dist. 


bench for seven years, and his name had become famil- 
iar to the bar of the state outside his county as an able 
and impartial judge. At the expiration of his term of 
office he immediately resumed the practice of the law. 
In 1866 he was nominated by acclamation the Demo- 
cratic candidate for Congress. This being the first 
election after the close of the war, and the returned 
soldiers almost universally voting the Republican ticket, 
the Democratic candidates were defeated, but Judge 
Claypool ran considerably in advance of his ticket. 
Again, in 1868, he was the choice of the Democracy 
for Attorney-general of the state, and, after a very ex- 
citing contest, with the rest of his ticket, was defeated, 
or, at least, as the Judge expresses it, ‘‘another gentle- 
man got the commission.” Since that time he has 
given his undivided attention to the practice of his pro- 
fession in his old circuit, living at Greencastle in 1873, 
when he removed to Indianapolis, where he has since 
resided and practiced. He became the head of the 
well-known law firm of Claypool, Mitchell & Ketcham, 
which, on the withdrawal of Major Mitchell and the 
accession of Hon. H. C. Newcomb, became Claypool, 
Newcomb & Ketcham, a law firm which controls a 
large business in Indianapolis and throughout the state. 
Judge Claypool in his personal characteristics shows 
very plainly traces of his English descent, in the bluff- 
ness and tenacity of his disposition. As a speaker, he 
is strong and logical, clear and convincing, and is re- 
garded as one of the best advocates in the state. At 
the bar he is bold and aggressive. Judge Claypool is 
in robust health, and is a fine specimen of the genus 
homo. He is of strong build, has dark complexion, 
dark blue eyes, and black hair, is within one inch of 
six feet high, and weighs two hundred and fifty pounds. 
Both physically and mentally he is one of the strong 
men of the state. Judge Claypool has a family of 
seven children, six daughters and one son. The latter, 
John W., is a student of law in his father’s office at 
Indianapolis. One daughter is the wife of Mr. George 
W. Faris. 
—~-400G-o— 


;LAYTON, JOHN ROBERT, D. D. S., of Shelby- 
\3) ville, though comparatively young, has already be- 
ea come one of the foremost men of the dental pro- 
D° fession in this state. His success has not been 
thrust upon him by caprice of fortune, but is the result 
of the steady development and use of superior faculties. 
He is the son of Samuel B. and Eliza Clayton, and he 
lived in Champaign County, Ohio, from his birth, 
January 23, 1842, until April, 1867, when he removed 
to Shelbyville, Indiana. His boyhood foreshadowed his 
later years, for on the farm and in the district school he 
displayed that faithful industry that has been so im- 
portant an element in his prosperity. A desire for 


=- 


7th Dist.] 


scientific knowledge soon possessed him—a desire which 
the comnion schools of that day could not create, and 
hence it must have been inborn. Adopting the pro- 
fession of dentistry, he located, as above mentioned, in 
Shelbyville, where he has ever since practiced very suc- 
cessfully. Not content with the merely mechanical at- 
tainments of the ordinary dentist, Doctor Clayton de- 
voted much study to the science, and such became his 
acquirements that in June, 1876, he was elected presi- 
dent of the Indiana State Dental Association. Two 
years later he was elected, and is now, professor of phys- 
iology in the Ohio Dental College at Cincinnati, hay- 
ing previously delivered lectures in that institution, and 
also in the Indiana Medical College. A thorough 
knowledge of his profession, and a happy faculty of im- 
parting that knowledge to others, render Doctor Clay- 
ton an able teacher; while his carefulness, accuracy, 
and enthusiastic love of the art, make him one of the 
best of practical dentists. When, in 1861, the notes 
of actual war rolled up from doomed Fort Sumter, re- 
buking the lethargy of the North, and rousing its indig- 
nant people to arms, Doctor Clayton at once responded. 
Laying aside the pen and the forceps for the musket, on 
the twenty-first day of April, when the echo of that first 
memorable conflict had scarcely died away, he became a 
private soldier in the 13th Ohio Infantry. Being dis- 
charged August 21st of the same year, he enlisted again, 
November 7th, in the 66th Ohio Infantry, and on De- 
cember 24, 1863, re-enlisted as a veteran volunteer. 
July 13, 1864, he was made quartermaster’s sergeant, 
and in April, 1865, first lieutenant, and mustered as 
adjutant of the regiment. Soon afterward, July 5th of 
that year, he was advanced to the rank of captain. But 
the war was drawing to a close, and on the twenty- 
fourth day of the same month he was discharged, after 
an honorable service of more than four years, during 
which he participated in the following battles: Port 
Republic, Dumfries, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, 
Kelly’s Ford, Lookout Mountain, Resaca, Siege of At- 
lanta, and the engagements fought in Sherman’s march 
to the sea, and thence through the Carolinas. The 
Doctor is a member of the Christian Church. He was 
married, December 28, 1868, to Miss Mary E. McIlvaine. 
He is, and has always been, a stanch Republican, but 
has never held nor sought office. In the two great 
secret societies, however, he holds important positions. 
In the Independent Order of Odd-fellows he is Past 
Grand; in the Free and Accepted Masons, Past Master; 
Past High-priest of the Royal Arch Masons, and Past 
Eminent Commander of the Knights Templar. Doctor 
Clayton is of commanding stature, fine personal pres- 
ence, and genial manner. His more noted character- 
istics are strength of purpose, moral and physical cour- 
age, independence of thought and action, integrity, 


and love of truth and right. He takes great delight in 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


23 


microscopic research—a field in which he has been very 
successful. He is a member of the American Society 
of Microscopists, organized at Indianapolis in August, 
1878, and has taken an active part in the various 
microscopical conventions which have been held in this 
state. 

—>-30t-<— 


MrOLLETT, JOHN, chief of the Bureau of Statistics 
|) and Geology, was born at Eugene, Vermillion 
G) County, Indiana, January 6, 1828. He is the son 
2 of Stephen S. and Sarah (Groenendyke) Collett. 
He is descended from an old English family, many of 
whose members were noted in the world of letters. 
An ancestral John Collett, whose life and character are 
set forth in a quaint manner in an old volume still in 
the Professor’s library, was dean of St. Paul’s in the reign 
of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and founder of St. Paul’s 
School for Boys; his father, Sir Henry Collett, was twice 
Lord Mayor of London in the reign of Henry VII. As 
Lord Mayor he was treaty bondsman with the Dutch 
Republic for his monarch. His ancestors left England 
on the restoration of Charles II, sought safety at first 
in Ireland, and afterwards, about the year 1765, came 
from that country to America and settled at Wilmington, 
His grandfather, John Collett, was a soldier 
under Washington, and moved from Delaware to Penn- 
sylvania about the year 1780, where, in Huntington 
County, Stephen S., the father of John, was born. In 
1800 the grandfather moved to Chillicothe, and in 1806 
to Columbus, Ohio, then inhabited principally by In- 
dians. The first wagon road from Lime Rock, on the 
Ohio River, to Chillicothe was ‘‘ blazed out” by John 
Collett’s grandfather, and was long known as “ Collett’s 
Trace.” He also built the first house of any preten- 
sions at Columbus. Stephen S., the father of our sub- 
ject, occupied various positions of public trust during 
He was for several years United States 


Delaware. 


his life-time. 
deputy surveyor in Ohio and Indiana, and in that ca- 
pacity surveyed parts of the counties of Parke, Hen- 
dricks, Boone, Montgomery, and other counties in In- 
diana. He moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1818. 
and ten years later to Vermillion. He was Repre- 
sentative or Senator for several years from the counties 
of Parke, Vermillion, and Warren, and died in Indian- 
apolis, in 1842, while attending a session of the Legis- 
lature in which he -was Senator. He had been success- 
ful in business and left quite a large property to his 
children. John, the oldest son, who was in his fif- 
teenth year at the time of his father’s death, was thus 
early brought face to face with the practical issues of 
life. Te assumed charge of the estate and a large 
family, and displayed high administrative ability, con- 
ducting and managing the affairs with tact and discre- 


tion. His youth was spent on his father’s farm in Ver- 


24 


million County, and his early school training was 
received in the traditional log-cabin school-house, which 
is associated with the childhood experiences of so many 
of our eminent public men in the West, and which 
really seems to have laid the foundation of more worth 
than the much more pretentious institutions of recent 
growth. At the age of ten years he entered the pre- 
paratory department of Wabash College, from which he 
graduated in July, 1847, with the degree of A. B. 
Five years later his Alma Mater conferred upon him the 
honorary degree of A. M., and in 1879 the degree of 
Ph. D. The greater part of Mr. Collett’s business life 
has been devoted to farming and kindred occupations, 
in which he has always been highly successful, still own- 
ing and managing one of the finest farms in the state, 
containing about thirteen hundred acres of improved 
land, in Vermillion County. He has also been in every 
sense of the word a public-spirited citizen, taking an 
active, personal, and pecuniary interest in all the public 
improvements, school and his 
county, and in this connection has filled various local 
offices of more or less importance. In 1870 he was 
elected to the state Senate from the counties of Parke 
and Vermillion, and served two regular and one called 
session of the Legislature. His fearless, outspoken ex- 
pression of his convictions, and the tenacity with which 
he struggled for what he believed to be right and just, 
won for him the respect of all with whom he came in 
contact. But while in business and political life Mr. 
Collett takes a rank second to none, it is not as a busi- 
ness man or a legislator that his name is best known, 
not only in Indiana, but through the United States and 
in the old world. Among men of science his name is 
’ familiar as a geologist of acknowledged eminence. In 
his case, as in most others, the ‘*twig ” showed in what 
direction the ‘tree’? was to bend. When still a child 
of eight years he displayed a very decided taste for the 
collection of specimens, fossils, etc., with which the 
soil of his native farm abounded, and among his earliest 
studies were works on geology and kindred subjects. 
As time passed his tastes became still more marked, his 
scope of observation was enlarged, and his enthusiastic 
researches in his favorite science resulted in discoveries 
which attracted the attention of savants. His home be- 
came a favorite rendezvous for geologists from all parts 
of the country, and he was in almost daily communica- 
tion with kindred spirits from all sections. 


railroad interests in 


Perhaps no 
one living man has worked more earnestly to unearth 
and proclaim to the world the secrets which Indiana 
long jealously guarded beneath her surface crust. In 
1870 Mr. Collett was called upon to assist Professor 
Cox, then state geologist, to make detailed examinations 
of the geological formation of the state, and from 1870 to 
1878, during from two to eight months of the year, he 


devoted himself to this task. The results.of his labors 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7h List. 


have been a succession of reports, aggregating nearly 
a thousand pages, as follows: In 1870, geological re- 
port of Sullivan County (31 pages); in 1872, Dubois (47 
pages) and Pike (51 pages), with reconnoissance of Jasper, 
White, Carroll, Miami, and Wabash (45 pages) ; in 1873, 
Warren (70 pages), Lawrence (55 pages), Knox (68 
pages), Gibson (46 pages) ; in 1874, Brown (35 pages) ; 
in 1875, Vanderburg (61 pages), Owen (60 pages), 
Montgomery (62 pages) ; coal measures of Clay and Put- 
nam (46 pages) ; in 1878, Harrison (133 pages), and Craw- 
ford (99 pages). These reports are not only interesting 
contributions to the scientific knowledge of the day, but 
contain an amount of information in regard to the hid- 
den wealth of the state, the value of which can hardly 
be computed. Professor Collett’s reputation as a strata- 
graphical geologist has reached wherever is studied the 
noble science which finds the footprints of the Creator 
in the solid rock, and unveils his wonders in the very 
depths of the earth which he has made. The scope of 
a short sketch will permit only a passing mention of a 
few of the many interesting discoveries made by Pro- 
fessor Collett in his researches, which will remain in- 
scribed on the tablet of historical science long after the 
author has passed away. Among the most important 
may be classed the discovery of strong evidences of a 
pre-glacial river from north to south, through Harrison 
County, crossing the present valley of the Ohio at an 
elevation of about three hundred and fifty feet above 
the existing water-bed, thence through the central part 
of Western Kentucky by the valley of Green River, 
and back to the Ohio, near Evansville. In nearly all 
his reports, Professor Collett has observations on the 
Loess deposits, which indicate two great central basins, 
one of which is coincident with the present lake basin 
of the North, and the other with South-western Indiana 
and the regions adjacent. Facts observed in Vander- 
burg and other south-western counties of the state 
showed the great depth of the valleys which existed 
during previous ages, and discovered the prevalence of 
a climate of tropical warmth, accompanied by animals 
of the Torrid Zone, such as the elephant, sloth, etc. 
Careful observations and reports are also made as to the 
coal and mineral resources of the regions examined, as 
well as of the limestone and building material, which can 
not fail to be a great source of wealth to the state; and 
of no less importance are the reports of advantages and 
productive value of the soils and crops of each locality ; 
in short, giving a readable and clear exhibit of the 
economic wealth of the regions examined. 
Collett brings to his work the most intense personal 
enthusiasm, pursuing his researches with all the ardor 
of a first love. In some respects, his movements as 
chief of the Bureau of Statistics and Geology, to which 
position he was appointed in 1879, are hampered by 
insufficient appropriations. In other states, geological 


Professor 


7th Dist.) 


reports and statistics are collected and scattered broad- 
cast for the information of the people. The fossils of 
Indiana are very numerous, and of the highest interest, 
from a scientific stand-point, as the keys by which are 
unlocked the secrets of the identification of strata. 
Reports of their number, with description and illustra- 
tions, are of the highest importance, and the duty of 
publishing facts and figures relating to these subjects is 
incumbent upon the state of Indiana, for the advance- 
ment of science and the benefit of her people; but 
under the present law there is no money appropriated 
for such a purpose. January 23, 1878, Professor Collett 
was appointed state-house commissioner by Governor 
Williams. This responsible and arduous position he 
-filled with the greatest satisfaction to the people and to 
his colleagues, who united in a most graceful tribute to 
his capacity and worth in a series of resolutions, on his 
resignation of that position, April 29, 1879. He resigned 
in ordex to take his place at the head of the new Bureau 
of Statistics and Geology, the law creating which was 
passed March 29, 1879. This department provides for 
the collection of statistics on agriculture, manufactures, 
commerce, education, labor, social and sanitary subjects, 
and makes the chief of the bureau the curator of the 
State Geological Cabinet. The operation of the law is 
too recent to speak authoritatively of its results, but it 
can not fail to prove of incalculable benefit to the state. 
Doctor Collett is a Fellow of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, with which he has 
been connected since 1868. He affiliated with the 
Whig party until its absorption into the Republican, 
since which time he has acted with the latter body. In 
personal appearance Doctor Collett is very striking. He 
measures six feet two inches in stature, and weighs 
nearly two hundred pounds. His mien is commanding, 
and his hair and whiskers are quite gray, giving him a 
venerable appearance beyond his years. 


oe 
URTISS, REV. GEORGE LEWIS, A. M., M. D., 


and efficient clergymen in the state. His studies 


have embraced a wide range, including not only 
those indicated by his titles, but also the fundamental prin- 
ciples of law. He possesses high natural as well as ac- 
quired qualifications, and, being fully consecrated to his 
work, his sermons are powerful efforts, both in matter and 
delivery. He is the son of Lewis and Mary Curtiss, 
natives respectively of Massachusetts and Connecticut, 
whose ancestors fought in the Revolution. More re- 
motely, he is descended from that noble band who for- 
sook their homes, and braved the dangers of the deep 
and the wilderness of New England, rather than com- 


promise their religious convictions, or make any conces- | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


D. D., of Shelbyville, is one of the most scholarly | 


25 


sions to bigotry and despotism; and who through their 
posterity have made a lasting impress on the political 
and religious institutions of America. George L. Cur- 
tiss was born in Columbia, Lorain County, Ohio, No- 
vember 21, 1835, was educated in Berea, Ohio, at what 
is now Baldwin University, where he received his liter- 
ary degrees, and graduated in 1854. Desiring to study 
law, he went to Sandusky City for that purpose, but, 
believing that a higher power was calling him to the 
ministry, he abandoned the law, though not until he 
had made considerable progress in it, and turned his 
attention to theology. Before entering fully upon his 
life work, he engaged in teaching, as professor of 
mathematics, in Moore’s Hill College, Indiana. While 
there, in 1855, he was licensed to preach, and on the 
28th of September, 1857, he was admitted to the South- 
east Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Ever since the close of his first year as a pro- 
fessor in Moore’s Hill College, where he remained two 
years, Mr. Curtiss has been in charge of some Church 
in this state. He was retained by the Church at 
Charlestown three years; at Madison two years; Greens- 
burg, Connersville, Fletcher Place, Indianapolis, and 
Shelbyville, each three years. In all these places he 
has drawn large congregations, and been the means of 
increasing the zeal and devotion of their members, and 
of adding to their numbers. He is the only member 
of his conference who has been appointed five times 
the third year—the constitutional limit of appointment— 
a fact that attests his popularity and usefulness. Equally 
esteemed by the conference, he has been elected its sec- 
retary fourteen times in succession, and for several years 
has been, also by their election, a trustee of Asbury 
University. In 1877 and 1878 Mr. Curtiss, aside from 
his ministerial labors, lectured in the Indiana Medical 
College, on the ‘‘Physiology of Reproduction,” having 
graduated from that institution in February, 1876. In 
June of that year the degree of D. D. was conferred 
upon him by the Indiana Asbury University. He is 
a member of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, 
and has served in the Grand Lodge of Indiana as Grand 
Chaplain, and in the Grand Encampment as Grand 
High-priest of the jurisdiction of Indiana. He is also 
a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and has attained 
in it the degree of Knight Templar. He is connected 
with a third secret order, the Independent Order of 
Good Templars, and has been Grand Worthy Chief 
Templar of the Grand Lodge of Indiana. His varied 
learning and versatile talent enable him to succeed in 
whatever kind of literary work he undertakes, whether 
in the pulpit, the class-room, on the lecture platform, 
or in the editor’s sanctum. While pastor of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in Madison, he served one year 
as editor of the Madison daily Lventng Courter. For 
years Mr. Curtiss has been a frequent contributor to 


26 


Church and to secular papers. In preparing his ser- 
mons, all is done that industry, capacity, learning, and 
devotion can accomplish. His manner of speaking is 
natural, forcible, and impressive, and he aims rather to 
convince the reason, than to excite the imagination. 
Perfectly fearless, he unflinchingly defends what he re- 
gards as truth, and strongly denounces the follies and 
sins of the age, however popular. Refined, genial, and 
warm-hearted, he gains such a degree of personal influ- 
ence among his people that he is able in pastoral duties 
to fully supplement the work of the pulpit. Mr. Curtiss 
was married, September 8, 1858, to Miss Matilda J. Smith, 
daughter of Rev. Giles C. Smith, formerly presiding 
elder of Lawrenceburg District. 


Ee ROO 


} Troy, Miami County, Ohio, December 1, A. D. 
tot) 1827. 
oS) and his mother, Miss Mary B. Hidges, was of 
Maryland, in which latter state they were married, in 
1823. The subsequent year (1824) they removed to 
Ohio, settling in Troy, where, with other of the earlier 
class of settlers, he contributed his influence toward the 
development of the village and the advancement of the 
interests of the community. About 1837, as a result of 
the fluctuations of business, he removed to a farm, 
whither the subject of this sketch, then a lad of ten 
years, accompanied him, and where he remained for 
four years in the healthful, invigorating, muscle-expand- 
ing activities of the farm. At the age of fourteen he 
terminated his relations with rustic life, and, returning 
to Troy, entered McMurdy’s Academy, which he at- 
tended for several years. The circumstances, we may 
reasonably conclude, which led to the exchange of the 
pursuits of the farm for those of the school-room, con- 
tributed largely to stamp the character of the boy with 
those primal elements of success and self-reliance which 
his natural industry and far-measuring enterprise have 
subsequently so fully and fairly illustrated. 
qualified himself for the vocation, of teacher, he entered 
upon its duties, making it a means of money-getting, 


i ULBERTSON, JOHN W., M. D., was born in 


His father was a native of Pennsylvania, 


Having 


while it was nevertheless a source of improvement to 
himself. In this way, by teaching when his funds were 
exhausted, or by earning a random dollar in any other 
legitimate way, Doctor Culbertson consummated and 
perfected his education. He subordinated every thing— 
pleasure, amusement, all—to study, acquiring consid- 
erable proficiency in the departments of science and 
philosophy. He studied the profession of medicine with 
Doctor R. Sabin, of Troy, Ohio, a worthy and respect- 
able practitioner of the healing art; attended the Ohio 
Medical College at Cincinnati, and subsequently went 
South, with a view to locating, but after spending 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


one winter there he returned to nis native town and 
flung to the breeze his professional banner. He was 
not permitted to remain long in obscurity, or without an 
occasion to demonstrate his professional skill and adapt- 
ability to technical mechanical execution, and the manip- 
ulation of delicate instruments. His first operation, in 
a case of cataract and restoration to sight of an old 
lady of seventy who had been blind for several years, 
was pronounced something of a marvel, and achieved 
for the young practitioner an enviable local reputation. 
This circumstance aided materially in influencing the 
decision of Doctor Culbertson towards making a specialty 
of the eye and ear, a sphere of practice in which he stands 
unrivaled. To familiarize himself more thoroughly with 
this department of delicate and scientific surgery, he. 
availed himself of the public and private clinics of Doctor 
G. B. Wood, of Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, a distingu- 
ished aurist, oculist, orthopedist, and surgeon. Being his 
private student, he enjoyed numerous advantages,in prac- 
tical surgery in special and intricate cases, frequently as- 
sisting in the performance of the most delicate operations. 
Practicing physicians as a rule content themselves with 
simply an observance of the analysis and pathology of 
disease and stereotyped modes of treatment as defined 
by the leading authorities. There is usually a remark- 
able disinclination to deviate from old systems of prac- 
tice, or explore untrayeled fields of investigation, or 
administer remedies or perform surgical operations not 
approved by established schools and colleges. In this 
respect Doctor Culbertson occupies as independent and 
original position. He has originated an entirely pain- 
less treatment for granulated eyelids, which of itself 
is a blessing to the human family. The old and excru- 
ciating tortures of cauterization and scarification are 
entirely dispensed with, and the new treatment is em- 
ployed upon strictly scientific principles. Benefits accru- 
ing from the cure begin at once, there being no relapses 
in the treatment but a steady improvement in the pa- 
tient until the case reaches a successful termination. He 
has likewise originated and invented an artificial fluid 
ear-drum (a bulb filled with fluid), easily adjusting 
itself to the opening in the tympanic membrane. Being 
an excellent conductor, it renders sounds perfectly audi- 
ble that heretofore could not be heard. Few profes- 
sional men of the age of Doctor Culbertson have had 
He has performed 
over two thousand operations in cases of strabismus, 
besides a proportionate number of other operations. He 
has recently had an honorary degree conferred on him 
by a college of New York City. He isa resident of Rich- 
mond, where he has dwelt for a considerable time. He 
established an infirmary in Indianapolis eight or ten years 
ago, and is doing a successful business. Doctor Eaton 
is now a partner. Cases come from all sources and from 
all the states. He was married in April, 1861, in Indian- 


so extensive and varied a career. 


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7th Dist.] 


apolis, to Eliza Ashwin, a native of Bath, England, a 
lady of rare refinement and marked mental endow- 
ments, the issue of which union is one child, a daugh- 
ter of bright promise, and heir to a handsome legacy 
from her godfather, Mr. Thomas Blake, a literary gen- 
tleman of fortune, of London, and a member of the 
Carlton club of that city. He has published a book of 
poems, and several of his songs have been set to music 
by excellent composers. Some of these are dedicated 
to Mrs. Culbertson. .Doctor Culbertson may now be 
said to be in the prime of life; at the very zenith of 
his powers. He stands nearly six feet high; his form 
is graceful and he is erect in carriage; he is stoutly built, 
and in physical contour might be taken as a model. 
He has a sharply defined and expressive face, intelli- 
gently illuminated, and suggestive of sterling qualities 
of heart and soul. His manner is affable, plain, and 
republican, and he is readily accessible to strangers as 
well as to acquaintances. He has the advantages of a 
commanding person and address; is clear and sagacious, 
with acute faculties of discrimination, dexterity, and 
fertility in expedients and the utilization of situations, 
combined with an indomitable self-reliance, which has 
distinguished him from boyhood. Financially, his life 
has been a success, and none are-more willing than his 
friends that he should enjoy his prosperity. He is some- 
what reserved in his disposition, talks easily and read- 
ily, to the point, without the use of superlatives or 
adjectives. He possesses signal mental and physical 
equilibrium; does not allow himself to become excited, 
or have either his aims or anxieties uncovered. He is 
proverbial for his honesty, firmness, integrity, and stead- 
fastness to friends. Honor is the substratum which 


underlies his action. 

IWAVIS, GENERAL JEFFERSON C., was born in 
{| Clarke County, Indiana, on the second day of 
@}$ March, 1828, and died at Chicago, Illinois, in 

December, 1879. At the beginning of the Mexican 
War he enlisted in Colonel Lane’s Indiana Regiment, 
and in 1848, when but twenty years old, was promoted 
to a second lieutenantcy in the Ist United States Artil- 
lery for gallant conduct at the battle of Buena Vista. 
In 1852 he was promoted to first lieutenant, and in 
April, 1861, was one of the garrison under General An- 
derson during the bombardment of Fort Sumter. In 
May of that year he was promoted to the rank of cap- 
tain in the regular army, and given leave of absence to 
recruit the 22d Indiana Volunteers, of which regiment 
he was commissioned colonel. In one of his first en- 
gagements, at Milford, Missouri, he captured a superior 
force, and was again promoted December 18, 1861, and 
made brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded 
a division at the battle of Pea Ridge, in April, 1862. 


— FH 


| tried. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 27 


He participated in the siege of Corinth, and after the 
evacuation of that place by the Confederates, on the 
30th of May, 1862, he was transferred to the Army of 
the Tennessee. On the 29th of September, 1862, he be- 
came inyolved in an altercation with General Nelson, at 
the Galt House, Louisville, and shot him, from the 
effects of which General Nelson very soon afterwards 
died. General Davis was arrested, and after an investi- 
gation of the facts he was restored to duty, and was never 
He commanded a division in the battles around 
Murfreesboro and at Chickamauga. In 1864 he com- 
manded the Fourteenth Corps of Sherman’s army in the 
Atlanta campaign, and in its march through Georgia. 
At the close of the war he received the brevet of major- 
general, and in 1876 he was made colonel of the 23d 
United States Infantry. He was stationed for some 
time on the Pacific coast, and served two years or more 
in Alaska. In 1873, after the murder of General Canby 
by the Modoc Indians, in Southern Oregon, General 
Davis was assigned to the command of the forces oper- 
ating against the Modocs, and continued the campaign 
until he compelled their surrender. General Davis be- 
longed to a fighting family. His grandfather, William 
Davis, was an old Indian fighter, and among the more 
important of the battles in which he was engaged 
was that of the River Raisin. On his mother’s side, 
his grandfather, James Drummond, was an early set- 
tler of Kentucky, and he, with other members of the 
family, participated in the battle of Tippecanoe and 
other Indian battles. No braver man or truer soldier 
than General Davis ever drew a sword, and, as will be 
seen by the foregoing sketch, he won every promotion 
by his gallantry in action. General Davis was married, 
about 1860, to Miss Maretta Athon, who survives him. 
He has no children, but had a niece whom he had 
adopted, and who had been living in his family for 
some years. Mrs. Davis is the daughter of the late 
Doctor James S. Athon, and sister of Hettie Athon 
General Davis’s father died at the old home- 
stead in Clarke County, about one year ago, and his 


Morrison. 


mother, who is a native of Indiana, is yet living, at 
Memphis, in Clarke County. He left a handsome estate 
to his wife. 


—+ date--— 


rine SAMUEL D., physician and surgeon, of Shel- 
4) byville, Indiana, was born in Dalton, Berkshire 
Cx County, Massachusetts, March 2, 1811. 
Ge ents were Amasa and Hannah Day, people of very 
industrious habits, who followed agricultural pursuits. 


His par- 


They were in limited circumstances and could give only 
the older portion of the family a collegiate education. 
The subject of this memoir received his primary educa- 
tion in the district schools, which he attended during 
the winter; and his summers, until the age of fifteen, 


28 


were ‘spent in the Pittsfield Academy. At this age he 
went to live with a brother in Syracuse, New York, 
who,had achieved some prominence as a physician and 
surgeon, and who also carried on an extensive drug 
trade. Here Samuel was employed as clerk, and at 
the same time spent all of his spare moments in the 
study of medicine. By the time he had reached his 
majority he had taken two courses of lectures at the 
Berkshire Medical Institute, and was graduated there- 
from in the year 1831. In 1832 the Legislature of New 
York attempted to prevent the spread of cholera by 
quarantine, and Doctor Day was appointed quarantine 
physician at French Creek, Jefferson County, New 
York, where he remained until August. During this 
time the cholera had broken out, spontaneously, in,three 
different places, and his brother fell a victim to the dis- 
ease. The Doctor was called to settle up the estate, 
and was so employed until the spring of 1834. He 
then started West, and engaged with a New York house 
to travel through Northern Ohio and Eastern Indiana, 
to sell surgical instruments and office apparatus; travel- 
ing the entire way in a buggy, devoting the summer 
months to selling, and going over the same road during 
the winter on horseback to make his collections. This 
engaged his attention until the spring of 1836, when he 
determined to locate in the practice of medicine, and 
removed to Wilmington, Decatur County, Indiana. In- 
ducements were offered by a Doctor Sharp, of Milroy, 
Rush County, Indiana, to have him come there and 
purchase his house and lot. The Doctor went imme- 
diately to Milroy, and, liking the place, bought the 
property, and remained there until the following sum- 
mer, when he resold to Doctor Sharp, and, returning to 
Wilmington, took the position left vacant by Doctor 
W. H. Torbet, who was going South. He remained 
there only unti] the next winter, when Doctor Torbet 
arrived home with a sick family, and in poor circum- 
Mr. Day sold back the property to him, and 
In October, 1838, he 
removed to Shelbyville, Shelby County, Indiana, and 
here met with his first discouragement. The sickly sea- 
son, which lasted during the months of July, August, 
and September, and a part of October, had just passed. 
During these months more than half the business for 


stances. 
spent that winter in Cincinnati. 


By the return of that sea- 
son in 1839 the Doctor’s health was so impaired by 
continued attacks of ague that he was unable to do 
justice to the calls that came for him, and he deter- 
mined to change his location again. 


the whole year was done. 


In the mean time 
the celebrated campaign of 1840 came, and, being a 
stanch Whig, and believing the welfare of the country 
depended upon a change of administration, he went 
into the campaign with great earnestness, feeling as if 
his personal welfare depended upon its’ issue. As soon 
as the polls closed on the day of election, he went to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


his office and began to pack his effects. A call came 
for him to go to the country, which probably settled 
the future of his life. We here quote the Doctor’s own 
words: ‘It was a serious case of fever, the party was 
responsible, and the fee would assist to pay a board bill 
I was still owing. I determined to remain; my practice 
gradually increased until I kept three horses in good 
demand.” In May, 1855, he took an extended tour 
through England, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, and 
the different states of Germany, returning in the fall of 
that year. Doctor Day has been a practicing physician 
of Shelbyville for forty years, and attained a celebrity 
which has not been confined to his own county. His 
kind treatment and sympathizing nature have endeared 
him to his patients. His political affiliations were with 
the old Whig party during its existence, and he was 
energetically solicitous for its success. He now votes 
the Democratic ticket, although he never becomes pub- 
licly identified with political affairs, excepting local 
movements, when he takes the part of a good citizen, 
and may be considered an active and valuable worker. 
He has always felt an interest in every thing calculated 
to benefit the city, and his genial, honorable, and up- 
right character has given him an enviable position 
among the best citizens of Shelbyville. He was married, 
October 28, 1847, to Miss Jane Thomson, of Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, niece of the late Major John Hendricks, 
and cousin to Hon. T. A. Hendricks, ex-Governor of 
Indiana. 
—- Fa Ch 


WWE LA MATYR, GILBERT, member of Congress, 
A\;]| was born in Pharsalia, Chenango County, New 
@1% York, July 8, 1825, and is of French and English 
20% ancestry. His father, Henry De La Matyr, was 
born in Chenango County, New York, in 1803, and was 
in direct descent from the Huguenots, every genera- 
tion maintaining essentially the dissenting views and in- 
dependency characterizing that body of people. Besides 
the maintenance of his family by his trade as a car- 
penter, he has given himself largely to the duties of the 
Christian ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He has officiated as local deacon, according to the 
usages of that Church, now for more than fifty years. 
His mother, whose maiden name was Abigail Lion 
Hammond, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in the 
same year as his father. She was descended from the 
Puritans, holding in all her life their distinguishing 
traits of character with great tenacity. Their house- 
hold was therefore known for the simplicity of its 
management, its conscientious scrupulousness, and its 
decided republicanism. These traits ran into all the 
practical affairs of their home, and into their political 
The subject of this sketch was the 
Of the six brothers, four de- 


faith and practices. 
third of eight children. 


7th Dist.) 


voted themselves to the Christian ministry, one to med- 
icine, and one to teaching.. The two sisters became the 
wives of Methodist ministers, and both of them are in 
widowhood. The several callings the entire family have 
followed are conclusive proof of the intellectual and 
religious habit of their Huguenot-Puritan home. Mr. 
De La Matyr pursued the business of a carpenter with 
his father until he was twenty-three years of age. Mean- 
while he had good common school advantages. These 
were supplemented by teaching as assistant with his 
father, two winters in succession, in a select school. 
Aided by the professors of the town seminary, he in 
the end acquired a full academic education. This 
closed his educational work under the direction of 
teachers. Thereafter he pursued his own course of read- 
ing and of drilling himself into habits of thought, using 
whatever facilities were within his reach, in the mode 
dictated by his own judgment. He became a licen- 
tiate as a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church at twenty years of age, and was admitted to 
the regular work of the itinerant ministry of his Church, 
in the Genesee Annual Conference, at twenty-four years 
of age, and in this relation he continued without inter- 
mission for eighteen years. His diligence in study, in- 
dependent mode of thought, and devotion to his work 
as pastor of the people, gave him quickly high stand- 
ing in the Churches which he served, and equally among 
the ministers with whom he was associated. The de- 
gree of Docter of Divinity was afterwards conferred 
on him #70 merito by Willamette University, in Oregon. 
In both the campaigns in which Mr. Lincoln’s claims for 
the presidency were discussed, Mr. De La Matyr took 
an active part, speaking through large portions of the 
state of New York, and he was recognized as among 
the most attractive and efficient orators on that side. 
As a man, he won the confidence of all parties by his 
honest statement- of matters of fact, and for his fair 
discussion of the principles and policy involved in de- 
bate. In the War of the Rebellion he took an early 
and unabated interest. When the time came for deci- 
sive work for the preservation of the Union, he deemed 
it- his duty to identify himself with the men in arms. 
In 1862 the fruits of his patriotic exertions were the 
enlistment and organization of one regiment of infantry, 
another of heavy artillery, and a light battery. This 
important service was rendered largely by himself in 
person. Greatly appreciating his services, the military 
authorities gave him the commendation which such 
loyal energy merited. .In the latter part of the year 
1862 he entered the army as chaplain, serving in that 
capacity the 8th New York Heavy Artillery, commanded 
by Colonel Peter A. Porter. In this relation he con- 
tinued until, in 1865, the regiment was called from 
active service in the field. In the fall of the same year 
Mr. De La Matyr returned to the regular work of the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 29 


ministry in his conference, and was appointed pre- 
siding elder of the Wyoming District, which field he 
occupied for two years. In 1867 he was nominated by 
the Republican party in the New York State Conven- 
tion for the office of state-prison inspector, for which 
position, after a vigorous canvass, he was defeated, al- 
though he ran at the polls beyond the full measure of 
his party vote. He was elected one of the represent- 
atives of his annual conference to the General Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1868, 
holding its session that year in Chicago, there mak- 
ing a record marked by diligence in work, dignity 
of personal demeanor, and profound interest in the 
behalf of progress in the work for which he was 
standing. In the spring of the same year he was 
transferred to the New York East Conference, receiv- 
ing his appointment as minister in charge of Sands 
Street Church in Brooklyn. Two years later (1870) he 
was transferred to the Nebraska Conference, and _ sta- 
tioned, for the work of the ministry, in the city of 
Omaha. The Church to which he went was new, was 
in the midst of an enterprising population, and de- 
manded a minister having talents of commanding power. 
The appointing authority of the Church selected Mr. 
De La Matyr as an available man for this important 
position, and competent to meet the difficulties gather- 
ing around that particular field of work. In this high 
expectation, the sequel fully proves that no parties con- 
cerned in the appointment were disappointed, or had 
Two years later still, in 1872, the 
especial work for which he had been stationed in 
Omaha being completed, he was transferred to the St. 
Louis Conference, and appointed to the pastorate of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. 
Here there were conditions of difficulty and embarrass- 
ment to be overcome not unlike those in the Church at 
Omaha. The circumstances of the charge had in them 


occasion for regret. 


much of a delicate and intricate nature, requiring a 
conservative habit and at the same time ability for pro- 
gress. The appointment here proved, as in the previ- 
ous two years, eminently well adapted and successful. 
After the lapse of two years again, he was transferred 
to the South-east Indiana Conference, and stationed, ac- 
cording to the unanimous wish of that populous Church, 
at Roberts Park Church, in the city of Indianapolis. 
This Church had been engaged in the erection of an 
edifice for their purposes of worship, at a cost, when 
complete, of one hundred and forty-five thousand dol- 
lars—an outlay of money and an elegance of design and 
structure greater than that of any other house of wor- 
ship in the state. The building was inclosed and the 
lower rooms alone were in use when he came as pastor. 
Mr. De La Matyr proved attractive as a preacher, and 
skillful as a leader in the management of financial ques- 
tions—a matter so needful, at this juncture, in the prog- 


: 


32 REPRESENTATIVE 
ress of the Church and the unfinished state of the 
building. The country was lapsing into the distress of 
finangial pressure, which has been the burden of these 
years. The city itself was distressed almost beyond any 
other center of population, under the reaction from the 
virulent inflation of trade and of speculation in real es- 
Despite the forbidding outlook, the pastor quickly 
assembly of 


tate. 
surrounded himself with an _ enlarged 
people, whom he inspired with his own enthusiasm and 


purpose. They saw the inadequacy of their present 


accommodations to meet the increasing demand of the | 
population wishing to attend the Church services 


under the leading of their minister; with the resolution 
and activity characterizing their pastor, the people cen- 
tered their resources on the finishing of the building, 


and within a few months it was brought to comple- | 


tion—a model of spaciousness, beauty, and convenience. 
Remaining with the Roberts Park congregation three 
years—the pastoral limit under the constitutional restric- 
tions of the Church—he was stationed in Grace Church, 
in the same city, in the fall of 1877, from which pastor- 
ate he retired at the end of one year, by receiving a 
location, at his own request, from the regular itinerant 
ministry of the South-east Indiana Conference, of which 
body he had now been a member for four years. It 
was well known that Mr. De La Matyr held political 
views in common with the National party, and that, as 
soon as that party had taken form in an organization, 
he had heartily espoused its cause and was ardent in 
the advocacy of its doctrines. His prominence as a 
citizen and minister, and his influence as a man of 
acknowledged ability, gave to his opinions on this phase 
of political faith a leading strength. Accordingly, when 
the convention met in Indianapolis, in August, 1878, 
representing the Seventh Congressional District in Indi- 
ana, to nominate a candidate for the ensuing Congress 
of the United States, Mr. De La Matyr was believed to 
combine in himself more of the elements of strength as 
a political representative and advocate than any other 
man in the district. He therefore had the unanimous 
vote of the convention. Two years before the district had 
given a decisive Republican vote of one thousand five 
hundred majority over the Democratic ticket, no National 
candidate being at that time in the field. This campaign 
was entered upon early in the fall of 1878, there being 
now no Democratic candidate in the canvass. The former 
congressional Representative having been renominated 
by the Republican convention, the contest lay between 
the old Republican and the new National candidates, 
the Democratic voters choosing between the two, and 


determining their support according to their views on | 
The National | 


the new financial questions at issue. 
nominee developed a strength in popular discussion 
which had not been expected, even by his most inti- 
mate friends. The canvass terminated in his election to 


MEN OF INDIANA. [7th Dist. 
the Forty-sixth Congress by nearly one thousand ma- 
jority—a result which few had any ground to anticipate. 
An analysis of Mr. De La Matyr’s character reveals the 
following elements very clearly: First—Intellectually, 
he is of the thoroughly analytic order of mind, with 
the habit of examining the subjects of his thoughts on 
all sides; and so exhaustively is he inclined to do his 
work that few things escape his notice—even the 
minutest. His tendencies are to be radical. This fact, 
together with great assurance of his own powers, leads 
him into independence in the methods, and equally in 
the results, of his investigations. He, therefore, some- 
times cuts loose from doctrines that have been consid- 
ered settled, arraying himself thereby against the con- 
servative and in favor of the progressive schools of 
thought, both in theology and politics. Second—His 
moral tendencies are based on pure intellectual discrim- 
inations of the relations of things, and end in a broad 
conscientiousness. Technologies, therefore, count little 
in his regard, names being considered only arbitrary 
titles, instead of which any other words were just as 
good. A high and strong faith in the true and good, 
with a well meant endeavor under such faith to do the 
best deeds and achieve the greatest practical results, 
both personal and benevolent, have his regard more 
than all possible forms, however imposing on the sense, 
or representative they may be as rites. Too honest to 
brook even the shadow of deceit, and too jealous of 
personal righteousness to think of the least departure 
from what he deems to be just and fair, he has only 
contempt for mercenary morals in the individual, and 
equally for a purchasable integrity in positions of pub- 
lic trust. As a man of morals, he: has therefore been 
found to be, in all the relations of his life, above every 
occasion of suspicion. Such a man regards right more 
highly than he can by possibility estimate any mere 
matter of popular favor or gratification of mere selfish 
desire, gained at any appreciable sacrifice of truth or 
justice. Third—Probably the most marked quality of 
the man is his unvarying readiness to do what he under- 
stands to be his duty. Whether in the social, the polit- 
ical, or the religious spheres of his life, he follows his 
convictions. Radical and decisive in his opinions, his 
purposes are taken irrespective of popular estimate, and 
carried forward resolutely. He has 
therefore, when occasion arises, to act in the face of 
public opinion. Indeed, he often confronts the opinion 
of his nearest friends, asserting his own opinions in op- 
position to theirs with great resoluteness. Courage of 
assertion, and firmness as well as strength of conviction, 
are prime characteristics. 
fully bent on accomplishing what he has in mind as has 
he. In clearness of mental acumen, decision in moral 
judgments, and resoluteness of purpose, with courage to 
assert and will to execute, Mr. De La Matyr has few 


no_ hesitation, 


Few men have a purpose so 


7th Dist.) 


equals, not to say superiors, in any of the relations in 
which he has held a part with men, in the Church or in 
the state. ‘*A man among men,” he is in the work to 
which his life has been chiefly devoted. In his profes- 
sion as a preacher of the Gospel, he enjoys an enviable 
prominence. Whatever his success in political life may 
have been, and his adaptation to meet the demand as 
representative of the people in the councils of the gov- 
ernment may prove to be, when the sum of his work in 
that sphere of trust shall be known, it does yet remain 
that he has already made the record of an honest man; 
a man of unblemished moral character, and decisive- 
ness of achievement in all the fields of responsibility he 
has occupied. Mr. De La Matyr was married to Lucetta 
Curtis Moore, in Paw Paw, Michigan, at twenty years 
of age, of whom he was bereaved by death in 1865. 
In 1868 he was married to Marietta Osborn, in Mount 
Morris, New York, who departed this life in 1877, 
leaving him one son, at present the only member of his 
family. 
—~-$006-o— 


OBBS, CYRUS JOHNSON, Indianapolis, wes born 
in Wayne County, Ohio, October 9, 1833. His 
parents, John and Jane Dobbs, owned a farm 

Qe there, on which they reared a large family. Cyrus 

received his education in the public schools, whence he 

went to the high school of Wooster, Ohio, closing his 
student life in a course of instruction at Wesleyan Col- 


He entered upon manhood by 
He went 


lege, Delaware, Ohio. 
traveling in the Southern States two years. 
to Europe in 1853, and while there was employed two 
years as agent for importers of chemicals to this coun- 
try. Returning to the United States, he came to Indi- 
anapolis in 1856, and engaged in a manufacturing 
business. He was thus employed when the tocsin of 
war was sounded in 1861; and when the President 
made his first call for volunteers, Mr. Dobbs at once 
dropped his implements of industry, in obedience 
to the dictates of patriotism, and was among the first 
to enroll himself with the ardent young men that 
promptly came to the front to do their duty in defend- 
ing the country’s flag. On the organization of the 13th 
Regiment of Indiana Volunteers he was commissioned 
a captain, and served with the regiment in all its sub- 
sequent eventful career. In the following November 
he was promoted to major; the succeeding year, June, 
1862, he was made lieutenant-colonel, and the next De- 
cember became colonel. This regiment was under 
McClellan in his early campaign in West Virginia, was 
in its first battle at Rich Mountain, and participated in 
all the early engagements where that general earned his 
first laurels and promotion to commander-in-chief. This 
regiment, under Colonel Dobbs, was in all the battles 
in the Shenandoah Valley under General James Shields, 


- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


ays 


and was in the engagement at Winchester when Stone- 
wall Jackson was whipped—the first and only time. 
The regiment afterwards joined the main army of the 
Potomac, and went with McClellan through the entire 
Peninsular campaign, and at its glose, marched south 
and joined General Gilmore, who was then in front of 
Charleston, South Carolina. It took part in the reduc- 
tion of Fort Sumter, and at the end of five months 
proceeded to Florida. Going up the St. John’s River, 
the regiment assisted in defeating the rebel forces in 
that state in the decisive battle of Olustee. Return- 
ing north, it joined General Grant in his advance to- 
wards Richmond, and participated in the battles of the 
Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and was before Petersburg 
until its fall. Its term of service having then expired, 
it was mustered out in 1864. During all this length of 
time Colonel Dobbs led vhis battalion, which, as narrated 
above, had always been to the front, participated in 
many of the most important conflicts of the war, did 
yeoman service in the cause, and made a record of 
which the state of Indiana and the nation may well be 
proud. On returning home, Colonel Dobbs was ap- 
pointed a colonel in the United States Veteran Volun- 
teer Corps, then forming under General Hancock for 
active service, and was one of the three volunteer colo- 
nels admitted to that body, all the others having been 
taken from the regular army. This was a compliment 
that acknowledged the value of former military service 
performed by Colonel Dobbs while in the field; and in 
bestowing it General Hancock knew his man. At the 
close of the war Colonel Dobbs was detailed to take 
charge of public military property, and to muster out 
soldiers. After perfornting service of this kind for a 
while at Washington, he went to Wisconsin, making his 
headquarters for a year at Milwaukee, having charge of 
Camp Washburn, and then of Camp Randall, at Mad- 
ison, mustering out all but one of the Wisconsin regi- 
ments. Subsequently, he performed like service at 
Springfield, Illinois, after which he was mustered out 
of service. Returning to civic life and Indianapolis, he 
was elected, in 1868, sheriff of the Superior Court of 
Indiana, which office he held two years—beyond which 
there is a legal restriction—and is now leading a quiet 
life, apparently content with the world as it is and its 
bachelor comforts. Colonel Dobbs is a thorough Re- 
publican, and is liberal in religious matters, yet Chris- 
tian in every phase of life. He is a man of fine 
presence, about five feet nine inches in height, well 
proportioned, and is noted for a fine, flowing, golden 
beard of great length; his features are cast in nature’s 
He has an animated and ex- 
Rough- 


most exquisite mold. 
pressive countenance, and is quick in motions. 
ing it for long years in the most active of military 
service, he came out of it retaining the smoothness and 
freshness of unimpaired manhood. His personal bear. 


32 


ing and social nature make him companionable and 
frank with all who know him. With character above 
reproach, he is regarded as one of the most gentlemanly 
citizens residing at this elegant capital of the state. 


¢ 
—>- 4006 


RS 
|. OUGLASS, ROBERT, of Indianapolis, descends 
4 from a long line of Scottish ancestors. The grand- 
©}§ parents of his father, James Douglass, were strong 
5o8 types of this nationality, and represented a hardy, 
long-lived, muscular, and intelligent race. His mother, 
Elizabeth Wallace, though a native of Ireland, and born 
near Cookstown, County Tyrone, was of the same Scotch 
origin. Robert Douglass was born in the beautiful val- 
ley of the Juniata, state of Pennsylvania, and when but 
a child removed with his parents to Wayne County, 
Ohio, where the remainder of his youthful years were 
spent, and where he grew to manhood. His father was 
a farmer of great industry, and distinguished not more 
for his integrity and honesty than for his moral and up- 
right life; while his mother was of unusual intelli- 
gence, and illustrated in an eminent degree the amiable 
and pious virtues of an exemplary Christian woman. 
Mr. Douglass remained with his father on the farm, 
performing the severest labor, until he passed his ma- 
jority, availing himself during the winters of every 


facility of education, and subjecting himself to a process 
of self-culture, which, in its ultimate results and bearing 
upon subsequent life, is superior to all other forms of 
education. 
qualified to take charge of a country school, in which 
he acquitted himself with credit. But the life of a 
school-teacher, or any strictly rural life, was not suited 
to the exercise of powers which demanded a wider 
sphere of activity. He therefore identified himself with 
some of the leading publishing houses of New York 
City and Cincinnati, and for years energetically labored 
to advance their interests. In these enterprises he was 
uniformly successful, winning by his industry and integ- 
rity the confidence of his employers and associates, and 
by scrupulous fidelity to his duties constantly placing 
himself in the line of promotion. 


At the age of twenty-one he was thoroughly 


Having acquired 
considerable capital, he embarked in commercial pur- 
suits in Ohio, where his prosperity was uniform, and 
where he established a reputation as a practical and 
sagacious business man. Jn 1861 he went to California, 
where he remained until 1868. Here he was variously 
engaged, and among other results of his ambition were 
adventures in mining projects, the excitement then run- 
ning high. In these adventures the fatalism of too 
much nerve proved disastrous to him, and his losses 
were large and severe, for a while deranging his calcu- 
lations. This ‘conjunction of hostile planets,” instead 
of unmanning him, only incited him to repair the losses 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7h Dist. 


he had sustained. His was not the nature to bow down 
to disaster. It served rather to whet the edge of his 
resolution, and, while other men would have yielded to 
a discouragement, he was rebuilding the edifice. He 
returned from California in 1868, and in 1871 became a 
partner of General A. D. Streight, who was then en- 
gaged in the book-publishing business in Indianapolis. 
His sagacity in this sphere of activity was the prelude 
to his financial prosperity, and in 1874 he purchased 
the remaining interest of the house, and since has 
been the sole proprietor. His business is extended 
and ramified, and has familiarized him with book 
men throughout the entire Union. It is conducted 
wholly upon the subscription basis, his publications 
all being of a standard character, the copyrights and 
plates in most cases being owned exclusively by him. 
He was married, February 6, 1879, to Miss Melissa J. 
Lewis, daughter of the late Doctor Andrew Lewis, of 
Princeton, Indiana, a lady of great refinement and intel- 
ligence. As a business man, Mr. Douglass is conspic- 
uous for the method, exactitude, and promptness of all] 
his transactions. All his energies, thoughts, impulses, 
and intuitions, like so many satellites, revolve around 
and concentrate in this circle. In all executive details 
he observes fixed rules. His candor and integrity per- 
meate all its multiplied ramifications. His business 
necessarily brings him into contact with many men, and 
he invariably succeeds in winning their confidence, and 
this, too, by no artifice or blandishments, but by the 
result of fair dealing and unfaltering loyalty to his 
engagements. His word has the sanctity of an obliga- 
tion, and his reputation is guarded by the divinities of 
honor and truth. Men who know him trust him, for 
he allows no suspicion to come near. His life has been 
directed by the genius of industry and perseverance, 
and his success has rather been the result of this than 
of any remarkably brilliant passages. He has caution, 
prudence, and penetration; moves with great deliber- 
ation, but in the hour of action is firm, decisive, and 
positive. He accepts the admonition of the philosopher, 
who said: ‘*Measure thy cloth ten times; thou canst 
cut it but once.” He is courageous and sanguine—for 
his temperament is such—and is not afraid to venture 
upon enterprises from which more timid minds would 
shrink; yet he assumes no hazards without the approval 
of his best judgment, and the most patient and critical 
analysis. He inclines to rely upon himself, although 
he accepts suggestions from friends with courtesy and 
frankness. His mind is mathematical and calculative, 
his conceptions clear and keen, and he is a good judge 
of human nature; his faculties of observation are well 
developed, and proceed both from the eye and mind. 
««Some men will learn more in the Hampstead stage 
than others in the tour of Europe,” Doctor Johnson said 
to a distinguished friend who had just returned from 


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Italy. This faculty of penetrative vision in Mr: Doug- 
lass is strongly marked; it reaches down under the sur- 
face of things, grapples with phenomena, develops 
distinctions, institutes comparisons, and, finally, puts the 
lever under the rock to ascertain the underlying idea. 
In his mining experiences, the exercise of this faculty 
made him almost unconsciously a practical chemist. He 
possesses both independence of mind and character; is 
self-poised, self-possessed, self-dependent; and, though 
somewhat diffident and of retiring disposition, has force, 
self-assertion, and powerful individuality. He has strong 
convictions of right and duty; but is most secretive on 
matters which require it. His habit is to finish all he 
undertakes, and he has great faculty for minutia; he 
expresses himself in few and crisp words, and talks from 
the center to the rim. He has immense physical and 
vital power to support his mental activities, and these, 
combined with strong will, enable him to drive his busi- 
ness. He is dignified, yet accessible; indulgent, yet 
exacting; generous, yet fortified with judicious re- 
straints. As a citizen, he is identified with the public 
welfare. To all charitable and educational enterprises 
he contributes his share without parade. He despises 
humbugs and fictions, but desires to see all worthy 
enterprises move along. He likes to see the wheel on 
dry ground, and is willing to put his shoulder to the 
chariot and see it move. Socially, he is agreeable, 
courteous, complaisant. He is slow to form friendships, 
but when once established they are lasting. To his per- 
sonal friends he is warmly, if not passionately, attached. 
The link between him and his family is of polished gold. 


—~-goce-<— 


RAKE, COLONEL JAMES PERRY, son of 
1 Albrittain Drake and Ruth Collins, was born in 
Robeson County, North Carolina, September 15, 
1797. His parents, planters of considerable means, 
removed to Muhlenburg County, Kentucky, when he 
was eleven years of age. His father served in the Rev- 
olutionary War in the North Carolina Light-horse, as a 
lieutenant, entering the service at the age of fifteen, and 
serving for seven years. James, the son, remained in 
his father’s country home until he was seventeen, where 
he received such education as was possible in so new 
and sparsely settled a district. He was then sent by his 
father to Greenville, the county seat of Muhlenburg 
County, to be employed as clerk in a dry-goods and 
supply store. Here he remained two years, when his 
employer sent him with a stock of goods to Cynthiana, 
Posey County, Indiana, where the county seat had just 
been located. This was an arduous undertaking, as the 
goods had to be wagoned through a dense wilderness, 
without roads or bridges. On arriving at Cynthiana 
the scattered population gathered from all directions, 
G==3 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


33 


with rifles on shoulders, and many in buckskin suits, to 
see the store. Whisky was free, and they would gen- 
erally spend the day amusing themselves in hopping, 
jumping, and running foot-races, etc. Yet, withal, 
they were fearless, frank, confiding, and honest; locks, 
keys, and burglars were not known. Here the boy, notv 
nineteen, found himself immediately burdened with 
arduous duties. Excepting the county clerk and re- 
corder, who was in bad health, there were few men who 
could write more than their names legibly. His busi- 
ness faculties were now all called into active service; he 
performed most of the duties of the clerk and recorder, 
county agent, and postmaster, the post-office being in his 
store; his writing was done chiefly at night. Here he 
was elected colonel of a militia regiment. In 1818 he 
was appointed agent of the county, and postmaster at 
Springfield, by President Monroe. In the fall of the 
same year he was elected clerk and auditor of Posey 
County, which then embraced Vanderburg, and was 
also elected brigadier-general of militia. About this 
time he studied law, with a view to making it his pro- 
fession; but, owing to constant official duties, he deferred 
applying for admittance to the bar, which in his after 
life he always regretted. During these years he was 
brought into intimate business and social relations with 
the New Harmony community, under the management 
and control of the Rapps, father and son, which was 
then in a flourishing condition. After the transfer of 
the lands, tenements, and appurtenances of this commu- 
nity to the Scotch philanthropist, Robert Owen, he nec- 
essarily held the same intimate relations with the Owen 
association. These two communities, so alike and yet 
so unlike, each striving im its different way to benefit 
humanity, undoubtedly had much to do with broad- 
ening his views and making his after life tolerant 
and charitable. He himself said that it was here 
he first got his idea of woman’s perfect equality 
with In 1829 he was appointed by General 
Jackson receiver of public moneys at Indianapolis. 
After resigning the offices of brigadier-general and 
clerk and recorder, he moved to that place, but in after 
life he often remarked that ‘the people of the 
‘Pocket’ had a little the warmest place in his heart.” 
January 33, 1831, at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, he was 
married to Priscilla Holmes Buell, youngest daughter 
of Judge Salmon Buell and Johanna Sturdevandt, both 
of Cayuga County, New York. Miss Buell’s father was 
a man of much intellectual vigor, and held several im- 
portant offices in his state, serving in the Senate with 
De Witt Clinton and Martin Van Buren. Her two 
eldest brothers were engaged in the War of 1812. 
Seven children were the fruit of his marriage with Miss 
Buell, two sons and five daughters. The eldest son died 
of consumption while a West Point cadet, the youngest 
in infancy. The daughters are still living. Mrs. Drake, 


man. 


34 


who was fifteen years his junior, was his partner for 
forty-five years, and yet survives. She partook of his 
liberal views in politics, religion, and social questions. 
They together worked with Robert Dale Owen, during 
the Constitutional Convention, to remove the legal dis- 
abilities that surrounded the women of this state. Their 
united efforts secured an expression of the latent restive 
feeling of many noble mothers of Indiana, by the pres- 
entation of an artistically designed silver pitcher fo 
Mr. Owen, in gratitude for his gallant defense of their 
cause. The donations were limited to one dollar each, 
in order that a few might not monopolize the privilege. 
This happy couple lived to see the fruit of. their gener- 
ous labor, in reformed laws and more liberal customs 
with regard to women. There are but two grandchil- 
dren grown—Ruth Drake and Olive Torbitt—w hose 
musical genius, with rare culture, are the result of their 
grand-parents’ noble teachings of freedom in the selec- 
tion of professions, without regard to sex. Miss Ollie 
excels upon the violin, a fact that is rarely true of either 
sex. Miss Ruth performs also upon the violin, and 
both are charming young ladies, devoted to the musical 
In 1832 Mr. Drake was appointed brigade 
inspector. At the breaking out of the Black Hawk War 
he raised a company of mounted riflemen, composed of 
the best citizens of Indianapolis, was elected captain, 
and served during the campaign. In 1834 he was ap- 
pointed receiver of public moneys at Vincennes by Gen- 
eral Jackson, an office he held four years, after which 
he removed with his family to South-western Missouri, 
and located in Rives County, now Henry. Here he 
was very soon honored by his friends and neighbors by 
being elected Judge of the Probate Court. In 1841 he 
was called to Indianapolis by the effects of the finan- 
cial crisis, and found it necessary to remain, Soon 
after this he was elected director of the State Bank 
and commissioner of the sinking fund by the Legisla- 
ture of the state; was also elected trustee of the Deaf 
and Dumb Asylum, which office he held until the 
breaking out of the Mexican War. Ile then raised a 
captain, and, at the 
general rendezvous of the three Indiana regiments at 
New Albany, was elected colonel of the first. While in 
Mexico he was made civil and military Governor of 
Matamoras, and commander of all forces of the Lower 
Rio Grande. On his return to Indianapolis he was 
made receiver of public moneys by President Polk, but 
was removed by President Taylor soon after his inaugu- 


profession. 


company of volunteers, was elected 


ration. He was afterwards sent to the Legislature from 
Marion County, and then elected Treasurer of State. 
In 1855, with his wife and daughter, he traveled in 
Europe, and was appointed by Governor Wright com- 
missioner from Indiana to the Paris Exposition; and on 
leaving the city of Rome was made by Mr. Cass bearer 
of dispatches to the embassies of Turin and London. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dest. 


From the above list of public services, beginning before 
he was twenty-one years of age and continuing until he 
left his adopted state, it is unnecessary to say that he 
was a man of such sterling qualities, both of head and 
heart, as to command the respect and love of all those 
with whom he was thrown; for his fellow-citizens showed 
their appreciation by placing him in positions of trust 
in the court, the hall, and the field. Though a Demo- 
crat and.of strong political attachments, he had many 
warm friends in the opposite party. Of strong physical 
health, he had great energy and industry. His philoso- 
phy of life was to ‘‘make duty a pleasure.” He loved 
his country first and last, and considered it every man’s 
duty to come at her call. In the war with the South 
he declined taking up arms on either side, as he said 
he could not divide his love, nor fight against. those 
with whom he had fought for his country. A good 
and respected citizen, he was, more than all, the best 
and most beloved husband and father. At the death 
of his father he came into possession of some slaves, and, 
not wishing to sell old family servants, he still owned 
them when, in 1861, on account.of sickness in the fam- 
ily and financial trouble, he concluded to move South. 
After remaining awhile in Tennessee he finally located 
near Huntsville, Alabama, where he remained until his 
death, August 12, 1876, when he passed away, solaced 
by the affectionate care of wife, children, and grand- 
children, at the ripe age of seventy-nine years. The 
following stanzas, from a poem addressed to him by 
Mrs. Sara T. Bolton after his death, faithfully describe 
the beauty and nobleness of his nature: 

Thy pathway lay not always in the light; 

But come what would thy great undaunted soul 
Was true to its conviction of the right, 
As the magnetic needle to the pole. 
Thou didst not learn the truth from seer or sage, 


From cabalistic lore or sacred page 5 
It was thy guiding star from youth to age. 


And charity was of thy life a part; 
1t touched and turned the fibers of thy brain, 
Folded its snow-white pinions in thy heart, 
And sung to thee alway love’s sweet refrain. 
The homeless turned to thee in their distress, 
The helpless widow and the fatherless; 
The stricken aged named thee but to bless.” 


—~+-4206-— 


TF creont HON. HAMILTON J., deceased, of 
} 


| Greenfield, was born near Hancock County, Indi- 


OG ana, September 13, 1846, and died September 5, 
ae 1876. His parents, Jonathan and Mary Dunbar, 


were respectively of Scotch and Irish descent. His fa- 
ther possessed wonderful business capacity, great energy, 
and zeal for education. He was public-spirited and en- 
terprising beyond the habit of his time. His mother, 
a patient, pious, old lady, is greatly loved for her supe- 


7th Dist, | 


rior qualities of head and heart, She numbers among 
her friends many who have been hervassociates for over 
half a century. The early life of young Dunbar was 
characterized by love of amusement and fondness for 
athletic sports. He early developed a taste for intel- 
lectual culture, and was a fervent admirer of the beau- 
tiful, both in nature and in art. He availed himself 
of the educational advantages of the schools of Green- 
field in his youth; but, these not meeting the require- 
ments of his ambition, he entered Asbury University, 
at Greencastle, where, in the class of 1866, he graduated 
with high and special honors, and immediately there- 
after began the study and practice of law in his native 
town. To show the esteem in which Mr. Dunbar was 
held by the people who knew him best, we make the 
following excerpt from a highly eulogistic sketch of his 
life, published in the Hancock Democrat, of Greenfield: 


“During his college days, and afterward, he studied 
law, partly at this place and Indianapolis. Being a 
diligent student, he soon mastered the rudiments of law, 
when he commenced its practice in this place. He soon 
gained a solid reputation as a good and safe lawyer, 
since which his progress toward a leading position in 
his profession in the county, circuit, and state was rapid 
and merited. Had he been permitted to live a few 
years longer, we feel safe in saying that his native talent 
and energy would have placed him in the front rank of 
the best legal minds of the state. But a higher power 
deemed otherwise, and our young friend has gone down 
to the grave at a time when he should have been in the 
prime of life and vigor of early manhood, and our en- 
tire community sincerely mourns his untimely cutting 
down,” 


On the thirty-first day of March, 1868, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Florence M. Jones, an intelligent, amiable, 
and accomplished young lady, daughter of Doctor John 
Jones, late of Greencastle, Indiana, who survives him, 
living still in the home of their early married life in 
Greenfield. As an evidence of the professional standing 
of Mr. Dunbar, and the personal regard in which he 
was held by his brethren of the Indianapolis bar, we 
subjoin the following extract from the Indianapolis 
Journal, which appeared on the day following his 
- demise: 


‘Yesterday news came of the death of one of Indi- 
ana’s most promising young men, Hamilton J. Dunbar, 
of Greenfield, He early associated himself with the 
institutions of our state, and through his short but brill- 
iant career shed luster not only upon his own name, 
but upon those whose careful training laid a firm foun- 
dation for a future greatness. He was a graduate of the 
class of 1866 at Asbury, where his college days were 
spent. Always a leader and achieving constant  suc- 
cesses, he yet softened the sharp edges of defeat by 
sharing the glory of conquest with the vanquished foe. 
His ambition at college brooked no rival, yet he was 
distinguished for fairness and honor in debate. Upon 
finishing his college course, in 1866, he commenced the 
study of the law in Greenfield, and it was not long 
before his seniors learned to admire his talents and re- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


35 


spect his discussion of the law. He was always accurate 
in legal statement, and yet, with commendable vanity, 
polished the rough points with the touch of a rheto- 
rician. He leaves to mourn him a widow and one child, 
in whose hearts he is enshrined, not as the promising 
lawyer and polished debater, but as a kind father and 
affectionate husband. His wife is a niece of the Hon. 
D. W. Voorhees, and as a widow she is one of a sad 
widowhood —her mother and giandmother being left, 
like herself, alone to sail the sea of life. The deceased 
was yet quite young, not thirty, and his death resulted 
from overwork in his profession. Upon hearing of his 
demise a meeting of the Indianapolis bar was called, at 
which Mr. John A. Finch presided, with W. A. Ketcham 
as secretary. Upon motion of Mr. C. W. Smith, a com- 
mittee was appointed to draft resolutions expressing the 
regret of the bar, and offering such condolence as might 
be appreciated by the widow of their departed brother. 
The committee appointed consisted of the following 
gentlemen: C. W. Smith, Edwin H. Terrell; W. A: 
Ketcham, John A. Finch, and Hon, Solomon Blair, of 
the Indianapolis bar, who, at the afternoon meeting 
pursuant to adjournment, reported the following reso- 
lutions: 

«The members of the Indianapolis bar, having 
learned with sorrow of .the early demise of our late 
friend and brother, Hamilton J. Dunbar, Esq., of Green- 
field, and being desirous of making a proper record of 
the high esteem and love in which we held the departed, 
do spread upon the records of the courts of Marion 
County the following tribute: 

““*Hamilton J. Dunbar, in his practice at the bar of 
Marion County and at the bar of the Supreme Court of 
this state, has, by his conspicuous ability and eminent 
legal talents, added brilliancy to the reputation which 
rare eloquence had gained for him among his fellows at 
his own bar; he has, by his Winning manners and uni- 
form-courtesies, won the highest regard of the members 
of this bar. His rapid rise to the eminent position 
which he had already attained at his own home was 
but an earnest of the future, which beckoned him to 
yet severer exertions and to their reward, as the brilliant 
and successful lawyer, which attended such talents as he 
possessed, and such labor as he was wont to bestow 
upon the matters intrusted to him’*by loving and admir- 
ing clients, It is seldom that one so young as he had 
won so extended a practice at the bar, and yet more 
seldom that one so young had won so deep a hold upon 
the hearts of those about him, and wielded such an in- 
fluence in the community in which he lived. 

‘**As a bar we will remember his talents and success 
with pride, and seek to emulate his many virtues. In 
his early death we see but another illustration of the 
sad results of overlabor, of the straining beyond their 
utmost tension the nerves of the practicing lawyer. It 
is with inexpressible pain that we tender to the widow 
of the deceased our heart-felt sympathies in this, the 
hour of her bereavement; and as a further token of our 
esteem we appoint the Hon. Robt. N. Lamb, Hon. U. 
J. Hammond, Major Eli F. Ritter, Hon. John Hanna, 
and Hon. Robert E. Smith to attend the funeral of the 
deceased, as representing this bar, and to bear a copy of 
this tribute to the bar of Hancock County and to the 
family of the departed. C. W. SMITH, 

‘© EDWIN H. TERRELL, 
‘WwW, A. KETCHAM, 
‘‘JouN A. FINCH, 
‘SOLOMON BLAIR.’ ” 


36 


‘¢Remarking upon the resolutions, Mr. Smith testi- 
fied to the integrity and high purpose of the deceased; 
of his matchless yet popular career in college, of his 
subsequent rise, and the sadness of his untimely fall. 
Mr. Hanna, another friend in college, moved with the 
recollection of those happy, busy days, referred with 
great feeling to his college life and subsequent profes- 
sional efforts, said he fell a martyr to his ambition to 
make a name and bring to justice the conspirators who 
ruined his father. He was warm-hearted and honor- 
able. Mr. John Finch added more in praise, and then 
the resolutions were adopted.” 


It is eminently fitting that we close this sketch of a 
young, brilliant man, struck down in the full bloom of 
youth by the icy hand of death, with the following 
beautiful poem, composed by his intimate friend, J. W. 
Riley, and read before a meeting of the bar of Green- 
field and neighboring counties: 


‘Dead! Dead! Dead! 
We thought him ours alone; 
And none so proud to see him tread 
The rounds of fame, and lift his head 
Where sunlight ever shone; 
But now our aching eyes are dim, 
And look through tears in vain for him, 


Name! Name! Name! 
It was his diadem 3 
Nor ever tarnish-taint of shame 
Could dim its luster; like a flame 
Reflected in a gem, 
He wears it blazing on his brow 
Within the courts of heaven now. 


Tears! Tears! 

Like dews upon the leaf 
That bursts at last—from out the years 
The blossom of a trust appears 

That blooms above the grief; 
And mother, brother, wife, and child 
Will see it and be reconciled.” 


Tears! 


—>-800-o— 
PH 
CV ATON, THOMAS JEFFERSON, M. D., was born 
i at Boonville, Oneida County, New York, Sep- 
Gi tember 16, 1824, of New England parentage. His 
o&% father, Comfort Eaton, was a native of Massachu- 
setts, in which state he was born, in the year 1778. 
His mother, Mary (Ayres) Eaton, was also born in Mas- 
sachusetts, about one year later. Comfort Eaton was for 
many years a merchant in Herkimer County, New 
York. He died in 1827, when Doctor Eaton was but 
four years old, leaving his widow in limited circum- 
Upon her devolved the education and mainte- 
nance of the family, and these duties called for great 
self-sacrifice and prudent management, but in every re- 
spect they were performed. She survived her husband 
forty-two years, dying at the age of eighty-seven, 
mourned by all who knew her for her many virtues. 
Her good deeds and words were not recorded with ink 


stances. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


and pen, ‘‘but in the fleshy tablets of the heart.” Her 
mother’s name was Perces Stuart, who was from a noble 
ancestry, having descended in a direct line from Mary 
Stuart, Queen of Scotland. The mother’s name, Ayres, 
is accounted for by this tradition. During one of his bat- 
tles with Harold, the Saxon king, William of Normandy 
fell from his horse, and, being old and fat, was rapidly 
suffocating. In this dilemma a Spanish knight-errant 
came to his rescue, unclasping the ungainly helmet, 
giving the king air. For this service he was given the 
title of the ‘Knight of Air.” The education of Doc- 
tor Eaton began in Herkimer County, New York, in the 
common schools; but at the age of fourteen years he 
moved to Peru, Huron County, Ohio, where he contin- 
ued his studies. He attended the academy at Norwalk, 
and afterwards completed his education at Granville Col- 
lege. Having selected the profession of medicine, he 
commenced his studies with Doctor Moses C. Sanders, 
of Peru, Ohio, a pioneer of his profession in that part 
of the state, and a most worthy man, a profound 
thinker, and ready and successful practitioner. After 
a long course of close and thorough study under this 
experienced mentor, Doctor Eaton entered the Medical 
Department of the Western Reserve College, at Cleve- 
land, Ohio, from which institution he graduated in 1849 
with marked honor. After his graduation he located at 
New Paris, Preble County, Ohio, where he began the 
general practice of medicine, in partnership with Doctor 
D. A. Cox, a gentleman of distinguished ability and 
prominence. While thus engaged in general practice, he 
developed a decided taste for surgery and the higher 
departments of his profession. Believing that he could 
achieve more than ordinary attainments in these depart- 
ments and their collateral sciences, after having been 
with Doctor Cox some years he spent several months 
with Doctor George B. Wood, of Alleghany City, Penn- 
sylvania, a man of extensive practice, possessing few, 
if any, superiors as an operator upon the eye. After- 
wards, at different times, he was in attendance at the 
eye and ear infirmary and hospitals of New York City. 
At the university of that city he took a post-graduate 
course, receiving the ad eundem degree. He now-de- 
voted his entire time to the eye and ear, and to sur- 
gery. Possessing a clear judgment and a skillful 
hand, he performed with remarkable success many of 
the most delicate operations known to modern surgery. 
At the beginning of the Rebellion Doctor Eaton was in 
Mississippi. He had operated with success in several of 
the Southern States upon the eye and ear. He was at 
the Gayoso House, Memphis, when the news of the 
opening battle of Bull Run reached him, and, sacrific- 
ing all pecuniary interests, he returned to the North. 
In 1861-2 he engaged in mercantile pursuits in Newark, 
Ohio, with Mr. E. Seymour. This deviation from medi- 
cine was, however, but temporary. A call for surgeons 


7tt Dist.) 


being made by the Governor of Ohio, Doctor Eaton 
tendered his services, was commissioned by Governor 
Tod, and was assigned to hospital duty at Huntsville, 
Alabama. Subsequently, he was engaged in the hospital 
at Nashville for several months. In the spring of 1863 
he located in Toledo, Ohio. Here, for twelve years, 
he devoted his time and attention to the eye and 
ear. While in Toledo he was for several years the ex- 
amining physician for the Guardian Mutual Life Insur- 
ance Company, of New York City. In the fall of 1875 
he formed a partnership with Doctor John W. Culbert- 
son, a gentleman of varied attainments, in the same 
specialty, and together they have since conducted, with 
great success, the Central Surgical Infirmary of Indian- 
apolis, an institution bearing a wide and well-earned 
reputation. In a recent visit to the South he received 
the warmest testimonials of appreciation from those 
upon whom he had attended twenty years previously, 
and many applications for treatment, which facts are 
strong evidence of his ability and surgical skill. No 
man has displayed more unceasing industry for the 
benefit of the afflicted than Doctor Eaton, and few 
have equaled him in the satisfactory results of their la- 
bor. During his practice he has straightened more than 
one thousand cross-eyes, besides performing innumerable 
other operations of greater magnitude, requiring con- 
summate dexterity and knowledge of his art. The Doc- 
tor is a member of the Masonic Fraternity. He has 
also, for a long time, been identified with the Baptist 
Church, and is a useful and honorable citizen, a ready 
conversationalist, and a cultured gentleman, of modest 
and retiring disposition, who in no manner parades his 
attainments. 
ato 


CV DSON, HANFORD A., D. D., of Indianapolis, 
was born in Scottsville, Monroe. County, New 
York, March 14, 1837. His family, of English 
blood, was first represented in America by Samuel 
Edson, who became a citizen of Salem, Massachusetts, 
July 25, 1639. (‘‘Felt’s Annals of Salem,” Appendix, 
page 531.) When the township of Marshfield became a 
separate corporation, Duxbury, from which Marshfield 
had been originally taken, applied to the Old Colony 
Court, at Plymouth, for a grant of common land, or, as 
they said, ‘‘an extension to the westward,” to compen- 
sate them for the great loss of territory they had sus- 
tained. In March, 1642, an order of court was issued 
providing therefor. Two years after—August, 1644—a 
more explicit order fixed the boundaries of the addition 
to Duxbury, and in 1645 the transfer was formally ex- 
ecuted. Six persons, among them Captain Miles Stan- 
dish and John Alden, were named by the court as 
‘¢feoffees”’ in trust, ‘*for the equal dividing and laying 
forth the said lands to the inhabitants.”’ The title to 


G 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


37 


the property was not considered complete, however, 
until a deed was secured from the aborigines. Ousam- 
equin, sachem of the country of Pocanoket, was induced 
to make the transfer, the Indians receiving as compen- 
sation ‘‘seven coats (a yard and a half in a coat), nine 
hatchets, eight hoes, twenty knives, four moose skins, 
and ten and one half yards of cotton.”” There were at 
first fifty-four share-holders in this Duxbury extension, 
who soon admitted two others: Deacon Samuel Edson, 
who built the first mill in the town; and the Rev. James 
Keith, of Scotland, the first minister, who married Dea- 
con Edson’s daughter Susanna. Bridgewater was the 
name selected for the new settlement. (‘‘ Records of 
Plymouth Colony,” ‘‘New England Genealogical Regis- 
ter,” ‘‘Mitchell’s History of Bridgewater.”’) Samuel 
Edson died July 9, 1692, @¢. 80; his wife, Susanna, died 
February 20, 1699, @¢. 81; Samuel (second) died 1719; 
Samuel (third), 1771; Samuel (fourth), —; Jonah, born 
July 10, 1751, died July 21, 1831; and Betsey, his wife, 
born February 24, 1752, died August 21, 1850; Free- 
man, the twelfth of fourteen children of the preceding, 
and father of the subject of the present sketch, was born 
September 23, 1791, in Westmoreland, New Hampshire. 
He studied medicine with Doctor Twitchell, of Keene, 
and at Yale College. At the close of the second war 
with Great Britain, in 1814, he settled at Scottsville, 
New York, whither his uncle Scott had emigrated, and 
there has since been engaged in his profession. It is 
believed that he is now (1879) the oldest physician in 
actual practice in the United States. The subject of 
this notice received the name of his maternal grand- 
father, Abram Hanford, one of the earliest settlers of 
Western New York, which is perpetuated in Hanford’s 
Landing, the starting-point of the present city of Roch- 
ester. Enjoying the advantage of early tuition at home, 
and in the district school presided over by N. A. Wood- 
ward, Esq., a graduate of Union College, Mr. Edson 
was prepared for the sophomore class, and entering 
Williams College, Massachusetts, graduated from that 
institution in 1855. For a large part of the three fol- 
lowing years he was instructor in Greek and mathe- 
matics at Geneseo Academy, New York. In September, 
1858, he was admitted to the Union Theological Semi- 
nary, New York City, and for two years he prosecuted 
the study of divinity there. Having already become ac- 
quainted with the German language, in May, 1860, he 
went to Europe, and was matriculated in the University 
of Halle, where he gave attention especially to theology 
and philosophy, under the instruction of Tholuck, Julius 
Miiller, and Erdmann. After extended tours in Ger- 
many, Switzerland, Italy, France, and England, hastened 
by the war, he returned home. Being licensed to preach 
by Niagara Presbytery, at Lyndonville, October 29, 1861, 
he took charge of the Presbyterian Church at Niagara 
Falls, where he remained -until called to the pastorate 


Riheh oh 


of the Second Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis.’ His 
care of that parish began January 17, 1864. Steps were 
soon taken towards the erection of the edifice on the 
corner of Pennsylvania and Vermont Streets, and the 
enterprise was carried through to completion. To his 
Thanksgiving sermon, November 26, 1868, is ascribed 
the impulse which finally established the Indianapolis 
Public Library. April 1, 1873, he transferred his serv- 
ices to the Memorial Presbyterian Church, which so- 
ciety in six years has grown to be second in point of 
numbers to his former charge alone. The honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon Mr, Ed- 
son by Hanover College in 1873. The same year he 
represented the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in the National Congregational Council in New 
Haven, Connecticut; and in 1878 he was commis- 
sioned to the same duty before the General Council of 
the Reformed Episcopal Church at Newark, New Jer- 
sey. He has written largely for the press, and is the 
author of various magazine articles and published ser- 
mons and addresses. On the 16th of July, 1867, he was 
united in marriage with Helen M., daughter of William 
O. Rockwood, Esq., of Indianapolis. 


—+-400-o— 

aoa 
CT 7. : : ' 

t LLIOTT, JOHN, president of the First National 

47> Bank of Shelbyville. In 1816, James Elliott, an 
ay industrious and worthy young man from Del- 

22 aware, and Miss Hannah Williamson, a Pennsyl- 
vania maiden, of Welsh descent, were married in Phil- 
adelphia, where, on the 13th of June, 1818, they became 
the parents of the subject of this memoir. Addison 
makes Cato say, ‘‘’Tis not in mortals to command suc- 
but the lives of some men seem to refute the 
assertion. No difficulties long deter, no disasters over- 
whelm them. Though, with power akin to that of the 
fabled Midas, they have but to touch an enterprise to 
insure golden results, yet it is not through any magical 
gift, but is due to deliberate and unerring judgment, 
tireless energy, and the ability to create and control. 
Mr. Elliott is one of these. He went with the family 
to Ohio in 1826, when he was eight years old, and was 
educated After reaching majority he 
engaged in milling, and in 1843 removed to Shelbyville, 
Indiana, and purchased a half interest in the Shelby 
flouring-mill. May 14, 1844, he married Margaret Ann 
Stanton, of Waynesville, Ohio. Devoting now all his 
energies to business and managing wisely, he prospered 
steadily, and at length acquired sufficient capital to en- 
gage in banking, which he did in 1855, under the firm 
name of Elliott, Hill & Co. 
sequently dissolved, but he continued the business as 
one of the firm of Elliot & Major until 1864, when the 
First National Bank was organized, and he was elected 


cess,” 


in that state. 


This partnership was sub- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


its president. His first wife did not long survive, and 
in 1853 he was united in marriage to Miss Maria 
Peaslee, daughter of Judge Peaslee, of Shelbyville. (See 
sketch.) He has had three children by each wife, but 
only one is living. In 1871 Mr. Elliott was elected on the 
Republican ticket to the office of clerk of Shelby County, 
in which position he served four years, devoting him- 
self to public duties with the same faithfulness that 
characterized him in his own private business. He has 
enjoyed, the advantages of foreign 
travel, having made four trips to Europe, the last one 
in 1878, when he visited the Paris Exposition. He is a 
member of the Masonic Fraternity, and has attained the 
degree of Knight Templar. With too little self-appre- 
ciation, and underestimating the worth of his example 
to aspiring young men, Mr. Elliott has unfortunately 
confined the biographer to very meager data. He is 
greatly esteemed by the citizens of Shelby County for 
his abilities in finance and general business, his unsul- 
lied character, and his genuine personal worth. 


to some extent, 


—~ Gt. 

ae VERTS, ORPHEUS, M. D., was born near Salem 
(Friends) Meeting-house, in Union County, Indi- 
“)) ana, December 18, 1826. He is the son of Doctor 
Sylvanus Everts and Elizabeth (Heywood) Everts. 
The Everts family is of Dutch origin, as the name in- 
dicates, and made its appearance in America long be- 
fore the Revolution, settling in Vermont, where Doctor 
Sylvanus Everts and his father, Ambrose Everts, were 
both born. Their genealogy embraces in its relation- 
ship some of the most distinguished families of New 
England, receiving blood in its descent from the Chit- 
tendens, Binghams, Wheelocks, and the celebrated Cap- 
tain Miles Standish, of colonial fame. Doctor Everts 
belongs to a family of physicians, his father, one uncle, 
and three brothers, all having pursued the same profes- 
sional calling. His school instruction as a boy was such 
as might be acquired in a country school in Indiana 
forty years ago. It was better, however than the ordi- 
nary district school of that time, as it was supported 
and conducted by the society of Friends, who employed 
good instructors. All subsequent education was the 
result of personal effort and application, outside of school- 
house or college edifice. He attributes an early taste 
for scientific knowledge to intimate and, for a year or 
more, almost continuous association and conversation 
with his father, who used the boy as eyes and hands in 
an active and laborious practice of his profession, while 
himself deprived of the use of his own. His choice of 
business, however, would have been mechanical or 
architectural, had he been left to choose for himself. 
He adopted the profession of medicine, as being already 
in the family, and more readily acquired, under the cir- 


7lh Dist.) 


cumstances surrounding his youth, than any other. He 
received the degree of doctor of medicine from the 
Indiana Medical College, class of 1845-46, and com- 
menced practice in the village of St. Charles, Illinois, 
‘thirty miles west of Chicago. He returned to Laporte, 
Indiana, in 1852, abandoning medical practice, and 
assumed the publication and editorship of a weekly 
Democratic partisan journal at Laporte. He was Dem- 
cratic elector from this state in 1856, and cast an elec- 
toral vote for James Buchanan for President. He was 
appointed register of a government land office by Mr. 
Buchanan, and became a resident of North-west Wis- 
consin in 1858. He returned to Indiana on the breaking 
out of the Rebellion, and was commissioned surgeon 
of the 2zoth Indiana Volunteers by Governor Morton, 
July, 1861. He served in the field with the Third and 
Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac, until mus- 
tered out of service with the troops, July, 1865, as sur- 
geon-in-chief of the brigades and divisions, and acting 
medical director of the corps, on the staffs of Generals 
Robinson, Ward, D. B. Birney, Mott, and Humphreys. 
He was present and on duty at every battle fought by 
the Army of the Potomac, excepting those of Bull Run 
and Antietam. Dr. Everts resumed medical practice 
after the war, locating at Michigan City, Indiana, and 
was tendered the position of superintendent of the In- 
diana Hospital for the Insane (unsolicited) in November, 
1868, and assumed the duties of that important office 
immediately, holding it for ten years, having de- 
veloped the hospital from a capacity of three hundred 
to its present capacity of six hundred beds, and man- 
aged its affairs to the general satisfaction of the people 
of the state. He also drafted the law, furnished the 
plan, and became the superintendent of construction, of 
the new hospital for the insane, now approaching comple- 
tion, having a capacity of seven hundred beds, which, 
when opened, will constitute the department for women 
of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, the old build- 
ing to be occupied thereafter by men exclusively—both 
hospitals coming under one supervision and board of 
control. This new building, presenting some original 
features, and many adaptations of the better ideas of all 
hospitals, the Doctor justly looks upon as his monument. 
The Doctor is a member of the State Medical Society; 
of the Academy of Medicine, Indianapolis; of the Asso- 
ciation of American Superintendents of Insane Hospitals 
and Asylums; of the Order of Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons; and is a director of the Industrial Life Insurance 
Company, of Indiana. He has no connection with any 
religious society, by profession or membership; is a re- 
ceiver, to a limited degree, of the religious philosophy 
of Swedenborg, but does not recognize his revelations 
as infallible, or supersensuously inspired. His father, 
yet living, aged ninety-one, is a believer in Christianity, 


and a Universalist in faith. His mother, who is now 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


39 


dead, was a conscience-driven skeptic, seeking for rest 
through faith, but never finding it. Doctor Everts 
married, March 14, 1847, Mary, second daughter of 
George W. Richards, M. D., then of St. Charles, Ili- 
nois, with whom he is still living, surrounded by a fam- 
ily of five children, three sons and two daughters. 
Doctor Everts is a large man, standing six feet two and 
a half inches high, well proportioned, weighing two 
hundred and sixteen pounds, 
guine temperament, with dark brown eyes, and hair now 
changing to gray, and he wears a full beard. His social, 
business, and professional standing are sufficiently indi- 
cated by his history and his present relation to the 
public, which could not have been sustained for ten 
years, with but little adverse criticism, by any other 


He is of the nervo-san- 


than a man among men, ‘worthy and well qualified.” 
Since the above sketch was written, Doctor Everts has 
been appointed superintendent of the Cincinnati Sanita- 
rium, an institution of the highest repute, situated seven 
miles from the center of the city. 


$006 — 


ERGUSON, JAMES C., of Indianapolis, has been 
identified with the interests of the city of Indian- 
apolis for nearly forty years, and for nearly thirty 
years of that time has been engaged in a business 
which has contributed as much as any other to its 
growth and prosperity—that of pork-packing. A _his- 
tory of what Indiana has produced in the way of self- 
made and successful men would be incomplete without 
his name on the list, and the state has few more worthy 
names upon her roll of honor. He was born in Bour- 
bon County, Kentucky, October 5, 1810, and is one of 
a family of eight children of Clemens and Sarah (Coch- 
ran) Ferguson. His father was a native of Ireland, and 
came to the United States in his boyhood with his wid- 
owed mother, who was of a noble family, and in her 
girlhood bore the title of Lady Clemens, but had in- 
curred the displeasure of her relatives by contracting a 
marriage with a young physician, the grandfather of 
James C. Ferguson. Upon her husband’s death, with 
her son, Clemens, she sought a home in America, set- 
tling at first in Philadelphia, but after some time finally 
going to Kentucky. Her son Clemens, the father of 
James C., was educated under the eye of his mother, 
who was a lady of the highest accomplishments. He 
subsequently adopted the profession of medicine, and in 
the War of 1812 served in the American army, under 
General Harrison, as surgeon. The earliest recollection 
of James C. Ferguson extends back to the time when 
his father was greeted by his joyful family on his return 
from the field after peace was proclaimed. When, 
James was about eight years old, or in 1818, his father 
meved from Kentucky to Preble County, Ohio, where 


40 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


he was engaged in the practice of medicine until his 
death, which occurred in 1831. During his life-time he 
assisted in laying out and naming the village of New 
Paris, Preble County, which he christened in honor of 
Paris, Kentucky, which was his old place of residence. 
He had enjoyed a large practice, extending over three 
counties, and had the reputation of being a skillful and 
accomplished physician. While in Kentucky he at one 
time tried his hand at farming, but he soon discovered 
that youth and inexperience were of little advantage in 
clearing land in a new country, and abandoned the farm 
for a more congenial occupation. James C. Ferguson 
was given all the opportunities for an early education 
that the public schools of Preble County afforded until 
he reached the age of sixteen years. At this age his 
parents decided to fit him for the more practical duties 
of life, and he was sent to Cincinnati to learn the trade 
of watch-maker and jeweler. He worked at this trade 
for five years in that city, and, as he says, the experience 
and training obtained in that time have ever been a 
source of pleasure and profit to him in after life. It 
made him an expert judge of various metals, and, having 
a natural mechanical genius, it has helped him wonder- 
fully in his comprehension of various kinds of ma- 
chinery, with which his long business experience has 
In 1831, or the year of his father’s 
death, he left Cincinnati and came to Richmond, Indi- 
ana, where he opened a jeweler’s store and started in 
business for himself. It was the second one of its kind in 
the city, and he did a very good trade for those days, 
working at the bench himself part of the time, as well 
as attending to his customers. Here he made the ac- 
quaintance of his future wife, then Miss Clarissa Man- 


made him familiar. 


sur, daughter of Jeremy Mansur, and a member of a 
family widely and favorably known in Indiana. They 
were married on the 5th of September, 1837, and still 
live together, enjoying the inestimable privilege of 
being able to look back upon nearly half a century of 
wedded happiness, surrounded by children and friends 
as well as by all that makes life enjoyable. After his 
marriage Mr. Ferguson continued his business at Rich- 
mond for about seven years, and in 1844 removed to 
Indianapolis and engaged in general mercantile affairs. 
His brother-in-law, Mr. William Mansur, had been previ- 
ously conducting the establishment in that city, and Mr. 
Ferguson bought out his stock, and carried on the trade 
with success for about seven years. Mercantile business 
was not altogether to Mr. Ferguson’s liking, as in those 
days a system of credit and barter was indulged in to a 
large extent, and this did not suit his ideas. He wished 
it more pushing and profitable. In 1851 Mr. Ferguson 
first entered in the business with which his name is now 
almost entirely identified. He engaged in pork-packing 
with his father-in-law, Mr. Jeremy Mansur, and car- 
ried on a highly successful trade with him for ten years, 


[7th Dist. 


until the outbreak of the war in 1861. In the latter 
year he was alone, and so carried it on until 1868, when 
he associated with him his sons-in-law, Nathan M. Neeld 
and Edward B. Howard, with whom he has since con- 
ducted the business, under the firm name of J. C. Fer- 
guson & Co. He also holds a large interest in the firm 
of Barnes, McMurty & Co., in the same line. Mr. Fer- 
guson was for several years president of the board of 
trade of Indianapolis. From a comparatively small be- 
ginning his business has assumed immense proportions, 
and, with but a single exception, his establishment 
is the largest of its kind in Indianapolis, the great cen- 
ter of the pork trade of Indiana. Some idea of his 
house can be formed from the fact that the average 
number of hogs slaughtered by it for the past few years 
has been about one hundred thousand, and this present 
year (1880) the number slaughtered by both houses will 
not fall short of two hundred thousand. The handling 
of this enormous quantity of meat gives employment to 
about two hundred hands. The brands of J. C. Fergu- 
son & Co. are considered the finest in the market, and 
immense quantities are shipped to Europe by the firm, 
aggregating over one-half the entire killing. For about 
five years, from 1869 to 1874, Mr. Ferguson had also 
a large establishment at Kansas City, Missouri, where 
he combined the slaughter of hogs with that of cattle, 
killing one year fifteen thousand of the latter and forty 
thousand of the former. These gigantic enterprises 
have made constant and unremitting claims on the time 
and attention of Mr. Ferguson, and he still puts his 
shoulder to the wheel and personally participates in the 
management of his establishment, although long since 
placed above the necessity of active work. In 1878 he 
spent a few months in Europe, principally on business, 
although the element of pleasure largely entered into 
the trip, on which he was accompanied by Mrs. Fergu- 
son. Out of seven children born to them, four survive: 
Mary, wife of Mr. Nathan N. Neeld; Clara, wife of Mr. 
Edward B. Howard, both well known in Indianapolis 
society; and John Q. and Edward W., who are now 
engaged with their father. Their second daughter, 
Isabella, a young lady of more than ordinary accom- 
plishments and sweetness of disposition, died in 1861, 
while attending school at Georgetown, Kentucky, where 
she had just graduated, at a little more than sixteen 
years of age. A son, James, an invalid for years, died 
in his twenty-third year, and another son died in infancy. 
Mr. Ferguson belongs to no secret society, and, while he 
is a member of no particular religious denomination, he 
contributes liberally to all Churches and similar worthy 
enterprises. Himself and family are worshipers at the 
First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis. In politics 
Mr. Ferguson was a Whig of the old school and voted for 
Henry Clay. He is now, of course, a Republican. His 
home in Indianapolis, which was designed by himself, 


zth Dist.] 


is a model of elegance and comfort, and throughout 
displays esthetic taste which reflects high credit upon 
the designer and decorator. A man of thoroughly do- 
mestic tastes himself, he delights in a generous hospi- 
tality, and in this he is well seconded by his amiable 
wife, the name of whose friends is legion. Time has 
dealt very gently with Mrs. Ferguson, who is but a few 
years younger than her husband, but whom no one 
would suppose to have seen half a century. Mr. Fergu- 
son is in the enjoyment of robust health, and is as active 
and energetic as a man of fifty. His constitution has 
never been undermined by tobacco or alcoholic drinks, 
which he consistently and firmly eschews, and with his 
loving partner he bids fair to see many years of a new 
century. He has passed the season of trials and strug- 
gles and experiments in business, and now from the 
round of assured success he can look back with satisfac- 
tion on his progress upward on the ladder of life. 


$00 — 


r/ INCH, FABIUS M. Few families have more 
| strongly marked individuality than that of Fabius 
(Cc! M. Finch. His father, Judge John Finch, in 

1814 came from Livingston County, where this son 
was born three years before, to Hamilton County, Ohio. 
In 1818 he came to Central Indiana, having about him 
there a family of sixteen. No son was under six feet in 
height, and all bore his own striking personal appear- 
ance. The daughters were women of singular beauty 
and grace. The family is traced six generations in 
America, and then to the English Earl of Nottingham, 
Sir Heneage Finch. His father took up the labors of 
pioneer life, and did all that could be done to make his 
settlement a pleasant home. The educational advan- 
tages his children enjoyed were limited, but the family 
was a community to itself, where the older aided the 
younger. But what each one gained was through per- 
' sonal application. It was a life of hard work. In 
1827 Fabius M. Finch removed to Indianapolis and 
entered the law office of Judge Wick, where he com- 
pleted his preparatory study, and was admitted to the 
bar on examination. He then removed to Franklin, 
twenty miles south, and entered upon an active prac- 
tice. Naturally inclined to political studies, he became 
an ardent Whig, and in 1839 was elected to the Legis- 
lature. The term was memorable for the fierce partisan 
zeal that marked the conduct of all within its influence. 
In 1840 he was an active supporter of General Harrison, 
and went the round of appointments for the “Log 
Cabin” candidate. In 1842 he became Judge of the 
Circuit Court, and presided acceptably over the large 
circuit. He entered earnestly into the great temper- 
ance movement of the Washingtonians in 1845, and 
afterwards became the highest officer in the state— 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


4I 


Grand Worthy Patriarch in the Sons of Temperance. 
He was also the representative of the state in the na- 
tional councils of that powerful order. In that year he 
united with the Presbyterian Church, and has main- 
tained his Church connection to this time. In 1859 he 
was elected Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit for six 
years, and filled the position again with great credit. 
Up to this time he had always been a leader in the 
politics of his section, being a strong delegate in the 
state convention. He was a Whig from deep-set- 
tled conviction as long as the party had an exist- 
ence, and he still considers that party worthy of all 
the devotion he gave it. 
element, and was in constant opposition to the en- 
He was regarded as a 


He was in the anti-slavery 


croachment of the slave power. 
sagacious counselor in party principles and manage- 
ment. When the Rebellion was threatened he was one 
of the most outspoken in his support of the general 
government. He did not hesitate as to the right of the 
government to coerce a state, and to put down any 
treasonable conspiracy at any hazard. He was early 
in favor of arming the negroes and making soldiers 
and sailors of them. The Proclamation of Emanci-- 
pation he regarded as equally a right and a duty. 
His- oldest son, Captain Heneage B. Finch, entered the 
service at the first call. Judge Finch would have gone 
himself if he had not been too old; and his other son, 
John A. Finch, would have then gone if he had not 
been too young. Later this son was also in the army. 
The oldest son remained in the military service until the 
close of the war. The exposure of the life broke his 
constitution, and he died in 1867 from disease con- 
tracted in the army. The war was one unceasing in- 
terest to Judge Finch. He never faltered or doubted of 
the result. He gave personal attention to the wants of 
soldiers at home or in the field, and visited the front as 
often as he could, and was with each son when needing 
him in the hospital, as each unfortunately did. In early 
life Judge Finch developed a keen literary taste, which 
he has gratified and cultivated by wide and careful 
reading. He was at one time given to poetry so fully 
that he wrote, and very acceptably, for the Eastern 
press. Several of his verses have a fixed place in the 
short poems of the country. His taste in later years, 
outside of professional reading, has been turned to 
progressive thinkers in social science and practical phi- 
losophy. Judge Finch is now in active practice, his 
firm, Finch & Finch—himself and his son, John A. 
Finch—being the longest in continuous labor at the bar 
of Indianapolis. He has been uniformly successful, and 
has been at times very powerful with his juries. He 
seeks the strong point in the case and rests upon that. 
The firm is noted in practice for ‘forcing the fighting.” 
Though now sixty-seven years of age, and an unceasing 
worker from the time of boyhood, Judge Finch enjoys 


42 


good health. His regular habits of living and thinking 
reward him with an unabated vigor, and a ruddiness 
that men thirty years younger might envy. In social 
intercourse none can be more pleasant and agreeable. 
He has retained all the geniality and sprightliness that 
from early youth made him a choice companion of his 
brethren at the bar. His personal appearance is so 
striking, his conversation so full of wit and humor, 
and his whole manner so kindly and attractive, that the 
most casual meeting will impress even a stranger that 
he is with a man of men, one who royally wears ‘the 
grand old name of gentleman.” 


—+>-3006-+-—. 


LETCHER, PROFESSOR MILES J., was born in 
Indianapolis, Indiana, in the year 1828. He was 
the son of Calvin Fletcher, Esq., who, although 
he had emigrated to the Western wilderness at an 
early day, had gained for himself a good general and 
classical education; so that although young Fletcher’s 
school privileges were limited to a few winter months 
in the year, yet, with his other brothers, he had con- 
stantly the advantages of home instruction, which was 
of more value in building up the noble characteristics 
of his nature than any training he could have received 
in academic halls. In 1847 he entered the Brown Uni- 
versity, at Providence, Rhode Island, from which insti- 
tution he graduated with honor in 1852, having inter- 
luded his years of student life by a year of hard work. 
He was prominent in his class for his general knowledge. 
He cared but little for mathematics, although he ac- 
knowledged its importance. In historical information 
and logic he stood above his fellows. In the spring of 
1848, while spending a vacation in the village of Ux- 
bridge, Massachusetts, influenced by a letter from a 
brother, he became interested in religious matters. 
Without a moment of delay, after light broke in on 
him, he identified himself with the cause by uniting 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church, the one in which 
he was trained from childhood. He took an active yet 
modest part in the college class and prayer meetings, and 
with new light and zeal taught a class that had long 
been under his charge in Sabbath-school. At about the 
time of his conversion a spirit of religious inquiry 
came upon the students in Brown University. Many 
were converted, but Professor Fletcher remarked that 
all whose minds had been prepared by early Sabbath- 
school teachings escaped all the gloom of doubt and 
the temptations to skepticism. To him the preparation 
of the mind and heart for the world’s broad field of 
battle was a high and holy calling. Immediately upon 
his graduation he entered upon his duties as professor 
of English literature in Asbury University, at Greencastle, 
Indiana. With characteristic zeal and energy, he la- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[ 7th Dict. 


bored in his department, having the faculty of render- 
ing his branches interesting to the students. He was 
the friend of his pupils, not holding them off by any 
false notions of professional dignity, but warming them 
to companionship by the kindness of his manner. He 
visited them in sickness, closed their eyes in death, 
gave encouragement to them in their despondency, and 
employment to lessen their poverty. In the fall of 1860 
he was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction for 
the state of Indiana. In this capacity his labors were 
incredible ; he brought honest industry and system to 
bear so efficaciously that at the time of his melancholy 
death the machinery of his office was in fine working 
order. All this was accomplished notwithstanding the 
heavy drain upon his time incident to the Rebellion: 
When the firing upon Fort Sumter aroused the nation 
he assisted, at the request of the Governor, in the drill- 
ing of raw recruits for the three months’ service at 
Camp Morton; immediately thereafter, by appointment, 
he visited the armories of New England, and purchased 
the first arms for the state of Indiana. In August, 
1861, he made an arduous and dangerous journey to 
Western Virginia in search of his brother, Doctor 
William B. Fletcher, who was captured in July by the 
rebels. 
when the whereabouts of his brother were ascertained. 
He spent many weeks in attempting to improve his con- 
dition, and finally achieved his release by exchange 
from the loathsome warehouse at Richmond. When he 
returned home he resumed his system of county visita- 
tion and lecturing on education, which he continued 
until after the battle of Shiloh, when he proffered his 
Here 
he labored with such assiduity that it brought on an 
infirmity which might have followed him through a long 
life had not his existence been suddenly cut short by 
accident. In company with Governor Morton, Doctor 
Bobbs, and General Noble, he left Indianapolis on a 
night train, on an expedition to the army at Corinth, 
to bring home the wounded and sick soldiers, and to 
carry hospital stores to others. At Terre Haute they 
took the connecting train for Evansville, which reached 
Sullivan about one o’clock. As the train was approach- 
ing that station it ran into a freight car. The jar and 
confusion caused Professor Fletcher to put his head out 
of the window, and something, probably a freight car 
or the switch, struck him on the head, crushing his skull 
and killing him instantly. The loss of such a man at 
such a time, and in such a manner, produced a pro- 
found sensation. Professor Fletcher had elements of 
popularity equaled by few. He was big-hearted and 
brave, tender and considerate to the downtrodden and 
poor, free and outspoken, and no one felt or feared that 
there was any dissimulation or concealment about him. 
He was the soul of honor and the type of generosity, 


He also visited Washington on the same mission 


services to carry relief to the sick and wounded. 


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and withal had an inexhaustible flow of spirits that 
gave fascination and charm to his society, and made him 
popular without effort to be so. He was a prodigy 
of work, and he did his: labors so thoroughly and well 
that his friends were always taxing him with new bur- 
dens. He was no politician, and no other office in the 
gift of the state would have seduced him from his pro- 
fessorship; but he felt that in the capacity of Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction he could accomplish for 
the cause of education in the state at large more than 
he could in any other position. 


—+-900-— 


|ALVIN, GEORGE W., of Indianapolis, was born 
in Jamestown, Boone County, Indiana, April 22, 
1847. The Galvins of Galvin Grove were Scottish 
chiefs of renown, and their descendants of the 
north of Ireland were the ancestry of the present race 
of Galvins. The great-great-grandfather of the subject 
of this sketch came from Scotland, and settled in Vir- 
ginia. There the family resided for one generation, when 
the great-grandfather emigrated to Kentucky. From 
that state the grandfather removed to Boone County, 
Indiana, about the year 1835, and engaged extensively 
in farming, and raising blooded stock. The financial 
crash of 1840-wrecked his fortunes, and his death soon 
followed—his three sons being thrown on their own 
resources. George’s father, at that time a young man, 
worked industriously on a farm, and in 1843 married 
Margaret Piersol, then recently from Reading, Pennsyl- 
vania. Miss Piersol was a lineal descendant of the New 
York Piersols and the Massachusetts Lincolns, and was 
a cousin, several degrees removed, of Abraham Lincoln. 
George’s father stood in the same relation to Stephen 
A. Douglas. After his marriage he entered the mer- 
cantile business, with but four hundred dollars in cash 
and a character for business integrity. In twelve years 
he had acquired an independence. In 1858 Mrs. Galvin 
died, and Mr. Galvin removed to Indianapolis, invested 
extensively and judiciously in real estate, and became, 
and at the present writing remains, a heavy landed pro- 
prietor. George, the subject of this sketch, received 
his early education in the log school-houses of Boone 
County. At the age of fourteen, in the early part of 
the war, he enlisted in the service in every regiment he 
could reach, and was taken out as frequently by his fa- 
ther, who gave the son due credit for persistence in his 
ambitious desires. George now entered the North- 
western Christian University, remained four years, and 
then enlisted in the 132d Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 
and followed its fortunes until the close of the war. 
Then followed nine months’ attendance at school at Fort 
Edward, New York. From a boy, young Galvin had 
indulged dreams of literary fame, and he was well 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


43 


known among readers of poetry and fiction as author of 
stories and poems that would have done credit to one of 
twice his number of years. But he had determined on 
the law as his business in life, and sentiment was cast 
aside for the dry details of Blackstone and Kent. Re- 
turning home, he entered the office of Judges Perkins 
and McDonald, remained there two years, graduated, 
was admitted to practice, and soon after moved to Kan- 
sas City, Missouri, where he stayed seven years. In 
1875 he returned to Indianapolis, and formed a partner- 
ship with Jonathan S. Harvey, ex-Treasurer of State. 
In the summer of 1878 Judge Samuel A. Huff, of La- 
fayette, was added to the firm, which is now doing a 
successful business, under the style of Harvey, Galvin & 
Huff. September 9, 1868, Mr. Galvin married Miss 
Mary Kingsbury, of Elmira, New York, daughter of a 
well-known business man. They have two children, 
Mary and Georgia, now living. Mr. Galvin is stoutly 
built, has an active mind, is an excellent judge of human 
nature, has a keen relish for the beautiful in poetry and 
art, but can make these subservient to the demands of 
business. He is an admirable companion, an excellent 
talker, and, what is better, a patient listener. He takes 
an honest pride in his profession, and has cases now on 
the docket involving vast interests. He is reticent rather 
than familiar, devotes but little time to the amenities 
of social life, makes business acquaintances rather than 
friends, is wedded to his studies, has his regular hours 
for intellectual toil, is fond of historical works, and 
from early morn until deep in the night, at home or in 
his office, applies himself to the acquisition of such 
knowledge as will best subserve his purposes in life. 


—~-400@<— 


IILLETT, REV. S. T., D. D., of Indianapolis, was 
born in New York, and removed with his father to 
Indiana in 1818, landing at old Fort Harrison, near 
where the city of Terre Haute now stands. They 
ascended the Wabash River in a family flat-boat, propelled 
by hand-power, all the way from the Ohio River. His 
father died in ten days after they landed, from sickness 
brought on by exposure in leaving the boat without his 
coat to greet the Indians then lining the bank. Many of 


the red men remained in the country after the settlement, 
to receive their annuities according to the treaty stipula- 
tions. Sickness prevailing extensively on the prairies, 
the widow with her children took refuge in the healthy 
wooded country near the present city of Rockville, in 
what is now Parke County. Although the lands had 
been sold by the Indians to the general government, 
yet many of them remained. Among these a mission 
school was organized by Elder McCoy, of the Baptist 
Church, and here young Gillett received a portion of 


his early’education. In 1819 he removed to Madison, 


44 


Indiana, and became a member of the family of his 
half brother, Caleb B. Palmer, and while there pursued 
a classical course, preparatory to the study of medicine; 
but, as a life among the sick was uncongenial, he made 
application, through Hon. William Hendricks, United 
States Senator from Indiana, for an appointment in the 
government service, and received that of- midshipman, 
dated December 1, 1826, and in March following he 
was ordered to active duty in New York. He was 
attached to the steam frigate ‘‘Fulton,” which after- 
wards was blown up, with a large portion of her crew. 
His first cruise at sea was in the United States steamer 
‘¢ Lexington,” which belonged to the Mediterranean 
squadron—they remaining in the seaports of the south of 
Europe and west of Asia three years and four months— 
giving its officers superior facilities for visiting its classic 
shores, more especially Italy, Asia Minor, and the Gre- 
cian Archipelago. His vessel returned in 1830, and he 
was permitted to visit his Western home, after an ab- 
sence of nearly four years. The change from boyhood 
to manhood was so great that an elder brother found it 
difficult to recognize him. Yet his mother, with true 
parental instinct, clasped her son to her heart at first 
sight, and wept tears of joy over one who had been the 
subject of prayerful solicitude during his absence. At 
that time the government furnished instruction for 
midshipmen at the navy-yards and on board ships in 
commission. As an examination for promotion occurred 
annually for those who had been five years in service, 
three of them at sea; and as merit determined the place 
of each on the list, there was no small degree of, anx- 
iety on the part of the sixty composing the list of 1826 
as to their success in the ordeal through which they 
were to pass. This ‘induced young Gillett to press his 
studies while on shore rather than indulge in the sailor’s 
usual course of relaxation while on land. After some 
months of duty at the navy-yard in Pensacola, he was 
ordered to Baltimore for examination, with some sixty 
others, among whom were Raphael Semmes, John A. 
Dahlgren, O. S. Glisson, S. C. Rowan, and C. S. Boggs, 
who were conspicuous in naval affairs during the late 
Rebellion, and who, with the exception of Mr. Semmes, 
have been promoted to the admiralty. The examining 
board was in session nearly two months, and at its con- 
clusion placed the name of Samuel T. Gillett at the 
head of the list, giving Raphael Semmes, late captain 
of the famous ‘‘Alabama,” the next number below him. 
Forty-two of the class passed. Some failed, and others 
feared to come before the board. Géillett’s success was 
the more gratifying, as the officers from the Eastern 
States affected to believe that those from the West 
could not compete with them. In 1830 he was again 
ordered to sea, and was favored with duty on board 
the “Delaware,” ship-of-the-line. After landing Ed- 
ward Livingston, Minister to France, at Cherbourg, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


\ 


[7th Dist. 


the officers visited Paris, and other cities between 
that and the British Channel. The vessel then pro- 
ceeded to the Mediterranean, and, during a stay of 
two years, he visited the south of France, west coast 
of Italy, and Palestine. While witnessing an erup- 
tion of Mount Vesuvius, near Naples, he was in 
a perilous condition from a shower of molten lava, 
thrown from the crater in an oblique direction, falling 
in pieces of several pounds’ weight around him and his 
companions. In Egypt he, with several of his asso- 
ciates, passed up the Nile to Cairo, and, being tendered 
horses and grooms from the Pasha’s stables, accom- 
panied by Mr. Gliddon, United States Vice-consul, 
visited the pyramids, the ruins of Memphis, catacombs, 
and many other interesting localities in that semi-bar- 
barous country, the seat of literature 
ment as existing in ancient times. 


and _ refine- 
In Palestine they 
were received by the Governor of Jerusalem, and pro- 
vided with quarters in that most interesting of all cities 
to Bible students. After visiting many other places of 
note and interest they rejoined the ship at Jaffa—the 
Joppa of the Scriptures. They passed up the coast, 
visiting Tyre and Sidon, and Beyrout, where the la- 
mented Kingsley closed his eventful life. The “ Dela-- 
ware” then returned to Port Mahon, headquarters of the 
squadron, and Mr. Gillett to the United States. On 
his return home he was placed on leave of absence, and 
entered the service of the state of Indiana as civil en- 
gineer, in the preliminary survey and location of the 
Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. While thus en- 
gaged the great crisis of his life occurred, wholly revo- 
lutionizing his views of duty and course of action. Re- 
flecting on the insufficiency of worldly enjoyments—of 
which he had freely partaken—to satisfy the demands 
of the soul, he resolved to act on a remark dropped in 
his hearing by Mrs. Gillett, that ‘“‘happiness was to be 
found in religion,” and commenced reading the Bible. 
The result was that he became a professed Christian. 
On the third day of March, 1837, he was confirmed by 
the United States Senate as lieutenant in the navy. Be- 
ing passionately fond of the sea, he was for a season 
tempted to retain the commission so unexpectedly sent 
him, and for the present decline active ministerial life, 
which he had resolved upon. The immediate result 
was a loss of religious enjoyments, and distaste for 
spiritual exercises. Being on a visit to his brother-in- 
law, Rev. W. H. Goode, D. D., at New Albany, he 
attended a camp-meeting near by, and, after a severe 
struggle over the sacrifice demanded, resolved to end 
the matter forthwith, resign his commission, and enter 
on the ministerial life. His religious peace returned, 
and, entering the altar at the camp-ground, he com- 
menced among the mourners the future work of his life. 
Soon after, in the fall of 1837, in a letter to the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, he tendered his resignation, assigning 


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the reason impelling him to the sacrifice. The resigna- 
tion was accepted. He was duly licensed as a local 
preacher, and his recommendation from the Madison 
Quarterly Conference to the Indiana Annual Confer- 
ence was presented by Rev. E. G. Wood, Debs 
presiding elder. He was received on trial at the ses- 
sion of 1837, in New Albany; and he was ap- 
pointed to Lawrenceburg Circuit, ‘James Jones and 
Silas Rawson being his colleagues. Their labors 
were successful, and extensive revivals followed. In 
1838 he was reappointed to the same work, with 
Charles Bonner in charge. Lawrenceburg having been 
made a station, the circuit was called Wilmington. 
Extensive revivals crowned their labors in the twenty- 
two appointments, and seventeen hundred and ninety- 
nine were returned to the conference. In 1839 and 
1840 he was on the Rising Sun Circuit, but was trans- 
ferred the second year to the Union Bethel, at Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, by Bishop Soule. In 1841 he was sent 
to Lawrenceburg Station, but in the following May was 
ordered to the navy-yard at New York, having been 
commissioned as chaplain in the navy by Mr. Tyler. 
He remained there several months, but became satisfied 
he would be more useful in the regular work, resigned 
his position, and was reappointed to Lawrenceburg. In 
1843 and 1844 he was in charge of Terre Haute Station, 
North Indiana Conference; in 1845 of Greencastle Sta- 
tion; and in 1846 and 1847 of Roberts Chapel, in In- 
dianapolis. He was then four years on the Centerville 
District as presiding elder, and was delegate from the 
North Indiana Conference to General Conference in 
1852. At the close of this year he was elected presi- 
dent of the Fort Wayne Female College, but declined 
the appointment, and was stationed at Asbury Chapel, 
Indianapolis, South-east Indiana Conference. While 
on the Centerville District he was elected president of 
Whitewater College, but served only until a successor 
could be obtained. Preferring the regular work, in 
1853 he was sent to the Connersville District, and re- 
mained there three years. In 1856 and 1857 he was in 
charge of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, New 
Albany, Indiana Conference. In 1858 he was on the 
Bloomington District. In 1859 he was placed in charge 
of the Locust Street Church, Evansville District, from 
which he was removed in 1862 to Wesley Chapel, In- 
dianapolis, and remained two years. In 1864 and 1865 
he was on Bloomington Station, but was retired early 
in 1866, and placed in the Centenary Agency; and, in 
connection with his colleague, raised over thirty thou- 
sand dollars in cash and subscriptions for the literary 
and benevolent institutions; in the fall of 1866 was 
placed on the Indianapolis District, where he remained 
two years, when, on the division of the district by an 
act of the General Conference, in changing the boun- 
dary lines, he was again placed in charge of Asbury 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


45 


Station, Indianapolis, where he remained two years, 
and was removed in the fall of 1870 to the First Church 
in Greensburg. From Greensburg he went to Indian- 
apolis in 1873, and was appointed to the charge of the 
Third Street Church. In 1874 was appointed to Edin- 
burg Station, staying a year. In 1875 and 1876 he 
was a supernumerary. In 1877 he was appointed to 
North Indianapolis; in 1878 was stationed at Grace 
Church, Indianapolis; and in 1879 was placed on the 
superannuated list. He was married, February 10, 
1831, to Miss Harriet Ann Goode. Of four sons born 
to them, three are living. The oldest son is superin- 
tendent of the Deaf and Dumb Institute at Jacksonville, 
Illinois. The second son, Francis, died at Rio Janeiro, 
in 1878, of yellow fever, holding at his death the posi- 
tion of paymaster in the United States navy. 


LESSNER, OLIVER J., Shelbyville. The grand- 
father of this gentleman, John Glessner, was a 
native of Germany, and in an early period of this 
country’s history cast his fortunes upon the tide 
of this now prosperous republic, in York County, 
Pennsylvania, where he raised to manhood the father 
of Oliver, whose name was also John, and who 
selected a home in Baltimore, Maryland, where he 
secured a wife in the person of Ellenora Giddle- 
man, a daughter of John and Mary Giddleman. 
He was a native of that state, and she was from 
London, England. After this marriage the 
settled in Frederick, of the state of Maryland, where 
Oliver J. Glessner was born, on the 11th of October 
1828, being the third of their eleven children. In 
1836 his father and family removed West, first locating 
at Indianapolis, and shortly afterward upon a farm near 
Martinsville, Morgan County, Indiana, where, in 1866, 
his father died, then in the sixty-sixth year of his age, 
She is now in the seventy- 


twain 


his widow surviving him. 
seventh year of her age and residing with this son. The 
subject of this sketch resided with his parents until near 
his majority, when he left home because of the meager 
facilities of his neighborhood for securing educational 
advantages, and sought the instructions of a retired 
Irish schoolmaster of much culture, from whom he 
obtained a rudimental education. He then took a 
short course of reading in medicine, but, upon the en- 
treaties of his friends, abandoned his prospects in the 
medical profession to take up the study of law, in which 
latter profession he graduated from the State University 
at Bloomington, Indiana, then under the professorship 
of Judge James Hughes, in February, 1856. He im- 
mediately began the practice at Martinsville, where he 
met with unusual success, obtaining at once an exten- 


sive and lucrative practice. On December 19, 1860, he 


46 


was married, at Georgetown, Vermilion County, IIli- 
nois, to Miss Louzena B. Moore, daughter of Nelson 
and Ann Moore, of that place. In 1862 he was nomi- 
nated as the candidate of the Democratic party for the 
Lower House of the state Legislature, and, although the 
county was strongly Republican, was defeated by but a 
small number of votes. In 1864, as the candidate of 
the same party, he was elected Judge of the Eighth 
Judicial District, composed of the counties of Morgan, 
Shelby, Johnson, Brown, and Monroe; and, although an 
extensive district, requiring his whole time, and being 
young in years, and in the profession and practice, he 
maintained the position in an honorable, dignified, 
able, and highly agreeable manner until October, 1868, 
when he declined the earnest solicitation of his party 
and friends to again accept that office. During his serv- 
ice as judge, in August, 1865, he moved his family to 
Shelbyville, at which place, immediately upon the close 
of his judicial term, he entered upon the practice of his 
profession, which he has pursued assiduously until this 
time, winning for himself an enviable rank at the bar 
of his county and in the profession in his state. .As a 
lawyer, he possesses much more than ordinary ability, 
being endowed with an active mind, shrewd dis- 
cernment, a combative disposition (though strictly 
courteous), combined with extensive reading and prac- 
tice. As an advocate, few men in Indiana have equal 
skill; his bright, perceptive faculties, a vast fund of 
natural capacity, known as common sense; an unusual 
personal magnetism; a fine voice; a smooth, graceful, 
and attractive flow of language; an ingenuity in pre- 
senting lucidly and impressively the facts establishing 
his theories, and in answering and averting elements in 
conflict with his theories, all unite im securing his aim. 
In October, 1870, he was elected by his party to the 
state Senate, as a member for the counties of Shelby 
and Bartholomew, serving as such for four years and 
during three sessions of that body. Judge Glessner, then 
being one of the few Democratic Senators who were 
lawyers or skilled in debate, and with a natural taste 
for legislative duties, was advanced to the position of 
one of the leaders of his political side of the Senate, a 
place, whether upon committee duty or upon the floor, 
he maintained with credit to his constituents.and dis- 
tinction to himself, against such opposition as the pres- 
ent Lieutenant-governor Gray, Hon. John Caven, mayor 
of Indianapolis, Judge E. B. Martindale, Hon, Asbury 
Steele, Hon. Harvey D. Scott, Hon. George B. Sleeth, 
and a number of others then leaders upon the other 
side, as the records of his term will give ample testi- 
mony. To him from the Senate, and Attorney-general 
T.. W. Woollen from the House, as members of a joint 
committee, is the credit due for the origin and passage 
of that noted bill which abolished the useless and ex- 
pensive Common Pleas Court, and redistricted the state 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


for judicial purposes, saving to the tax-payers of the 
state incalculable amounts, and accomplishing that end 
which had been sought for many years without avail. 
In 1872 Mr. Glessner was selected by the state Demo- 
cratic Convention as a presidential elector for his con- 
gressional district, but did not serve, owing to his_ 
ineligibility, being then a member of the Senate; and 
on the ninth day of June, 1880, he was again chosen 
by the state convention as a presidential elector for his 
district. He is an astute politician, a zealous Democrat, 
usually an active participant in the campaigns of his 
party, and has been frequently favorably mentioned in 
connection with congressional nominations in his dis- 
trict, though he has never permitted his name to be 
offered for that place. He is known as a man of the 
highest integrity, and has certainly superior abilities as 
a lawyer, as a politician, and as a legislator, which will 
ever commend him to the confidence of the people of 
his state. 
—-820-— 


‘OOPWIN, REV. THOMAS A., of Indianapolis, 
is a native of Indiana, and few names on the list 
of her distinguished men are more familiar to the 
G people of the state than that of ‘‘ Parson Good- 
win.” It would be impossible in the circumscribed 
limits of a sketch to do more than glance at the salient 
points of his history. He was born in Brookville, 
Franklin County, Indiana, November 2, 1818. His fa- 
ther was one of the earliest settlers in Franklin County, 
as well as of the state of Indiana, and the Goodwin 
family are still among the most prominent and respected 
in his native region. The youth of Mr. Goodwin was 
not marked by any thing strikingly different from that 
of most farmers’ sons of his day. Working on the farm 
in the summer season, and in winter picking up a mod- 
est education at the common country schools, filled up 
the early part of his life. On the opening of the Indi- 
ana Asbury University, at Greencastle, young Goodwin 
was the first student from abroad to avail himself of the 
privileges of the institution, and in 1840 he was a mem- 
ber of the first class which graduated at that university. 
He entered the Indiana Methodist Conference the same 
year, and continued in pastoral work until 1844, when 
he opened the Madison Female College, in which he 
continued for several years. He subsequently assumed 
the presidency of the Brookville College, resigning the 
place in 1853 to take charge of the Indiana American, 
a paper of twenty years’ standing, which had hitherto 
been Whig. Under Mr. Goodwin’s control it soon be- 
came a most pronounced anti-slavery paper, reflecting 
in its columns the advanced views of its editor on 
this question, before the Republican party had as yet 
any existence. Long before assuming editorial control 
of the American, ‘Parson Goodwin” had become widely 


7th Dist.) 


known as a fearless and outspoken champion of the 
slave, and an unsparing denouncer of the system which 
kept the negro race in shackles under a free flag. In 
his ministerial capacity he had. fearlessly proclaimed his 
sentiments, and among his brethren of the South the 
hated term Abolitionist soon began to be coupled with 
his name. Always a man of decided convictions, and 
capable of impressing his stamp upon those with whom 
he came in contact either personally or through the 
medium of his paper, he soon became an acknowledged 
leader in what seemed at first almost a forlorn hope, 
but was destined to wield an influence that shook the 
country. to its center, and culminated at last in the war 
which brought freedom to the slave, and wiped from 
the page of American liberty the one foul blot upon its 
otherwise spotless record. 
paper increased, and it seemed. necessary for him to 
change his base of operations, in April, 1857, he ap- 
peared unheralded, with type and press, in the city of 
Indianapolis, and commenced the issue of his paper 
from that city, continuing its name, and intensifying its 
peculiar characteristics. In addition to its anti-slavery 
features, it was extremely radical on the temperance 
question, and soon obtained the largest circulation of 
any paper in the state, and wielded a dominant influ- 
ence in the politics of the embryo Republican party, 
After the organization of that body, and its subsequent 
success, so many rival-papers sprung up to share in the 
_patronage of the public, and the mission of the American 
having virtually ended with the abolition of slavery, it 
was discontinued during the first years of the war. For 
some time before the commencement of the great 
struggle, Mr. Goodwin had become convinced that the 
question of the extension and abolition of slavery was 
destined to be settled only by the sword, and in 1869 
he gave utterance to the sentiment that war was ‘‘not 
only inevitable, but desirable.” On laying down the pen, 
“Mr. Goodwin sought rest and quiet in agricultural pur- 
suits, but his active brain grew restive in retirement, and in 
1870 he resumed the conduct of the paper. For about 
a year and a half he devoted himself assiduously to his 
editorial labdrs, but the time for a paper of the pecul- 
jar characteristics of the American had passed away, and, 
after having made serious inroads upon his health, he 


As the circulation of his 


was obliged to seek recuperation in farm life, and was 
enabled in a great measure to recover his former good 
health. During all this time Mr. Goodwin had con- 
tinued to exercise the functions of a local preacher in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, averaging about, one 
hundred sermons each year for upwards of twenty years; 
and this almost wholly without compensation: of any 
kind, paying his own traveling expenses and furnishing 
his own outfit.. Mr. Goodwin has attained no less celeb- 
rity as an original: and independent writer and littéra- 
teur than as the bold and aggressive editor of the pio- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


47 


He has been a 
frequent and regular contributor to the leading religious 
periodicals of New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago, and 
his articles have attracted wide-spread attention, and 


neer Abolition newspaper of Indiana. 


have been extensively copied. Under the om de plume of 
«“U, L.C.,” his contributions to the Indianapolis Journal 
have been always looked for with eagerness, and read 
with pleasure by all classes of readers. His style is 
remarkable for its quaint originality, and goes right to 
the point, with a terseness and vigor which is character- 
istic of the man. He does not allow himself to be con- 
fined by any literary shackles in the expression of his 
independent thought, and there is a charm in his bold 
aggressiveness which at once commends him to the 
thoughtful and intelligent. In 1874 a work appeared 
from the pen of Mr. Goodwin which gave him not only 
a national but a world-wide reputation, and for a time 
arrayed against him in his own denomination the so- 
called ‘‘orthodox” thinkers. This was his book en- 
titled -‘*The Mode of Man’s Immortality.” 
bold attack upon the traditional doctrines of the Church 
relating to the future life, and created a sensation which 
finally resulted in a trial of the author by the Church 
for heresy. The prosecution was, however, abandoned 
before any final decision was arrived at, and Mr. Good- 
win. still retains his membership in the Church which 


It was a 


he has served so long: and faithfully. A large num- 
ber of published sermons and tracts of Mr. Goodwin 
have been widely read and extensively circulated. Prom- 
inent among these may be mentioned his treatise on 
‘¢The Perfect Man,” which was almost universally con- 
ceded to be one of the finest- productions on the subject 
ever penned, and elicited the most favorable comments 
from the press and the reading public. During the 
existence of the Indiana Christian Advocate, Mr. Good- 
win was its editor and publisher. Even among those 
whose opinions are at variance with his, Mr. Goodwin is 
looked up to with the utmost respect, and by many with 
a feeling akin to reverence. His manly and. independ- 
ent spirit commands for him universal approbation ; he 
has proved himself a man equal to every emergency in 
which he has been placed; as a gentleman of culture 
and taste, he stands among the foremost in his state; as 
a minister and. a man, his character and standing are 
above reproach; as a pleasing and original writer and 
thinker, he takes rank with the best of his day and genera- 
tion; and asa ‘‘representative man,” none can deny hima 
prominent place in the history of Indiana’s noted names. 
Mr. Goodwin has a profound contempt for that snobbery 
which parades its ancestry as a passport to favor, and 
often referred to his pedigree with a relish, if not with 
pride. During the war he was in Kentucky in a com- 
pany of Northern and Southern ladies and gentlemen, 
when one of the ladies announced, with a flourish, that 
she belonged to the first families of Kentucky, and pro- 


48 


ceeded to detail her connection with historic names. 
«And I,” said Mr. Goodwin, ‘‘ belong to one of the first 
My father was ‘a tanner and my 
‘grandfather was a hunter, and back of that I have 
never traced my pedigree, never doubting that it was 
equally distinguished all the way back to the beginning. 
My grandfather left Connecticut about the beginning 
the Revolutionary War, and went to Western Pennsyl- 
vania. He did n’t move, for he had nothing but a gun 
and an ax to move; and thus he became one of the 
first families, if not the very first, on the Redstone 
River. Ile remained there until the population became 
inconveniently dense, and fish and game became un- 
profitably scarce, when he built a small boat and floated 
down the Monongahela and Ohio to Fort Washington, 
now Cincinnati, about 1792, thus becoming one of the 
first families of Cincinnati. Here he remained several 
years, practicing his profession, that of a hunter, until 


families of Indiana. 


neighbors became inconveniently numerous, and gamé 
even scarcer than in the Redstone country, when he 
moved to the Mad River country, near where Dayton 
now is, and became one of the first families of Mont- 
gomery County, Ohio. Meanwhile my father was born. 
He left home at thirteen and became a tanner, and 
soon after his marriage he removed to Indiana, while 
it was yet a territory, and thus became one of the first 
families in Indiana. That ’s my pedigree, and I am 
proud to compare it with any Kentucky family that 
ever lived.”? Nothing further was said about first fam- 
ilies on that occasion. 


—+-$006 >— 


(A ORDON, JONATHAN W., is a native of Wash- 
g ington County, Pennsylvania, where he was born 
He is the son of William Gor- 
don, an Irishman of Scotch descent, who emi- 
grated from County Down, Ireland, to the United 
States in the winter of 1789-90. His father married 
Sarah Walton, a native of Greenbrier County, Virginia, 
August 18, 1795. They had fourteen children, six sons 
and eight daughters. He is their youngest son and the 
next to the youngest of the whole family. His father 
died January 20, 1841, and his mother May 29, 1857, in 
Ripley County, Indiana, having emigrated thither in 
April, 1835. Here Jonathan grew up to man’s estate, 
acquiring a common school education, studying law, 
and being admitted to the bar February 27, 1844. In 
the mean time he had married Miss Catherine J. Over- 
turf. He followed his profession until the breaking out 
of the Mexican War, when he joined our volunteer 
army as a private soldier, becoming a member of the 
company of Captain William Ford, 3d Regiment Indi- 
ana Volunteers, June 9, 1846. He was subsequently 
appointed sergeant-major of the regiment by its colonel. 
With the regiment he arrived at Brazos de Santiago 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


July 27, 1846, and at the mouth of the Rio Grande 
August 3. Here he was taken sick, his health, never 
good up to this time, breaking down under the influ- 
ence of the climate, and the hardships and exposures 
of the camp. After remaining about two months in a 
nearly hopeless condition, and it being found impossible 
for him to recover there, he was honorably discharged 
in the latter part of September, and sent home on the 
brig ‘‘Hope Howes.” A sea voyage, lasting more than 
a month, perhaps contributed much to save his life, 
but for five years after his return home he labored 
under the disease which he had contracted in the army, 
and was not fully restored to health until late in the 
year 1854. In 1847 he suffered greatly from hemor- 
rhage and abscess of his lungs, with all the usual 
symptoms of consumption, but, after lingering for seven 
months, so far recovered as to think of resuming busi- 
His physician, however, warned him against at- 
tempting to speak in public. He was thus driven to 
turn his attention to some other profession than the 
law. He accordingly resumed the study of medicine, 
of which he had previously acquired some knowledge, 
and during the winter of 1847-8 attended a course of 
lectures in Rush Medical College, Chicago. He subse- 
quently graduated in the Medical Department of Asbury 
University, and practiced medicine for a little more 
than two years at Moore’s Hill, Dearborn County, In- 
diana. In his new profession he was more successful 
than he had been in the law, or, indeed, than he had 
any right, beforehand, to have expected to be. While 
engaged in the practice of medicine he was elected a 
member of the State Medical Society of Indiana, and 
made chairman of its committee on Asiatic cholera—a 
position which he held as long as he remained in the 
profession. But his new profession was never to his 
liking, and, with the gradual recovery of his health, his 
desire to resume the law increased, until in 1852 he re- 
moved to Indianapolis, for the purpose of making the 
desired change in his business. Financial embarrass- 


ness. 


ment, however, compelled him for some time to take 


employment as reporter to the Indianapolis daily Jour 
nal, and editor of the Cha7t, a weekly newspaper pub- 
lished under the patronage of the Grand Division of 
the Sons of Temperance. He thus divided his time be- 
tween the press and the law for nearly two years. In 
1853 he became an independent candidate for the office 
of reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
state, running against his friend, the Hon. Albert G. 
Porter, who was the nominee of the Democratic party. 
The condition of the Whig party in the state and 
country was then so low that no one contested his right 
to the field. We was supported by the Whig press of 
the state, and received the votes of such of the party as 
saw fit to go to the polls. He was defeated, however, 
as from the first he expected to be; but we have often 


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7th Dist.) 


heard him say that he was prouder of the contest, even 
with its‘adverse results, than of any other in which he 
has since been engaged. For, being independent of 
party dictation in respect to the means of carrying on 
the contest, he was driven to resort to no expedient that 
his judgment and conscience have not at all times since 
fully approved. He still looks back, with some degree 
of pride, to the fact that by far the most favorable no- 
tice of his opponent’s character and fitness for the place 
that was published by the press of the state during the 
contest was written by himself, and published in his 
Nor did the result at all wound 
The next 


own editorial columns. 
his feelings or disappoint his expectations. 
year he was nominated and elected prosecuting attorney 
for Marion County, receiving a majority of seven hun- 
dred and fifty-two votes over the most brilliant orator 
of the Democratic party—Richard J. Ryan, Esq. Dur- 
ing his term his civil practice increased to such an ex- 
tent that he resigned the office, in order that he might 
give his undivided attention to more profitable business. 
But the state of popular excitement which had followed 
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854, the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the condition 
of public affairs to which it gave rise in Kansas, ren- 
dered it impossible for a man of Mr. Gordon’s prin- 
ciples and temperament to keep aloof from the political 
struggles of the times. He took an active part in them 
all, and, in June, 1856, went as a delegate of the state 
at large to the National Republican Convention, held 
in that month at Philadelphia. Upon his return home 
he addressed the people of Indianapolis on what he 
had seen and heard and assisted in doing while 
at the convention. His speech was one of the 
most successful of his life and created great en- 
thusiasm in his hearers. Its effects spread rapidly, 
and at the county convention, which happened a 
few days later, he was nominated on the first ballot 
for Representative in the General Assembly. The can- 
vass of the county which followed was worthy of this 
beginning. Never was a more energetic or enthusiastic 
contest for popular support waged than that between 
him and the eloquent Ryan, who was again his oppo- 
Mr. Ryan, as a popular orator, had many ad- 
vantages over him; but what he gained in this respect 
was counterbalanced by the careful study and arrange- 
ment of the facts and principles involved in the polit- 
ical situation by Mr. Gordon, one of whose speeches 
was published in a thick pamphlet of fifty-six pages, 
shortly before the election, and had the honor to be 
designated afterwards by Theodore Parker as a ‘‘mas- 
terly argument,” which he was unwilling to do without. 
It was in this argument that Mr. Gordon developed, 
from the conflicting doctrines of the Democratic press 
and orators throughout the country, the theory of rights 
which that party, in case of Mr. Buchanan’s election, 


c—4 


nent. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


49 


would be compelled to accord to the institution of 
slavery in the territories, and the theory of power in 
the government which they would be compelled to ex- 
ercise for the protection of the rights so accorded. This 
prediction was the logical result of a laborious induc- 
tion from many vague statements and seemingly in- 
different facts, which he collected and arranged; and 
was particular in its details and specifications, setting 
down both the theory of rights and of powers in distinct 
categorical propositions. It ended by asking the people 
to remember and watch, and see if, in case of Mr. 
Buchanan’s election, it would not be literally fulfilled. 
It so happened that, subsequent to the inauguration of 
Mr. Buchanan, every proposition contained in the theory, 
both of rights and powers, as set forth in the speech, 
was distinctly reiterated as constitutional doctrine by the 
The Supreme Court of the United 
States also forced themselves to the same conclusion, 
which would, if the nation had accepted it, have made 
the institution of slavery national. To show that these 
doctrines were henceforth to be upheld by the executive 
and judicial depariments of the government, the court 
allowed Mr. Buchanan to anticipate, in his inaugural 
address, the publication of their opinion; and so to in- 
form the country in advance that the court would soon 
finally settle the slavery question, putting it beyond the 
pale of legitimate politics. At the close of the contest 
it was found that, although the Republicans had car- 
ried the county, the state had gone for the Democracy. 
The House of Representatives did not contain a sufh- 
cient number of Republicans even to break a quorum, 


administration. 


or to materially check the majority in the consumma- 
tion of its purposes. The session that followed was, 
nevertheless, a stormy one, and in the heated debates 
which took place Mr. Gordon took a leading part. 
Many of the acts of the majority were without prece- 
dent in the history of the state, or, indeed, of any of 
the states; contrary to the plain letter of the state and 
national Constitutions, and simply revolutionary. Among 
these stood prominently forth the election of Messrs. 
Bright and Fitch to the Senate of the United States 
by a mere meeting of the Democratic members of the 
two houses of the General Assembly, without an agree- 
ment to do so by any concurrent action of the two 
Houses. 
nized and certified by the executive of the state, as if it 
had been an election duly held by the Legislature; and 
the United States Senate accepted the gentlemen so 
commissioned as legal members. It is needless to say 
that such proceedings constituted very proper steps to- 
ward the attempt, then imminent, to destroy the Union 
and its government; and provoked in those who still 
respected the Constitutions enough to obey them, intense 
feeling, and led to bitter denunciations. None felt the 
outrage more deeply, or resented it more warmly than 


This reckless proceeding was, however, recog- 


50 


Mr. Gordon. Nevertheless, he did not allow it to ab- 
sorb his entire attention or energies as a member of the 
House. He had long cherished a desire to secure, if 
possible, an entire change in our system of penal law, 
which he regarded, and still holds to be, in its funda- 
mental principles and practice, a mere abuse. He 
brought forward a resolution which embodied the out- 
lines of a substitute for it. In this resolution he re- 
jected, as unfounded in justice, and therefore subver- 
sive of every just idea of a state, the notion of punish- 
ment, maintaining that in no relation whatever has 
man a right to inflict punishment upon man for crimes— 
that is, so much evil in suffering for so much evil done; 
and that its infliction becomes, in almost every instance, 
an insurmountable obstacle to the reformation of those 
who suffer it, and tends to the constant reproduction 
and increase of the offenses at the suppression of which 
it is aimed. He maintained, on the contrary, that the 
function of the state, towards those regarded and treated 
as criminals, is: 1. To prevent their violation of its 
laws by the infliction of injuries upon others; and, 2. 
When such prevention has not been accomplished in 
any case, to employ such means as may best prevent a 
repetition of like injuries from the same person; and 
secure to the person injured, as nearly as possible, com- 
pensation for the wrong done him. The prevention of 
future injury by one who has already wronged another 
would, he contended, require the imprisonment of the 
offender until his reformation should remove all reason- 
able grounds to apprehend further danger from any law- 
less act of his. The compensation to the injured party 
for the damage resulting from the injury, he insisted, 
should be made the measure of all further claim upon 
the offender. Such compensation is simply just, and in- 
volves no element of punishment whatever. The mag- 
nitude of the wrong done would thus, in every case, be 
measured by the damages resulting from it, and the 
claim of the state upon the wrong-doer ought to cease 
whenever compensation to the injured party was made. 
This compensation excludes from the code the inflic- 
tion of death, except under circumstances which are 
not compatible with established civil society and gov- 
ernment. He illustrated the proposed system thus: 
Suppose A steals B’s horse, and succeeds in taking 
him away. B loses the value of the horse, say one 
hundred dollars, by the theft. The original injury, 
thus inflicted, gives B the right, either with or without 
the aid of the state, to pursue and arrest A, and, if 
possible, to recover possession of his horse. Suppose he 
succeeds so far as to arrest A, but does not regain pos- 
session of his horse, he will then have lost by A’s 
wrongful act the value of his horse, and such expense 
in time and money as the pursuit and capture of the 
thief has cost him, say fifty dollars. The injury done 
by A to B has thus damaged him in the sum of one 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


hundred and fifty dollars. The damage measures the 
wrong, as well as the right of the state to enforce com- 
pensation. But the thief, in addition to this damage, 
has created a sense of insecurity in society by his 
wrongful act, which is felt even before the conditions 
necessary to estimate the amount of B's damage can be 
arrived at; and this result of the offense may remain 
long after B’s damage has been ascertained and com- 
pensated. Now, against this sense of insecurity thus 
resulting the state is bound to protect society. In the 
nature of the case, this right of the state in the offender 
attaches before, and may survive the consideration of, 
the question of damage resulting from the private in- 
jury. <A, upon his arrest, is therefore in the hands of 
the state to respond to both these demands, and must 
remain a prisoner until both are answered. But a trial 
is necessary in order that it may be ascertained whether 
he has really been guilty of any wrong at all, and, if 
he shall be found guilty, what may be the amount of 
the damages so resulting from his wrongful act. While 
awaiting this trial, before any steps can be taken by 
him to lessen the obligation supposed to have been 
contracted by his injurious act, there will be necessarily 
incurred still other expenses for his board and lodging. 
Let it be supposed that these additional expenses amount 
to fifty dollars. Then, up to the date of his trial and 
judgment, he will, if found guilty, owe in all the sum 
of two hundred dollars. To these must be added the 
costs of trial, which may amount to fifty dollars more. 
So let the judgment go against him for the sum of two 
hundred and fifty dollars in favor of those who may be 
entitled to receive it. At the same time let it be ad- 
judged that he be imprisoned in one of the state-prisons 
until the net proceeds of his labor shall pay the debt. 
And he must understand that, although he may be re- 
leased from confinement when he shall thus have satis- 
fied the judgment against him, yet such release shall 
depend upon the fact whether he shall at that time be 
able to prove that he is a reformed man, of habits of 
industry and honesty so well established as to make it 
safe to restore him to liberty. If he can not show that 
he is thus reformed, and so fit to be intrusted with 
freedom, he must still remain a prisoner; no longer, 
however, with reference to the private obligations re- 
sulting from his wrongful act, but merely with a view 
to the protection of society and his own reformation. 
The proceeds of his labor will, therefore, be his own, 
but may be applied to support his family if he have 
one. In order to determine whether his private obliga- 
tion has been paid, and his moral character established, 
the plan embraced the creation of a-court to sit at the 
prison to hear and determine all such questions. It_ 
was maintained that the principle involved in this illus- 
tration might be applied to all acts now regarded and 
punished as crimes, and that the analogue of the whole 


7th Dist.) 


proceedings already exists, though not ina single action, 
in actions civil and criminal already established by 
law. One great advantage of such a system, it was con- 
tended, would be the substitution of voluntary for in- 
voluntary labor whenever that might be possible, and 
so afford the best condition for the establishment of 
habits of industry and a reformed life. Without such 
habits it is impossible to reform any offender, for the 
essential conditions of an upright life in their absence 
can not exist. It was urged that the proposed system 
would secure the best results of prison labor, and be 
sure to make our prisons self-supporting. It would keep 
constantly before the offender’s mind the justice of his 
sentence, and so teach him, if that may be possible, 
that wrong-doing is an expensive luxury, oppressing and 
humiliating him who falls into it. In murder, the of- 
fender should be treated as having so far committed 
himself against society as never again to be intrusted 
with the liberty of repeating it. But while the state 
maintained its right to perpetually detain him in cus- 
tody, for the safety of society, no argument could be 
urged against a judgment compelling him to labor for 
the support of those dependent upon the exertions of 
his victim. Such a judgment would be simply just. A 
man guilty of treason, or other crime against the pub- 
lic, involving no private injury, ought to labor for the 
state; and be restrained of his liberty, in case of treason, 
during his natural life; and, in lesser offenses, until, as 
in other cases, the pecuniary injury resulting from the 
offense should be compensated, and his moral char- 
acter established. There should exist no power to par- 
don the imprisonment in any case. Indeed, the ends to 
be attained by means of the imprisonment would render 
the principle of pardon wholly inapplicable. On the 
other hand, the individual injured by any crime, might 
at any time, after sentence had been passed, pardon 
the injury and resulting damages, after which the net 
proceeds of the offender’s labor should inure to his 
own benefit, or that of his family, as in cases when 
the private damages had been paid. Such a pardon 
would be a personal charity, involving the principle 
of forgiveness of injuries, and would, if any thing 
could, touch the heart of the offender, and lead him to 
better thoughts and a higher life. It is the ‘‘ goodness 
of God that leadeth men to repentance.” Shall not the 
mercy and charity of men help in the same direction? 
Of course this plan did not command a majority in the 
House of Representatives. It was defeated. In 1858 
Mr. Gordon was elected again to the House, and re- 
newed the proposition, but with similar results. He 
succeeded, however, in securing the appointment of a 
standing committee, with instructions to inquire touch- 
ing the proposed system, and the reasons for and against 
its adoption, and to report the result to the next Gen- 
eral Assembly. This committee, owing to the troubled 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


51 


state of the country, never met; and the plan, so far as 
legislation in the state was concerned, died with it. It 
was not, however, abandoned, but was presented to the 
National Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory Dis- 
cipline, which convened at Cincinnati, Ohio, in October, 
1870, in an essay prepared by Mr. Gordon, and read be- 
fore that body by the Hon. Barnabas C. Hobbs. Owing 
to its author’s views of its incompleteness, the essay was 
withdrawn, and does not appear among the published 
proceedings of the congress. The proposed system is 
still maintained by him, and not without hope of its 
ultimate adoption, for some of the ablest men of the 
state are now its earnest advocates. When the General 
Assembly met in special session, in November, 1858, 
under the Governor’s proclamation, Mr. Gordon was 
chosen speaker of the House. He did not, however, 
confine his attention or labors to the duties of that po- 
sition, but gave himself up entirely to the work of in- 
vestigating abuses, and providing by suitable legislation 
against the possibility of their recurrence. In the work 
of investigation he was the real leader, while in the still 
greater work of preparing measures that should prevent 
future abuses in administration, he earnestly co-operated 
with Messrs. D. C. Branham, Hamilton Smith, James 
Harney, John L. Mansfield, and others, who were their 
authors, and are entitled to the honors of the pre-eminent 
services which they thereby rendered the state. At the 
distance of more than twenty years, it seems strange 
that measures which have entirely prevented the evils 
at which they were aimed, and which still bear the seal 
of public approval, should ever have encourttered serious 
opposition; but so it was, that at the time of their 
adoption a great party, with the Governor at its head, 
was almost unanimously opposed to them. Messrs. Smith 
and Harney should always be remembered as honorable 
exceptions, preferring, as they did, public welfare to 
party dictation and harmony. In the earnest advocacy 
of these measures Mr. Gordon took a leading part. He 
was re-elected speaker at the commencement of the 
regular session by an increased majority, although he 
lost the votes of two of his own party, who opposed 
him from private pique. At the close of the session, 
Mr. Gordon, in his valedictory address to the House, 
reviewed the labors of the General Assembly, and did 
not fail to point out what he regarded as well done or 
iil done, and to expose the means by which some of its 
wisest measures and best efforts had been defeated. 
And now, looking back over the political contest of 
1860, it may be safely said that the Republican party 
owed its success in the state that year quite as much to 
the investigations thus made, and the measures thus 
passed to secure honesty in public administration, as to 
all other causes. In 1859 the office of Common Pleas 
Judge of his district became vacant by the death of 
Hon. David Wallace, and very many of his friends of 


52 


the bar. of both parties united in a request that he 
should become a candidate for the position. At first he 
consented, but soon withdrew upon finding that there 
were men in his party who would not suffer even the 
election of a judge without a partisan conflict. As this 
became manifest, he withdrew, giving his reasons for so 
doing in a letter of which he may always be proud, in 
which he said: 


‘I retire from this contest, therefore, for no other 
reason than because it is a contest; for both my friends 
and my own judgment assure me that I could succeed. 
But success to me would not compensate for the danger 
and disgrace that must arise to the Republican cause 
from a heartless scramble for place among Republicans. 
I will be no party to such a scramble now or hereafter; 
and especially not for the sake of a judicial position, 
upon whose occupant should continually rest the light 
of general public confidence.” 


There are always men who, deeming that the course 
of public opinion and action may be formed and con- 
trolled by their own little expedients, are constantly 
preparing platforms and candidates in advance for the 
party to which they belong. A number of this class in 
1858 commenced choosing a course which the Republi- 
can party should adopt and pursue to gain power. It 
was nothing to them that the party would have to give 
up all the objects which would make power available to 
With them power was the chief object 
So they began in that year to 
seek to merge the party in a fusion party, by dropping 
all its distinctive principles and aims, and uniting with 
Mr. Douglas in a mere opposition league against the 
administration of Mr. Buchanan. They succeeded in 
Indiana in effecting a kind of union with the followers 
of the ‘‘Little Giant,” but gained no substantial ad- 


any good end. 
of political action. 


vantage by it, while their example and moral influence 
gave encouragement to enough Republicans of their 
own class to defeat Mr. Lincoln in Illinois. But their 
scheme went further. It aimed at effecting a similar 
fusion in the presidential contest of 1860; and they em- 
ployed themselves earnestly, from 1858 until the meet- 
ing of the Chicago convention in 1860, in endeavoring 
to suppress the distinctive platform of the party, and in 
placing at its head Edward Bates, of Missouri, who in 
1856 was one of its most pronounced and bitter enemies. 
In this purpose there was a union of men in several 
states who had outlived their usefulness to the progres- 
sive tendencies of the times. Horace Greeley, Francis 
P. Blair, senior, and his sons, Francis P. and Montgom- 
ery, John D. Defrees, Caleb B. Smith, Schuyler Colfax, 
and others, East and West, co-operated in the move- 
ment. It was a queer enterprise, and yet, at one time, 
had the support of a great many of the active politi- 
cians of Indiana. Its friends boasted that it was sure 
of the votes of the delegates from a majority of the 
congressional districts of the state. Papers were found to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7 Dist. 


openly support it, and leading public men were ac- 
tive and even zealous in their measures to secure its suc- 
cess. The means adopted to this end were novel, and 
fell below those which are suitable to any just public 
purpose. It was known that Mr. Bates resided in a 
slave state, and they took pains to let those of the South 
know that he was a slave-holder and a Whig. These 
were to be the factors of his strength in the South. 
Another set were necessary to commend him to the 
earnest men of the North, who regarded slavery as in- 
imical to our free government and its institutions, and 
at war with the peace of the country. To make him 
suit these, they procured him to write a letter to one of 
their number, of which they made many copies, which 
were placed in the hands of those already committed to 
their cause, to be by them shown to others whose co- 
operation they desired. This letter was abreast with 
the most advanced principles of the party, and in com- 
plete accord with its platform. It was used by the 
leaders of the plan without the name of its author until 
the person to whom it was presented expressed himself 
Then he was asked how he 
would like its author as a candidate for the presidency, 
and, finally, when it was deemed that he was sufficiently 
committed, the whole plan was opened to him, with an 
offer of ‘stock in it” if he would aid in its accomplish- 
In other words, it was to be a kind of party 
within the party; a close corporation, which should, in 


satisfied with its doctrines. 


ment. 


case of success, receive and control its entire patronage. 
It was proposed to Mr. Gordon with the usual offer of 
stock in it; but it was repugnant to his convictions of 
duty, and he rejected it promptly, saying: ‘*‘ Publish 
that letter and open the whole matter to the public, and 
then I can cheerfully give your candidate my support; 
but never shall I do so in the form in which you pro- 
In December, 1859, he was requested 
to address the Young Men’s Republican Club of Indian- 
apolis, and consented to do so. He accordingly pre- 
pared an elaborate speech upon the philosophy of polit- 
ical life and action, and the conditions essential to their 
preservation and usefulness, and concluded the whole by 
a thorough exposure of the utter unfitness of Mr. Bates 
to be the candidate of the party for the presidency. 
Not wishing, however, to obtrude unacceptable views 


pose to carry it.” 


upon the club without informing its members that 
his utterances might not please them, he opened the 
nature and subject of the speech to the president 
of the club beforehand. The result the 
speech was never called for, and, after waiting for 
nearly two months for an opportunity to deliver it, he 
and others called a meeting to organize the Old Men’s 
Republican Club, for the night of February 5, 1860, 
and after it was organized the speech was immediately 
delivered before it. A very large edition of that part 
of it which related to the candidacy of Mr. Bates was 


was, 


7th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
published in a pamphlet of sixteen octavo pages, and 
circulated at once awide over the state and country 
at large. From that time until the close of the state 
convention the contest between the supporters and op- 
posers of the scheme was pronounced and bitter. The 
pamphlet had for its title-page the question: ‘‘ Edward 
Bates—is he fit, is he available as the Republican can- 
didate for the presidency?” Mr. Greeley responded to 
it in an article of two columns in the Tribune, wnder 
the caption, ‘‘The Fittest Man to be President.” These 
were employed at the state convention by the friends 
and foes of the scheme, which failed at last to secure 
the indorsement of that body. This was all that its ad- 
versaries desired; for it left the delegates to the national 
convention free to pursue their own inclinations, while 
it gave them a very clear intimation that Mr. Bates was 
not as strong in the state as his friends had maintained. 
The result of it all was that the vote of the state was 
given entire, throughout, to Mr. Lincoln. Had Mr. 
Bates received it on the other hand, it would almost 
certainly have defeated Mr. Lincoln’s nomination; and, 
while it is certain that Mr. Bates could never have suc- 
the choice of the convention must have fallen 
Whe he might have been we 


ceeded, 
on some other candidate. 
are left to conjecture; but now, at the end of twenty 
years, with all the light they and their deeds shed upon 
the illustrious men who were there before the conven- 
tion, it would be difficult to find an intelligent patriotic 
man in the country who is not satisfied with its choice, 
and, even more, glad that Mr. Bates was not nominated. 
Mr. Gordon, at least, has never repented of that day’s 
work, although to his own political ambitions it was 
quite as disastrous as to Mr. Bates’s aspirations for the 
presidency. At the organization of the General As- 
sembly in 1861, he was elected clerk of the House of 
Representatives, a position which he accepted that he 
might be able to aid his party friends in completing the 
system of laws regulating the administrative department 
of the government, which had been left imperfect at 
the close of the last preceding session, owing to the 
fact that one of the bills of the system had been vetoed 
by the Governor. . This bill affixed pains and penalties 
to certain acts of malversation in office, and was drafted 
by Mr. Gordon, and became the first bill of the session 
of 1861, being introduced by Hon. D. C. Branham, who 
is justly entitled to the hoaor of devising the entire 
system, which remains to-day almost unaltered upon the 
statute book. As soon as its passage was effected Mr. 
Gordon cared not to retain the position of clerk; and, 
accordingly, at the opening of the special session of 
1861, he resigned it for a place in the ranks of the vol- 
unteer army called into existence by the President. 
Between the election and inauguration of President 
Lincoln, Mr. Gordon was active and zealous in his 
endeavors to give strength and consistency to public 


MEN OL INDIANA. 53 
opinion, that it might be fitted for the great crisis that 
was manifestly at hand. In favor of according to the 
Southern people their utmost rights under the Constitu- 
tion, he was, nevertheless, utterly opposed to all further 
compromises with them. He both wrote and spoke 
elaborately upon the subject, and when the outbreak 
finally came he placed his name first upon the roll of 
volunteers in the state capital. At the request of the 
Governor he raised one hundred and forty men, who 
wére to have been mustered as a battery; but, failing to 
procure guns and equipments, they were finally, after 
much discontent and ill feeling among the men, dis- 
banded. This, it is believed, led to ill blood between 
the Governor and Mr. Gordon, which continued to the 
end of the Governor’s life. It is useless, however, to 
inquire into the grounds of this ill feeling and quarrel, 
as the one is now dead and the other content to let 
them remain fallow forever. It was too late when his 
company was disbanded for Mr. Gordon to raise an- 
other; for the first six regiments required of Indiana by 
the proclamation. of the President the whole number 
of companies was already made up, and more asking 
admission. He was, therefore, under the necessity of 
enlisting, or awaiting the next call for troops. He was 
unwilling to wait, and accordingly sought and obtained 
a place in Company G, 9th Regiment Indiana Volunteer 
Infantry, with which he was mustered into the service 
of the United States, April 23, 1861. Three days later, 
the colonel appointed him sergeant-major, in which 
capacity he went to West Virginia. The day after the 
surprise and capture of Philippi, he was placed in com- 
mand of a small body of mounted scouts, which he led 
until the President appointed him a major of the 11th 
Regiment of Infantry in the army of the United States. 
This appointment reached him June 18, 1861, and was 
accepted a few days later. He remained with General 
Morris, however, until the close of the campaign. It 
was while serving in that capacity that he took part in 
the battle of Carrick’s Ford, and received from the 
general special notice for courage and coolness, in the 
preliminary report of that officer. At the close of the 
action he was at the front, called the attention of our 
troops to a party of the enemy with which General 
Garnett was opposing our passage of the second ford, 
and directed the fire which resulted in his death and 
the rout of the party. He took charge of the remains, 
arms, and other property of the fallen general, and re- 
ported them to General Morris upon the field, with the 
request that he might be permitted to return them to 
the friends of the dead. This request was granted; 
and thereupon he gave the general a receipt for them, 
one clause of which bound him ‘‘to transmit them to 
General Garnett’s relatives as soon as practicable.”” In 
going to the headquarters of his regiment, at Boston, 
he stopped at New York, where George S. Nelson, Esq., 


54 


the father-in-law of General Garnett, then resided ; and 
there, in the presence of Hon. Robert N. Hudson and 
Algernon S. Sullivan, delivered every article of General 
Garnett’s property to him, who received and receipted for 
it, in trust for the Garnetts, Along with the property 
there delivered he gave Mr. Nelson a letter, designed to 
let the friends of the deceased know the circumstances 
of his death In this letter he said: 

‘«¢ He died like a brave and gallant soldier; and al- 
though the shot took effect in his back, I take a melan- 
choly pleasure in bearing testimony that there is no 
ground of reproach in the fact. The state of his forces 
made that position necessary to the continuance of the 
contest, which he manifested no disposition to abandon,” 

Yet, notwithstanding this honorable treatment of the 
dead and his friends, Major Gordon was nevertheless 
assailed by part of the Democratic press of the North, 
and very generally by the press of the South, for having 
carried the arms and other property of the dead enemy 
home with him; and enormous falsehoods were invented 
and put into circulation, as if to fire the blood of 
Southern people against him whose kindness had far 
outrun the utmost spirit of the laws of civilized warfare 
in respect to an enemy’s property, and especially to his 
arms. Among other things, it was declared that Major 
Gordon had directed the fire that killed General Gar- 
nett while that officer was waving a white handkerchief 
in token of his desire to surrender, and so had violated 
the laws of war. This accusation made it proper for 
him to advert to these charges in his letter to the rela- 
tives of the dead. He accordingly said: 

‘¢ Having said this much, I ought, perhaps, to say no 
more. But a part of the press North, and the press South, 
have made yet another word proper and necessary. You 
should know that General Garnett was not killed by as- 
sassins, in violation of the rules of civilized warfare, but 
by Christian soldiers, in defense of their own lives and 
the lives of their officers, who must have fallen if General 
Garnett had succeeded in rallying his men for another fire. 
It is not true that General Garnet hada white hand- 
kerchief in his hand, which he waved in token of his 
desire to surrender. He had no handkerchief, nor any 
thing else in his hand, and was seemingly intent on 
rallying‘his forces for another volley. Had he had any 
white handkerchief or other handkerchief about him, I 
need not have borrowed one from a private soldier, as I 
did, to tie up his jaws, when closing his eyes and 
mouth, All charges of unkindness to the deceased, or 
of any parade over his remains or property, are simply 
heartless slanders againsta courteous and piteous charity, 


that forgot the enemy in the man, and wept for his 
untimely fate,’’ 


Major Gordon had occasion to be comforted by what 


followed hard upon this attack of the press upon him; | 


for the same papers that assailed him, for his courtesy 
to a fallen foe, as if he had been a thief and robber, 
within less than thirty days after doing so published 
without censue the fact that a brother of General 
Cameron, who fell in the battle of Bull Run, hed been 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


stripped of his arms, watch, and seven hundred dollars in 
gold coin, which were taken South, and paraded in public 
as legitimate spoils of war, by the enemies of the govern- 
ment. And still later, during the same year, the same 
press found nothing worthy of condemnation, or censure 
even, in the unfeeling and brutal letter of General Beau- 
regard to Colonel Cameron’s sister, Mrs. Evans, who 
asked permission to enter his lines and remove her 
brother’s remains to friendly soil. We are left to be- 
lieve, from this discrimination, that, if it had been as 
safe to shoot as it was to lie against the soldiers of the 
Union, these Northern editors would have found their 
proper place in the Southern army. And this ought to 
content Major Gordon as long as he lives. During the 
early days of secession there were nowhere in the coun- 
try any very definite notions concerning the predic- 
aments that might arise from it. The men of the South 
who advocated it did, indeed, regard it as capable of 
giving rise in each seceding state, at once, to an inde- 
That much was settled in their judg- 
ment, and they saw nothing beyond that worthy of 
consideration. The national administration, on the 
other hand, had no definite views on the subject. 
ident Buchanan seemed to regard secession as an act of 
the state so far legal as to make any attempt on the part 
of the government to prevent it by force unlawful; for 
he declared that the government had no authority to 
coerce a state. Others, admitting that the Constitution 
did, indeed, afford footing for coercion, opposed it on 


pendent nation. 


Pres- 


the ground that, inasmuch as our system of government 
was throughout founded in the consent of the governed, 
coercion was a contradiction of its fundamental idea, 
which must perish as soon as coercion was resorted to. 
Still others desired to let the Southern States go, in the 
belief that a short trial would satisfy them of the utter 
impracticability of maintaining a separate national exist- 
ence with the institution of slavery; and that they would 
soon tire of the experiment, and, humiliated and chas- 
tised for making it, come back to the Union again, 
when we could make their abandonment of slavery a 
condition of their readmission. And, finally, there was 
a very large class who believed that the Constitution 
authorized and required those in control of the govern- 
ment to maintain the integrity of the Union at all haz- 
ards, and at whatever cost. Yet even these had not 
looked far beyond this simple and to them manifest 
duty, to find a theory broad enough to embrace and 
support all the measures to which the great emergency 
might require them to resort. Mr. Lincoln, when the 
crisis finally came, and he was driven to act with refer- 
ence to it, talked weakly enough of being compelled to 
violate some of the provisions of the Constitution in 
order to preserve the rest. In this conflict and confu- 
sion of opinions Major Gordon was not without views, 
and, while serving in the army in West Virginia, did not 


7th Dist.] 


withhold them from his friends or the public. He 
wrote an elaborate essay on the legal predicaments— 
actual and prospective—which secession and rebellion 
had placed, or might place, before the country and the 
government, and gave it to a member of the conven- 
tion that assembled during the early summer of 1861 at 
Wheeling. In this paper he denied the right of a state 
or of its people to pass any valid act of secession. He 
asserted the right of the people of a state, on the other 
hand, to abolish its government, or repeal any provi- 
sion of its Constitution. In view of this denial of the 
power of the people of a state to secede, on the one 
hand, and this assertion of power, on the other, to mod- 
ify or abolish their government, he proceeded to set forth 
and discuss the several predicaments which the action 
of the people of the seceding states had rendered it 
proper for the government to consider, with reference to 
the final settlement of all questions that secession and 
rebellion had initiated as possibilities of the future. In 
his judgment it was a matter of importance to thus 
invent a scheme of categories involved in the situa- 
tion, which, while it should be exhaustive on the one 
hand, would on the other, at the same time, furnish 
the government, upon every one of them, a solid footing 
in reason and law for complete authority to do all that 
might, in any contingency, become necessary to be done 
to preserve, reconstruct, and maintain a government in 
each of the states whose people had seceded. He main- 
tained that these categories were three only, namely: 
1. Secession operated as a complete dissolution of the 
Union so far as the state was concerned whose people re- 
sorted to it, and they thereby became an independent na- 
tion. 2. Secession was so far potent as to abolish the Con- 
stitution of the state whose people adopted it, and so to 
leave it and them without any state government which 
the nation could recognize; but was impotent so far as 
removing them from the jurisdiction of the national au- 
thority was concerned. In other words, secession simply 
reduced the state and people adopting it to a territorial 
condition; or, 3. Secession so far impaired the Consti- 
tution of the state whose people adopted it as to ren- 
der its government no longer a republican government, 
within the meaning of the national Constitution, but left 
the state and its people still within the Union, and sub- 
ject to its authority to guarantee to each state a repub- 
lican government. These categories, it was insisted, 
were exhaustive, and upon each the plenary authority 
of the nation was maintained, to do all that might be 
necessary in subjugating the seceders; and, when that 
was accomplished, in reconstructing and guaranteeing 
republican governments wherever they had been abol- 
ished or impaired by secession or rebellion. Subsequent 
to the war, when Congress had resorted, in the exercise 
of its authority, to many measures not of the clearest 
wisdom or efficiency, for the reconstruction of these 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


55 


governments, Major Gordon, who never justified the pol- 
icy of many of these measures, was always able, upon these 
categories, successfully to maintain their constitution- 
ality. In the political contest of 1868 his ablest speeches 
stood upon these grounds, which he had adopted in the 
earliest days of secession. It is worthy of note that he 
submitted his views on the subject to Doctor Francis 
Lieber and Hon. Charles Sumner, at the same time, in 
September, 1861, and had the full approval of the former. 
The latter objected to them at the time, but finally 
adopted the second of the categories, as his action in 
Congress shows; but’ it is believed that he did not sup- 
port it with his usual ability, or the best argument that 
can be made in favor of it. At all events, it was never 
adopted by the government, and for the time passed 
out of sight. He remained in Boston nearly three 
months, part of the time in Fort Independence, and 
part of the time as mustering and disbursing officer for 
Massachusetts. He was then ordered to Indiana to re- 
cruit a battalion of his regiment. Arriving at Indian- 
apolis late in November, 1861, he entered at once upon 
his new duties with energy and success. His labors 
were, however, soon sadly interrupted by the death of 
his only son, Joseph R. T. Gordon, a beautiful and 
talented youth of seventeen years, who was killed in 
battle in West Virginia, December 13, 1861. The blow 
almost killed his father, and he has never yet wholly 
He had built all his hopes upon 
the life and career of his son, and even his enlistment 
was asad affliction to him. Yet he could not, consist- 


recovered from it. 


ently with his sense of duty to his country, demand 
his discharge. On the contrary, while, as he said, he 
«would sooner have died than that he should have 
thrown away the season of life wherein alone men can 
prepare themselves for usefulness and greatness;” yet, 
after he had once enlisted, ‘‘he would sooner die than 
that he should do any unworthy act in his new vocation 
to bring reproach upon himself or family.”” To his 
father’s letter touching his enlistment, his answer did 
not come until after his death, and even then it was, 
like his own life, incomplete. It contained enough, 
however, to show that he fully comprehended the no- 
blest grounds of his action, and fully to justify the sac- 
He said: 

«When you have endeavored, ever since I was old 
enough to understand you, to instruct me, not only by 
precept, but by example, that I was to prefer freedom 
to every thing else in this world; and that I should not 
hesitate to sacrifice any thing, even life itself, on the 
altar of my country, when required, you surely should 


not be surprised that I should, in this hour of extreme 
peril to my country, offer her my feeble aid.” 


rifice. 


This clear statement of his lofty and pure motives 
was a chief source of consolation to his father in the 
midst of his great desolation. In May, 1862, Major 
Gordon was ordered to Fort Independence, to superin- 


56 


tend the recruitment and organization of his regiment, 
and remained on that duty for about fifteen months. 
During this time he had some leisure, which enabled 
him to bestow study and thought upon the daily situ- 
ation of the country and the operations of the armies 
contending to destroy and save it. He wrote several 
letters touching the best method of conducting the war 
to members of the Committee on the Conduct of the 
War, in some of which he urged the policy of concen- 
trating our forces into three or four great armies, pene- 
trating the Confederacy at points indicated, and march- 
ing simultaneously upon parallel lines to the sea. One 
of these lines was the same which was finally adopted 
by General Sherman two years later. The only differ- 
ence in the advance he proposed and that ultimately 
made was, that the lines should be kept open and com- 
munication maintained with their base. This was to be 
done by collecting the slaves along each line, erecting 
the necessary fortifications to protect it by means of 
their labor, and organizing and arming them for their 
defense. These letters are still extant, but they were 
unfortunate in being written too soon, by an obscure 
man, who lacked both experience and position as a 
soldier, and maintained views in advance of those both 
of Congress and the President, who were still striving to 
save slavery and the Union. MHaving lost his first wife, 
he had married Miss Julia L. Dumont in 1862, a 
daughter of General E. Dumont, and took his family to 
Boston. In July, 1863, the draft riots broke out in New 
York and Boston, but while the former city suffered 
greatly in its good name and the lives and property of 
its citizens, the latter passed through the trial without 
serious loss, and with increased character for public 
spirit and patriotism. The difference was chiefly owing 
to the men at the head of the state and city govern- 
ment of the two states and cities, and the prompt 
energy with which the military, both regular and vol- 
unteer, supported those of Boston and Massachusetts. 
Major Gordon, with two companies, was the first to re- 
port to the Governor of Massachusetts, arriving at the 
state capital from Fort Independence in less than forty 
minutes after receiving his excellency’s request for as- 
sistance. The mob was promptly suppressed by a single 
discharge of canister from a twelve-pounder Napoleon, 
and it Major Gordon, among 
others, received the thanks both of the city and state 
governments for the part he took in these operations. 
Almost immediately after the riot, which took place 
July 14, 1863, he was ordered to the field to take com- 
mand of his regiment, and within a few days thereafter 
left the fort in obedience to the order. He met his 
regiment, however, in the city of New York, and, as- 
suming command of it there, remained with it until the 
completion of the draft in that state. About the 
middle of September he went with it to the front, 


was never renewed. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[72h Dist, 


where he participated in the very active and unsatisfac- 
tory maneuvers of the Army of the Potomac, until the 
campaign of Mine Run closed its operations for the 
winter. His career as a soldier was inconspicuous, but 
it is safe to say that he so filled his place as to win the 
confidence of those with and under whom he served, 
and contributed to lighten some of the burdens that 
bore heavily upon the shoulders of enlisted 
Among these burdens was one resulting from a general 
order, published April 13, 1863, which required the 
men to carry eight days’ rations when on the march. 
He soon discovered that the order was the cause of a 
great and wasteful oppression, five rations and more out 
of every twenty being lost by means of it, while the 
army suffered in health, life, and general efficiency as 
its direct consequence. He set on foot a system of ob- 
servation which soon placed him in possession of the 
necessary facts wherewith to attack it effectively. This 
he did in a clear and forcible communication ad- 
dressed to the headquarters of the army. Out of 
this letter grew an immediate rescinding of the order. 
He found company officers in the habit of punishing 
enlisted men for petty offenses without trial, when 
he joined the army. This was done on the pretext 
that there could be no field officer’s court 
of the regular regiments, because 
out field officers, acting as such; 
that a captain to hold such a 
court under the act of Congress providing for such 
courts-martial. He called the attention of headquar- 
ters to the matter, and asked a construction of the act. 
His letter was forwarded to the War Department, and 
referred to the Judge Advocate-general, who gave the 
act a construction which enabled every regiment to 
have its field officer’s court-martial, and so made all 
arbitrary punishments entirely unnecessary. The opin- 
ion of the Judge Advocate-general, founded on Major 
Gordon’s letter, was published as part of the first gen- 
eral order of the headquarters of the Army of the Poto- 
mac for 1864. Major Gordon soon found his pay entirely 
inadequate to support himself in the field and his family 
at home; and, after having gone into debt until there 
seemed little hope of ever getting out again, he tendered 
his resignation, which the President was pleased to ac- 
cept, March 4, 1864. He returned immediately to the 
West, and the twenty-ninth day of March opened a law 
office at the capital of the state. Notwithstanding the 
opposition of the head of the state government (and 
it was constantly manifested against him), his suc- 
cess was prompt and abundant. But he found himself 
in the midst of a new order of social and political life, 
for which he was not prepared, and to which every 
sentiment and principle that he cherished was opposed. 
His party, through its leaders, spoke and acted as the 
people, and arrogated to itself all the attributes of the 


men. 


in most 
they were with- 
captains and 


was incompetent 


7th Dist. 


people. All the rest were treated as public enemies or 
their allies, and almost every day and night soldiers 
spoke and others heard doctrines that would have jus- 
tified them in treating as traitors all who dissented from 
the party. Military bands and drum-corps in the pay 
of the government were used to rally the party cohorts, 
whilst soldiers daily swelled the ranks of party proces- 
sions. Any thing like fair or equal political discussion 
was at an end; spies invaded all the sanctuaries of 
private life, and endangered the honest intercourse of 
private friendship. The whole order of things was 
hateful, and Major Gordon was glad to find a way 
opened to him, by the German Republicans of the city, 
whereby free speech might, in some small measure, be 
resumed and vindicated. They held a convention to 
send delegates to the Cleveland convention, and he 
united with them in the enterprise; and, when that 
body nominated Generals Fremont and Cochran for 
President and Vice-president, he warmly supported 
them. He made two speeches, in which he severely 
criticised the spirit of the dominant party, and some of 
the measures of the national administration and state 
government. These had a wide circulation, but their 
chief result was to excite intense hatred and abuse of 
the speaker. 
nounced by the Republican press than he; but he met 
All the good effects that 
he had hoped would follow his efforts were entirely de- 
feated by the spirit of party. The Democrats, on the 


Never was any man more bitterly de- 


its denunciation with scorn. 


one hand, persisted in a course that indicated a desire 
to encourage the Confederacy in resistance of the gov- 
ernment; and the Republicans showed, by their con- 
duct, on the other, that they did not believe that their 
adversaries had any rights under a Constitution which 
they seemed willing to see perish. Finally, however, 
Mr. Lincoln retired Mr. Blair from his cabinet; the 
nominees of the Cleveland convention withdrew from 
the contest, and their friends earnestly supported Mr. 
Lincoln. In the four years that followed, both parties 
changed ground in respect to some important measures. 
In 1864 the Democrats were the advocates of congres- 
sional reconstruction of the governments of the states 
of the Confederacy ; and the Republicans its opponents, 
and the advocates of presidential reconstruction. Major 
Gordon then stood with the former upon the question. 
Two years later the Democrats were in favor of presi- 
dential reconstruction, and the Republicans equally 
zealous for congressional. Major Gordon stood still on 
the question, and was denounced as a turn-coat by both, 
His political action has, ever since 1864, been entirely 
independent ; and, although he has almost uniformly 
voted and acted with the Republican party, yet he has 
never failed to condemn its faults. Had there been at 
any time, in his opinion, a better party that had any 
good ground to hope for success, he would have sup- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


57 


ported it; but, in his judgment, there has been none. 
He regarded its treatment of President Johnson as flatly 
unjust, in many respects unconstitutional, and in none 
more so than in the attempt to impeach and remove him 
from his -high position. The means resorted to to 
secure his conviction were, in his judgment, disgraceful 
in the highest degree to Congress and the country; and 
he did not fail to denounce them, as dangerous, if not 
entirely subversive of the principles of republican lib- 
erty. It was in a speech on this occasion that he gave 
utterance to his views of the spirit in which the pacifi- 
cation and restoration of the union could be finally ac- 
complished. He is reported as having closed thus: 


«© A word more, and he had done. Ancient Greece 
had shown us the way to restore the union of our 
country, and make it a blessing instead of a curse. The 
states of Greece were once united in the Amphictyonic 
Council, which exercised a kind of general authority 
over them all. Nevertheless, their peace was often 
disturbed by internal wars between the states. From 
the very nature of their civilization, and the nature of 
the bond by which they were united, this was unavoid- 
able. But when the strife was at an end they were 
wiser, and, although they knew not Christianity, were 
yet more Christian than we. The victorious party was 
not allowed to erect any trophy, to build any monu- 
ment upon the field of its triumph, of any material 
more durable than wood. And Puffendorf, delivering 
the law of nature and of nations on the subject, has ob- 
served: ‘The remembrance of enmities and contentions 
ought, as soon as possible, to be defaced out of our 
minds. On this account, as we find the story in Tully, 
the Thebans were accused in the general diet or council 
of Greece, for setting up a brazen trophy over the 
Lacedemonians, inasmuch as it did not become one 
Grecian state to fix an eternal monument of their quar- 
rel with another. For it seems their custom was to 
raise their trophies only of wood, to prevent their long 
and reproachful countenance.’ He would commend 
that lesson to the study of those to whom the recon- 
struction of the country was committed. He thanked 
God it had always been accepted by himself, even in 
the darkest hour of his own and the country’s affliction. 
Never had he felt for a moment the slightest emotion 
of anger, resentment, or revenge toward the people of 
the South. He believed they had committed a grievous 
wrong against the best government in the world, by 
assailing the Union, and attempting to break it up and 
destroy it. For that it was necessary to put them down 
by the strong arm to which they had appealed. He did 
not doubt, however, that the great masses of the South- 
ern people were as honest in their belief in the justice 
of their cause, and the patriotism of their course, as 
the people of the North. On the field of battle he had 
seen the soldier of the Union and the soldier of the 
Confederacy dying side by side, and heard them both 
thank God, who permitted them to die for the liberty 
of their country. He had felt at such times that there 


| must have been some great mistake somewhere; but he 


had never doubted the sincerity of those mutual victims 
of that mistake, nor that their souls had ascended to- 
gether from the fields of strife to the field of the 
blessed, there to dwell forever in the light of reconcil- 
iation and love. As there, so here, love must become 
the means of restoring the Union, the prosperity and 


58 


peace of our country. That great work could never be 
accomplished by cherishing mutual hatred and revenge, 
by erecting monuments to the wrongs we had inflicted 
or suffered, by displaying trophies that bear witness to 
the barbarities of the contest waged against the dear 
old flag and Constitution. All these were evil, only 
evil, leading to still worse evil. He would remove from 
the trophy-room, yonder in the State-house, that cruel 
black flag, with its horrible ‘raw head and bloody 
bones,’ and he would destroy it from the face of the 
earth. He would do so for the honor of his country, 
if there were no mistaken inimical countrymen to con- 
ciliate. If his country was passing off the theater of 
national existence forever, he would destroy it, out of 
respect for its memory and for mankind. Hateful me- 
mento of a bad heart and a bad cause, it should go 
straight to oblivion, and the sooner the better. And so 
of whatever else might tend to keep alive the spirit of 
strife, now suppressed but not wholly extinguished, 
between the North and the South. He would not, 
however, deny to the friends of either the sacred right 
to honor the gallant dead. No; let them go together 
to every battle-tield where the bleaching bones of the 
common dead bear witness to their mutual strife and 
slaughter, and with mutual hands cover and heal the 
common grave ‘with the sweet oblivion of flowers;’ and 
there, too, let the monument that they build become a 
temple of mutual forgiveness, reconciliation, and broth- 
erly love.” 


The action of Democrats and the Democratic party, 
however, in 1868, left him without any ground to hope, 
as he thought, for any advantage to the country by its 
success; and he, consequently, acted earnestly with the 
Republicans. He did so because he believed that the 
election of Seymour and Blair would have destroyed, 
or, at least, greatly impaired, the value of the victory 
gained by Union arms over the principle and the friends 
of secession, and would, not improbably, jeopardize the 
peace of the country. He took part in the contest, and 
his speeches had a wide circulation through the press. It 
was in this canvass that he used his theory of the conse- 
quences of secession to a state government, as the basis of 
an argument that has never been answered, to maintain 
that however bad in policy the Republican measures of 
reconstruction might be, they were, nevertheless, clearly 
In 1872 he felt it his duty as a 
citizen to be on the same side; and, being chosen by 
the party as a candidate for elector for the state at large, 
he made a zealous canvass of most of the counties of 
the state. Two of his speeches attracted considerable 
One 
of these presented the relations, past and present, of 
the Democratic party and its candidate in a strong 
light, and humorously and effectively ridiculed both. 
The other was a review of the political life and meth- 
ods of Mr. Hendricks. This speech had the fortune to 
be substantially copied by some correspondent of the 
New York Zzmes in 1876, when Mr. Hendricks was a 
candidate for Vice-president, and so got a national cir- 
culation, but without its author’s name. 


not unconstitutional. 


attention at the time, and had a wide circulation. 


He was chosen 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7 Dist 


to preside over the electoral college of the state when 
the electors met to cast their votes for President and 
Vice-president, and upon taking the chair paid a de- 
served tribute to Mr. Greeley, which was responded 
to by the unanimous adoption of a resolution in honor 
of his life and regret for his death. In 1876 the Re- 
publican party of the state gave him the nomination for 
Attorney-general. It was an honor which he did not 
seek, but he accepted it, because he regarded it as a 
peace-offering, and in the line of his profession. His 
brief speech of thanks to the convention was humorous, 
and not indicative of any very strong hope of success, 
concluding with the two lines from Addison’s Cato: 
*«*T is not in mortals to command success, 

But we’ll do more, Sempronius—we ’ll deserve it.” 

He, unfortunately, soon learned that he was not a 
politician of the modern type; for, upon being notified 
that the central committee had assessed a sum against 
him which bore a certain ratio to the salary of the 
office of Attorney-general, he promptly declined to pay 
it, on the ground that, if not in itself corrupt, it tended 
to corruption. He also informed the committee that, 
if it should inform him that its payment was a condi- 
tion of the nomination he had received, he would de- 
cline at once, but would feel bound to publish the pre- 
cise grounds upon which he should do so. 
no further correspondence on the subject, and he re- 
mained on the ticket, to be beaten with the rest. It 


There was 


was during this canvass that, being engaged in defend- 
ing some men charged with murder in Orange County, 
he gave offense to a body of lawless men of the neigh-. 
borhood, who had been accustomed to take the law 
into their own hands, and hang, or otherwise abuse, men 
whom they believed to be guilty of any crime. The 
offense complained of was that he had stated certain 
facts to the Governor indicating that his clients were in 
danger .of being lynched by these men, and asking a 
These 
facts were published by one of the papers at the cap- 
ital as a communication from the neighborhood of the 
alleged crime. He was at once accused of being its 
author, and prominent men demanded that he should 
either disavow it or be retired from the ticket of the 
party. Some of their letters being placed in his hands 
for answer, he replied at once, frankly admitting that 
he was responsible for the facts contained in the article, 
but not for the publication in the manner and form in 
which they appeared. Then, after expressing his regret 
that he should lose a great many Republican votes on 
account of it, not for his own sake, but the party’s, he 
concluded by saying: 


guard from his excellency for their protection. 


‘Now, having fully answered, I beg leave to say that 
I have nothing to take back, and no apology to make 
for any thing I have said or done. I should render 
myself unworthy of the vote of any good citizen, should 


7th Dist.| REPRESENTATIVE 


I say murder is not murder when committed by a mob, 
as well as when committed by a prowling assassin. If 
I should dissemble my real opinions on this or any other 
subject to get the votes of men stained with innocent 
blood, what security would law-abiding people have, 
that, if elected, I would not, for a consideration, wink 
at crimes which have made life and property unsafe, and 
law and justice idle and unmeaning words, in some parts 
of the state. No; to get office, I will not morally dis- 
qualify myself, by making even an obeisance to the most 


flagrant crimes that have disgraced our country.” 
Major Gordon has made as many sacrifices for his 
political opinions as if he had been a self-seeking polit- 
ical partisan. Yet he never has heen. Not more than 
three times in his life has he requested his party or its 
representatives to give him office. In every instance he 
was unsuccessful. He has several times been a candi- 
date when he did not seek to be, and has been three 
times elected to the House of Representatives in the 
General Assembly, and twice its speaker. But in each 
of these contests he has been a conscript, and not a 
volunteer, as was the case with his race for Attorney- 
general in 1876. His last election to the House took 
place in 1878. In the two sessions which followed this 
election he devoted himself chiefly to the removal of 
some defects in the criminal laws of the state. His ex- 
perience as a criminal lawyer enabled him to point out 
these defects, and suggest the appropriate measures for 
their removal; and to this end he introduced and advo- 
cated a number of bills that would, if they had been 
passed, have greatly advanced the effective administra- 
tion of the criminal law of the state. Owing to the doc- 
trines of the Supreme Court of Indiana that, although 
the sanity of a man charged with crime stands presumed, 
yet, if a reasonable doubt on the subject arises from 
the evidence, he must be acquitted, it often happens 
that men are acquitted on the plea of insanity whom 
it is impossible to confine as lunatics. By this means 
society is left with a class of men on its hands and at 
large who may at any moment kill others, and who are 
secure against conviction and punishment because they 
are of doubtful sanity. At the same time, though 
acquitted as insane, they can not be restrained upon the 
ground of their insanity, for the reason that it is only 
doubtful. Holding the doctrine which allows a pre- 
sumption of law to be overcome by a reasonable doubt 
both unsound and dangerous, he introduced a bill pro- 
viding that in all cases of criminal prosecutions where 
the defense of insanity should be pleaded, and the jury 
should acquit the defendant, they should determine by 
their verdict whether they acquitted him on the ground 
of insanity, and, if so, whether his insanity was due to 
hereditary causes, to epilepsy or any other constitutional 
cause, or whether it resulted from temporary disease. 
In the last case, without reference to the gravity of the 
charge, the defendant should be restrained so long only 
as might be necessary to effect his cure; but, in the 


MEN OF INDIANA. 59 


other cases, he should in case of homicide be restrained 
in some proper place during his natural life, and, in 
case of crimes of less gravity, until all danger of the 
repetition of the same or of other offenses was removed. 
This measure received general favor, and, if it could 
have been brought to a third reading, would have 
passed. But, like many other measures of importance, 
it failed for want of time. He succeeded in securing 
the passage of a law regulating proceedings in con- 
tempt, and placing a limit upon the hitherto arbitrary 
power of the courts in such cases. The law was not 
passed in the precise form in which the bill was intro- 
duced, but it is believed that it will form the basis 
of future legislation, which will secure, on the one 
hand, the respect due to courts of justice, and, on the 
other, protect the liberty of the citizen against the use 
of arbitrary power by passionate or unprincipled judges. 
He also labored to procure a fair apportionment of the 
state for congressional and legislative purposes, but the 
Democratic party, which had suffered so much under 
preceding apportionments, forgot the wrongs it had suf- 
fered, and the promises it had made, and, having the 
power to do as it pleased, equaled, if it did not sur- 
pass, the outrages of which it had so long complained, 
Thus, in the hands of political partisans, equality, jus- 
tice, and liberty perish. As a lawyer, Major Gordon has 
gained a fair standing in the general practice of his pro- 
fession, and in criminal law stands among the first law- 
yers of the country. Perhaps no man in America has ever 
prosecuted and defended so many capital cases; and 
many of these have been of great celebrity. His 
knowledge of medicine and surgery, which first led him 
into this line of practice, has aided him to win his dis- 
tinction in it. In questions of expert evidence and 
medical jurisprudence, he is regarded as an authority, 
and has explored the law touching them to its remotest 
principles. In cases involving the medical jurispru- 
dence of insanity, he has a deservedly high reputation, 
and has not failed to make jeeringly conspicuous the 
blunders of some of our judicial tribunals. Until re- 
cently, he never had a client sentenced to death; and 
in that case it was not accomplished without, as he de- 
clares, violating the plainest principles of law, and a 
flat denial of justice. Considering that he has defended 
more than sixty persons charged with murder in the first 
degree, he may be regarded as fortunate in this respect; 
but he does not feel so. The execution of one client, in 
a practice of more than thirty-six years, has afflicted 
him as much as any personal misfortune of his life; 
and he has ever since been engaged in preparing a re- 
view of the case, that, he claims, will clearly expose 
the injustice of the decision which took his client’s life. 
His career has been marked by great industry and 
labor, and he has left inerasible traces upon the juris~ 
prudence of the state. Until 1859, the Supreme Court, 


a 


60 


under a Constitution which provides that, ‘in all crim- 
inal cases whatever, the jury shall have the right to de- 
termine the law and the evidence,’ had held that the 
instructions of the court in matters of law were binding 
upon the consciences of jurors. He reviewed the whole 
subject in an exhaustive argument, and induced that 
tribunal to reconsider and overrule its preceding opin- 
One member of the court, however, dissented, 
and, on the pretext of preparing a dissenting opinion, 
occasioned a delay of several months in the decision. 
When at last it was made, Mr. Gordon hastened to the 
court and prepared an abstract of the opinion, which 
he took care to express in the precise words of the Con- 
stitution. He then wrote a brief notice for the papers, 
which ran thus: 


ions. 


‘*IMPORTANT LEGAL DEcIsIon.—The Supreme Court 
has just decided, in the case of Wellams agatnst the State, 
that, ‘in all criminal cases whatever, the jury have the 
right to determine the law and the evidence.’ Judge 
Hanna dissents. His opinion agazzst the Constitution 
is said to be very able.” 


The papers of both parties printed the article, and 
the result was that Judge Hanna and Major Gordon 
were not on speaking terms again until after the War 
of the Rebellion. He did not relish the joke implied 
in the complimentary notice of his dissenting opinion. 
After the war Major Gordon asked the court to recon- 
sider their doctrine of reasonable doubt, and induced 
them to return to the common law on the subject, from 
which they had inadvertently departed. He also pre- 
sented the doctrines of insanity to them in an elaborate 
and exhaustive argument, in the case of Bradley against 


the State, and was rewarded by a clear and rational | 


decision, which must remain an authority as long as so- 
ciety regards the insane as the proper objects of its 
solicitude and protection. After the close of the war 
he was employed by Secretary Stanton to defend Gen- 
eral Hovey, and all who, under him, had made arrests 
in the state, by color of military authority, for which 
they already were sued, or subsequently might be sued. 
In this employment he was continued for several years, 
It ended with the trial of Milligan’s case, in the Circuit 
Court of the United States for the District of Indiana, 
in a verdict of five dollars for the plaintiff, whose de- 
mand was for five hundred thousand dollars. He was 
also retained for the government, during the time Mr. 
Kilgore was district attorney, in several great revenue 
cases. At the time the fifteenth article of amendment 
to the national Constitution was pending for ratification 
in the General Assembly, the Democrats of both Houses 
resigned in order to prevent its ratification. Their resig- 
nation left both Houses without a quorum. The House 
of Representatives, notwithstanding this condition of 
affairs, proceeded to concur in the Senate’s amendments 
to the Specific Appropriation bill, and to ratify the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


amendment. Many good lawyers believed this action 
to have been taken in plain violation of the Constitu- 
tion, and demanded that it should be contested. The 
Attorney-general declared himself satisfied of its valid- 
ity. The Governor consequently employed Major Gor- 
don to contest it. The question was raised in a pro- 
ceeding to compel the Auditor of. State to issue his 
warrant on the treasury for certain money appropriated 
by the Specific Appropriation act. It was argued at 
great length before the Supreme Court, by Messrs. 
Browne, McDonald, and Hendricks in favor of the va- 
lidity of the act, and Major Gordon against it. His 
argument was the only one published; and, although 
the decision was adverse to the argument, he may yet 
rest satisfied that, if constitutional government shall sur- 
vive the reckless action of parties in their efforts to re- 
tain or gain power, the argument, and-not the decision, 
at. last will be accepted as the law. In 1873 he was 
engaged, with Mr. Porter, to maintain the validity of 
the temperance law known as the Baxter bill; and, 
notwithstanding the great learning and ability with 
which it was assailed, they were successful. His brief 
was not printed, but contributed some of the most 
conspicuous features to the court’s opinion. His last 
constitutional argument in the Supreme Court was de- 
livered in the case of Guetig against the state, and, 
although it was unheeded by that tribunal, the decision 
can only stand by regarding it as overruling more than 
half of all the cases relating to constitutional questions 
decided under the present Constitution. He denied the 
constitutional existence of the Marion Criminal Circuit 
Court. The court sustained it, and for the present it 
stands. If, however, a decent respect for the plainest 
principles of constitutional law shall ever return to the 
courts, it is almost certain the decision will lose its 
authority. As a lawyer, Major Gordon shuns routine, 
and, as far ashe can, cases that must be carried through 
on the familiar ways of the profession. He delights in 
new questions, demanding for their right decision a re- 
sort to fundamental principles and a knowledge of 
them. In such cases his energy is supreme; and his re- 
sources, both of learning and argument, have achieved 
success where others might have failed. Many of his 
arguments have exhausted his subjects, and left nothing 
more to be said or suggested. But recently he ex- 
presses himself without confidence or hope in the tri- 
bunal of last resort in the state, and regards labor and 
learning as wasted ‘‘on the desert air,” that are spent 
to try to set its feet again super vam antiguam, or to 
lead it to walk therein by ‘‘ the gladsome light of juris- 
prudence.” As a jury lawyer, he has had some great 
successes, but relies rather upon the clear presentation 
of a point than upon his ability as an orator, in which 
character he has more frequently fallen below, than 
risen above, the occasion. A few times he has tran- 


7th Dist.) 


scended the expectations of his friends and the public, 
and carried all before him by the earnestness and fervor 
of his eloquence; and verdicts gained by him have been 
attacked in motions for new trials, and on appeal to the 
Supreme Court, on the ground that ‘ the jury was led 
away from the real issues of the case by the eloquent 
counsel.” But these instances are exceptional and rare 
in his career, and have never occurred when the circum- 
stances of the case did not strongly enlist his feelings 
and convictions. He has no mannerism, however, to 
limit the possibilities of his nature, and may at any 
time, under proper circumstances, carry a case by 
means which it is impossible to anticipate, and which 
no amount of preparation will enable his adversary to 
guard against, because they are unknown and un- 
thought of even by himself until the moment when 
they are employed. He has always, as far as the strug- 
gles of professional life would permit, cultivated a taste 
for literature, and might, perhaps, have succeeded in it, 
had he chosen it for a vocation. His love for it has 
rendered him less of a lawyer than he might otherwise 
have become, while the requirements of his profession 
have impaired and cramped his capacity to have become 
a successful literary man. Still he has found, in the 
constant resort to the poets, historians, and philoso- 
phers, a respite from the toil and care of professional 
life. He has rarely taken a vacation in the last thirty- 
five years, and insists that the mind and brain find their 
best vacation and rest by changing the subjects upon 
which they are engaged, and keeping up their activity 
and efforts, but in new fields. This he maintains is 
both safer and more becoming than hunting and fishing. 
The old boiler kept in use and warm may be used with 
safety for years, whereas if it be allowed to remain un- 
used and to rust for even a short time it will be sure to 
explode the first high pressure of steam that is raised 
within it again. In early life he possessed an excellent 
verbal memory, and committed several books of ‘‘ Para- 
dise Lost,” so that he could repeat them without hesi- 
tancy; and so great was his familiarity with its style 
that while yet a mere boy he wagered a watermelon 
with a friend that he could either talk or write in the 
measure and style of Milton without being allowed a 
moment’s time to consider the topic. It was agreed 
that he should write an apostrophe to the poet himself, 
as the test by which he should win or lose the wager. 
He instantly wrote: 
‘Bard of my soul, thy hallowed song sublime 

Uplifts my feebler strain, aud, risen high, 

The vast variety and depth of thought 

That flow commingled in thy matchless verse 

Anew and deep I drink—drink from the fount 

Prepared of God, rich to the mental taste, 

But tasted not before I drank with thee, 

O bard of deathless fame! Now, by thy wing 


Directed, I, through climes unknown am borne, 
And guided to the spring whence song bursts forth ; 


“REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


61 


Thence let me drink; to taste and not drink deep, 
O powers immortal, may I ever scorn, 

Still choosing rather to be nought, than aught 
Inferior to the bard whose genius vast, 

And venturous as vast, of chaos, death, 

And- night, with voice untrembling sung.” 


Whether justly or not, he won the wager. Since then 


he has occasionally turned his conceits into verse. Some 
of these conceits have been published; and for the time 
have attracted attention, and won the favor of the press. 
One of them, especially favored in this way, passed into 
the Knickerbocker Magazine from the columns of the 
newspaper where it first appeared, nearly thirty years 
ago. Another, during the first year of the great Re- 
bellion, was also received with general favor. It was 
entitled ‘*The Love of the Actual and the Ideal,” and 
is as follows: 


“The Star loved the Sea, and the Sea loved the Star; 
But in vain, for they still were apart; 
And the Sea ever sighed to his mistress afar, 
And sobbed in his sorrow and anguish of heart. 
But the Star, with a smile in her bright, flashing eye, 
Looked down through night’s shadows afar, 
And saw, what no mistress e’er saw with a sigh, 

In the heart of the Sea the bright face of a Star. 
And she knew that her throne was the heart of the Sea, 
And was happy to know that she reigned there alone; 

But the Sea was not happy—Oh, how could he be ?— 
Since nought but her shadow e’er came to her throne. 
So the Sea could not go to the queen of his heart, 
And the Star could not stoop from above; 
Their love was in vain; for they still were apart, 
And, apart, could but dream of the rapture of love.” 


Years have had no effect upon his love of poesy; and 
his tendency to write verses still remains unchanged. 
His last piece, written upon the fly-leaf of a book he 
was reading in bed, on Christmas night, 1879, and en- 
titled «My Mother’s Centennial Birthday,” shall close 
what we have to say on this aspect of his life: 


“]’m thinking, dear mother, of thee, 
And my heart in my bosom stands still; 
And the blood in my veins flows stagnant and chill, 
Asif frozen to ice ere it reaches the sea, 
‘Till in life I am dead, yet e’en death can not smother 
The thoughts that to-night wander back to my mother. 


’'Tis Christmas to-night, and afar 

To the hills of Virginia I go; 

And there, where the waters of Greenbrier flow, 
Thy birthplace I find, by the light of love’s star. 
But a hundred slow years have gone after each other 
Since the day of thy birth, my own gentle mother, 


O life, what a wonder thou art} 
What a wonder must ever remain ! 
Beginning forever ; and, dying, beginning again, 
As the blood tide flows on from heart unto heart; 
And the thought of my soul, that the years can not smother, 
Is fed by the blood of thy heart, O my mother! 


As the dew on the rose was thy love 

On my heart, in the morn of its years, 

And now, on the last leaf of life, it appears 
Like a star in its brightness, sent down from above, 
To shine in the heart of the dew; to me "tis no other 
Than the soul of thy love, in my tears, O my mother,” 


62 


What has been already written concerning Major Gor- 
don’s life is enough to enable those who could form a 
just estimate of his intellectual and moral endowments, 
and judge aright the motives and purposes which have 
led him thus far, to determine equally well to what 
rank of men he is to be assigned, as could be deter- 
mined with the fullest and most particular biography. 
It will not be denied by any such person that he is a 
man of talents equal to the attainment of great ends. 
At the same time it is true that these talents lie upon 
the borders of many provinces of thought, and seem to 
be drawn with an almost equal love to them all. He 
hesitates to give his allegiance, undivided and complete, 
to any one. Feeling that he has by nature a birthright 
in them all, he has thus far refused to surrender it, and 
so has failed to gain the best fruits and greatest crops 
from any one of them. The labor he has bestowed 
upon them all, if it had been given to any one, would 
have made him easily the first among his peers in it. 
But it would have left him at the same time something 
less than himself, or at least other than himself; for it 
would have dwarfed the loving spirit, akin to genius, 
if, indeed, it be not genius itself, which goes out on all 
sides desiring to know and enter into sympathy and 
communion with the infinite. Had he felt through life, 
or at any time in life, that the chief end of man was to 
be a means to some other end for the sake of worldly 
wealth or fame, he might have given himself wholly to 
some special pursuit; but, believing that every man’s 
own development is the one great end of rational hu- 
man effort and life, and that every other aim and effort 
should run into it and assist in its accomplishment, he 
has with entire faith diversified his labors according to 
the inclination of his natural powers and their tenden- 
cies. This has given him something of the enthusiasm 
of youth at every stage of his career, and made his 
powers swift and strong to grapple with whatever new 
question presents itself for consideration. It was this 
that made him a strangely earnest and old boy, and it 
is this that now, upon the verge of old age, makes him 
a strangely earnest ana boyish old man. He has never 
held the acquisition of wealth to be a legitimate end of 
human pursuit, and would most likely to-day, as he has 
often done, part with his last dollar to help those who 
lacked the necessaries of life, trusting to the good provi- 
dence of God to be provided for as well when his own 
necessities might require the like assistance. He has faith 
in man, though he has sometimes been on the verge of 
losing his faith in mez. He regards no man as fit for 
great place in our government who does not believe in 
the constantly progressive development of our race; and 
that, at last, the time may come when all shall know 
-the Lord, and when every man shall become sufficient 
in intelligence and moral force for the government of 
himself, and so government itself, as a means of coerc- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


ing the lawless and disobedient, become entirely and 
forever unnecessary. Any other view of the outcome of 
the human race is, in his opinion, aimed at the hope of 
the perpetuation of our free popular governments here in 
America, and if true, the herald of their certain down- 
fall. He has had his ambitions, but they aimed rather 
at deserving than receiving advancement. His country 
has never found him wanting in devotion to its safety 
or glory, and, when his poverty has made his service 
painful in the extreme, he has rendered it as earnestly 
and faithfully as if want had not touched his home, 
although he gave it not with a single, but with a di- 
vided heart. His ambition, beyond mere duty, perished 
when his only son was brought home from the battle- 
field dead. The earthly spring of his life was broken 
by that blow. Whatever he has since done, or may 
hereafter accomplish, will be the result of the necessity 
so well expressed by his favorite poet: 


“‘T myself must mix with action, lest I wither in despair.” 


He hates all mere seeming, hypocrisy, and pretense, 
and every form of cant and sham excites his utmost ab- 
horrence. He gives them no credit for the tribute they 
pay to the sanctity they pretend. Public corruption has 
no more consistent foe. It is his boast that no scheme 
of frauds was ever proposed to him, and that all he has 
ever learned of them has been learned from public in- 
vestigations, or the occasional boast of some scoundrel, 
who was engaged in them, that his villainous acts had 
accomplished great results. 
prefer to win success by tact rather than by talent, and 
regards them and their following as among the greatest 
dangers our country has to encounter. His own opin- 
ion is to him better than another’s, or than all others’, 
and, if it involves moral action, he prefers to follow it 
alone, rather than be in company with all mankind, 
with a profession of belief that he does not feel in theirs. 
He is an excellent member of a minority party, strug- 
gling for power, with all good principles and promises 
upon its lips. Its battle is a battle for the attainment 
of an idea, and he lives in the ideal. But when it be- 
comes the majority, and, enthroned, falls into offenses 


He dislikes sharp men, who 


against its own platform and into violations of its own 


promises, he does not fail to rebuke and denounce it, 
for he has never yet been able to justify a political 
friend for an act which he condemns-in a political 
adversary. He has seen, as well before as after his 
denunciations of the faults of his own party, that they 
shut the door against his own preferment. He did not 
choose such a course because he did not desire such 
preferment, but because he held his duty, and the con- 
ciousness of having done if, to be infinitely higher and 
more to be desired than any position in any govern- 
ment under heaven. His life, with all its errors, and 
they are neither few nor small, and with all its faults, 


7th Dist.) 


and they are both many and great, has been constantly 
lived along the line of moral uprightness involved in a 
rule of conduct written to his son in 1861, just before 
going into battle, and with it this sketch of it shall 
end. It is in these words: ‘¢ Labor to know what is 
right always, and remember that what you believe to be 
so, when you are required to act on any subject, is right 
for you at that time, whatever it may be absolutely, or 
in the opinion of others, or even of yourself at another 
time.” 


—> G00 — 


|ORSUCH, CHARLES. WESLEY, Indianapolis, 
was born September 23, 1844, in Harford County, 
Maryland. His father, Luther Meridith Gorsuch, 
and his mother, Sarah Ellen (Henderson) Gorsuch, 
are still living, in the enjoyment of a ripe old age. 
The subject of this sketch was very early inured to a 
life of toil, but found time to attend the schools in his 
neighborhood, and, with a natural desire to increase his 
stock of knowledge, became a pupil in the Normal 
School, Millersville, Pennsylvania, where he remained 
three years. He left Harford County, the home of his 
ancestry for generations past, and came to the thriving 
city of Indianapolis in 1877, and has since then been 
one of its busy populace. Previous to his coming West 
he had devoted much time to reading law, and has in 
him all the elements that go to make up the practical 
business lawyer. In Indianapolis he has been in the 
real estate and loan agency business, and has become 
known to a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. 
Mr. Gorsuch boasts an ancestry of which many inter- 
esting facts are incorporated in the early history of 
Maryland. In 1662 his namesake, Charles Gorsuch, of 
the society of Friends, took up and patented fifty acres 
of land, being the first legal claim established to soil on 
the present site of Baltimore. This ancestor married 
the only daughter of Thomas Cole, to whom five hun- 
dred and fifty acres of land were granted, and on this 
land was laid out the first town of Baltimore. In 1726 
we find John Gorsuch, a son of Charles, selling portions 
of the original estate to parties who wished to improve. 
The history of Baltimore and Maryland would be in- 
complete, indeed, without the name of Gorsuch. The 
given name, Charles, is a favorite one in the family, 
not less than thirty bearing it being now living. By a 
coincidence as unique as it is remarkable, for five gen- 
erations back the ancestors of Charles Gorsuch have 
been blessed with the exact nimber of ten children to 
each married pair; no instance of a second husband or 
wife occurring in the history of the family for more 
than one hundred and fifty years. Parallel cases may 
exist in other family histories, but they must be exceed- 
ingly rare. Another fact worthy of note is. this: the 
Gorsuch homestead in Harford County, hought in 1664, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


63 


is still in possession of the direct descendants, while the 
house in which Mr. Gorsuch’s mother’s ancestry dwelt 
for more than a century and a half is now in her pos- 
session by inheritance. The Gorsuch race appears to 
be long-lived, of stalwart frame and sound constitution, 
and Mr. Gorsuch relates that a nephew of his recently 
stood on the home-roof in Harford County, Maryland, 
and saw the residences where still live his great-grand- 
fathers and great-grandmothers, and grandfathers and 
grandmothers, both on the maternal and paternal sides, 
Appleton’s Cyclopedia has numerous references to the 
Gorsuch family, and their connection with public af- 
fairs in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. Mr. Gor- 
such isa man of a practical cast of mind; has the bear- 
ing of one, devoted to business, is well built and strong, 
has a constitution that insures vigorous vitality, and 
while he will never make brilliant and impulsive flights, 
he has that patient perseverance that never tires, and 
will move steadily forward in the path he has marked 
out, impressing his life on the society wherein he dwells. 
He has the natural ability that would make him a 
writer for the press, but his ambition leads him more 
into the domain of facts as bearing on the practical re- 
lations of existence. He is a consistent member of 
Fletcher Place Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a 
good neighbor, an agreeable friend, and an honored 
citizen. 


—o0%@%00— 


Puneet WILLIAM F., physician and surgeon, of 
| Shelbyville, was born in Rush County, Indiana, 
April 1, 1831. His parents were Lot and Anna 
(Cooper) Green. When he had reached the age 
of fourteen his father died, and the ensuing four years 
of his life were spent under the care of Thomas McKee, 
Esq., a pioneer of Rush County. After receiving his 
primary education he was sent to a select school taught 
by Elijah Hackleman, ex-state Senator, and _ subse- 
quently entered the Shelbyville Seminary, under. the 
charge of W. T. Hatch. As he grew older he utilized 
his spare time in the winter by teaching a district school 
in Rush and Fayette Counties. In the spring of 1852 
he commenced the study of medicine in the office of 
Doctors A. G. Selman and E. T. Bussell, of Shelby 
County. The following spring he entered the office of 
his brother, J. W. Green, a leading physician of Arling- 
ton, Rush County, and during that year took a course 
of lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago. Not 
possessing the necessary funds to complete his studies, 
he opened an office in Shelbyville, where he remained 
one year. He returned at the expiration of this time 
to Rush Medical College,-and graduated in the class of 
1856. He then went back to Shelbyville, where he 
soon built up a lucrative practice his business gradually 
increased, and his reputation as a skillful physician soon 


64 REPRESENTATIVE 
became known throughout his own and adjoining coun- 
In 1853 he was made a Mason, and has since 
occupied the position of Worshipful Master of W. Hacker 
Lodge. He was elected High-priest of Shelby Chapter, 
and subsequently Eminent Commander of Baldwin Com- 
In his relations as a citizen, the 


ties. 


mandery, No. 2. 
Doctor has proved himself an active and liberal sup- 
porter of all local enterprises for the improvement of the 
place, and for six years served the city as a member of 
its board of aldermen. Although not taking an active 
part in politics, he is decided in his views, and supports 
the Republican party. His religious convictions are 
based upon the teachings of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, of which he and his family are members in 
good standing, giving freely to its support. He has the | 
full confidence of his fellow-citizens, and is highly 
esteemed in the best circles of society. As a physician, 
he ranks among the ablest of his county. He modestly 
attributes any success he has achieved to hard work and 
strict attention to his profession. 
tentatious in his manner. He was married, May 6, 1856, 
to Miss Jennie Doble. 
to them: Miss Stella, a member of the sophomore class 
of Indiana Asbury University ; and Miss Lottie, who is 
attending the public school of Shelbyville. 


He is quiet and unos- 


Two daughters have been born 


—+-300-— 

“}!] ACKER, WILLIAM, ex-General Grand King of 
| the General Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch 
Masons of the United States, and ex-Grand Com- 
s¢ mander of the Grand Commandery of the state of 
Indiana, Shelbyville, was born near Urbana, Ohio, De- 
cember 5, 1810. He is descended from Wilhelm Heck- 
ardt, a wealthy and influential citizen of Saxony, who 
lived in the early part of the sixteenth century. A 
zealous adherent to the cause of the Reformation, he 
became an object of Romish persecution, was compelled 
to flee to England, and his estates were confiscated. 
There he anglicized his name by changing it to William 
Hacker. 
cutors at home only to meet others more demon-like 
While zealously distributing Bibles and Mar- 


He soon found that he had escaped perse- 


abroad. 
tin Luther’s tracts through London and the county of 
Essex, he was seized, taken before the Bishop of Lon- 


don, imprisoned, and tortured, to make him divulge the 
names of those who supplied him with the heretical 
publications, the ultimate object being to extort from 
them money for the Papal Church. 
ployed that fiendish ingenuity could devise, yet they 
could not break his iron will, until, as a last resort, 
after having stretched him on the rack till his limbs 
were almost disjointed, they put live coals under him, 
along the spine, and then applied the rack again. Ex- 
hausted and almost deranged by this dreadful and pro- 


All means were em- 


MEN OF INDIANA. [7th Dist. 
longed suffering, he answered, ‘‘Oh, yes! yes!” “to 
whatever names they pronounced, till about forty 
wealthy men were thus proscribed, whose property and 
lives were speedily sacrificed. He died from the effects 
of the awful torture. His great-grandson, Colonel 
Francis Hacker, was the executioner of Charles I, and 
subsequently a judge under Cromwell. Philip, son 
of Colonel Hacker, served under Admiral Drake in his 
victory over the Spanish Armada. After the Restora- 
tion he fled to Holland, then an asylum for political 
refugees from almost every country in Europe, and be- 
came master of a vessel which conveyed emigrants to 
America. His son, William Hacker, a sailor and inter- 
preter, married an Irish girl, a refugee from Papal per- 
secution, and located in Germantown, near Philadel- 
His sons, John and William, helped build Fort 
William’s 
family were massacred near there by the Indians, and, 
burning—for revenge, he passed the rest of his days, so 
far as known, as an Indian fighter. John moved back 
to his farm in the region of the fort after Wayne’s 
treaty, and remained there until his death, in 1824. 
His second son, John Hacker, father of the subject of 
this biography, came into Greene County, Ohio, in 1805. 
Attempting afterwards to locate on the Darby Plains, 
he was driven back by the Indians. He served through | 
the War of 1812, and died in Shelby County, Indiana, 
in 1834. His first wife, Susanna Smith, was the mother 
of William Hacker. She died when he was but five 
years of age. William had in that new country very 
poor educational privileges, attending school only about 
two months in the year. But he has always so availed 
himself of every opportunity to gain useful knowledge 
that he has acquired much general information. Until 
the age of seventeen he worked on his father’s farm in 
Montgomery County, Ohio, and then learned a trade in 
Dayton, serving an apprenticeship of four years. He 
came with his father in 1833 to Shelby County, Indiana, 
and one year later located in Shelbyville, which has 
ever since been his home. In 1838 he quitted his trade 
and engaged in the mercantile business, but was soon 
obliged to abandon it because of failing health, In 
1841 he was elected Justice of the Peace, and re- 
mained so for five years, during three of which he 
also collected the revenues of the county for the 
treasurer. He was secretary of a railroad company 
for several years, and in 1851 again tried selling mer- 
chandise. In less than four years his health failed 
a second time, and he left the business never to engage 
in it again. In 1852 he was again elected Justice of 
the Peace, which office he held by subsequent elections 
thirteen years. During the latter part of this period 
his hearing became so defective that he was compelled 
to retire from active business and professional life. In 
July, 1832, Mr. Hacker joined St. John’s Lodge, No. 


phia. 
Buchanan, in what is now West Virginia. 


vth Dist.) 


13, at Dayton, Ohio. In 1835 he was Worshipful Mas- 
ter of Shelby Lodge, which position he has often filled 
during the past forty-five years, and almost every year 
he has occupied some office in that body. In 1845 he 
became a member of the Grand Lodge. In 1863 he 
Retiring in 1865, he was 
immediately elected Grand Secretary, which station he 
held three years, when his partial loss of hearing com- 
pelled him to resign. In 1846 he was made a Royal 
Arch Mason. In 1848 he helped organize the Chapter 
at Greensburg, and, although living twenty miles dis- 
tant, he served the first two years as its High-priest. 
In 1851 he aided in the organization of the Chapter at 
Shelbyville, and was for several years its High-priest. 
He is now its secretary. In May, 1848, he became a 
member of the Grand Chapter, and from 1855 to 1861 
was Grand High-priest. From May, 1865, to October, 
1868, he was Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter. 
In 1856, at Hartford, Connecticut, he was made a mem- 
ber of the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Ma- 
sons of the United States. 
sion he was elected an officer in that body, reaching 
the exalted station of General Grand King. Mr. 
Hacker received the Council degrees in Indianapolis in 
May, 1846, and in 1855 assisted in organizing Shelby 
Council, No. 3, at Shelbyville, serving for several years 
as Iilustrious Master. Recorder of the 
Council. In December, 1855, he helped organize the 
Grand Council of the state, and for the six first years 
was its presiding officer. In 1865 he was elected Grand 
Recorder, and filled that station three and a half years. 
He received the orders of Christian knighthood in Cin- 
cinnati Commandery No. 2, in the spring of 1848. 
Three years later he was one of the organizers of 
Greensburg Commandery, No. 2, now Baldwin Com- 
mandery, at Shelbyville, and, having passed through all 
its important offices, is now Recorder. He was one of 
those who, in 1854, established the Grand Commandery, 
and was made one of its first officers, continuing in 
office until 1868. From 1864 to 1866 he held the high 
station of Grand Commander, and was then elected 
Grand Recorder, from which position he was obliged, 
two years later, to retire, because of deafness. He was 
called in 1855 to preside over the Council of High- 
priests for the state, and was annually re-elected to that 
honorable office until 1875, when, because of age and 
the disability just referred to, he asked to be relieved 
from further duties in that station. In 1866 he received 
at Indianapolis the different grades of the Ancient and 
Accepted Scottish Rite to the thirty-second degree. Mr. 
Hacker has been connected also with the Independent 
Order of Odd-fellows, and has filled nearly every office in 
the order, serving as Conductor in the Grand Lodge, 
and Junior Warden in the Grand Encampment. He 


was chosen Grand Master. 


For twelve years in succes- 


He is now 


has always been a zealous advocate of temperance, and | Lake Michigan, 


OFS 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


65 


has been associated more or less with all organizations 
for the promotion of that cause, especially the Wash- 
ingtonian Society and the Sons of Temperance. He is 
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has 
held, besides minor offices, that of lay steward in the 
annual conference from the. Indianapolis District. His 
greatest work in the Church has been in the in- 
terests of the Sunday-school, in which he has been 
engeged in every capacity for more than half a 
century. In early manhood Mr. Hacker became an 
ardent politician, espousing the political doctrines 
of Henry Clay, whose leadership he preferred, un- 
til the death of that statesman. His father left Vir- 
ginia because of slavery, and his son William inherited 
an abhorrence of that institution that caused him to 
join the Free-soil Republicans when that party was 
formed, and to earnestly advocate its principles. He 
was married, January 20, 1839, to Miss Mary Ann, 
daughter of Rev. Thomas W. Sargent, then of Shelby- 
ville. Mrs. Hacker is a relative of Hon. John Sargent, 
for many years United States Senator from Pennsyl- 
vania, and of a celebrated preacher of that name in 
Maryland. They have had five daughters and two sons, 
and of the seven children six are living. The oldest 
daughter lives with her family in Kansas; the next in 
age, in Washington. She is the wife of Tharp B. 
Jennings, of the chief signal office. He was sent in 
1878 to the Paris Exposition, as the representative of 
our signal service. The elder son is editor and pub- 
lisher of a paper; the youngest son is a physician in 
Indianapolis, and is becoming eminent in his profes- 
sion. In 1851 Mr. William Hacker was elected mayor 
of Shelbyville. He has adjudicated many cases for 
others, but he himself was never involved in a lawsuit, 
and never had a serious quarrel. This fact sheds a mild 
luster upon his character, and, with his benevolent la- 
bors and his high position in the Masonic Order, ren- 
ders him worthy of universal esteem. 


+3006 


AGEN, ANDREW, treasurer of Hancock County, 
was born in Arzberg, Germany, February 23, 1834. 
GN He is the son of John M. and Barbara Hagen. 

e¢ Mr. Hagen’s education was principally obtained in 
Nordhausen, Prussia, where he attended school until his 
sixttenth year, when he went to Bavaria, where he ap- 
plied himself for one year in the study of practical 
chemistry. During the next two years he traveled over 
many parts of Europe, visiting the most noted cities on 
the Continent. November 10, 1852, he came to Amer- 
ica, and, landing in New York, remained there for a 
few weeks and then went to Indiana. During the next 
four years he drifted about the West as a sailor on 
and a lumberman in the pine forests 


66 


of Michigan. In June, 1856, he was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Newhart, and soon after opened a grocery 
store in Fortville, Indiana, in which business he contin- 
ued until 1877, when he quitted the business. In 1861 
he returned to the home of his nativity. He was soon 
after put under arrest by the military authorities of Ger- 
many, for non-compliance with the law which required 
enlistment and service in the standing army of the gov- 
ernment. This event he had expected and was prepared 
to meet, and with a commission, signed by the third 
assistant postmaster, as postmaster at Fortville, he ap- 
plied to Hon. Joseph A. Wright, United States Minis- 
ter to Berlin, and through his instrumentality, and that 
of John Hudson, secretary of the Legation, he was 
released from custody, and permitted peaceably to return 
to America. A record was made of these proceedings, 
which afterward formed the basis of a treaty between 
Prussia and the United States, made in 1862, by the 
terms of which naturalized citizens of the United States 
from Germany should forever be released from military 
service to the Fatherland. Mr. Hagen was postmaster 
during Buchanan’s administration, and for fifteen years 
trustee of Vernon Township. In 1876 he was elected 
county treasurer of Hancock County, and re-elected in 
1878, and is therefore serving out his second term of 
office. Mr. Hagen has been a frugal and enterprising 
citizen all his life, and, in consequence, has amassed a 
fortune. Besides owning a large tract of land he is 
proprietor of a grain elevator and flax mill, in which he 
employs from forty to fifty men during the season. He 
joined the Free and Accepted Masons in 1864, and is 
a highly esteemed member of that brotherhood. He 
is of Protestant faith, without Church relations of any 
kind. He is a life-long and steadfast Democrat in pol- 
itics. He is a quiet, unobtrusive gentleman, always 
attending strictly to his own business. Te is courteous, 
affable, and obliging, and is held in the highest esteem 
by the citizens of his county. As a county officer, he is 
efficient and careful of the county’s finances, at all times 
seeking the fulfillment of the law in the discharge of 
his official duties. He and his wife have been blessed 
with five children. 


—+-4006-— 


AGGART, MRS. MARY E., was born in ‘Vash- 
ington County, Pennsylvania, in 1843. She is the 
oldest daughter of Samuel S. Rothwell, a Method- 
ist Episcopal minister, noted in his community for 

his unflinching integrity and great force of character, as 

well as for his wonderful magnetic power as a pulpit 
orator. Mr. Rothwell was one of the original leading 

Abolitionists of Western Pennsylvania, a friend of Ger- 
rit Smith and Doctor F. J. Le Moine, of Washington, 

Pennsylvania; and they together organized the first 
Abolition societies of that part of the state. Mrs. Eliz- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


abeth Rothwell, Mrs. Haggart’s mother, is also a native 
of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and is a woman 
of extraordinary intelligence and natural mental power, 
of perfect physical development, and great energy and 
endurance; is a mechanical genius, and possesses re- 
markable business ability and executive capacity; is very 
positive and determined in her character, and independ- 
ent in thought and action. Her home and children 
have ever been paramount with her, though she has 
always stretched forth a willing hand of. support to 
those around her who needed assistance. She is of 
English parentage, and has inherited much of the phys- 
ical and mental nature of English people. Mrs. Roth- 
well to-day, at the age of sixty-five years, is pointed out 
as an example of true womanhood, devoted motherhood, 
and general nobility of mind and character. Mrs. Hag- 
gart has inherited many of the leading traits, both phys- 
ical and mental, of her mother, while from her father 
she inherits her marvelous oratorical gifts and wonderful 
memory. She is modest, dignified, and unobtrusive ; 
never indulges in self-laudation, and forms all her opin- 
ions of topics and individuals coolly, dispassionately, 
and deliberately; and, although she was reared under 
the teachings of the Methodist Church, she has never 
identified herself with any religious organization. She 
received her primary education in the California Semi- 
nary, Washington County, Pennsylvania, and subse- 
quently finished a collegiate course in the South-western 
Normal College, of Pennsylvania. She was connected 
with the above-named seminary for several years in the 
capacity of a teacher, and always excelled as a disci- 
plinarian, on account of her firm dignity and quiet, posi- 
tive disposition. Her career as a lecturer may be dated 
back to girlhood. Her fine essays and original orations, 
produced while yet a student in the schools above 
named, made her a great favorite with both teachers 
and pupils, and placed her always among the more cul- 
tured people of her native county. At the age of fif- 
teen she was urgently solicited by some of the leading 
anti-slavery people of her county to prepare and deliver 
an address setting forth the horrors and abominations 
of American slavery as practiced in our Southern States. 
This invitation she accepted, and her youth and enthu- 
siasm, as well as logic and eloquence, so charmed and 
interested the people that she was taken by her friends 
to a number of anti-slavery mass-meetings throughout 
Western Pennsylvania, to deliver this address. She was 
looked upon as a prodigy in oratory, and her father was 
earnestly petitioned by his friends to place her promi- 
nently before the public in the capacity of a lecturer 
and reformer. He, however, entertained very rigid and 
conscientious views regarding the true sphere of woman, 
and opposed her entering upon a public career. After 
completing her course of studies in the college, she set- 
tled quietly down to the work of a teacher’s profession, 


ath Dist.) 


until February, 1867, when she married Doctor D. Hag- 
gart, an eminent homceopathic physician of Eastern 
Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1868 she, with her hus- 
band, located at Danville, Indiana, the Doctor entering 
upon the practice of his profession, and she upon a life 
of quiet study and domestic duties, and during this time 
many of the productions of her versatile pen found their 
way into the popular magazines of the day. The pro- 
fessors of the Danville Academy organized during this 
year a lecture association for the ‘purpose of employing 
and cultivating home talent, and called upon Mrs. Hag- 
gart to deliver the third lecture of the course. She con- 
sented, and made her début as a public speaker in the 
West to a crowded house in Danville, Indiana. The 
subject of her lecture was, <¢Woman’s True Culture,” 
and those who had prophesied failure were astounded 
at the power of the woman orator who had lived so 
quietly among them. The following. notice from the 
Hendricks County Union, which appeared the day after 
the lecture, shows how complete and satisfactory was 
her success: 

«‘The lecture of Mrs. Haggart was an eloquent and 
pointed appeal for the education of women. The lec- 
ture was entirely free from reflections or satire on the 
sterner sex, and contained no whining complaints about 
woman’s rights or her social degradation, but was a 
clear, concise, logical, and really eloquent address, de- 
livered with great distinctness of articulation, elegance 
in diction, and graceful gestures, the speaker often rising 
with her subject to heights of oratory seldom listened 
to in this town. The audience testified their apprecia- 
tion by the closest attention, and seemed entranced as 
they listened to her telling truths and good hits at 


{fashionable education. We trust she may be persuaded 
to lecture again, On any subject she may choose.” 


A few-weeks afterward she delivered this same lecture 
in Morrison’s Opera-house, Indianapolis, and of it the 
daily Journal made the following editorial notice: 


‘Mrs. Haggart’s lecture at the Opera Hall last night 
was a brilliant affair, Those who were so fortunate as 
to be present enjoyed a rich treat, while those who 
failed to attend missed one of the best intellectual 
treats of the season. Mrs. Haggart is eloquent, forci- 
ble, sensible, and pointed, and while she recounts with 
a just pride woman’s achievements, she does not spare 
her follies. She points out to her the path of duty and 
road to success and happiness, and urges upon her the 
importance of pursuing it in such eloquent terms as 
must have a good effect upon those who hear her. 
Her lecture was frequently and enthusiastically ap- 
plauded.” 


From this time on she received numerous and press- 
ing calls to lecture at different points in her own and 
adjacent states, and up to this time has lectured in 
every county and almost every town of importance in 
Indiana. She has received the highest and most lib- 
eral encomiums from the press wherever she has gone, 
that the most accomplished writers could pen. Some 
have emphatically pronounced her the ‘best lecturer 


/ 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


67 


East or West, man or woman.” She has few, if any, 
superiors as a reasoner and debater. Her arguments 
before the General Assembly of Indiana, during the 
session of 1879, have been pronounced the most logical 
and convincing ever delivered by any advocate of the 
legal and political equality of woman. She is, on the 
rostrum, a woman of fine appearance and dignity, and 
has a wonderful magnetic power over audiences, She 
is always pronounced by those who have heard her the 
finest woman speaker on the American platform. In 
1877 she was elected chairwoman of the state central 
committee of the Indiana Woman Suffrage Association, 
which position she has filled up to the present time. 
In 1869 she was sent as a delegate to the National 
Woman Suffrage Convention at St. Louis, and while 
at this most interesting convention made, to quote the 
correspondent of the Indianapolis Hera/d, ‘‘one of the 
In 1878 Mrs. Haggart 
established the Woman’s Tribune at Indianapolis, a 
weekly paper devoted wholly to the interests of women. 
Her sole aim in founding this journal was to help 
women, and aid in their elevation and advancement, to 
open up wider avenues of work for them, and advocate 
for them every possible honorable means of becoming 
self-dependent Her paper was 
adopted as the organ of the State Suffrage Association, 
and became at once a fearless champion of the enfran- 
chisement of her sex. The 77zbune was very favorably 
noticed by the press, and welcomed by the equal suf- 
fragists of the West as a strong ally to the cause. Mrs. 


grandest speeches of her life.” 


and_ self-supporting. 


Haggart devoted her best energies for over one year 
and a half to conducting her paper and filling lecture 
engagements. Her power and earnestness in the tem- 
perance work were so universally recognized that calls 
for her services as a lecturer poured in upon her from 
all quarters, and, in order that she might be able to go 
untrammeled into the lecture field, she sold out, on 
June 25, 1879, the subscription list of the Woman’ s 
Tribune, to Matilda Joslyn Gage, editor and proprietor 
of the National Citizen and Ballot Box, an equal suffrage 
paper published at Syracuse, New York. 
mer of 1878 Mrs. Haggart conceived the idea of estab- 
lishing a woman’s department in the state fairs of Indi- 
ana. 
ladies of Indianapolis in the work of aiding her, and 
the result was, the largest and grandest exhibit of 
woman’s work was made at this fair ever shown in 
Indiana. During the fair a meeting of the State Board 
of Agriculture was called in connection with the woman’s 
board, and a permanent organization of the woman’s 
board was effected, and christened the Woman’s State 
Board of Industry. Mrs. Haggart was elected president 
of the woman’s board, and made an ex-officio member 
of the State Board of Agriculture. She was also sent as 
a delegate to the January meeting of ‘the State Board 


In the sum- 


She succeeded in engaging several enterprising 


68 REPRESENTATIVE 


of Agriculture in 1879, the first woman delegate ever 
sent to any state agricultural board meeting. After the 
burdens of editing and publishing the MWoman’s 777bune 
were removed, Mrs. Haggart entered unreservedly and 
entirely into the lecture field, fully imbued with the 
overwhelming importance and responsibility of her mis- 
sion. Her favorite themes are the education, elevation, 
and enfranchisement of her sister woman, temperance, 
and moral reforms. This earnest woman is a reformer 
by nature, and she seems to discern already, through 
the opening vista of future years, the full realization of 
her highest aspirations. The superior physical and 
mental development of Mrs. Haggart is no doubt, in a 
great measure, due to her entire freedom from fashion- 
able restraints, the healthful surroundings of the place 
of her nativity, and the sensible training of wise par- 
ents. All these, added to great natural endowments, 
have produced a woman abundantly able to distinguish 
herself in the great field of the world’s workers, and 
one who will yet win a name that will be cherished in 
thoughtful remembrance by a grateful posterity. 


—+-$006-o— 


ALL, JACOB A., physician and surgeon, of Green- 
field, was born in Fayette County, Indiana, May 
22, 1822. His parents, Thomas and Matilda Hall, 
were hardy, respected pioneers, who endeavored 

to give their son the best education their limited oppor- 

tunities would allow. Thomas Hall, the father, was a 

soldiér in the War of 1812, an officer on the staff of 

General Lewis Cass at the time of Hull’s memorable 

surrender at Detroit. 


At the age of twenty-six Jacob 
began the study of medicine with his brother, Doctor 
John F. Hall, and, after a few years of practice and 
study combined, graduated at the Physio-Medical Col- 
lege, at Cincinnati, Ohio. Prior to his graduation he 
was in partnership for a time with Doctor Falconbury. 
In 1850 he removed to Hancock County, where, engag- 
ing in his practice, he still resides. In politics Doctor 
Hall was a Jacksonian Democrat until 1860, since which 
time he has been a zealous adherent of the Republican 
party. Religiously, he was a New-light for many years, 
but he subsequently embraced spiritualism, and, as he 
is aman of great positiveness of character, he is likely 
to continue in the faith until death. He is a man of 
pleasing address, of great kindness of heart, and pub- 
lic-spirited, devoting much of his time in practice to the 
relief of the poor and distressed, from many of whom 
he can never expect the slightest remuneration. He 
joined the Free and Accepted Masons in 1854, and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen in 1876. He was 
Junior Warden in the Free and Accepted Masons and 
trustee, and was Master S. P. M. and D. D. P. M. in 


the-Ancient Qrder of United Workmen. As an evi- 


MEN OF INDIANA. [7th Dist. 
dence of their confidence in Doctor Hall’s medical and 
surgical skill, the county commissioners have appointed 
him, at different times, the county physician. He is 
very popular with all classes, being almost without an 
enemy in the world. Early in life he determined to 
secure an education, and to his dogged perseverance 
and unflagging energy is due the credit for those intel- 
lectual acquirements that mark him to-day as a man of 
accurate and varied information. In this respect he is 
essentially a self-made man. Then, again, he is a man 
of great positiveness of character, and this excellent 
quality makes his co-operation valuable in the work of 
temperance reform, in which he is greatly interested. 
He was married to Miss Mary J. Cannady, daughter of 
Lewis L. Cannady, June 6, 1844. Ten children have 
been born to them, five of whom—one son, Lewis A.,' 
and four daughters—are still living. 


—-80th-o—— 


AMILTON, SAMUEL, banker, of Shelbyville, 

was the youngest but one in a family of six chil- 
GP dren, of whom he is the only survivor. His_ 
S¢ father, Samuel Hamilton, was descended from an- 
cestors who crossed over from Scotland to Ireland in the 
early part of the seventeenth century. He was an in- 
dustrious farmer, and engaged in that occupation until 
his death, which occurred in Londonderry County, on 
Christmas-day, 1854. Samuel’s mother, whose original 
name was Sarah Dunn, died in May, 1847. She was of 
Irish nativity, but of German descent. Their home was 
on the banks of the Roe water in Londonderry, Ire- 
land, where the subject of this memoir was born De- 
cember 16, 1812. Year followed year without note- 
worthy events in his life until March, 1834, when, 


having become of age, he bade farewell to home and 
kindred and embarked for the United States, believing 
that in this land of political and religious liberty, where ~ 
the road to wealth and distinction is open to all, he. 
could succeed better than in his own Emerald Isle. He 
arrived in New York in the month of May, and traveled 
slowly westward by the way of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, 
and Cincinnati, and stopped finally in Rushville, In- 
diana, where he had a brother Joseph. He first became 
a clerk in Burlington, Rush County; then, on the 
twentieth day of April of the following year, opened a 
store in Shelbyville, in copartnership with his brother, 
under the firm name of J. & S. Hamilton. This existed 
ten years, and was then dissolved, after which Mr. Samuel 
Hamilton continued the business alone for ten years 
longer. With a mind adapted to all the needs and 
emergencies of business, he had steadily and judiciously 
managed the affairs, achieving most satisfactory re- 
sults. He now decided to engage in banking, and, in 
partnership with John Elliott, James Hill, and Alfred 


7th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
Major, he established the Shelby Bank, October, 1855, 
the firm being Elliott, Hill & Co. Two years later they 
dissolved, and, on the first day of January, 1858, Mr. 
Hamilton took charge of it, and has ever since been its 
manager and proprietor. His business abilities are such 
that he has engaged not only in the sale of merchan- 
dise and in banking, but was also instrumental in start- 
ing a planing-mill, the first in the county, and has in- 
terested himself in one or more grist and saw mills, and 
dealt in real estate, not only in Indiana, but also in 
Ohio and Iowa. Part of this consists of city property 
in Shelbyville, the rest in lands, much of which he has 
As a stockholder, he promoted the 
building of the first railroad through the county—the 
Shelby and Edinburg. Mr. Hamilton was one of those 
who supported Andrew Jackson’s administration, and 
has ever since been loyal to the Democratic party. 
Though feeling a deep interest in its success, he seeks 
no share in its gifts of office. He is an elder in the 
First Presbyterian Church of Shelbyville, which denom- 
ination he joined in his native land. He is not a mem- 
ber of any secret society. He was married, January 30, 
1844, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of William and Eliza- 
beth (Morris) Lowry, of Rushville. As already seen, Mr. 
Hamilton has built the fabric of his fortune without 
assistance. He commenced a poor boy, and through 
the exercise of his own abilities has accumulated a 
Of this he has contributed freely for the pro- 


under cultivation. 


fortune. 
motion of public enterprises. He is quiet and unassum- 
ing in manner, and never meddles with the affairs of 
others. He possesses social and moral qualities that 
win him many friends, and sound business qualifications 
He is 
upright in all his dealings, and, through all his long 
residence in Shelbyville, his daily walk and conversa- 
tion have been such as to exalt him in the estimation of 
the public. 


that make him a leader in commercial circles. 


— dt — 


If ALFORD, ELIJAH W., Indianapolis, journalist, 
4] was born in the city of Nottingham, England, in 


September, 1842, and came to this country in the 
spring of 1849. He went direct to Ohio, learning 
the printing trade in Hamilton, and for some time 
worked at that business after coming to Indianapolis, in 


the winter of 1861-2. In the latter year he was engaged 


upon the Journal, remaining with it in various capaci- 
ties until March, 1872. At that time, when the Chicago 
Inter-Ocean was established, he became the managing 
editor, which position he occupied two years. Mr. 
Halford’s work on this journal laid the foundation of a 
paper that at once had a ‘‘start-off” in popularity 
unprecedented in journalism in this country, and which 
has since become the leading Republican newspaper in 


the North-west in influence and circulation. Having 


MEN OF INDIANA. 69 
resigned his position on the /nter-Ocean, he returned to. 
Indianapolis, engaging again with the Journal, and re- 
mained for some time the managing editor. Mr. Halford 
is gifted as a newspaper writer and editorial manager, 
and has always been successful in his newspaper work. 
In 1866 Mr. Halford was married to Miss Fannie Arm- 
strong, a lady of considerable accomplishments, and 
noted for possessing fine vocal musical attainments. 
Their only child is an interesting daughter. Plain and 
unpretentious, Mr. Halford is devoted to the duties of 
his calling, and ever at his post. Although a hard 
worker, it sits lightly upon him. Few journalists at his 
comparatively youthful age have arrived to equal dis- 
tinction. He was only twenty-nine when he undertook, 
and conducted with such marked success, the chieftain- 
ship of the Ziter-Ocean. Those who know him best 
have found him to be the reliable man, the true friend, 
and the useful citizen. 


Gato — 


ANNA, JOHN, Indianapolis, Indiana, son of James 
Parks Hanna, was born September 3, 1827, in what 
oe\ is now part of the city of Indianapolis. His father 

oe entered and improved eighty acres of land in War- 

ren Township, on which he died August 31, 1839, leav- 
ing a widow and five children, John being the eldest. 

The mother died in 1844. John and the children re- 
mained on the farm until 1846, when, General Robert 
Hanna being their guardian, at his instance the chil- 
dren broke up housekeeping so that they could go to 

school. John, being determined to acquire an education, 

started for Greencastle in 1846 with four dollars in his 
pocket, walked the entire way, and entered the univer- 
sity, where he obtained the position of janitor of the 
college. He worked his way through, and graduated 
with honors in June, 1850. He then entered the law 
office of Judge Delany R. Eckles and finished the study 
of his profession, becoming the law partner of his pre- 
ceptor and settling in Greencastle. He was then elected 
mayor of the city of his adoption, and served three 
years. After Judge Eckles went upon the bench as 
Circuit Judge, Mr. Hanna formed a copartnership with 
the Hon. John A. Maston, which continued until the 
spring of 1858, when he went to Kansas. He was the 
same year elected a member of the territorial Legisla- 
ture from the county of Lykens, now Miami, and 
served as such during the session of 1858-9. He was 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and introduced 
and carried through the act abolishing and prohib- 
iting slavery in the territory. In politics he was an 
earnest and worthy Republican. 
year in Kansas he returned to Greencastle and resumed 

the practice of law. In the presidential canvass of 1860 

le was the Republican elector of the Seventh District, 


After remaining a 


70 


and as such voted for Abraham Lincoln. Prior to the 
Chicago Convention he had advocated the nomination 
of Edward Bates, of Missouri, for the presidency. 
Afterwards Mr. Bates became Mr. Lincoln’s attorney- 
general. Hon. Henry S. Lane and Schuyler Colfax 
urged the appointment of Mr. Hanna for United States 
attorney for the district of Indiana, and he was also 
recommended by Mr. Bates, and appointed a few days 
after the inauguration of President Lincoln, and four 
years afterwards his reappointment was ordered by 
Mr. Lincoln, although his name was not sent to the 
Senate until after the death of the President. He con- 
tinued to serve until after the split between President 
Johnson and the Republican party, when he denounced 
the President, and, at a Johnson meeting held in Indi- 
anapolis, introduced a series of resolutions which was 
the immediate cause of his being removed; Alfred 
Kilgore being appointed to fill his place, to whom he 
furnished all desired information in regard to the 
duties of his office. Mr. Hanna then formed a copart- 
nership with Mr. Fred. Kneffler, of Indianapolis, in the 
practice of law, and has devoted himself to practice 
since that time. In 1868 he was a candidate in Putnam 
County for the Legislature, and, although defeated, 
he ran ahead of the state ticket. His life at the bar 
has been a constant warfare, and he has had more 
than the usual share of the hotly contested litigated 
cases. As United States attorney during the war, his 
position was one requiring great labor, yet without as- 
sistance he discharged his duties to the entire satisfac- 
tion of the government. The prosecutions for the vio- 
lations of the draft laws, the revenue laws, corporation 
acts, treason, and felonies, were the 
records of the courts attest. Since he commenced the 
practice of law in Greencastle he has been engaged in 
a number of the most prominent murder cases for the 
defense, the Clem case, perhaps, being the most noted. 
While attending the university Mr. Hanna became 
acquainted with Miss Mahala Sherfy, of Perrysville, 
Vermilion County, who was attending the Female Col- 
legiate Seminary, then in charge of Mrs. Larabie, 
wife of Professor William C. Larabie. They gradu- 
ated from the same rostrum in June, 1850, and in 
May, 1851, they were married. Mrs. Hanna was a 
woman of liberal education and superior intellect, and, 
in the fullest sense of the term, a true wife. As a 
Christian, she was beloved by her neighbors and idol- 
ized by her husband. She was the mother of seven 
children, one of whom was lost in infancy. She died 
in the spring of 1870, leaving six children, three sons 
and three daughters. Mr. Hanna, two years after the 
death of his wife, married Mrs. Emma Pathoroff, of 
Greencastle. They have now an additional son and 
daughter, eight in all. 


numerous, as 


Mr. Hanna’s great success in 
his profession has demonstrated that he is a man of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


-given to long, solitary rambles in the woods. 


[7th Dist. 


more than ordinary ability—starting out a poor boy 
comparatively, without friends or money, working his 
way through college, and attaining an enviable and 
high position, both as a civil and criminal lawyer. His 
great-grandfather was a native of South Carolina, and 
was there engaged, during the struggle for American 
independence, in behalf of liberty and the stars and 
stripes. His grandfather, John Hanna, son of General 
Robert Hanna, removed to Brookville, Franklin County, 
in the early history of Indiana Territory. General 
Robert Hanna was a member of the convention that 
formed the first Constitution of the state, in 1816. 
James Parks Hanna, father of John, lived with his 
uncle, General Robert Hanna, up to the time of his 
marriage with Miss Lydia Howard, of New Jersey. He 
was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress as a Republican, 
receiving nineteen thousand six hundred and thirty-four 
votes, against eighteen thousand two hundred and 
thirty-six for Franklin Landers, Democrat. 


ANNA, ROBERT, a United States Senator, was a 
member of the Indiana Constitutional Conven- 
\ tion of 1816, which formed the fundamental law 
se of the state. He was for many years in the state 


Legislature; was a Senator in Congress by appointment 
in 1831 to 1832. He took an active part for many 
years in the public affairs of the state, and was a general 
of militia. He was killed by the cars, when walking on 
the track of a railroad in Indianapolis, November 19, 
1858. 

—~- 3 CE <— 


ARDING, GEORGE C., Indianapolis. 
the journalists of the West none are known to a 
larger area of readers, or more distinguished for 
originality and force, than George C, Harding, 
lately editor of the Satarday Herald, of Indianapolis. 
His own intense individuality, as well as his great abil- 


Among 


ity as a journalist, have given him a fame that is not 
often attained in newspaper life outside the great me- 
His life has been as varied as his work is ver- 
satile. He is now fifty years old, having passed the 
half century milestone last August. He is a native of 
Knoxville, East Tennessee. His father, Jacob Harding, 
married Love F. Nelson, daughter of Hon. John R. 
Nelson, a lawyer of Knoxville, Tennessee. George’s 
early youth was passed in Knoxville, his father being 
associated with Mr. Nelson in the practice of law, and 
also in the publication of an anti-Jackson newspaper 
called the Republican. He was a silent, meditative boy, 


tropolis. 


Every 
tree was to him an old friend; every bird, a companion; 
and he knew the traits and tricks of all the animals of 


7th Dist.) 


On account of his fondness for the forest, 
and his dark, swarthy complexion, he was given the 
sobriquet of ‘‘ Cherokee.” When George was about ten 
years old his father moved to Paris, Edgar County, Ili- 
nois, where the family entered upon a long and exciting 


that region. 


conflict with the various malarious diseases incident to 
the climate, and the natural concomitant of ‘‘low, flat 
land.” Notwithstanding annual attacks of ague and 
bilious fever, and despite the repeated venesections and 
salivations by doctors of the old school, George sur- 
vived, and saw numerous sisters and brothers—twelve 
besides himself—gathered about the family board. His 
father gave him such education as his scanty means 
and the limited facilities of the pioneer village afforded ; 
but it was not much, and was entirely rudimentary. 
Those were the days when it was almost impossible to 
‘drink deep” of the Pierian spring, no matter how 
thirsty the student. 
schools only extended to the ‘ Double Rule of Three,” 
in Pike’s arithmetic, with a little of Kirkham’s gram- 


The curriculum of the backwoods 


and a smattering of natural philosophy for ‘¢ad- 
vanced students.”” When the pupil got to the end of 
the master’s string, he was turned back and compelled 
to go oyer the familiar ground, with frequent interludes 
in the way of “‘lickings” for getting into mischief. 
George was an industrious reader, however, with an im- 


mar, 


pressionable and reasoning mind and retentive memory, 
and in this way he made up for the deficiencies of the 
schools he attended. He is a conspicuous confutation 
of the old theory that an education can not be obtained 
outside of college halls, being one of the best-informed 
men of the times, quick to see a blunder, and possess- 
ing the faculty of analysis in a rare degree. He makes 
no claim to superior scholarship, and is not what in the 
literary cant of the day is called ‘‘cultured,” but he 
has knowledge of a substantial, solid, sensible order ; 
and his mind, instead of being a magazine of stale 
learning, is a spring of living thought. The elder 
Harding enjoyed a small law practice, payable mostly in 
«truck and trade,” which was inadequate to the main- 
tenance of a large and corstantly increasing family, 
and so George, in order to lighten the burden, turned 
his young hands willingly to whatever labor offered, 
and, at various times, worked on a farm in the harvest- 
field, in a brick-yard, in a tan-yard—at any thing, in 
fact, that presented itself. It is interesting to hear Mr. 
Harding’s reminiscences of some of those days. Though 
young, he was well-developed physically, and when only 
thirteen years old was often called upon to make a 
«full hand” at severe manual labor for less than half 
pay. Four dollars a month was then considered munif- 
icent compensation for wheel-barrowing mud to the 
brick-molder during fifteen hours of the twenty-four, 
while the pampered molder himself got the princely sal- 
ary of ten dollars a month. During one summer George 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


7s 


and Brevet Major-general James W. McMillan—then 
plain ‘Jim ” McMillan—made and burned the brick for 
a country church on the north arm, five miles from Paris. 
When only fourteen years old, George ran away from 
home, and walked all the way to St. Louis, but was 
captured and returned to the parental roof by a neigh- 
boring merchant, who had gone to that city with a 
couple of teams to haul goods. He had had no dis- 
agreement with the head of the family. He simply 
left home because of a feeling that the hive was getting 
too full, and a belief that something better than the 
privations and discomforts of a poor boy in a back- 
woods village was to be found for the seeking in the 
great world beyond. The seriousness of life was appar- 
ent to his mind very early. He understood and sym- 
pathized with the cares and trials of his parents at an 
age when most boys are thoughtless and selfish. About 
the year 1845, with the consent of his father, George 
apprenticed himself to the printing business, under 
Judge Conard, of Terre Haute, at that time publishing 
a weekly paper called the Courzer, long since dead and 
forgotten. Isaac M. Brown, the veteran editor and 
printer, taught the embryo journalist to set type, and 
jn many respects acted as a father to him. After some 
time in the Courier office, George followed Mr. Brown 
to the Lxpress, at that time edited and published by 
David S. Donaldson, still a resident of Terre Haute. 
Mr. Harding’s father, finding that as an honest lawyer 
he had a hard row to hoe, started a weekly newspaper 
called the Prairie Beacon, in Paris, and George left Terre 
Haute and went to work on it. About this time he 
was bitten by the scribbling adder, and the virus 
worked rapidly. He contributed several sketches to a 
‘literary’ weekly of Cincinnati, called the Great West, 
which has for a quarter of a century reposed in a well- 
He also wrote occasional articles for his 
father’s paper, which must have been characterized by 
the brilliant incisiveness which is one of the chief char- 


earned grave. 


acteristics of his maturer productions, as they always 
excited curiosity in the little community, and sometimes 
raised a fuss. During his father’s absence one week, 
he improved the opportunity to ‘¢branch out,” and suc- 
ceeded in making the paper so ‘‘lively” that its digni- 
fied editor’s hair stood up when he read it. The suc- 
ceeding ménth was mainly devoted to apologies, 
explanations, 
editor was informed that, while his ability was unques- 
tioned, there were grave doubts as to his discretion, 
and in future nothing from his pen could appear in the 


and disavowals; and the ambitious young 


decorous columns of the Beacon without first having 
been subjected to the paternal eye. During the Mexi- 
can War young Harding, at this time a well-grown lad 
of seventeen, began to long for the bubble reputation. 
He joined a company made up in his town, which was 


not accepted. Then he went to New Orleans in a flat- 


72 


boat, with a view to joining some regiment there, but | 


failed to find a suitable opening. Coming up to St. 
Louis, he fell into the toils of a neatly dressed, wily- 
tongued, and handsome recruiting sergeant of the 2d 
Dragoons, was enlisted and sent down to Jefferson bar- 
racks, where he was taken sick within a few weeks. 
After two months of hospital life he was discharged, 
thoroughly cured, for the time, of his military fever; 
but for eighteen months he was a sufferer from disease. 
During Mr, Harding’s illness at the barracks he was 
near enough to ‘“death’s door” to listen at the key- 
hole, and thinks he would have gone through had it 
not been for the exasperation caused by an innocent re- 
cruit. He owned a horse which proved to be-the best 
in the company, and was coveted by all the recruits. 
One ambitious young warrior, thinking to get ahead of 
his comrades, came over to the hospital one morning 
and insisted on an interview with the dying man, 
though he had no previous acquaintance with him, On 
being admitted, he persuasively reminded Mr. Harding 
that he was going to die, and calmly asked him to re- 
sign his claim to the horse in his visitor’s favor. In- 
dignation at the fellow’s want of delicacy inspired the 
sick man with a determination to get well—and he did, 
Mr. Harding’s first experience in editorial life was in 
Charleston, Illinois. While a compositor in the Com- 
mercial office at Cincinnati, Mr. William Harr, pub- 
lisher of the Charleston Courter, made him a proposi- 
tion, which was accepted, by which he became half 
proprietor and sole editor of that journal. The Courzer 
was a fuzzy-looking concern when he took hold of it. 
The type was old, and the editing had been mainly 
done by a pair of superannuated shears, which fell fero- 
ciously afoul of the nearest exchange when copy was 
wanted, and sawed indiscriminately, biting off an article 
If the 
Courier was conscious of any thing, it was of the deep- 
of its principles, represented by 
the cut of a section of muskmelon with an American 
flag stuck in it, the curious thing doing duty asan edito- 
rial figure-head. 


at the most convenient paragraph to make it fit. 


seated ** Americanism ”’ 


By inheritance and predilection Mr. 
Harding was a Whig, but the Whig party was dead. 
Know-Nothingism was too narrow-minded and illiberal 
to comport with his ideas of justice, and Democracy 
was too nauseous a dose to swallow, The young giant, 
Republicanism, had just been born, and was growing 
vigorously; but Coles County, which had been settled 
almost exclusively by Kentuckians, was strongly pro- 
slavery, and utterly opposed to any thing which even 
squinted at Free-soil. Nevertheless, Mr. Harding defied 
the prejudices of the place by making the Courder an 
out-and-out Republican paper, and in the heated can- 
vass of 1856 did excellent service. From an obscure 
sheet the Courter became widely known all over the 
state, and Mr. Horace White, of the Chicago 77zbune, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


wrote to Mr. Harding, consulting him in regard to the 
preparation of a state platform which would give least 
offense to the old Whig pro-slavery element in South- 
ern Illinois. Mr. Harding’s paper was the first in the 
Union to suggest the nomination of John C. Fremont 
for the presidency, and he (Mr. Harding) was elected 
secretary of the district Republican central committee. 
Mr. Harding withdrew from the Courzer, and, in com- 
pany with his brother William, started the Ledger, 
which attained a large circulation in a short time. 
Owing to unhappy domestic affairs he finally sold out 
the Ledger and returned to Cincinnati, where he ob- 
tained a situation as reporter on the Commercial, with 
Fred Hunt and W. D. Bickham as co-workers. After 
several months’ experience, at the suggestion of M. D. 
Potter, the publisher, Mr. Harding retired, being satis- 
fied that, while he had plenty of ability as a writer, his 
modesty, taciturnity, and lack of that superlative degree 
of impudence known as ‘‘cheek,” interfered with his 
success as a news-gatherer. Leaving Cincinnati Mr. 
Harding went South, and after a brief period of typo- 
graphical experience obtained a situation as associate 
editor of the Houston (Texas) tri-weekly 7elegraph. After 
six or eight months of service, becoming satisfied that 
war was imminent, he accepted the advice of the editor 
of the Zelegraph, and left Texas before the storm burst, 
and returned to Cincinnati. Shortly after the outbreak of 
the War of the Rebellion, Mr. Harding enlisted in the 
21st Indiana Regiment, Colonel James W. McMillan, 
and accompanied the regiment to Baltimore, where it 
remained for nearly eight months. During that time he 
wrote occasional letters to the Cincinnati Commercial. 


; When General Butler organized his New Orleans expe- 


dition he made a requisition on Governor Morton for 
one Indiana regiment, and the Governor designated the 
21st, simply because it was the only Indiana regiment 
which had a regular correspondent in its ranks, thus 
enabling him to keep track of its doings and hear of 
its grievances. It was a lucky chance for the 21st, as 
it sent them into a fine climate, a country teeming with 
food, where they had enough fighting to do to relieve 
the monotony of camp-life, and comparatively few hard- 
ships to undergo. Had it not been for Mr. Harding’s , 
letters the regiment would have gone into the Army of 
the Potomac. After a year’s service Mr. Harding was 
promoted to the position of second lieutenant. In 1864 he 
resigned, and went to work on the New Orleans 72mes 
as city editor. After some six months’ experience on 
the 7%mes he resigned his situation and came North, his 
wife being unwilling to go to New Orleans. Shortly 
after arriving in Indiana he was employed on the Indi- 
anapolis Journal as city editor, Colonel W. R. Holloway 
at that time being the publisher. He afterward served 
on the daily Herald—as the Sentinel was then called— 
published by Hall & Hutchinson; and then on the Sew- 


7th Dist.| 


tinel under Lafe Develin’s management, and again under 
Richard Bright. At one time, when the Sentinel was in 
the hands of William Henderson as assignee or receiver, 
Mr. Harding and Rufus McGee did all the editorial 
and local work thereon, and got out a paper which was 
admitted by competent judges to be the best in the city 
at the time. It was in the year 1867 that Mr. Harding 
and Marshall G, Henry started the Saturday Evening 
Mirror. My. Henry, now dead, became discouraged, 
and sold out to John R. Morton. The Afzrror pros- 
pered, and was converted into a daily, Judge F. M. 
Finch putting about four thousand dollars of capital into 
the concern. The daily A/zrvor had a remarkable career 
of about twelve months, during which it attained a 
large circulation and became quite popular. It brought 
to light the celebrated correspondence between Colonel 
Cumback and Governor Baker, the publication of 
which defeated Mr. Cumback’s aspirations for the 
United States Senate after he had received the caucus 
nomination. The JZ7ror also discovered and brought 
forward Hon. Daniel D. Pratt, who was elected to the 
Senate after the Cumback bolt. Owing to a disagree- 
ment with his partners, Mr. Harding sold out of the 
Mirror, and, the intestine strife still continuing, it was 
afterward sold for a mere song to the Mews, at that time 
an infant enterprise. Thus perished the most promising 
newspaper enterprise ever built up on so small an outlay 
of capital. After leaving the Mirror, Mr. Harding went 
to work on the Journal, at a salary of fifty dollars per 
week; but, the situation not being congenial, he resigned, 
and resuscitated the weekly Mirror, which was shortly 
after consolidated with W. B. Vickers’s paper, Zown 
Talk. Mr. Harding sold out to Vickers and moved to 
Cincinnati, where he worked on the Enquirer until the 
establishment of the famous Louisville Zezger, when 
he became one of the remarkable corps of editors who 
assisted the.lamented Colonel Clusky in making the 
departments of that wonderful 
He was recalled from Louisville to take 


various periodical 
«¢ cawnsist.”’ 
charge of the evening Journal, which he managed until 
the St. Louis Democrat was purchased by the Hassel- 
mans and Fishbacks, when he became one of the illus- 
trious Indiana colony that invaded that city. After a 
‘«brief but brilliant” career in St. Louis, Mr. Harding 
was discharged for writing a letter to the Chicago 
Times containing more information about the small-pox 
than it was deemed prudent to disseminate. Returning 
to Indianapolis he started the Saturday [erald with A. 
C. Grooms, and within the first six months bought out 
Mr. Grooms’s interest and resold it to S. N. Bannister. 
As there was no field for the Hera/d at the time, it had 
a vigorous struggle with adversity for the first few years 
of its existence. Every body seemed determined that it 
should die, and every week an ‘‘ authoritative” rumor 
would be started to the effect that that number would 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


73 


be the last. ‘Notwithstanding the fact that it never per- 
mitted a pay-day to go by without discharging its obli- 
gations to its employés in full, cautious compositors 
would sometimes get alarmed and insist on being paid 
off in the middle of the week. Nothing but Mr. Hard- 
ing’s great ability and tenacity of purpose could have 
made the Herald live and flourish. A field was finally 
made for it, and now it is the most prosperous, promis- 
ing, and influential weekly newspaper in the state. 
When Mr. Harding started it he resolved to continue 
it, no matter what obstacles he had to encounter. He 
vowed it should live, if he was compelled to reduce it to 
the size of a sheet of foolscap. It was not one of those 
fortunate journals which are induced to exist for the 
high and holy purpose of filling a gaping and ‘long- 
It was not “urged” to exist. It began to 
live fully conscious of the ruggedness of its path, and it 
fought valiantly for every inch of ground it now occu- 
pies. It created a want and filled it at the same time. 
It has demonstrated the fact that a newspaper can 
thrive even under a mountain of disadvantages if it 
has the vital principle strong within it. The Herald, 
from the beginning, was an original thing in news- 


felt want.” 


papers. It had neither prototype nor antitype. It 
patterned after no precedent in style or spirit. With- 
out being sensational it has been remarkable. Capti- 
vating and interesting, it is always surprising its readers 
with some new feature, and treating them to some 
worthy thought on timely subjects. It has been literary 
in its character, at the same time keeping the local field 
well harvested, and not permitting matters of general 
interest to escape it. No matter how thoroughly the 
daily papers sweep up the chaff of a local event, every 
body wants to hear what the Herald thinks of it. Its 
account usually contains grains of interest not garnered 
by the daily press, and presents those already known in 
more attractive style. ‘* What the Herald says” be- 
comes the opinion of thousands of thinking minds who 
have learned to rely upon its judgment. As a literary 
paper it might be said to have developed a state liter- 
ature, having brought into distinction many talented 
writers before unknown. While the /Yera/d has always 
been dignified, its dignity has not been of the stilted 
and stupid order. It is dignified by reason of its good 
sense, force, penetration, and ability, and not because 
of any mannerism or conformity to established prece- 
dent. It has made its mark in the domain of burlesque 
literature, ridiculing shams of every grade and complex- 
ion, and by means of its force in that direction making 
the world more honest. It has very appropriately been 
called ‘¢a regular fool-killer.” ‘‘ Imitation is the sincerest 
flattery.” The Herald has been imitated allover the West. 
It has been the prototype of numerous successful weeklies. 
Strangely enough, those who are most known are often- 
Mr. Harding is one of these. No 


est least known. 


74 


man who is so widely known is more generally misun- 
derstood. No man has more or truer friends, and none 
has meaner enemies. His bitterest and most implacable 
foes are men and women with whom he has never come 
in contact, and who know absolutely nothing about 
him. His kindness is as well known as his severe 
justice, though not generally given the same prominence 
in the summing up of his character. Mr. Harding’s 
force of character, prominence, and influence, make 
every occurrence in which he takes a part, and every 
opinion he promulgates, matters of interest to the pub- 
lic. As he is a leader in thought, it is only natural 
that he should often be misunderstood and misrepre- 
sented, which is the emblem of superiority conferred by 
weaker minds. The simple truth is, there is not a 
kinder-hearted or more generous man in the profession, 
nor one readier to forgive an injury or do a favor; 
though by many he is credited with a degree of heart- 
lessness not common to any thing higher in the order 
of creation than devils. The common, but erroneous, 
opinion in some circles is that he is violent in his ha- 
treds, irreconcilable, revengeful, and quarrelsome. His 
fearlessness in attacking hypocrisies and shams, and the 
merciless ridicule he has heaped upon popular fallacies, 
have made him many enemies among those who are un- 
able to distinguish between the province of the journal- 
ist and the spite of the individual, though in reality 
there was, there is, no gentler, kinder man. His great- 
est admirers and warmest friends are the people who 
know him best. Mr. Harding has often been described 
as a man who enjoys spearing his fellow-men with an 
envenomed pen, for the simple delight of seeing them 
No statement in regard to him could be more 


He has been merciless only when mercy would 


writhe. 
untrue. 
have been weakness, and he is always just. His writing 
possesses the peculiar quality of incisiveness, and car- 
ries with it the force and stress of his great individual- 
ity. 
more power to enrage or delight than a column of the 
same import from many another pen. Mr. Harding 
excels in what is known as descriptive writing. He has 
a rare faculty of depicting scenes, and seizing upon the 
physical peculiarities, personal traits, habits, and char- 
acteristics of individuals, so as to make the reader see 
them in his mind’s eye as they are. His style has not 
inaptly been designated ‘‘word-painting.”” It might 
more appropriately be called the etching of literature, 
as it is the thought stripped of superfluous verbiage, 
and expressed in the clearest, most concise, and terse 
manner. 


A three-line paragraph written by him possesses 


There is no fine shading or elaborate filling 
in. It is neither graceful nor polished, forcefulness 
being its. chief distinction. Mr. Harding is a clear 
thinker, and a logical controversialist in the discussion 
of problems which may be worked out by purely mental 


processes, but is not ready in the matter of historical 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7A Dist. 


knowledge and the recollection of names and dates. 
He gets right at the point of any thing without a use- 
less word, being severely economical with adjectives, 
and choosing only such verbs as are conspicuous for 
force rather than euphony. As a paragrapher, he is 
generally admitted to be without an equal in the Indi- 
ana press. He can put the facts and fancies of a col- 
umn into six positive and dazzling lines, which con- 
tain all there is to be told of an event, together with 
his opinion of it. 
space, the editor of the Herald would fall disgrace- 
fully behind every body else. He has no talent for 
amplification whatever. Mr. Harding is witty. His wit is 
not of the feeble order*which passes for smartness in 
the ‘*funny’’ columns of newspapers. It is quick, in- 
cisive, and significant, and without the cruelty that is so 
often the chief attribute of wit. He is also addicted to 
that milder form of satirical ingenuity called humor. 
His sense of the ludicrous is great, and he freely do- 
nates whatever riches he finds of that kind to his read- 
He has no imagination. He never indulges in 
fantastic flights of fancy, nor drifts off into a poetic 
trend. He can be pathetic; but it is the grand pathos 
of deep feeling, not the elegant emotional verbosity 
which is so often mistaken for pathos. It might be 
said: of George Harding, as of Dean Swift, that ‘hate 
to fools” is his great quality. He was never imbued 
with the foolish idea which wastes many a fine intellect, 
that genius is all sufficient because it is genius, and can 
afford to scorn labor. Mr. Harding has always been 
industrious. He works very rapidly, writing almost as 
swiftly as his hand can move, and accomplishes more in 
a day than many a writer could in two. He is un- 
doubtedly doing the best work of his life now. His 
judgment is maturer, his perceptions truer, and his 
range of thought greater, than ever before. His mind 
has been ripened by experience and refined by time—an 
illustration of that ‘‘increasing purpose”’ which Tenny- 
son assures us ‘“‘through the ages runs,” that 


In a contest of writing against 


ers. 


“The thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.” 


Mr. Harding’s religious predilections have been as 
willfully and disagreeably misunderstood and perverted 
as was possible. Of the conventional hypocrisy which 
often passes for orthodox religion he has long been 
guiltless. In his impressionable and ‘‘salad”’ days he 
went through the gradient of spiritual regeneration, 
first in the Methodist, then in the Campbellite Church, 
and finally came out a rationalist. He has been ac- 
cused of ‘ridiculing religion,” ‘‘*robbing God,” and 
‘¢making war upon the gospel.” Notso. He respects 
sincerity and honesty in any one’s religion; but de- 
mands the inalienable right of untrammeled opinion for 
all, and punctures hypocrisy and villainy within the 
Church as readily and effectually as out of it. Person- 


7th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
ally, Mr. Harding is fine looking. He is large and well 
proportioned, with an erect carriage, and quick, firm 
step. 
with added years. 


He has the enviable art of growing handsome 
Time has refined the ruggedness of 
his features, and added benignity to his expression. 
He has a finely shaped, well-poised head, a dark, 
bronzed complexion, and singularly brilliant and expres- 
sive brown eyes. His face inclines to roundness, and 
his nose seems to be resting at a point where it is in- 
clined to go up but has not yet started. His hair is 
iron gray, and he wears a mustache, black, with a tint 
of gray, which appears to have as great an individuality 
as its owner. He has a natural dignity of manner, and 
is usually taciturn, saying little, but listening ably, and 
laughing honestly at any stroke of humor. As a jour- 
nalist, Mr. Harding is famous, successful, and useful. 
His work has been scattered over a wide territory. 
His influence has been felt by many minds. He has 
helped to make the world honester and ignorance 
weaker. As a man, he is below no one. 
tellect and rare qualities of heart more than outweigh 
the mistakes of his life. 


His fine in- 


—>-g0t-o— 


ARLAN, LEVI PINKNEY, superintendent of 
public schools for Marion County, Indiana, was 
born on the third day of March, 1853, on a farm 
in Warren Township, Marion County, Indiana, a 
few miles east of Indianapolis, on the Brookville state 
He is the son of Austin Bishop Harlan and Eliz- 
abeth Lorinda Harlan, whose maiden name was Con- 


road. 


well. His mother was of Scotch-Irish extraction, and 
his father of Scotch and English genealogy. Nathan 
Harlan, his grandfather, came to Indiana from Ken- 
tucky in 1814, and settled near Connersville. He was 
then about twenty years of age. There he married, in 
1817, Martha Patsey Reid, who was born in South Car- 
olina in 1799, and came to Indiana with her parents 
in the year 1814. They settled on a farm in Marion 
County, and afterward entered some land on the Brook- 
ville state road, adding to it by purchase. On this they 
cleared a farm and brought up a family of ten children. 
Mr. Harlan died in 1847, his wife surviving him eighteen 
years. Austin B., the fourth child of Nathan and Mar- 
tha, purchased the farm of which he inherited a portion. 
It has been in the family for more than fifty years, and 
Austin still lives there and follows the plow. The Har- 
lans have always been active in politics, a number of 
the members of the family attaining to places of high 
responsibility in the councils of state and nation. Not- 
able among these are: Hon. Aaron Harlan, member of 
Congress from Ohio; Hon. James Harlan, United States 
Senator from Iowa, also Secretary of the Interior under 
President Lincoln; and Hon, John M. Harlan, Associate 


MEN OF INDIANA. FS 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The 
last is from Kentucky. There is a distant relationship 
existing between these gentlemen and the subject of this 
sketch, they all tracing their ancestry to the same stock 
five generations back. Austin B. Harlan, the father, 
has been a local politician for twenty-five years, and for 
eighteen years he has held public office, either deputy 
real estate appraiser, school trustee, or Justice of the 
Peace. The early education of the subject of this sketch 
was obtained in the district school of his neighborhood, 
he attending in the winter months, and assisting his 
father on the farm during the summer season, with the 
exception of one summer spent as clerk of a merchant 
in Indianapolis. At an early age he exhibited a fond- 
ness for books, and showed a decided inclination to 
leave the farm and get to the school-house, where he 
could uninterruptedly continue his studies. 
frequently found in the field with a book, where, during 


He was 


‘rest periods,” he would improve the time in reading. 
He finished what are known as common branches and 
entered algebra and a high-school course at the age of 
fifteen. He obtained a certificate of qualifications to 
teach in the common schools of the state at the age of 
sixteen, reaching an extraordinarily high average for 
one so young—ninety-six and five-eighths. ‘This exam- 
ination was conducted by Professor William A. Bell, 
then county examiner of Marion County, and now editor 
of the Indiana School Journal. Professor Bell was school 
examiner for three successive years, and, while Mr. Har- 
lan taught in the county, did much to develop his 
powers a$ a teacher. He commenced giving instruc- 
tion in 1870, at the age of seventeen. He taught the 
winter school in the district adjacent to the one which 
he himself had attended, with marked success. At 
sts close he entered the North-western Christian Uni- 
versity, at Indianapolis, and remained there for two 
terms, and attained a class. standing of one hundred per 
cent in Latin. While still in school he ranked high in 
mathematics and the sciences, and enjoyed the con- 
fidence of the professors and his fellow-students. He 
taught the following year in a district near his home, 
and at the close of the term was employed to give in- 
struction to a school where the powers of a disciplina- 
rian were needed, giving satisfaction to his employers. 
During the summer months he continued the study of 
the branches usually taken up at college, and attained 
a fair degree of proficiency in Latin, mathematics, his- 
tory, and the sciences. He was again asked to teach 
where he had labored the year before, and did so during 
the full school year (ten months), making a reputation 
as an instructor, an institute worker, and a disciplina- 
After teach- 
ing three years, as narrated above, he removed to Chi- 
cago, Illinois, and began the study of law July 1, 1873, 
entering the office of Montgomery & Waterman. After 


rian, which did credit to so young a man. 


76 


prosecuting his studies one year he returned to his native 
township for the purpose of teaching, in order to secure 
means to further his legal education. His hands and 
brains had furnished the means by which he educated 
and clothed himself. He taught in the village school at 
Irvington, Indiana, the following year, and at the close 
of the term was appointed by the board of commissioners 
of Marion County superintendent of the Marion County 
schools, being at the time of this designation twenty- 
two years old, probably the youngest of any person ever 
chosen to such a position in the state. He entered on 
the duties of the office June 4, 1875, and has filled the 
position since with ability and success. Mr. Harlan is 
an original thinker and a ready talker, quick in his per- 
ceptions, with a strong judgment, and has a logical 
mind. He possesses a keen understanding of human 
nature, and makes friends of those with whom he comes 
He is regarded as one of the best county 
He has been a member 


in contact. 
superintendents in the state. 
of the Indiana Educational Association since 1874, a 
member of the executive committee of the State County 
Superintendents’ Association for three years, and secre- 
tary of the County Superintendents’ Convention twice, 
in 1876 and 1877. He has done a large amount of 
work in the educational field in the various institutes 
held in the state, and delivered public lectures in every 
township in Marion County and in a large number of 
counties in the state. He is a reader of considerable 
merit, and has given public readings on different occa- 
sions which elicited favorable comment. He has a fine 
literary taste, and numbers among the voluntes of his 
library the finest works in prose and poetry of the last 
century. No public offices have been held by him ex- 
cept the one he is occupying at present, to which he 
was elected June 7, 1875. By a decision of the Su- 
preme Court of Indiana, in a suit brought by a former 
superintendent, he was declared out of office, but the 
same decision put in force another law, one of the pro- 
visions of which was that the superintendent should be 
elected by a county board of education. The board 
unanimously elected him, July 26, 1876, to fill the place 
thus declared vacant, less than a month after the publica- 
tion of the decision. He was re-elected June 4, 1877, 
In January, 1876, he was selected by the 
editor of the Indianapolis daily Repudiican (Mandeville 
G. Lee) to take a trip to the Centennial grounds at 


for two years. 


Philadelphia, and to New York, Washington, and other 


points, and write letters to his paper. This was satis- 
factorily done and the letters published. On the same 
trip he corresponded with other journals. He has done 
considerable miscellaneous newspaper work from time 
to time, contributing occasionally to the Indianapolis 
Journal and Sentinel, and to the Chicago Times. 
Neither his grandfather nor his father were members 


of any Church. He, however, joined the Methodist 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7h Dist: 


Episcopal Church at the age of fifteen, and has been 
connected with the organization ever since. He leans, 
however, toward Swedenborgian doctrines. Most mem- 
bers of the family are Democrats in politics, and Mr. 
Harlan inclines to the same views. The family for 
three generations have been active in public affairs. 
He is not a politician, but nevertheless has a strong 
natural inclination to politics. He is well informed on 
current political events, and watches the actions of the 
two great political parties of the country with untiring 
interest. He was married, on October 3, 1877, to Sarah 
Louisa, daughter of John F. and Caroline McVey. J. 
F. McVey was a wealthy farmer living near Indian- 
He died September, 1876. His wife happily 
combines beauty, intelligence, and gentleness of dispo- 
sition. He is regarded with a great deal of favor by a 
large circle of acquaintances. Mr. Harlan is six feet 
tall and weighs one hundred and eighty pounds. He 
is in robust health and is well proportioned. He has a 
full forehead, rather small head, brownish hair, fair 
complexion, blue eyes, prominent nose, firm-set lips, 


apolis. 


clear-cut features, an animated, pleasant countenance 


when in conversation, but when in thought or repose it 
takes a look of settled firmness which is indicative of 
great determination of purpose. He has a sensitive na- 
ture and is quick to anger, but has great control of his 
temper. He is social in business and domestic life. He 
is a close observer, and has a memory for faces and 
names which is not often excelled. He never forgets 
an acquaintanee, and hence is highly respected by all 
who know or meet him. He is fond of out-door exer- 
cises and relishes all innocent amusements. He is re- 
garded with favor by all who know him. 


—+-Go te 


| ARRINGTON, HENRY W., was born near Coop- 
erstown, Otsego County, New York, September 
12, 1825. His grandfather, Nathaniel Harrington, 

ag of Rhode Island, was a Revolutionary pensioner, 
having been ‘a drummer-boy during the war for inde- 
pendence. He died at the ripe age of eighty-two, at 
Little Valley, Cattaraugus County, New York. The 
parents of the subject of this sketch were Miles and 
Sarah (Aikin) Harrington, and were in humble circum- 
stances. During Henry’s infancy they moved to Catta- 
raugus County, New York. At the early age of nine he 
found employment on a farm, and devoted his leisure 
hours to reading and study. At thirteen he attended 
school in Ellicottsville, paying his board by attending 
The little knowledge he had now acquired 
made him eager for more, and with bundle in hand 


garden. 


he started on a journey of forty-eight miles among the 
hills and valleys of Western New York to Fredonia. 
This distance he accomplished in a single day. Here 


7th Dist.) 


he entered the academy, in 1842, and began a classical 
course. Judge Harrington still holds in grateful remem- 
brance the kindness manifested toward him by Mr. 
Palmer, principal, and Mr. Reddington, professor of 
languages in the Fredonia Academy. Here, also, he 
was dependent on daily toil for board. He had taught 
school the preceding winter at Beaver Meadows, and 
secured means wherewith to pay for tuition and neces- 
sary books. The year following he attended the acad- 
emy at Westfield, Rey. Mr. Montgomery principal. 
Here he was prostrated by an attack of typhoid fever, 
losing much valuable time, and expending the means 
he had acquired by teaching. More than a third of a 
century has elapsed since then, but Judge Harrington 
frequently and feelingly refers with profound gratitude 
to the kindness of Rev. Mr. Montgomery and his excel- 
lent family during his affliction. Again he taught school, 
and in 1845 he became a student at Temple Hill Acad- 
Livingston County, his former preceptor, Professor 
having taken charge of that institution. Here, 


emy, 
Palmer, 
as usual with him, physical toil went hand in hand 
with intellectual pursuits. 
for his tuition, and attended garden and did chores for 
his board. In this position he remained three years, 
teaching during the winters at Groveland, near Geneseo. 
He had desired to enter college two years in advance; 
but now abandoned the idea, and turned his attention 
to the study of the law, in the office of A. A. Hendee, 
He had previously read several elementary 


He swept the academy halls 


at Geneseo. 
works with Mr. Willey while engaged in teaching at 
Geneseo. After leaving Mr. Hendee he went to Nunda, 
in 1848, and took charge of Mr. Bagley’s office. In 
September of that year he underwent a rigid examina- 
tion in the law before the judges at Rochester, was 
admitted to the bar, and for a time made his home at 
Nunda. It will be observed that the young attorney 
had from early boyhood kept one object steadily in 
view—the attainment of an education that would fit him 
for the practical duties of life. He had swerved neither 
to the right nor left. Every step forward and upward 
was toilsome. His poverty had excluded him from 
refined society, 
to rise above his surroundings, and at the age of twenty 
he found himself a member of a learned profession, with 


but it only increased his determination 


competition disputing his every step. Strong induce- 
ments were offered tending to divert his talents and 
energies in other directions, but he had determined 
upon the Gaw and abided by it. 
looking to a permanent home was at Ellicottsville, and 


His first location 


there he remained for seven years. But. Kansas was 
then attracting public attention, and Mr. Harrington 
was on his way thither in 1856 when a fit of sickness 
detained him in Indiana, and he was induced to open 
an office in Madison, where he pursued his profession 
until 1872. He then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, but 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, Ti 


the ill-health of his wife and self led to his return to 
Indiana two years after, and in March, 1874, he re- 
moved to Indianapolis, where he still resides, in the 
enjoyment of a lucrative and steadily increasing practice. 
Politically, Judge Harrington inclines to Democracy, 
and the party has not failed to recognize in him one of 
its ablest advocates, his reputation as a speaker certainly 
being second to that of no one in the state. As a 
lawyer, his practice has, at times, brought him in con- 
tact with the foremost legal talent of Indiana and Ken- 
tucky, and he has coped successfully with such legal 
lights as Humphrey Marshall, Rodman, De Haven, and 
others of equal note. He was a delegate to the Na. 
tional Democratic Convention in 1860, at Charleston, 
South Carolina; at New York in 1868. and again at 
Baltimore in 1872. While on his way to the conven- 
tion in 1868 he dislocated his hip by an accident, which 
crippled him for life. In 1864 he was at the National 
Convention in Chicago as one-of the national Democratic 
executive committee. In 1866 he was made collector 
of internal revenue for his district, and he handled over 
a million of dollars while in the office, and his accounts 
with the government balanced to the fraction of a cent. 
In 1872, after a laborious and hotly contested campaign, 
involving public addresses in every township in the dis- 
trict, Judge Harrington was elected to Congress from the 
Third Congressional District, comprising the counties of 
Jefferson, Jennings, Switzerland, Bartholomew, Brown, 
Monroe, Jackson, and Lawrence, defeating William 
McKee Dunn. During the last presidential campaign, on 
the declination of Hon. Anson Wolcott as candidate for 
Governor on the National ticket, Judge Harrington was 
induced to accept the unenviable position, and lead 
the forlorn hope to an honorable defeat. He has re- 
cently allied himself to the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
and has ever been a firm believer in the central truths 
of the religion of Christ. His family are connected 
with Christ’s Church (Episcopalian), of Indianapolis. 
He was, while in New York, Senior Warden of a Ma- 
sonic Lodge, but has not affiliated in the West. For 
twenty years he indulged more or less in intoxicating 
drinks, and felt that the habit was gradually becoming 
stronger and more persistent in its demands, and in 
May, 1878, he formed a resolution to abandon their use, 
and, without stating his intention, went to a temperance 
meeting, quietly walked to the desk in the presence of 
the assembled audience, signed the pledge, put on the 
little ribbon of blue, and wears it still. He at once 
began to devise ways and means by which others might 
be induced to form and keep a similar resolution, and 
the result was the lease and fitting up of the room at 
No. 75 East Market Street for reformed men, the or- 
ganization of the General Temperance Ribbon Associ- 
ation, incorporated, and of which he was at once chosen 
president, and a great work for good was inaugurated 


78 


Here he presides at the weekly meetings, and hundreds 
of men are being saved from lives of drunkenness by 
the agencies set in motion by Judge Harrington. It was 
a fitting tribute to one who has proved himself a prac- 
tical worker in the cause, that he was elected, in May, 
1879, president of the Indiana State Christian Temper- 
ance Union, successor of Colonel John W. Ray, of In- 
dianapolis. Reverting tothe ancestry of Judge Harring- 
ton, there are facts in their history deserving more than 
a passing notice. The family annals embrace a larger 
proportion than usual of physicians, ministers, jurists, 
and students in the various walks of literature. Trust- 
worthy data show that at the time of Cromwell, who, 
in the name of God, drenched the land im blood, the 
Harringtons were stanch adherents of King Charles 
during his life, and after his death they hallowed his 
memory. It is a singular evidence of the persistence 
with which families will cling through successive gen- 
erations to the traditions handed down from father to 
son, that, so far as known, there is not a Harrington 
living whose religious connections do not take their 
bias from the fact of his ancestry having incurred the 
enmity of the Cromwellian hordes by their loyalty to 
their sovereign. 
lian, seldom Congregationalist, never Puritan. 


Almost uniformly they are Episcopa- 
As in- 
timated above, the Harrington family are purely En- 
glish, and on_ their settled in Smithfield, 
Rhode Island. The administration of Cromwell com- 
bated all their notions of civil and religious government, 
and they fled from England, and sought ‘the heretical 
state of Rhode Island, the land of infidels and unbe- 
lievers,” as it was derisively termed. A writer in 
speaking of them says, ‘*They are not the most pol- 
ished people in the world, but generally honest, and 


arrival 


possess good, hard common sense;: always noted for | 


their physical courage and pluck.”  Lossing’s ‘ Field 
Notes of the American Revolution” speaks of Jonathan, 
Caleb, and Abijah Harrington as being in the battle of 
Lexington, and the two last-named as being among the 
killed. It is a matter of history that Theophilus Har- 
rington, afterwards Judge of the Supreme Court of 
Vermont, while a young man, walked barefoot. pack on 
shoulder, from Rhode Island to Vermont. From the 
road-side he saw in a farm-house near by a young girl 
engaged in spinning, and, drawn by some strange im- 
pulse, he entered, and abruptly announced that he had 
come to make her his- wife, and in due time he did. 
He was a man of marked traits of character, signal 
ability, and very eccentric. On one memorable occa- 
sion a fugitive slave was brought before him. The case 
excited intense interest. The owner employed the 
ablest counsel, and every inch of ground was hotly con- 
tested on both sides, every point being urged that legal 
acumen could devise or critical search suggest. The 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN.OF INDIANA. 


[7 Dist. 


and unquestionable, but Judge Harrington did not seem 
satisfied. ‘* Will your Honor please indicate,” impa- 
tiently exclaimed the counsel, ‘‘ what proof would be 
satisfactory.” ‘A bill of sale from Almighty God!” 
thundered the judge, in stentorian tones, a reply that 
will rank with Ethan Allen’s exclamation at Ticonde- 
roga. Caleb Harrington, a grandson of the old judge, 
is now an eminent lawyer in Burlington, Iowa. Judge 
H. W. Harrington, the subject of this sketch, is a man 
of fine presence, has a commanding figure, a well-bal- 
anced head; is incisive in conversation and manner; a 
most earnest and impressive public speaker, of a strong, 
sympathetic temperament; generous in his impulses; 
very quick to resent, but willing to forgive; has at all 
times the courage of his convictions; makes friends by 
commanding respect rather than winning it; is affable 
without undue familiarity, and dignified without dis- 
play. He stands high in his profession, and is de- 
servedly esteemed by his fellow-citizens. 


—<-Fate-—_ 
Maneae LEE O., teacher, poet, and journalist, of 
Greenfield, Hancock County, was born in Chester 
a5) County, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1839. His 
“S¢ parents were Samuel and Mary Harris, the former 
of English and the latter of Scotch descent. His father 
was for thirty years a minister in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. When Lee was very young his parents 
moved to the western part of Pennsylvania, in Wash- 
ington County, where they resided until 1852, when 
they removed to Indiana, settling at Andersonville, in 
Franklin County. During his youth he attended such 
schools and seminaries as were accessible to him, and, 
under various instructors, managed to acquire an excel- 
lent scientific and literary education, and a fair knowl- 
edge of the classics. In this gaining of knowledge he 
was greatly aided by extensive travel in various parts of 
the United States and Canada, and in 1856-57 he made 
the overland journey to Oregon and Washington Terri- 
tory. His inclinations were for the profession of medi- 
cine, and he studied for a time to that end, but ulti- 
mately concluded that the practice would not he 
congenial to him, and abandoned the idea. In 1858 he 
adopted the profession of teaching, and has continued 
it, in connection with his literary work, for twenty-one 
years. At a very early age he developed a decided 
talent for literary pursuits, especially for pottical com- 
position, in which he acquired considerable local repu- 
tation before he had reached the age of fifteen, and at 
the age of twenty he was a regular contributor to the 
columns of the New York Mercury. It is only within 
the last ten years, however, that Mr. Harris has de- 
voted much leisure to literary composition, but in this 


slave-owner’s counsel held that their right was clear | time he has risen rapidly in reputation, both as a writer 


qth Dist.) 


of elegant verse and as a sketch writer and novelist. 
He is now one among the best known of Indiana 
writers, and there are perhaps few persons of literary 
tastes in the country who have not read and admired 
his work, which has been widely circulated through the 
various journals both of the West and East. In the 
winter of 1860-61 Mr. Harris located at Greenfield, 
Hancock County, Indiana, and began the publication 
of a paper called the Constitution and Union, in the inter- 
ests of the Republican party. This venture continued 
but a short time, however, for, the War of the Rebellion 
breaking out in the spring, he disposed of his journal 
and entered the army in the 8th Regiment of Indiana 
Volunteers, and served, first as orderly sergeant and aft- 
erwards as second lieutenant, during the campaign in 
Western Virginia. At the close of the period of en- 
listment, which was for three months, he remained at 
home for a time, but on the organization of the 5th 
Indiana Cavalry he re-entered the service, as second 
lieutenant, in Captain R. A. Riley’s company, of that 
regiment. He served with this regiment less than a 
year, when sickness compelled him to resign, and he 
resumed his vocation of teaching. In 1864, during his 
stay at home, he was commissioned by Governor Mor- 
ton as major of the Hancock battalion of the state 
troops, but shortly after, on the organization of the 
148th Regiment, he recruited a number of men and 
again entered the service, as first lieutenant of Company 
C of that regiment, with which he served to the close 
of the war; after which he returned to teaching. He 
was faithful as a soldier, and skillful as an officer, and 
has an honorable army record. As an instructor, he has 
been eminently successful, as those whom he has served 
in that capacity freely attest, but it is as a poet, jour- 
nalist, and novelist. that he is best known throughout 
the state. While in pursuit of his literary calling he 
became interested in the omnipresent ‘‘tramp ques- 
tion,” and devoted much time to investigating its causes 
and the various phases it has assumed in this country, 
and in 1878 he published a book entitled, ‘¢ The Man 
Who Tramps,” in which, in the guise of an interesting 
story, he wove together the information and ideas he 
This work has 
had-an almost universally favorable reception at the 


had obtained regarding this nuisance. 


hands of the various papers and literary critics, and has 
added much to Mr. Harris’s already high reputation as 
a graceful and logical writer. Within the last year he 
has abandoned the teaching profession, and now de- 
votes his time principally to literary work. In 1872 he 
joined the Knights of Pythias, and in 1875 the Free 
and Accepted Masons, in both of which he has held 
honorable positions, having served as Worshipful Mas- 
ter in the latter order. He was educated in the Meth- 
odist faith, but is not a member of any Church, al- 
though contributing as liberally as his means will allow 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


79 


to the support of all. He has always been a Republi- 
can, but takes no part in political contentions further 
than his newspaper work requires. He was married, 
March 14, 1861, to Miss America Foster, daughter of 
Hon. John. Foster, one of the pioneers of the county, 
and for several years a member of the state Legislature. 
Like most persons of literary tastes and pursuits, Mr. 
Harris has no strong political prejudices, always avoid- 
ing controversies and bickerings. His poetical produc- 
tions teem with fertile imagination, and excel in. their 
harmonious blending of thought and expression, and 
thus touch the heart and charm the senses. In metri- 
cal structure they are perfect, his versification always 
being symmetrical and elegant in finish, never evidenc- 
ing crudity or lack of harmony. Socially, Mr. Harris 
is a genial, pleasant companion, being firm and stead- 
fast in his friendships, frank and candid in his expres- 
sions, courteous and affable in his demeanor; a scholar, 
a poet, and a gentleman. 


—>-50t6-o— 


ARRISON, GENERAL BENJAMIN, lawyer, etc., 
Indianapolis, was born August 20, 1833, at the 
house of his grandfather, President Harrison, at 
North Bend, Ohio. 
ceived at home, from a tutor employed in the family, 
and at the age of fourteen he was sent to Cary’s 


His early education was re- 


Academy, near Cincinnati, where he remained about 
two years. In the summer of 1850 he suffered the loss 
of his mother, and in the fall of the same year went to 
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, then under the presi- 
dency of Rev. W. C. Anderson. 
junior, and in June, 1852, graduated fourth in a class 
of sixteen. After a few months’ vacation he com- 
menced the study of law in the office of Storer & 


Here he entered as a 


Gwynne, of Cincinnati, where he remained two years. 
In October, 1853, he married Miss @arrie™ EP scott, 
daughter of Rev. Je W. Scott, -D. D., of Oxford, Ohio. 
Two children of this marriage survive—Russell B. and 
Mamie S. Harrison. In March, 1854, Mr. Harrison 
settled in Indianapolis, with a fortune of eight hundred 
dollars, inherited from the estate of a deceased aunt, 
Mrs. General Findley, of Cincinnati. Here he first 
entered the office of John H. Rea, clerk of the District 
Court of the United States, and while there was in- 
vited by Major Jonathan W. Gordon to assist in the 
‘‘Point Lookout”? burglary case. 
This was his first jury trial. Governor David Wallace 
represented the defense. When Mr. sat 
down, after making his argument, and the Governor 
prepared to reply, he paid the young lawyer a graceful 
and well-merited compliment. 
invited to form a partnership with William Wallace, 
and accepted. This connection proved very pleasant, 


prosecution of the 


Harrison 


Soon afterward he was 


80 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


and the firm did a prosperous and successful business. 
Shortly after entering this partnership, Mr. Harrison 
was appointed by Judge Major to prosecute a case 
against a negro who was accused of putting poison in 
some coffee at the Ray House. He had but one night 
for preparation, and no previous knowledge on the sub- 
ject of poisons, but he sat up the greater part of the 
night, and, with the assistance of Doctor Parvin, acquired 
éonsiderable information on toxicology, from several ex- 
periments for the detection of arsenic in the coffee, ex- 
hibited by Doctor Parvin. The result was the convic- 
tion of the criminal. In 1860 his partner, Mr. Wallace, 
was elected clerk of Marion County, and Mr, Harrison 
formed a law partnership with Mr. W. P. Fishback, 
which continued until he entered the army. In the fall 
of 1860 Mr. Harrison was elected reporter of the Su- 
preme Conrt of Indiana. During his term of office he 
published two volumes of reports (XV and XVI) and 
had nearly completed a third (XVII), when he en- 
tered the military service. A notable event in con- 
nection with the political canvass was his joint meeting 
with Governor Hendricks at Rockville, Parke County, 
which was quite accidental, but in which the youthful 
orator acquitted himself in the most creditable manner. 
The joint debate is still remembered by all who heard 
it, and showed General Harrison to be an orator second 
in debate to none in the country. In July, 1862, Mr. 
Harrison felt it his duty to take the field, although a 
young man, holding a comfortable civil office, just 
starting in life, and with a young wife and two little 
children. Governor Morton asked him to raise a regi- 
ment, and some one else could be found to lead it to the 
field ; but Mr. Harrison refused, saying that if he per- 
suaded a man to go to the field he would be found there 
with him. The Governor immediately offered him the 
command of a regiment. He obtained a second lieuten- 
ant’s recruiting commission, and raised and took the 
first company (A) of the 7oth Indiana Regiment into 
camp, and in less than thirty days from the date of the 
first recruiting commission was in Kentucky with one 
thousand and ten men. This was the first regiment in 
the field under that call. General Harrison continued 
in the army until the close of the war, when he was 
mustered out as a brevet brigadier-general. His regi- 
ment served in Kentucky and Tennessee in the Army 
of the Cumberland, and was connected with a brigade 
commanded for a long time by General W. T. Ward, 
of Kentucky. On the Atlanta campaign the brigade 
was attached, as the First Brigade, to the Third Division 
of the Twentieth Army Corps, commanded by General 
Joe Hooker. After General Butterfield left the divis- 
ion, Colonel Harrison was assigned to the command of 
the brigade, and continued in command until after the 
surrender of Atlanta. Being then temporarily detached 
for other duty, he was, after Sherman’s army marched 


[7th Dist. 


from Atlanta, assigned to command a provisional bri- 
gade, and with that took part in the battle of Nash- 
ville, and the subsequent pursuit of Hood to Tuscum- 
bia, Alabama. Being relieved at his own request, and 
ordered to join his brigade at Savannah, he would have 
joined them there, but on the way was prostrated by a 
severe fever, which confined him to his bed for several 
weeks. Before he was fully recovered he started for 
Savannah, and, the army having moved, was assigned to 
command a camp in which the recruits and convales- 
cents were gathered. When Sherman reached Raleigh, 
Colonel Harrison joined his brigade and accompanied 


them to Washington. Meanwhile, in the fall of 1864, | 


he was re-elected reporter of the Supreme Court, and 
was offered a place in the law firm of Porter & Fish- 
back, which then became Porter, Harrison & Fishback. 
After Mr. Fishback assumed the editorship of the 
Journal, General Harrison remained with Mr. Porter in 
company with Judge Hines, the firm being Porter, Har- 
rison & Hines. This firm was dissolved, and W. H. H. 
Miller became a member of the new partnership, 
under the firm name of Harrison, Hines & Miller, in 
which the General still continues. In 1876 General 
Harrison was the unanimous choice of the Republicans 
of Indiana for Governor, on the withdrawal of Godlove 
S. Orth. After a most exciting canvass he was defeated. 
Prior to the nominating convention he had declined, 
but, on the withdrawal of Mr. Orth, felt it to be his 
duty to respond to the imperious call of the people from 
all parts of the state. General Harrison ugited with the 
Presbyterian Church at Oxford in 1850, and since 1860 
has been a member of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Indianapolis. General Harrison’s military and civil 
record are of the very best. His practice as a lawyer 
has been brilliant and successful. As a speaker, he is 
convincing and effective, taking a place in the front 
rank of oratory; while his reputation as a citizen and a 
gentleman is without a blemish, 


— >Hi Co —— 


ART, ANDREW T., merchant, Greenfield, Han- 
cock County, was born July 7, 1811, in Greenbrier 
County, Virginia. He is the son of Patrick 
and Isabel Hart, highly respected members of 

society in the county in which he was born. His father 

was a native of Ireland, and emigrated to Virginia when 
he was twenty years of age. He took a prominent part 


in the development of the country and was a soldier — 


under General St. Clair, being with him at the time 
of his*memorable defeat near the head-waters of the 
Wabash, in 1791. Andrew T. Hart in his youth en- 
dured the toils and privations and discomforts of pioneer 
life in what was then almost a wilderness. Yet this 
rugged training in the hard school of privation and 


a —_— 


zth Dist.) 


endttrance doubtless laid the foundation of that patient 
perseverance to which much of his success is attributa- 
ble; and the thrift and economy which such surround- 
ings necessarily inculcate has been of eminent adyan- 
tage to him in the subsequent battle of life. Here, too, 
he no doubt acquired many of the generous and genial 
social qualities for which he is noted. In April, 1819, 
he removed from the home of his earlier youth to Cen- 
terville, Wayne County, Indiana, where he attended 
such schools, public and private, as the country then 
afforded, and acquired a common English education. 
Like most others at that day, his opportunities were nec- 


essarily limited, and whatever of success there has been | 


in his career has been mainly the result of his own 
exertions, and he may be properly said to be the arch- 
itect of his own fortune: His life was early directed 
into the great channel of industrial pursuits, and at the 
age of eighteen he went to Liberty, Indiana, where he 
was apprenticed as a saddler, working with his elder 
brother, James B. Hart. He continued to labor faith- 
fully at this trade for three years, or until 1833, when 
he removed to Greenfield, Hancock County, where he 
has resided ever since. 
he opened a grocery store and continued business there 
for two, years, and then entered the store of Nicholas 
McCarty as a clerk, staying in his employment for one 
year, when he formed a mercantile partnership with Na- 
than Crawford. This connection lasted for two years, 
when he purchased Mr. Crawford’s interest. He has 
ever since been in the same line, sometimes alone and 
sometimes with other gentlemen, but always with the 
same undeviating energy and integrity. 


On arriving at his new home 


He is now 
senior member of the prosperous firm of Hart & Thayer. 
Mr. Hart has filled several positions of public trust, 
and always with honor. In 1839 he was appointed 
agent of Hancock County for the distribution of surplus 
revenue. In 1841 he was elected first treasurer of Han- 
cock County, and was re-elected in 1843, serving in 
that position for six successive years. In 1869 he was 
commissioned by Salmon P. Chase as United States 
assistant assessor for Hancock County. Mr. Hart has 
been prominently connected with almost all public en- 
terprises of moment in the county since he has resided 
therein. In 1878 he was president of the Hancock 
Agricultural Society, and did much to advance its inter- 
ests. He joined the Masonic Fraternity in 1859, and 
the Independent Order of Odd-fellows in 1865. He is 
of orthodox faith. He was formerly a Whig and cast 
his first vote for Henry Clay, and has been a Republi- 
can since the organization of that party. He was mar- 
ried, in June, 1835, to Miss Louisa Forelander, daugh- 
ter of Lewis Forelander. This lady lived but about 
two years after, and on November 14, 1838, he was 
married to Miss Gabrielle Sebastian, daughter of William 


and Elizabeth Sebastian. Mr. Hart is the father of five 
c—6 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


SI 


children. One son, William E. Hart, was a soldier in 
the 18th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and served for 
three years. After his discharge he joined and served 
as lieutenant in Captain A. K. Branham’s company of 
state troops, in their pursuit of John Morgan during his 
celebrated raid into Indiana and Ohio, and was killed in 
that most unfortunate disaster at Lawrenceburg, Indi- 
ana, in 1863. Mr. A. T. Hart is a man highly respected, 
and has by his enterprise and benevolent actions won a 
prominent place in the history of the development of 
Hancock County. He is of genial nature, equitable 
temper, steadfast in his friendships, and upright in his 
dealings, and has by these attributes endeared himself 
to a large circle of friends, who recognize and appreciate 
his good qualities of heart and mind. 


+ 400-— 


AUGHTON, RICHARD E., M. D., professor of 
surgical pathology, and clinical and operative 
surgery, ‘in the Central College of Physicians and 
&{ Surgeons, Indianapolis, was born in Fayette 
County, Indiana, December 8, 1827. He traces his 
genealogy on both sides to the English aristocracy. 
His father’s ancestry is traced back to Sir Wilfred 
Haughton, a baronet of the seventeenth century, from 
whom the numerous branches of the Haughton family 
are descended. Many of the stock were tradesmen, 
merchants, etc., and accumulated fortunes, while a few 
became known in the world of letters. One of the 
most prominent living members of the family is the 
Rev. Professor Samuel Haughton, of Trinity College, 
On the 
mother’s side the stock is traceable to an English noble- 
man (Ashley) in the reign of James I, who was at- 
tached to the court, and comes down to the time of the 
colonists who became the first settlers of the Old Do- 
minion. They were slave-holders, wealthy in land and 


Dublin, an eminent. scientist and _ teacher. 


in slaves, but, being of the sect called Quakers, they 
manumitted the latter, and washed their hands of that 
‘sum of all villainies,” as it has been characterized. 
William Haughton, the father of Richard E., was born 
in the county of Carlow, Treland, and came to this 
country at the age of eighteen. For about fifty-five 
years of his life he was a professional teacher, com- 
mencing his career as a teacher in Fayette County, In- 
diana. He afterward moved to Union County, where 
he became acquainted with and married his wife, who 
was Miss Sarah Johnson, both being members of the 
society of Friends. He taught school in the county for 
about twenty years on the ground afterward occupied by 
the Beech Grove Seminary, in which young men from 
over twenty states of the Union were under his precep- 
torship. He was afterwards transferred to what was 


known as the County Seminary, and thence was called 


82 


to Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, originally the 
«‘ Friends’ Boarding School,” which is the college of the 
society of Friends inthe West. After ceasing his labors 
at Richmond on account of failing health, he moved to 
Knightstown, Indiana, where his son had preceded him 
in the practice of medicine. He went into the high 
school there as a teacher, and there, after fifty-five years 
of constant labor in his profession, he died, July, 1878, 
from a paralytic stroke, with which he was attacked at 
his post in the school-room. He was seventy-five years 
old at his death. He had long been a minister in the 
society of Friends, in which he had always lived and 
held membership. His devoted wife still lives, at Rays- 
ville with her only davghter, in her seventy-sixth year. 
Richard E. Haughton was educated under his father’s 
care up to the time of his studying medicine, and thus 
received a liberal education, equal to the best collegiate 
course, in the English language, natural sciences, and 
mathematics. He began teaching as an assistant to his 
father at fifteen years of age, and at eighteen began 
teaching independently, working in the interim on the 
farm owned by his father, helping to pay for the 
ground by raising corn, hogs, and beef. In the fall of 
1849 he began the study of medicine with Doctor Z. 
Casterline, his father’s family physician, and the leading 
practitioner of the county, a graduate of the Transyl- 
vania University. After studying two years with him, 
during which time he also taught in the Union County 
Seminary, succeeding his father, who had been called 
to Richmond, he attended Cleveland Medical College 
for two successive terms, and took his degree in 1853, 
graduating at the head of his class. On February 13, 
1853, he was married to Miss Catharine W. Meeker, in 
the First Presbyterian Church of East Cleveland. She 
died December 29, 1867, leaving two children, who are 
still living. Before his graduation he had practiced medi- 
cine for a little while at Knightstown with a partner, 
and after his marriage he returned there and continued 
in business until October, 1855, when he removed to 
Richmond, Indiana, and there remained for twenty 
years actively engaged in a laborious practice, which 
was both extensive and lucrative. His first wife having 
died, as above stated, in March, 1870, Doctor Haugh- 
ton married Miss Elizabeth Mather, a pupil of Earlham 
College, and a lineal descendant of Rev. Cotton Mather, 
D. D., the celebrated divine. Doctor Haughton’s study 
of his profession and ambition to master its principles 
did not cease at graduating. A considerable portion of 
his time was given to research, and many articles from 
his pen were contributed to various medical journals, 
which soon extended his reputation far beyond that of an 
ordinary local practitioner. In the fall of 1873 he was 
invited by the trustees of the Indiana Medical College, 
Indianapolis, to accept the chair of descriptive and 
surgical anatomy, and he began teaching medicine in 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


a public capacity in October, 1378 ras eres he 
resigned at the end of the term, taking ‘the chair of 
physiology and physiological anatomy in the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons 
He filled this position for 
resigned. He then, in the 
nated the idea of a new medical school, which 
should take a higher position, and which should 
endeavor to elevate the standard of medical teaching 
and instruction in Indiana. With this end in view, in 
connection with others, more especially with Doctor 


at Indianapolis. 
four years, 


when he 
summer of 1879, origi- 


W. S. Haymond, he gave form and shape to the Cen- _ 


tral College of Physicians and Surgeons, which began 
its career in September, 1879.. The incorporators, Doc- 


tor Haughton and associates, filed with the Secretary | 


of State the articles for the new college, which was 
opened for the first regular term October 1, 1879. The 
school is now approaching the end of its first session, 
and has achieved a success never before attained in the 


same time by any institution of its kind in the state. 


It was made a member of the Indiana College Associa- 
tion at the meeting of the latter, December 27 and 28, 
1879. Doctor Haughton has been unremitting in his 
efforts to make the institution a model one in every re- 
spect, and in this effort he is ably seconded by -his col- 
leagues. Elevation of the standard of medical knowl- 
edge and teaching has been for years the goal for which 
he has labored, and this has been specially manifest in 
his contributions to the medical literature of the day. 


Various articles from his pen have appeared from time “— 3 


to time in the periodical literature of the profession, 


and his productions bear all the marks of the close stu- 


dent, the close thinker, and the fluent and graceful 


writer, as well as the thoroughly educated physician. 


Among the journals to the pages of which he has 


contributed are the Nashville Josrnal of Medicine and Sur- 
gery, the Cincinnati Lancet and Observer, Indiana Medt- 


cal Journal, American Journal of Medical Science, ‘¢Trans- 


actions of the Indiana State Medical Society,” Pesznsaular 


Medical Journal, etc. He has written on an almost endless 
variety of subjects. His articles on diseases of the nerv- 
ous system have attracted special attention, and have 
been widely copied. In his professional capacity Doc- 
tor “Haughton has a special fondness for surgery, in 
which his repertoire includes most of the capital opera- 
tions, and, from the simplest to the most difficult and 
complicated, his success has been of the most flattering 
description. Doctor Haughton has been a member of 
the American Medical Association since 1859. He is 
also a member of various other associations; namely, 
the Indiana State Medical Association, the Union Dis- 
trict Medical Association, the Tri-state Medical Associa- 
tion of Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois; the Wayne 
County Medical Association, the Marion County Med- 


ical Association; and is an honorary member of the Ohio 


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Mary Churchill, the missing ot. 
Louis girl who was found in an Indianap- 
olis laundry, talks entertainingly of her 
experience in the laundry business. For 
three months she had the counting and 
the sorting of the pieces brought in by 
ty Indiana people, and her reminiscences of 
Bt the prominent people she had business 
dealings with are valuable as defining the 
characteristics of each. She says Mr. 
Hendricks invariably brought two shirts, 
two pairs of socks, four eollars and three 
handkerchiefs per week to be laundried. 
He had an aversion to starch—a ¢harac- 
peculiar also to his political con- 
viction Mr. McDonald's shirts were 
ruffied,“and his socks were of variegated 
hue, while his handkerchiefs were always 
of the brightest colors, marked with, a 
monogram in silk emblematical of the 
gentleman’s mooted voluptuous tastes. 
William H. English had a shirt and an 
odd sock laundried every other week and 
invariably kicked about the price. It was 
hard to do up his shirts nicely because 
they were of cheap material and were 
chalked over by the wearer as they be- 
gan to show dirt. Miss Churchill. says 
VERE a ad RASS ES athe vby ty she had to watch. the clothesline pretty 
teh ts PGA EE SAN AERES : Pai al, Peay sharp while Mr. English was in the shop 
UA eS RIA a bY ete STA RSP Si Veich ghee Verne Ey Atta John C. New. sent his washing on from 
i washington once a month, and the laun 
dry ‘took the bill out ir advertising iz 
the Indianapolis Journal. Once or twit 
Miss Churchill had found some of Fran! 
Hatton's ffs and collars among New’ 
wash, but. she had “understood that Mr 
Hatton had most of his dirty linen lawn 
dried in Philadelphia. The Indianapoli 
editors had very little washing done, 4 
most of them wore papef collars, pap 
bosoms, paper cuffs and celluloid, sec 
Dan Voorhees was the handsomest cus 
tomer the shop had, but:Joe McDonal 
was the pleasantest to do business wit 
for he had a friendly way of chucking he 
under the chin and calling her “my deat 
and “baby”? and asking her how she wou 
like to go buggy riding with him son 
evening.. Mary saw Mr. Holman on 
once. Then be came Mm the shop in som 
what of a hurry, and sat on 4 stool in t 
back room while he was having his gin 
ham shir: sprinkled and pressed out. “‘t 
wasn’t ¢! much use to the laundry, an 
way, as he didn’t go much on cle 
clothes” said Miss Churchill, “and - 
had a commutation ticket which did him 
year at least.” % 


eR, 


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LAL 


State Medical Association. He organized the Wayne 
County Medical Association, and assisted in the organ- 
ization of the Union District Medical Association, hav- 
ing urged it upon members of the profession for years 
before it was effected. While a resident of Wayne 
County, Doctor Haughton took an active interest in 
public enterprises which, in his opinion, were beneficial 
to the city of Richmond.- He was one of the projectors 
and original stockholders of the Richmond Street Rail- 
road. It will be seen from the foregoing brief sketch 
that Doctor Haughton has spent the greater part of his 
life in Indiana, except the few years of his boyhood, 
which were passed in Ohio. He takes a very pardon- 
able pride in the state of his adoption, and is a true 
Western man with Western ideas. 
ligion he is liberal, anti-ritualistic, and independent in 
thought and action, though raised after the strictest 
principles of the Quaker sect. ’He adheres to the doc- 
trines of his sect, as set forth in the revealed word of 
God, as sufficiently authoritative for a creed, and has 


In matters of re- 


none other. In politics he is a Republican, in love of 
country a patriot, and in regard for men, in his eyes all 
are equal before God. In social life the Doctor is a 
genial and pleasant companion, a good converser, affa- 
ble and polite in his bearing to all. In his professional 
capacity no one is better calculated to bring comfort 
and cheer to the sick chamber, his presence inspires 
confidence, and in his ministrations he is as tender and 
syppathetic as a woman. As a lecturer, he is clear and 
concise in his language, a fluent and easy speaker, and 
his words carry with them the irresistible impression 
that he knows whereof he speaks. His private charac- 
ter is as irreproachable as his professional standing is 
unquestioned. He bears the name of an exemplary 
husband and father, a good citizen, an honest man, and 


a popular physician and surgeon of eminent ability. 
2-400 


AUGHEY, THEODORE P., president of the In- 
dianapolis National Bank, was born in Smyrna, 
“4 Delaware, November 27, 1826. Here he obtained 
y) his rudimentary schooling, and here he resided 
until his early manhood, when he went to the city of 
Before he had attained his ma- 


Baltimore, Maryland. 
jority, by close contact with the ways of the busy world, 
he received a thorough business education, such as ex- 
perience alone can give, and acquired a knowledge of 
trade which has been valuable through life. His father 
died when he was but little over two years of age, and 
he was left to the care of an aged grandfather, a mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends, who was one of the early 
settlers of Delaware. In the spring of 1848 he removed 
to the city of Indianapolis, where he has lived ever since, 
and where he has, without intermission, been engaged 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


$3 


in active business life for over thirty years. During all 
that time it can be truly said of his career that it has 
always been in a forward direction. Business friends 
that have known him intimately during the whole time 
unite in saying that he has made no step backwards. 
Commencing in subordinate positions, he has always 
acquitted himself well in every place of honor or trust 
that he has occupied. 


as accountant and bookkeeper, and gradually worked 


At first he obtained employment 


himself wp to more responsible and lucrative positions. 
In the year 1854 he was connected with Hon. John D. 
Defrees, now government printer, in the publication of 
the Indianapolis daily Journal. Fora number of years 
Mr. Haughey was secretary and treasurer of one of the 
leading railroads centering in Indianapolis. During the 
Civil War he was appointed by President Lincoln col- 
lector of internal revenue for the Indianapolis District. 
This was the only office of a political nature that Mr. 
Haughey was ever prevailed upon to accept, and he re- 
signed the position in 1864, to enter upon his duties as 
president of the Indianapolis National Bank, which 
place he still holds. He has the reputation of a shrewd, 
careful, and conscientious financier, living up to every 
obligation strictly, while entirely free from the narrow- 
mindedness which characterizes the mere money-getter. 
He is a liberal supporter of all worthy enterprises, and 
for years has been a prominent member of the Meridian 
Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Indianapolis. He 
represented the Indiana Conference as a lay delegate in 
the General Conference at Baltimore in 1876, and is 
otherwise active in Church and Sunday-School enter- 
prises, He has been for over twenty-five years treasurer 
of the Grand Lodge, Independent Order of Odd-fellows, 
of Indiana, and of course has wielded no little influence 
in shaping its finances. This is said to be one of the 
most flourishing and wealthy grand lodges in the Union. 
The uninterrupted occupancy of this position for over a 
quarter of a century speaks volumes for Mr. Haughey’s 
Snancial ability, and is no less a tribute to his unim- 
peachable integrity. He has always taken a deep and 
active interest in educational progress, and for a number 
of years has been a trustee of the Indiana Asbury Uni- 
versity, at Greencastle, and one of the supervisory loan 
committee of its fund. Another instance of the many 
which go to demonstrate his acknowledged worth as a 
financier can be cited in the fact that for six years Mr. 
Haughey represented the old Second Ward in the city 
council of Indianapolis, during which time he was ~ 
chairman of the finance committee, and just before the 
war had the honor of reporting the city free from debt. 
Haughey is a gentleman of genial and 
social characteristics. His demeanor is uniformly polite 
and courteous to all. He is close in his attention to 
business, entirely void of pretense in his manner, and 
so little inclined’ to talk of himself that the writer has 


Personally, Mr. 


34 


had to depend almost entirely on outside sources for the 
material for this sketch. On November 8, 1853, Mr. 
Haughey was married to Miss Hannah Moore, of New- 
ark, Ohio, daughter of C, G. Moore, who is still living, 
They have 
had three children, two sons and one daughter. The 
latter, Josephine Morris, died of scarlet fever at the 
early age of six years. The eldest son, Louis Chauncey, 
is engaged in the manufacturing business. He married 
Zerelda, daughter of William Wallace, Esq., a leading 
attorney of Indianapolis, and an old and tried friend 


at the advanced age of eighty-five years. 


of the subject of this memoir, The younger son, 
Schuyler C., a youth of eighteen years of age, was 
named after a ‘life-long friend of Mr. Haughey, the 


Hon. Schuyler Colfax, a familiar name in Indiana. 
—~2-4006-— 


AY, REV. LAWRENCE G., of Indianapolis, was 
born in Charlestown, Clarke County, Indiana, 
\ October 7, 1823. His father, Andrew P. Hay, 
%¢¢ who died in Charlestown in 1849, was a surgeon 
in the War of 1812, and, under General Harrison, took 
part in the battle of Tippecanoe. Ilis mother, Sarah i: 
Gano, was one of a family through whose veins flowed 
some of the noblest blood of Kentucky. The subject 
of this sketch attended for a time the Academy of 


—. 
KS ie 


Charlestown, where he gave some attention to the 
In 1841 he came to Indianapolis with a letter 
of introduction to Samuel Merrill, then president of the 
Indiana State Bank, and obtained employment in the 
office of the old Indiana Mutual Fire Insurance Com- 
pany, where he remained two years. In 1843 he made 
his choice of the ministry for a life work. 


classics. 


The next 
two years he spent as registrar of the notes sent in from 
the different branches for cancellation, at the same time 
making a careful and systematic review of his studies 
under James S. Kemper. While here he became a mem- 
ber of the First Presbyterian Church, under the Rev. 
Dr. Gurley. 
University, and was graduated during the presidency 
of Doctor McMaster. During his stay at the university 
he became a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, 
his connection with which he was always proud to ac- 
knowledge. He finished his theological studies at 
Princeton, New Jersey, in 1850, and the same year was 
ordained an evangelist, a license to preach having been 
granted him the year previous. Doctor Alexander ten- 
dered him a fellowship; but this he could not accept, 
having determined to engage in missionary work. He 
offered his services to the Board of Foreign Missions of 
New York; and immediately upon their acceptance 
came West, and on the twenty-fourth day of June, 
1850, married Miss Mary Landis, the daughter of Jacob 
Landis, of Indianapolis. In company with seven other 


He then joined the junior class of Miami 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


missionaries, all bound for India, they sailed from Bos- 
ton, August 8, 1850, in the merchant ship ‘ Argo.” 
After a voyage of one hundred and forty-five days they 
arrived at Calcutta. Here they delayed two weeks, 
laying in a supply of household goods, when they char- 
tered a boat for Allahabad, six hundred miles up the 
Ganges. They arrived at Allahabad the last of January, 
meeting there a warm reception from the Rev. Doctor 
At his 
residence they remained until their goods arrived, when 


Warren, then in charge of the J/esszon Press. 


they went to housekeeping. Within a year, however, 
the doctor was removed to Agra, when Mr. Hay suc- 
ceeded to the superintendency of the Press. He was 
also made treasurer of the Allahabad Mission, which 
position he held until his departure, in 1857. The 
Mission Press was the great supply depot for the mis- 
sions in the north-western provinces. Here were printed 
tracts, Bibles, and school-books, in all the different 
characters and languages used in the Upper Ganges 
Valley, such as Hindi, Persian, and Arabic. Besides 
almost daily preaching in the bazaars, Mr. Hay made 
interesting tours in tents every cold season, visiting the 
towns and villages in the valley of the Ganges as far 
up as Agra. He also attended the great Melas, one of 
which was held at his own city every January, lasting 
five or six weeks, and attended by over one hundred 
thousand pilgrims, who came to bathe in the sacred 
waters of the Ganges. In the year 1856 he visited 
the Himalaya Mountains for six months, his house 
being eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, 
from which so clear is the atmosphere that objects ap- 
pear with distinctness at a distance of one hundred and 
twenty miles. The Sepoy rebellion commenced late in 
May, 1857, and June 6 the town of Allahabad was 
destroyed. Mr. Hay, with three mission families besides 
his own, retired to the fort, where for nine days they 
remained in a state of siege. While here Mr. Hay suc- 
ceeded in getting two letters through the enemy’s lines 
to friends in Indianapolis, which were published. They 


contain a detailed account of the burning of Allahabad,  * 


and graphic pen pictures of the horrors of the situation. 
The arrival of the troops under Genera] Neale caused 
the civilians to abandon the fort. Mr. Hay and family, 
with a number of others, were put on a ‘ flat” and 
taken in tow by a steamer to Calcutta, where they ar- 
rived after sixteen days of exposure to the rebel fire. 
Here they were taken.in charge by the Relief Commit- 
tee appointed by the Governor-general, and on the 20th 
of July they left India for England, arriving in South- 
ampton about the middle of August. This sudden de- 
parture from the field of labor wherein they had worked 
so long and faithfully was necessitated by the failing 
health of Mrs. Hay, which, however, improved so rap- 
idly during the voyage that after their arrival in Eng- 
land she began rapidly to recuperate. Leaving her in 


7th Dist.) 


Southampton, Mr. Hay went to London, haying a note 
of introduction to Sir Charles Trevelyan, one of the 
lords of the treasury; also to the chairman of the East 
India Company, who sent for him, requesting informa- 
tion concerning matters in India. At the end of a 
week he returned to Southampton, where he lectured 
four or five times to crowded houses, so anxious were 
the people to learn of the late insurrection from one 
who had been an eye-witness to its horrors. At one of 
these meetings a large sum was contributed for the sup- 
port of the refugees, who were arriving there by every 
vessel. Arriving in America, Mr. Hay stopped at Wash- 
ington on the way West, where he called on his old 
pastor, Doctor Gurley, and while there lectured several 
times. His long residence abroad, the excitement and 
exposure engendered by the war, added to the care of 
two small children, and the anxiety caused by his faith- 
ful wife’s declining health, made serious demands upon 
his native power of endurance, and in consequence 
he became reduced to such an extent that rest was 
a necessity. Still, at the request of the Mission 
Board, and true to his faith, he spent the entire six 
months next succeeding in traveling and lecturing in 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri. * Ey- 
ery-where, large and appreciative audiences greeted 
him, while he had the satisfaction of knowing that 
his labor was meeting a just reward, in the liberal 
contributions made to repair the losses sustained 
by the Board in India. But the severe toil and ex- 
treme change of climate induced a bronchial affection, 
which caused the severance of his connection with the 
Board, and entire abstinence from all public speaking. 
This was no little disappointment to him, as there now 
were offered him several very flattering calls to the 
pastorates of Churches, all of which he was forced to 
decline. And much as it was to him a matter of regret, 
he sought some secular employment; choosing that 
occupation most accordant to his tastes, he opened a 
classical school at Indianapolis. The institution began 
under discouraging auspices, with an attendance of only 
three students; yet so rapidly did the enterprise grow 
in public favor that before the end of the year the 
number had increased to seventy. Nor are the places 
few in which members of the:old Hay’s Academy now 
occupy positions of honor and trust. This work, how- 
ever, made a severe strain upon his throat, and at the 
end of three years he was compelled to give up his 
school and relinquish teaching. He next filled the 
position of chief clerk in the office of General James A. 
Eakin, whom he accompanied to Washington. This he 
resigned to accept a similar position with his brother, 
Captain C. Hay, post quartermaster, at Indianapolis. In 
1864 he was chosen receiver of the Sinking Fund of In- 
dianapolis, an office he held for six years. In 1874 he 
was chosen secretary of the Franklin Life Insurance 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


85 


Company, of Indianapolis, in the employment of which 
company he had served as actuary for the two years 
preceding. He still holds his office of secretary. During 
the last eight or ten years, the trouble previously ex- 
perienced by Mr. Hay gradually diappeared, so that he 
was able to devote a large portion of his time to preach- 
ing, for the most part supplying Churches unable to 
command the services of a minister the whole of the 
time. He organized the Ninth Presbyterian Church of 
Indianapolis, raised the money for the purchase of the 
ground and the erection of the present handsome frame 
edifice, and supplied its pulpit for two years. Though 
compelled to pursue some secular avocation, he never 
lost his zeal for the work of the Master; always ready 
to do whatever lies in his power to do, ever willing to 
take deep interest in any fellow-laborer, or to help a 
needy Church. He has delivered many addresses on 
subjects relating to foreign missions in Indiana and other 
states; he has never lost his rank as a minister, and 
every-where is cordially welcomed by his professional 
brethren, to many of whom he has been able to extend 
timely aid. To Mr. and Mrs. Hay have been born six 
children; two were born in India, and upon coming to 
America could speak no English; and, too, they were 
much entertained when came the first fall of snow, one 
declaring that some one had painted the ground white, 
while the other, more philosophical perhaps, observed 
thet the clouds had fallen and were lying on the ground. 
In personal appearance he is very pleasing. His hair, 
grown gray to whiteness, seems to tell a story of toil 
and care. As a member of society, no one stands higher, 
while his unflinching integrity and genuine native man- 
hood have enabled him to maintain the status coming 
of his genial, honest mien. His fidelity to his calling, 
and his zeal under the most disheartening circumstances, 
sufficiently attest the worth of his character, 


—>-Gote-— 

I{ AYMOND, WILLIAM S., of Indianapolis, was 
born in Harrison County, Virginia, near Clarks- 
burg, February 20, 1823. 


5 His father was born 
/ in the same county, and resided there until his 
death, which occurred at an advanced age, His 
grandfather, William Haymond, was born in Frederick 
County, 
and was of English ancestry. 


Maryland, not far from the city of Washington, 
At an early day he was 
sent across the Alleghany Mountains to New Virginia, 
as it was then called, as a land surveyor. 
barking on this expedition and locating in the new 


Before em- 
country, he passed an examination as to his qualifica- 
tions at William and Mary’s College, Virginia. He was 
endowed with rare mathematical ability, and few at 
that day possessed his thorough mathematical knowl- 
edge. He lived to an advanced age, and followed the 


86 


business of land surveying during life, combining it 
with farming. He held an official position in the 
colonial army near the close of the War of the Revolu- 
tion, and was a most esteemed and noted man among 
his countrymen. He wrote a practical and original 
treatise on trigonometry, but never published it. Cyrus 
Haymond, the father of the subject of this sketch, was 
a man of sterling integrity, and was endowed with great 
ability. His advantages 
limited, as he grew up in a new country, amidst back- 
woodsmen, where schooling facilities, especially in the 
higher branches of knowledge, were few and meager. 
He received, however, a fair common school education, 
and was well acquainted with the common branches of 
mathematics. He inherited the homestead mansion and 
farm, and followed, in the footsteps of his progenitor, 
the business of land surveying and farming, which were 
uninterruptedly continued until he became an octoge- 
narian, near the close of his life. His wife, Jane Som- 
merville, was born in Ireland and came to America at 
Her ancestral blood was 


natural educational were 


the early age of five years. 
derived through several branches of the European 
family—Irish, Scotch, and French. She was a woman 
of active temperament and vigorous intellect. _ William 
S. Haymond, the subject of this biographical notice, 
was the eldest of three sons born to these parents. 
His advent in this world happened when there was 
little the local surroundings 
calculated to stimulate the mind to literary pursuits. 
His early education was gained in the backwoods 
schools of that day; a log school-house of primitive 
construction, with the greased paper windows, and 
benches without backs, arranged in the form of a hol- 


in and circumstances 


low square, was the only institution of learning accessi- 
ble to the young boy. Here he acquired the first 
principles of his education. In proportion, however, as 
his opportunities were limited, in the same ratio his 
thirst for knowledge increased; and he relates with 
great gusto the tireless manner in which he procured a 
sum of money sufficient to purchase a few books, em- 
bracing a higher course of study. Meantime, as he 
grew to manhood, as the country more rapidly de- 
veloped, he found the acquisition of learning less diffi- 
cult, and at the age of eighteen he had added to his 
other accomplishments a thorough knowledge of mathe- 
matics. This brought him applications to teach school, 
which business he followed about two years. His last 
term was taught at the instance of his former esteemed 
teacher, the last except one from whom he had ever re- 
ceived instruction at school, who, continuing in the 
business professionally, found it necessary for him to 
extend his knowledge in mathematics to meet the in- 
creasing standard of requirements for teachers, and he 
humbly sat at the feet of his former pupil for instruc- 
tion. During this term the young man was as ardent as 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


ever in the pursuit of knowledge, and spent his hours 
unoccupied in teaching in studying the differential and 
integral calculus, usually regarded as the most abstruse 
and difficult branch of human knowledge, and immedi- 
ately thereafter studied Newton’s method by the flux- 
ions, all of which he mastered by his own unaided 
efforts. Done with the business of teaching, which he 
had not designed to pursue professionally, he devoted 
his attention for some time to surveying and engineer- 
ing. He was appointed while quite young superintending 
engineer for the construction of a road through the 
mountains from Clarksburg to Buchanan, which en- 
gaged his time a year or two. At the age of twenty 
years he was regarded as one of the most accomplished 
mathematicians in the state. As it has been said, 
‘«There is no royal road to learning,” it may be ques- 
tioned whether greater proficiency would have been at- 
tained if he had been favored with wealth, and had 
spent the usual routine of instruction within the walls 
of a college or university. Among the whole range of 
his acquaintances in that region who had been educated 
in collegiate institutions, there were none recognized as 
his equals in solid attainments—or at least in mathe- 
matics. For two or three years he competed with 
scholars in the East and West in the solution of the 
twelve mathematical problems published annually in 
the Pittsburgh Almanac, edited by Sanford C. Hill, 
and distanced all competitors except one. The person 
here alluded to was recognized as one of the ablest 
mathematicians in Ohio. Some of the problems were 
difficult, and could only be solved by those having an 
extensive acquaintance with the higher mathematics. 
The editor spoke of the solutions as being ‘highly 
creditable to our Western schools,” but he was doubt- 
less uninformed of the small part the schools contrib- 
uted to the highest results. When about twenty-three 
years old, he commenced the study of medicine under 
Doctor John Edmondson, of Clarksburg. After quali- 
fying himself for his profession, he moved West, and 
located at Monticello, Indiana, where he began the 
practice of medicine and surgery about the year 1852. 
He attended four courses of medical iectures, two in 
the West and two in the East, and is a graduate of two 
medical colleges, one of which is the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College, of New York City. His modest and 
‘unassuming deportment did not at first bring business 
to his hands, and he quietly waited several months 
without a patient, but in the mean time pressed forward 
with his studies. A tidal wave of temperance sweep- 
ing over the town about this time gave the young doc- 
tor an opportunity for displaying his. ability, in a 


speech which he delivered at a teetotal meeting at the 
;request of some of its members, fairly electrifying his 
audience with the eloquence of his oratory and his mas- 
terly handling of the subject. Such a speech, coming 


7th Dist.) 
from a young man who was a comparative stranger, 
formed the topic of conversation for many days. In 
compliance with a general desire, he repeated it, two 
weeks later, to an audience which filled the church to 
overflowing. The effect was to place him in the front 
rank of the intellectual men of that vicinity. From 
this time he rapidly rose in his profession, and a year 
later .took his position as the leading physician of the 
a distinction he ever afterwards enjoyed. As 


county 
a physician and surgeon, he ranked with the foremost 
men of his profession in the north-western part of the 
state, and has at different times contributed valuable 
papers to the medical journals. But his attainments do 
not rest here. While busily engaged in his practice, 
for several years he devoted himself daily to the study of 
languages. This course embraced Latin, Greek, French, 
German, Spanish, and Italian. His range of reading, 
too, has been extensive, including nearly every sub- 
ject connected with science. He also made it a reg- 
ular habit each year to review geometry and other 
branches of mathematics. In addition to these du- 
ties of a public and private nature, he took an 
active part in all public enterprises calculated to ad- 
vance the interests and prosperity of the people. After 
the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency, in 1860, 
when the secession movement threatened the dismem- 
berment of the Union, he favored the policy of a peace- 
able settlement by compromise, but, if that were im- 
possible, he felt sure that the Union cause would be 
strengthened by thus casting the onus of blame upon the 
extreme secession element. When secession became an 
accomplished fact, and war inevitable, he advocated in 
a public speech that bold and decisive measures should 
be taken, and favored Douglas’s plan of calling out 
three hundred thousand men, and to push the war with 


the utmost vigor. He commenced raising a company 


under the first call of the President for seventy-five thou-" 


sand men, and, after enlisting about forty volunteers, he 
learned that the quota was already full, which led to 
the immediate abandonment of his purpose. In the 
fall of 1861, when a more vigorous prosecution of the 
- war was entered upon, he applied for and obtained the 
position of assistant surgeon in the 46th Indiana Regi- 
ment. He remained in the army till 1863 when, his 
health having become impaired by severe labors and 
exposures, he was compelled to relinquish his post and 
return home. During his service in the army he was 
detailed for important duties on several occasions at 
general hospitals. After the recovery of his health he 
resumed the business of his profession at Monticello, and 
continued so engaged without material interruption for 
several years. In 1866 he received the unanimous nom- 
ination by the Democrats and Liberals as their candi- 
date for the state Senate; but, the opposite party having 


an overwhelming majority in that district, he was, after 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


87 


a gallant race, defeated. In 1872 he was elected presi- 
dent of the Indianapolis, Delphi and Chicago Railroad 
Company, and held the office until after his election to 
Congress, two years later. He was the first person in 
the West who saw clearly the importance of opening 
a through railroad line which would give the Western 
States direct trade by the way of Port Royal with South 
America, the West Indies, and Europe. On this subject 
he addressed, by special invitation, a joint railroad con- 
vention in Augusta, Georgia, in May, 1873. The project 
having attracted wide-spread attention, a company was 
formed, of which Mr. Haymond was made president. 
At an immense railroad convention held in Chicago in 
October, 1873, the proposed road was strongly favored. 
Bankers of large capital and credit had pledged sub- 
stantial aid to the enterprise, when the panic inaugu- 
rated by the failure of Jay Cooke so unsettled financial 
matters that it was deemed advisable to suspend further 
In 1874 he 
received, without any solicitation, the unanimous nomi- 
nation fo Congress from the Tenth (Schuyler Colfax’s) 
District, and was triumphantly elected—the first Demo- 


operations until a more auspicious time. 


cratic victory in twenty-two years. His course in Con- 
gress was conservative and statesmanlike, and free from 
every tinge of demagogy. He was one of the limited 
few in that body who seemed to regard the interests of 
the country as paramount to party. He retired from 
that position of honor at the close of his term—March 
4, 1877—with many friends in both organizations, and 
with unsullied integrity. Judge William Lawrence, one 
of the leading members in the opposite party from Ohio, 
entertained a favorable opinion of his abilities. He pro- 
nounced his speech on the ‘* Vermont debate,’’ which 
came up in the electoral court, ‘¢exceedingly excellent,” 
and said that ‘‘Mr. Haymond was the right kind of a 
man to send to Congress.” His speech was a well- 
timed, patriotic effort, in which, notwithstanding the 
threatening attitude of political matters, he expressed 
full confidence in the ability of the American people to 
govern themselves, and that the stability of our institu- 
tions would not be disturbed by the decision of the 
question at issue. This speech meta favorable response, 
and he was warmly congratulated by many distinguished 
members and others. His eulogy on the death of 
the lamented speaker, Hon. Michael C. Kerr, was 
pronounced by competent judges the finest literary effort 
made on the occasion. He served on the Committee on 
Banking and Currency with distinction, soon becoming 
one of the most active, diligent, and efficient members. 
His modest deportment and reticence at first gave but 
little indication what his standing on that committee 
would be, but his wnexceptionable ability and close log- 
ical reasoning soon gave him a prominence among his 
brethren that is best illustrated by ‘‘ Sunset ”” Cox’s reply 
to Mr. Wilson, who desired to make a speech on the sub- 


88 


ject of finance, and applied to Cox for information. Cox 
answered: ‘*You go and see Haymond; he knows more 
about finance than any man on the committee, and will 
give you all the information you desire ;” and he did as 
directed. 
tracted much attention in certain quarters, and a large 
edition was called for. In England, it is said to have 
received special notice by the press, on account of cer- 
tain views it contained in relation to international com- 
merce, and was there republished in whole or part. 
This speech gave a strong impulse to the movement 
first suggested by Mr. Haymond, and spoken of above, 
to open a new direct trade channel, through Port Royal 
harbor as the entrepot, between the Western and South- 
arn States, South and Central America, the West In- 
dies, and Europe. And this movement has since as- 
sumed a positive shape by the formation of a corpora- 
tion under the laws of New York, entitled the ‘ Port 
Royal Harbor Shipping and Improvement Company ;” 
and Mr. Haymond, on account of his early conception 
of its importance, and his advocacy of the measure, has 
been elected its president. This company proposes to 
found a new commercial emporium at Port Royal, 
which is admitted to be one of the best harbors on the 
Atlantic seaboard, and establish lines of steamers to 
South and Central America, the West Indies, and 
Europe, build docks, warehouses, elevators, and other 
shipping facilities adequate for the most extensive com- 
mercial purposes. The feasibility of the enterprise is 
no longer doubted, and the probabilities of early suc- 
cess are considered encouraging. Mr. Haymond, with 
his. enlarged and comprehensive views, is fully con- 
vinced that an immense future traffic will be carried on 
between the interior of the United States and the vast 
region lying south and south-east of them, and that Port 
Royal is the natural and only adequate gate-way for this 
commerce; and he holds that it possesses all the ele- 
ments or factors for becoming the future great city of 
the South, and one of the first maritime emporiums in 
the world. 


His speech on internal improvements at- 


Behind it lies a broader domain of produc- 
tive tributary country than is commanded by any other 
seaport on the globe, and the building of the Cincinnati 
Southern Railroad, and other partly completed or pro- 
jected roads, is gradually opening the way and pre- 
paring the West and South for a vast enlargement of 
their commercial facilities and extension of their -com- 
mercial relations. Through this grand project and those 
accessory to it, he foresees that growing intimacy be- 
tween the West and South that will desectionalize the 
country, cement both sections, and all sections, in a 
bond of common interest; infuse new blood, life, and 
energy in the South; firmly establish the commercial 
supremacy of the United States, as well as usher in a 
period of prosperity and national opulence such as the 


world has never beheld. As this country is yet young 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


and unlimited in opportunities, it can hardly be ques- 
tioned that his views are well founded. Mr. Haymond 
was renominated for Congress in 1876, but met with a 
serious accident about the last of August of that year, 
which came near terminating his life. It confined him 
to bed for several months. Of course, it is impossible 
to say, that with the prestige of former success, his ac- 
knowledged ability and popularity, what might have 
been the result of the election had he been able to take 
the field and the management in his own hands. It 
was the presidential year; party lines were closely 
drawn, and Indiana made the battle-field of the contest 
between the two great political parties. The district 
was Republican by a large majority, and one they had 
always counted certain for their party. That he was 
defeated by a small majority under such circumstances 
could not diminish an iota of his well-earned reputation, 
or lessen him in public confidence. He was confined 
to his bed from August till November, and was more 
concerned about his recovery than his election to Con- 
gress. Doctor Haymond possesses in a pre-eminent de- 
gree those qualities of mind adapted to generalization 
and systemization. He is endowed with rare executive 
or administrative ability, and, as an organizer, has few, 
if any, superiors. In deportment he is modest, suave, 
and rather reticent, but his social qualities are pleasant 
and lasting with those who have made his acquaint- 
ance. Desiring to occupy a new field of labor for . 
which he had a preference, and lessen the physical 
drudgery under which he was tiring through profes- 
sional labors, he removed, shortly after the close of his 
congressional term, to Indianapolis, where he now re- 
sides. Since living in his new home he has taken time 
to revise the ‘* History of Indiana” for the publisher, 
and is closely devoting himself to literary and profes- 
sional labors, and giving direction to the great enter- 
‘prise of which he is president. He took an active and 
leading part in the organization of the new Medical 
College at Indianapolis—the Central College of Phy- 
sicians and Surgeons—and has been elected to its chair 
of principles and practice of surgery. 


EINER, FREDERICK, state law librarian, was 
born in Bath County, Kentucky, on the 2d of Sep- 
Gy tember, 1852. His father, Samuel, is of German 
Ot) extraction, while his mother, Rossalinda, comes 
of the old Scotch-Gaelic. Her father, James McGregor, 
was born in Dublin. When he was but one year of 
age, his father, with the family, moved to Iowa, and 
settled near Des Moines. After a residence here in the 
+ West of eight years, they returned to Kentucky, and, 
| antl 1861 they lived in the town of Poplar Plains, 
Here it was that Frederick began his 


Fleming County. 


7th Dist.) 


education by an attendance upon the common schools. In 
1861 his father moved again, this time into the rugged, 
mountainous portion of Fleming County. His home, 
however, was but temporary. The region being infested 
with marauding parties, he was forced, in company with 
his family, to leave the country, They took with them 
about all that was left, two horses, and crossing the 
river into Indiana made their way to Decatur County. 
His father returned to Kentucky and brought all the 
family then at home to Indiana, where they still reside. 

In 1869 Frederick entered the State University at Bloom- 
ington, at which institution he graduated in 1872, hav- 
ing completed the scientific course. During his attend- 
ance at college, he was compelled to labor under many 
disadvantages, and nothing but the powers of applica- 
tion he acquired from his parents would have enabled 
him to pursue his studies so persistently and through so 
many difficulties. Having little money he was obliged 
to do his own cooking, or to ‘‘keep bach,” in the 
phraseology of the student; and he was also forced to 
put the work of two terms in one rather than fall be- 
hind his class) When he left college his broken health 
showed only too plainly his hard work and too close 
application. He came to Indianapolis and secured em- 
ployment in the office of the county recorder. He 
continued to work here until November 1, 1874, when 
he was appointed by the Supreme Court to the office of 
state law librarian. This position he filled until Jan- 
uary 1, 1877, at which time the term of the court mak- 
ing the appointment expired. 
the new court upon their coming into office, There is 
not a little to be admired in a course like this of Mr. 
Heiner’s. The ambition which led him to sacrifice so 
much in the pursuance of his studies has prompted 
him to attain the honorable place he now holds, while 
his sterling social qualities and genuine manhood will 
always secure for him a high standing in the estimation 
of his friends, and win the esteem of his enemies. Mr. 
Heiner is a Democrat in his political views, and -has 
chosen the law as his profession. In appearance he is 
rather below the average in height, heavy, and well- 
knit. His eyes are light, while his hair is dark, and on 
. his face he wears the marks of study. Of a very kindly 
disposition, he readily makes friends of those with 
whom he may come into contact, and his urbanity gives 
him an address that can not fail of appreciation. 


— 0f@4o0o——. 


ENDERSON, EBENEZER, ex-Auditor of the state, 
' was born in Morgan County, Indiana, June 2, 
1833, where he has resided since his birth, except- 
ing his temporary residence in the city of Indian- 
apolis while he was discharging his official duties as 
state Auditor, in January, 1875. 


His father was James 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


He was reappointed by | 


89 


C. Henderson, who married Mary Piercy. They were 
born and brought up in Shelby County, Kentucky, 
married in July, 1831, and came to Morgan County, 
Indiana, the subsequent fall. Here his father entered 
eighty acres of land, five miles south of the county 
seat, in a heavily timbered section, and had a cabin 
erected upon it, afier the style of the early settlers. By 
industry, economy, and indomitable energy, there was 
added year by year forty and eighty acres of land to 
the original purchase, as prosperity smiled upon the 
new-comers, until a farm was opened of three hundred 
and sixty acres, and new buildings erected that were 
noted in those early days for convenience and symmetry 
of style. His father died at his home January 8, 1867, 
having commanded during his life the respect of all who 
knew him, as one of the leading and enterprising men 
of his county. His mother remained a widow, and re- 
sides with her only son. His education in his early life 
consisted of what could be obtained by attending three 
months’ public school during the winter months of each 
year. The building in which the school was held was 
erected on one of the corners of his father’s farm, the 
teacher’ generally boarding with them. This afforded 
him some night advantages not possessed by other 
scholars of the school. He miust have assiduously 
availed himself of his opportunities, for at the age of 
twenty he was prepared to enter the State University at 
Bloomington, where he remained two years. His tastes 
running particularly to. mathematics, he was satisfied 
with having taken the scientific course of study only. 
On returning home, he found the health of his father 
failing, and took charge of the farm; and, under the 
advice of that cautious. parent, money was rapidly made 
In 1856 he married Miss Ann E, 
Hunt, the daughter of a neighboring farmer, and for 


by trading in stock. 


whom an attachment had been formed in early life. 
Soon after marriage, he entered the office of the county 
treasurer as deputy,.which position he occupied four 
years, then, in 1860, receiving the nomination of the 
Democratic party for treasurer. The county having at 
that time from three to four hundred Republican ma- 
jority, it seemed impossible for a pronounced Democrat 
to succeed; but by an energetic canvass, and the sup- 
port of many prominent Republicans, he was elected 
by twenty-five votes, He was in 1862 again nominated 
by acclamation for the same office, when the excitement 
of the hour, and false charges of disloyalty by opposing 
politicians, resulting in the nomination of a renegade 
from the party as a ** War Democrat,” succeeded in de- 
feating him by nineteen votes, the party losing the 
county by three hundred and fifty majority against it. 
From 1862 to 1868 the Democrats kept up their or- 
ganization in Morgan County, although hopelessly 
in the Mr. Henderson, with other lead- 
men, holding up the banner as best they could 


in minority ; 
ing 


gO 


during those long years. In 1868 he was nominated 
for: state Senator for the joint counties of Morgan 
and Johnson, and, in a Republican district, was elected 
by a majority of twenty-seven, and served four years. 
In that body he was an active and efficient member, 
and was the author of several important measures that 
passed into laws. Among the most prominent of these 
was the fee and salary bill, regulating the fees of county 
officers, that was passed in 1871. So far in his public 


career Mr. Henderson has had the unusual fortune of 


election to public trusts of high responsibility by con- 
stituencies whose political bias was opposite to his 
avowed sentiments, a compliment which speaks his 
ability and soundness in the opinion of those who have 
long known and tried him. On retiring from the Sen- 
ate he gave his attention to his extensive farm, and the 
erection of a large pork-packing house at the county seat 
of Morgan County—a business which has been carried 
on to this date by the firm of Henderson, Park & Co. 
They rank among the leading packers of the state.. In 
1874 the Farmers’ Convention at Indianapolis nominated 
him as a candidate for Auditor of State, and subse- 
quently the Democratic Convention désignated him for 
the same office on the second ballot. He was elected 
by a majority of seventeen thousand, and entered upon 
the duties January 26, 1875. In 1876 he was unani- 
mously nominated for the same position and was elected. 
Ilis term of office expired January 26, 1879, as the in- 
cumbent is not eligible for a third successive term. 
The office of Auditor of State of Indiana is no sinecure, 
but the duties demand unremitted labor, exactness, 
mathematical ability of a high order, and correct judg- 
ment, and in every way it is attended with great respon- 
sibilities. Its obligations have been discharged by Mr. 
Henderson with a marked success that has won the 
confidence of the people of the entire state, and as he 
is a gentleman of universal popularity there can be no 
doubt that he will be called to serve his fellow-citizens 
in higher capacities, especially as he is in the very prime 
of his manhood and without a moral, political, or finan- 
The public needs such men. Mr. Hen- 
derson has been a power in the political arena, a shrewd 
and active worker, with the prestige of success in polit- 


cial blemish. 


ical affairs. Although inheriting a large estate, his sym- 
pathies are with the laboring classes, with whom he is 
especially popular, without losing influence with those 
in other positions of life. In 1872 he was chosen by 
the Democratic State Convention a member of the state 
central committee for the Indianapolis District, holding 
the place for two years and having done good service 
for his party. Mr. Henderson is above medium 
height, straight, and well formed, of easy address, 
ready, frank, and open in intercourse, whether social or 
official; a gentleman by nature, and intuitively winning 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[7h Dist. 


ENDRICKS, THOMAS A., lawyer, of Indianap- 
olis, was born September 7, 1819, on a farm ear 
Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. His father, 
John Hendricks, was a native of Western Penn- 

The family was one of the first to settle in 


sylvania. 
Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland County, and took an 
active part in the administration of public affairs, sery- 
ing with honor in the Legislature, and other places of 
trust. The mother of Thomas A. Hendricks, Jane 
(Thomson) Hendricks, was of Scotch descent. Her 
grandfather, John Thomson, emigrated to Pennsylvania 
before the Revolution, and was conspicuous among the 
pioneers of that date for his intelligence, integrity, en- 
terprise, love of country, and far-reaching good: will to 
men. As soon as assured of the wisdom of emigration 
he addressed a letter to the Scotch people, setting forth 
the advantages of American soil, climate, and institu- 
tions, so forcibly that the section of the state where he 
lived (between Carlisle and Chambersburg) was prin- 
cipally settled by his countrymen. Taking into account 
his own large family, his influence upon his day and 
generation has been widely perpetuated. Several of his 
sons were soldiers in the Revolutionary War, and many 
of his descendants have attained distinction in the dif- 
ferent walks of life. Besides those bearing his name, 
mention may be made of the Agnews, of New York; 
the Blacks and Watsons, of Pittsburgh; the Wylies, of 
Philadelphia; and the Hendricks, of Indiana. The 
wife of John Hendricks and her niece are the only 
members of the Thomson family who emigrated West. 
In nearly every branch of the family the pioneer Cal- 
vinistic faith of the Thomsons is still maintained. 
When Thomas A. Hendricks was six months old, his 
parents removed from Ohio to Madison, Indiana. This 
was the home of William Hendricks, that uncle of 
Thomas A. Hendricks who, in indirect line, preceded 
him in the enjoyment of like signal tokens of public 
confidence and respect. He was then a member of 
Congress; three years subsequently he was elected Gov- 
ernor; and, at the end of the term, was chosen to the 
United States Senate. All of these positions he filled 
acceptably. He was, indeed, the first Representative 
in Congress who brought the state into favorable re- 
John Hendricks, the father of Thomas A. Hen- 
He 
held the appointment of deputy surveyor of public 
lands in the state, under General Jackson, and in that 
capacity became very generally known and respected. 
As early as 1822 he removed with his family to the 
interior of the state, and held the first title to the fine 
land upon a portion of which Shelbyville, the county 
seat of Shelby County, is located. In the heart of the 
dense forest, upon the gentle eminence overlooking the 
beautiful valley, he built the sightly and commodious 


pute. 
dricks, had some share of government patronage. 


friends by the pleasantness of his words and demeanor. | brick homestead, which, yet stands, in good preserva- 


ana. ese On ae Oe e! v1 oi. 7 
ee ee ee a “ : 


‘UBRARY 
OFTHE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOrS 


Y 
an of that of tlie Mississippi valley, | 
cause New England was early -| 


irted to the principles of po! larizing | ae 


eal history. What the West and the 
ddle West need, he asserts, is not his- 
iry, but popularized local history. We} 
jive plenty of history, but we need to | 
iscover it, and then to make it popular, | 
lad for this purpose nothing is so effec- | 
ive as a strong active central directing 
igency, such as a state historical so- 
ety. yi 
The Missouri Historical Society, 
iounded in 1898, is a model organization 
fits kind. It has 1,300 members, with 
goal for 1921 of 2,000, a society which 
‘not forwarding popularization at the 
ixpense of scholarship, but rather, ad- 
rancing scholarship through the medium 
€ educating our democracy.” Hew 
states have a greater wealth of local 
yistory than has Indiana. It remains 


‘o Hoosiers to assist in the revitalizing 
of our old State Histcrical Society that 
it may equal in numbers and activity 
that of Missouri, and serve as a com- 
petent directing agency for the many 
flourishing county historical organiza- 
tions. 


i Chee Se 


v 


ir 


meee eee 


vr 


ee 


ter; 


aes tees 
eos 
ee teen Ls. 


cording to reports, 
Des Moines, and it is likely that it wi 
be chosen as the next encampment city 


Final Session Today. 


its final ion this afternoon 

o’clock at the Meridian Street M, Ki 
Church, following two morning sessions, 
Committee reports will \be heard and 


officers will be elected at the meeting im 


at 9 o’clock this morning. At 10:30 
m., Florence Spenc urye national} 
director woman 

st Relief will speak. 
returned from Armenia Sept. 1 
meeting this afternoon, officers will be® 
installed and final committee reports 
will be heard. 

ss of the 
G. c this 
morning 4 
Church. The 
the Sons of Vetera 
o’clock this morning a the Denison 
hotel. Officers will be elected at th 
last. session of the Sons of Vet 
Auxiliary at 119 Hast ¢ hio street, The 
Daughters’ of the Veterans will meet at 
9:30 o’clock at the Central Avenue M, 
BE. Church, 

Manv of the veterans began. to: re- 
turn. trips to their homes, k night. 
The parade ure of every en- 
‘campment anc veterans atten 

, 5 particly in, it, 

homes immediatel 
schedule 

toda f ve Ss 

will entrain, 1 1e practically 

rted by g ‘ j ; iof the 

i i officials 

een. heard 

many old soldiers 

the fifty-fifth en- 

campment the greatest and most. in- 

spiring ever held during the history of 
the G jy id 6 a 

compiled by members of the 


rand +00) 

membership set by its secretary, Miss { 
Lucy Elliott, in a campaign organized in : 
the spring as the need for a strong cen- 
tral organization with a definite working 
scheme became more and more apparent. 


The society now numbers more than 500 /@ 


members. It is hoped that this number 
will be doubled by Dec. 11, “Admission 
day,” at which time a state history con- 


ference is held each year. 
Few, perhaps, of the new members 


realize that the Indiana Historical So- 


Dec. 11, 1830, “Admission day,” at, 
to quote the minutes of the first meet- 
ing, “a large and respectable meeting of 
the members of the General Assembly 


ciety in 91 years old. It was crested ; 


and citizens of the state and town of} 


Indianapolis.” The object of the new 
society was declared to be “the collect- 
ing and preserving the materials for a 
comprehensive and accurate history of 
our country, natural, civil and political, 
many of which are of an ephemeral and 
transitory nature, and in the absence of 
well-directed efforts to prog tve them, 
are rapidly passing into oblivion.” 

The first president of the society was 
the distinguished: Benjamin Parke, and | 
the names of the members are all of | 
well-known men. The society flourished 
for a brief season aud then becaine in-| 
active. It was reorganized in 1842, in| 
1848 and in 1859, and then went out of | 
existence until 1873. It continued for a 
year or two, and then became inactive 
until 1886, when it was again perma- 
nently reorganized. The interest in 
state history aroused by the Centennial 

1916 and the work since then carried 
on in many counties have made evident 


the need of a larger and stronger state he e 


organization, 

A writer in the Missouri Magazine of 
History, recently, in describing the 
rapid growth and flourishing condition 


of the Missouri Historical Society, eni- Gila 


phasized the importance of such an or- 
ganization. Its work in popularizing 
state history is profitable as well as edu- 
eational, Any commonwealth which ex- 
ploits well its own annals hasan ad- 
yantage in retaining its population and | 
in attracting new citizens. Fortunate is 
the state which has a vital‘history, more 


fortunate the state which has vitalized § 


that history. America’s greatest asset, 
this writer points out, is not her natural | 
resources, but rather her national his! 
torical heritage. A people without a] 
past or without a, knowledge of: that 


past is handicapped, The stabilizing iam 


forces of precedent ,are lacking; the 
problems of former decades forgotten; 
past victories and defeats, except in the 
field of war, fail to serve as guides and 
warnings. Still more regrettable for 
such people is the absence of well-poised 
pride. 

The writer reminds us that our school 
children know far more of New England 
local history, even of minor incidents, 


‘a 


Shy ied inten 


Pilot Motor Car Company Director! 
Propose to Settle Claims Against. 
Lorraine Firm. | 

[Special to The Indianapolis Star.) 
RICHMOND, Ind, Sept. 30.—Th 
Pilot Motor Car Company of this cit} 
in @ letter addressed to unsecure 
creditors of the Lorraine Car Company 
which went into the hands of a re 
ceiver last week, is offering them 4 
cents on the dollar in settlement o 
their claims, says an announcement b 
Bi the Pilot company here today. 

Failure of the Lorraine company 
which manufactured motor hearses 
was largely due to an extensive cam 
| paign in which between $50,000 an 
$60,000 was spent in artificial mean 
of stimulating business, 
| The Pilot company’s letter says it 


offer of 40 cents is much larger tha 
the tangible assets of the company, bu 
iis based on the proposition that th 
| Lorraine company has built up a cer 
tain amount of good will which wi 
accrue to the benefit of the Pilot com 
pany if it can obtain and continue th: 
Lorraine company’s business, 

The unsecured indebtedness of th 
Lorraine company, exclusive of it 
indorsement of customer's pape} 


Pal 


mi amounts to $34,000, with only $3;10 


| available assets to meet the indebted 
ness. It is believed in financial circle 
| here that ‘creditors will accept the 40 
cent offer of the Pilot company, a 
they -can receive only 10 cents on th 

from the Lorraine company, i 


Indianapolis Man  Spen 
Hundreds of Dollars n 
Vain Trying to Get Re 
lief. 


“T spent hundreds of dollars in th 
past six years for medicines that di 
Ime no good and here a few bottles o 
f'Tanlac have made me sound and well,’ 


said S. M. Shonfield, a well-known re 
tail salesman living at 408 South Ney 
E Jersey St., Indianapolis, Ind. 


Excursions 
VIA L. E. & 


WALKERTON (Ko 
ROCHESTER (Lak 


Train Leaves Indianapoli 
Massachusetts Avenue, 
ROUND TRIP FARE 


7th Dist.) 


tion, in open view of the thriving city and richly culti- 
vated country around. It soon became known as a 
center of learning and social delight, and was the fa- 
~vorite resort of men of distinction and worth. It was, 
in particular, the seat of hospitality to the orthodox 
ministry, Mr. Hendricks being the principal founder 
and support of the Presbyterian Church in the com- 
munity. The presiding genius of that home was the 
gentle wife and mother, who tempered the atmosphere 
of learning and zeal with the sweet influences of 
charity and love. Essentially clever and persistent, she 
was possessed of a rare quality of patience, which stood 
her in better stead than a turbulent, aggressive spirit. 
A close analysis of the character of Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks is not necessary to show that this trait was pre- 
eminently his birthright. It is thus apparent that the 
childhood and youth of Mr. Hendricks were passed un- 
der the happiest auspices. Together with his brothers 
and sisters he attended the village school, and derived 
the full benefit of very respectable and thorough in- 
struction. His senior brother, Abram, pursued col- 
legiate studies at the University of Ohio, and at South 
Hanover, Indiana; and subsequently became a minister 
of the Presbyterian Church. In turn, Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks attended college at South Hanover, and then be- 
gan the study of law at home, under the advice and 
instruction of Judge Major. In so doing he followed 
the bent of his early and most cherished inclinations. 
From boyhood he had had a fondness for legal discus- 
sions; and, when but twelve years of age, attended the 
hearing of important cases in the courts. The final pe- 
riod of law study he prosecuted under the tuition of his 
uncle, Judge Thomson, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 
and was admitted to the bar at Shelbyville. His success 
was not rapid, but he grew in fayor by careful atten- 
tion to business, and acquired a leading practice. His 
professional career has since been so interwoven with 
official life that it is next to impossible to refer to one 
without speaking of the other. In 1848 he was elected 
to the Legislature. He declined a renomination. In 
1850 he was chosen, without opposition, senatorial 
delegate to the convention empowered to amend the 
state Constitution. Together with Judges Holman and 
Hovey, and Hon. Schuyler Colfax, he was among the 
younger members of that body; but, like them, he took 
an active and prominent part in the deliberative pro- 
ceedings. In 1851 he was elected to Congress from 
the Indianapolis District. He was re-elected in 1852, 
but was defeated in 1854. He had scarcely resumed 
the practice of law, after the unsuccessful political cam- 
paign, when, in 1855, he was appointed commissioner 
of the general land office by President Pierce. This 
mark of executive favor was entirely unexpected. The 
wisdom of the selection was proved by the able and 
satisfactory manner in which the duties of the office 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


gl 


were discharged, at the time when the business was of 
the greatest importance—the sales, entries, and grants 
being larger than ever before in the history of the 
country. The term of four years in the land office was 
followed by an unsuccessful race for Governor in 1860. 
Colonel Henry S. Lane was his competitor. Two years 
later, in 1862, Governor Hendricks took an active part 
in the political contest which resulted in the election 
of a Democratic majority in the Legislature. As a rec- 
ognition of his important services, he was chosen 
United States Senator by the unanimous vote of his 
party. During the period of his term in the Senate, 
the Democrats were in a small minority, and he was 
compelled to take an active and prominent part in the 
proceedings of that body. He favored the earnest pros- 
ecution of the war, and voted for supplies to sustain 
the army. He was opposed to conscription, and favored 
the enlistment of* volunteers and payment of soldiers’ 
bounties. At the close of the war he held that the 
states engaged in the Rebellion had at no time been 
out of the Union, and were therefore entitled to full 
representation in Congress. He maintained that the 
people of those states should have entire control of 
their respective state governments. These views placed 
him in opposition to the reconstruction policy which 
was -adopted by the majority in Congress. He also 
opposed the constitutional amendments, because the 
Southern States were not represented, and because, in 
his opinion, such amendments should not be made be- 
fore sectional passions had time to subside. He held 
that amendments to the Constitution should be consid- 
ered only when the public is in a cool, deliberative frame 
of mind. ‘His term in the Senate expired March 4, 
1869, when he devoted himself exclusively to the pro- 
fession of law. He had hitherto shared the service 
with the duties of public office. He had removed to 
Indianapolis in 1860, and engaged in the practice of 
his profession. In 1862 he formed a partnership with 
Mr. Oscar B. Hord, which was extended in 1866 to 
a cousin, Colonel A. W. Hendricks, and was known 
under the firm name of Hendricks, Hord & Hen- 
The business of the firm was large, impor- 
lucrative. In 1872 Thomas A. Hendricks 

to give up the practice of his profes- 


dricks. 
tant, and 

was forced 
sion by an election to the office of chief executive 
of the state. 
earnest protest, but made a vigorous contest, supporting 
the Greeley ticket. He was inaugurated Governor Jan- 
uary 13, 1873, and served the state in that office for 
the term of four years. He gave his undivided atten- 
tion to the interests of the state, and his administration 
of public affairs was above criticism. In the political 
contest of 1876 he was the Democratic candidate for the 


He accepted the nomination against his 


Vice-presidency, and carried his own state by upwards 


of five thousand majority. After the decision of the 


94 


to the Governor of this State; but, as there were no 
colored regiments organizing here, he went to Massa- 
chusetts, with a letter of introduction from Governor 
Morton to Governor Andrews, of that state. There he 
received a commission to recruit for the 54th and 55th 
Colored Regiments. He served in this capacity for 
seven months, .when, in April, 1863, he was mustered 
into the United States service, but, on account of a de- 
fective right eye, he was rejected; whereupon Governor 
Andrews offered him the sutlership of the 55th Regi- 
ment, but, as he could not serve as a private soldier, he 
declined this honor. On his return to Indiana, Gov- 
ernor Morton proffered him the position of recruiting 
officer, with the rank of second lieutenant, which he 
accepted. The 28th Regiment of United States colored 
troops—of eleven hundred men—was in a camp situated 
in the south-east part of the city, and known as Camp 
Fremont. Considerable time was spent in organizing 
and fitting the regiment for service, but at the end of 
one year they were ordered to the front, in January, 
1864. What each man contributed to the successful 
issue of the war we can never know; but every one who 
came forward ready to lay down his life for his coun- 
try deserves our deepest gratitude. He served as a 
canal commissioner of Indiana four years—from January, 
1874, to the same month in 1878—for two of which 
years he had at his disposal the large fund of the com- 
pany, which sufficiently attests the confidence reposed 
in him by those who knew him best. Finally, how- 
ever, he checked it out, paid it over, and got an ac- 
quittance from the Governor. He was an elector at 
large; himself and Hon. Frederick Douglass being the 
only two colored men in the Northern States who served 
in that capacity. He is a member of the fraternities of 
Masons and Odd-fellows, in the former of which he 
began with the Knight Templar degree, and in both of 
which he has proved worthy of his membership and 
faithful to his trust. He was for a number of years 
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Colored Masons 
of Indiana, which position he resigned in 1878. Mr. 
Hinton was for a time in the mail service, being em- 
ployed six months in the postal department of Indian- 
apolis, which position he then resigned. He was the 
first colored grand juryman ever chosen in Marion 
County. Jesse L. Williams, civil engineer of the Wa- 
bash and Erie Canal, received his appointment from the 
Canal Board, composed of Thomas Dowling, treasurer ; 
Charles Butler, secretary, and James S. Hinton, pres- 
ident. He was also for many years a trustee of the 
Wilberforce University, and is at this date, May, 1879. 
It is easy to do what circumstances seem to favor; but, 
in a career like Mr. Hinton’s much must have been 
against him, much had to be overcome, many trials and 
disappointments were there to be borne, but in due 
proportion these all increase the amount of credit 


a 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


which attaches to his success. He is a Republican, but 
has a legion of friends and admirers in the Democratic 
party, and among the citizens of Indianapolis. Mr. Hin- 
ton is ‘of medium height and compactly built. He has 
an erect and stately carriage, and is possessed of easy, 
though dignified manners; is graceful, and is also a 
fluent and entertaining conversationalist and~public 
speaker. He hasa strong, well-modulated, and pleasing 
voice, and when making political speeches upon the 
hustings, or delivering literary addresses from the ros- 
trum, he has no difficulty in making himself heard, and 
distinctly too, at the farthest limits of an audience, 
though large, so clear is his voice and perfect his enun- 
ciation. Taking him all in all, Mr. Hinton is a remark- 
able man, of great probity of character, and of high 
social and political standing among all classes through- 
out Indiana and elsewhere where known. He is a use- 
ful citizen and an honor to his race. 


—>- FEC 


ODGSON, ISAAC, architect, of Indianapolis, was 
born in Belfast, North Ireland, December 16, 
*\ 1826, His paternal grandfather was Isaac Hodg- 
4 son; his maternal grandfather, William Patton, 
was a captain in the British army, and did service dur- 
ing the stormy times of 1798. On one occasion he was 
captured by the enemy, and saved his life by giving, as 
a last resort, the Masonic hailing sign of distress. The 
subject of this sketch was the son of Jackson and Eliza 
(Patton) Hodgson, and was one of eleven children. His 
mother was born in camp, and led the life of the bar- 
racks until she had reached the age of fifteen. Isaac 
attended the parochial schools and Royal Academy dur- 
tng his early youth, and at the age of sixteen entered 
the office of Charles Lanyard, afterwards Sir Charles, a 
well-known architect. Here he remained three years, 
and in 1848 he sailed for the new world, landing in 
New York. In that place he met the family of his 
uncle, who had emigrated at an early date; had been 
lieutenant of a battery in the War of 1812, and after- 
wards colonel of a New York regiment. He left New 
York for the growing West, and, reaching Decatur, In- 
diana, he remained there two years, pursuing his pro- 
fession, and marrying Miss Mary Ann Edwards, a lady 
of Scotch descent, and daughter of a leading merchant 
and mill-owner of the county. In 1849 he went to 
Louisville, Kentucky, and became assistant architect in 
the government buildings then being erected. On the 
completion of this work, he removed to Indianapolis, 
where he still resides, and where numerous buildings, 
public and private, attest his skill. During the late 
war Mr. Hodgson had charge, as architect and super- 
intendent, of the arsenal buildings. The court-houses in 
Marion, and many other counties in this and adjoining 


7th Dist.\ 


states, are monuments of his architectural labors, He 
erected the Alvord Block, Indianapolis, besides numer- 
ous residences,.among the most elegant and costly in 
the city; the Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, and 
designed the Rose Orphan Asylum, in the same city. 
He also erected the Indiana Female Reformatory build- 
ings, and numerous prisons, of which the one in Day- 
ton is a model of strength and neatness, and was 
erected at a cost of a quarter of a million, the others 
ranging from twenty-five thousand dollars to sixty thou- 
sand dollars each, and distributed through various states. 
He was the successful architect and superintendent of 
the new Marion County court-house. This building 
was begun in 1869 and completed in 1876, at a cost of 
one million five hundred thousand dollars. It is visited 
by thousands every year, and is much admired for its 
combined durability and beauty. Mr. Hodgson has at- 
tained the thirty-second degree in Scotch Masonry, and 
is a member of the Indianapolis Consistory. The 
- Hodgsons for generations past have been Episcopalians. 
Mr. Hodgson’s eldest son, Edgar Jackson Hodgson, was 
educated at the public schools of Indianapolis, and at 
the Racine (Wisconsin) College, and is a practical arch- 
itect, in the office with his father. Mr. Hodgson’s his- 
tory is its own best commentary. A patient, persistent 
worker, he has steadily built himself up, and is an 
honored and respected member of society, a stanch 
friend, and a good citizen. 


—>S00e-— 


'{OLLOWELL, AMOS KENDALL, treasurer of 
the Nordyke & Marmon Company, of Indianapo- 
CG lis, was born in Orange County, Indiana, August 
a 19, 1844. His father, James Hollowell, is still 
living at Salem, Washington County, Indiana. His 
mother, Celia (Thomas) Hollowell, died in 1851. 
father was engaged in farming, and Amos was brought 
up to farm life until thirteen years old, obtaining his 


early education in the ordinary district schools, after- 
wards attending the seminary at New London, Howard 
County, and subsequently finishing his school life at 
Bloomingdale (Parke County) Academy. In 1861 he 
ceased attending, and, farm life having become distaste- 
ful to him, he decided to adapt himself to other pur- 
suits, and entered a dry-goods store at Paoli as clerk, 
remaining there about two years. After a further ap- 
prenticeship of two years in the same business at Ko- 
komo, at the end of which time he had obtained a 
very fair knowledge of the dry-goods trade, he came 
from Kokomo to Indianapolis in 1865, and for four 
years was engaged in the wholesale grocery trade, trav- 
eling the greater part of the time, the next two years 
filling the position of accountant and bookkeeper. In 
the fall of 1870 he went to Newport, Wayne County, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


His" 


95 


where he married Adeline H, Parker, on October 19, 
of that year. They have one son, Linden P., now 
eight years old. After his marriage, Mr. Hollowell 
went into mercantile business in Newport, opening a 
general store, which he conducted with much success 
until November, 1875, when he became interested in 
the Nordyke & Marmon Company, and at the next 
election was chosen treasurer of the company, a position 
he still holds. 
of the company, whose business has grown prodigiously, 


Mr. Hollowell is the financial manager 


even in the comparatively short time that he has been 
connected with it. The sales have increased from an an- 
nual showing of one hundred thousand dollars to nearly 
half a million. The crisis from which the trade of the 
country has recently suffered was passed through by the 
company by very careful and judicious management, 
and now the works are in the -full tide of successful 
operation, The move from Richmond to Indianapolis, 
although by some ‘at first considered injudicious, has 
proved highly successful and remunerative, and no firm 
in Indianapolis stands higher than the Nordyke & Mar- 
mon Company. Mr. Hollowell is to all intents and 
purposes a self-made man, as he had to: start in life 
with no capital besides’ energy and industry, and the 
education obtained principally by his own efforts; and 
his career has in the main been a highly successful one. 
He is of English ancestry on his father’s and Welsh on 
his mother’s side, and his parents were members of the 
society of Friends. He inherits much of the tenacity 
and perseverance characteristic of his descent, and his 
industry is of the most persistent type. Much of his 
life’s history is still in the future, as he is now in the 
prime of life, with prospects before him of continued 
success in business, while he has the reputation of a 
pure, conscientious, honorable, and capable man, and 
is highly esteemed in the community. 


—+-400-— 


OGELAND, ISRAEL, of Indianapolis, was born 
in Hardy County, Virginia, July 30, 1830, and is 
one of a pair of twins. Three brothers and three 
sisters are still living. Mr. Hogeland is of Hol- 

land descent on his father’s side and of Irish descent on 

his mother’s side. His paternal grandfather was a 

Revolutionary soldier under General Washington’s im- 

mediate command. His father, James Hogeland, was a 

In 1840 he moved to Tippecanoe County, In- 

Here he pur- 


miller. 
diana, and two years after to Lafayette. 
chased a woolen mill, which burned a few months after, 
leaving him one thousand dollars in debt, with nine 
children dependent on him. He rebuilt, however, with 
friendly aid, when ‘sickness came, and three members 
of the family died within five months. In ten years 
after he had, by unremitting toil, acquired a consider- 


96 


able fortune. Israel had devoted his time to alternate 
work and attending school, and, after he had attained 
manhood, he went for two years to Hanover College, 
but was called from his studies, by the death of his 
father and mother, to the woolen mill, which he and 
Alexander now conducted. Four out of five of the 
sons and daughters married within a single year, in 
1856. In 1857, through wool speculation and decline 
in the market, the brothers failed. 
was again in business, but an injudicious choice of 
partners again brought trouble, in 1866. In 1867 Mr. 
Hogeland moved to Indianapolis, and sold to Merritt & 
Coughlin a half interest in an improved wool washer, 
In 1871 he invented a 


In two years Israel 


of which he was the inventor. 
single stave barrel machine, and placed it on exhibition 
in 1873. Five mills were started in as many states, 
with an aggregate capital of one hundred thousand dol- 
lars, which were operated for one year, and then came 
the panic. A single stave bucket followed, but the 
parties purchasing failed to meet their obligations, Mr. 
Hogeland, however, still retaining a half interest in 
both. In 1879 he invented. the noiseless car-wheel and 
axle, now in use on the Indianapolis, Bloomington and 
Western Railroad, and which are attracting the close at- 
tention of railroad officials, as are also his new fish joint. 
Mr. Hogeland has also invented adjustable dies for manu- 
facturing tile coffins, to be burned and japanned, and 
which are susceptible of high polish. He has a lifting 
jack in use, for locomotives and other heavy work, 
with a capacity for lifting forty-five tons. A half dozen 
minor patents are included in his list. With the advent 
of better times these will find their appropriate places. 
Mr. Hogeland married Miss Virginia Paul in 1855, and 
this union was blessed with four children. In 1874 dis- 
ease prostrated father, son, and mother, at one time, 
and Mrs. Hogeland died, leaving her husband and 
three children—Nellie and Emma, aged respectively 
seven and eleven, and William, now a telegraph opera- 
tor. Nellie died at the age of sixteen, in 1877. Mr. 
and Mrs. Hogeland have both been respected members 
of the Fifth Presbyterian Church, Rev. J. R. Mitchell 
pastor. His brother, Alexander, was a captain in the 
roth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and subsequently lien- 
tenant-colonel of the 10th Kentucky Regiment, and was 
twice in Libby Prison. Subsequent to the war, he was 
for ten years internal revenue agent in Kentucky. Mr. 
Israel Hogeland, the subject of this sketch, is an ear- 
nest and enthusiastic worker in the temperance cause, 
giving much time and money to this great reform; a 
zealous Christian, exemplifying his faith by his works, 
his voice is heard wherever an opportunity presents 
itself to speak a word for religion. His earnest and 
eloquent appeals in behalf of temperance have reached 
many hearts. He has been particularly efficient in or- 
ganizing and bringing into successful operation various 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[7th Dist. 


Sunday-schools, from some of which flourishing Churches 
have sprung into existence. Always ready for every 
good word and work, the world will. be better for 
Israel Hogeland’s having lived in it. 


—- FO —_ 


OLSTEIN, CHARLES L., United States Attorney 
||| for the District of Indiana, was born in Madison, 
b\ Jefferson County, Indiana, on the twenty-sixth 
ae? day of January, 1843. His father, a successful 
business man of that city, was’ born in Gratz, near the 
city of Leipsic, in Germany, and emigrated to America 
in 1837. His mother was a native of the city of Madi- 
son, of Swiss and French parentage. In September, 
1856, after receiving the ordinary common school edu- 
cation of those days, Mr. Holstein entered Hanover 
College, where he remained two years in the prepara- 
tory department. He left Hanover College in Septem- 
ber, 1858, and entered the Kentucky Military Institute, 
at Frankfort, asa cadet. In that institution he pursued 
the course of studies with much diligence, and took 
rank as one of the distinguished or star cadets. (Ex- 
tract from catalogue of Kentucky Military Institute— 
Explanation: Those cadets marked with a star (*), two 
in each class, are reported to the Governor of the com- 
monwealth, conformably to law, as “« Distinguished 
Cadets.”) During his first year he ranked first in a 
class of fifty cadets, and took the first star. At the 
close of the second year he was ranked as third in a 
class of fifty-six cadets, though in fact first in ‘merit 
in study,” and third for “merit in conduct,” which 
classification ranked him third in the class, on average 
of “general merit.” After entering the junior year the 
War of the Rebellion broke out, in 1861. The Kentucky 
Military Institute, as well as many other educational 


institutions, suspended, the cadets generally entering 
the several armies. As the large majority of the cadets 
in attendance at the institute were natives of the South, 
nearly all, with very few exceptions, entered the rebel 
army. As soon as his institute suspended, Mr Hol- 
stein, then a lad of seventeen years, hastened to his 
home in Madison. The proclamation of President Lin- 
coln, thousand volunteers, 


calling for seventy-five 


heightened the warlike excitement of the people. Mr. 


Holstein, full of patriotism, against the earnest protests 
of parents and friends, on account of his youth, en- 
listed in one of the companies forming in the ‘city 
of Madison, for service in the 6th Regiment of Indiana 
Volunteers, and from there proceeded to Indianapolis 
with the command, and was mustered into the service 
of the United States. The training which Mr. Holstein 
had received at the Kentucky Military Institute brought 
him quickly in demand, and he was appointed by Col- 
onel Crittenden, the commander of the regiment, ser- 


7th Dist.) 

geant major. He marched with it to West Virginia, 
and remained with it in all its service and engegements 
during the three months’ service. Here he was con- 
spicuous for his untiring energy and ceaseless activity. 
Whenever his regimental duties permitted it, he took 
prominent part in all scouting parties, which, in the 
absence of cavalry, a corps which had not yet been 
organized, was the only available source of ascertaining 
the whereabouts and movements of the enemy. Being 
mustered out of the service upon the expiration of the 
term of enlistment of the 6th Regiment, Mr. Holstein 
was appointed first lieutenant and adjutant of the 22d 
Regiment Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Jefferson C. 
Davis commanding. During the early existence of this 
regiment, he discharged the duties of that position in a 
manner highly satisfactory to Colonel Davis and the 
officers and soldiers of the regiment. When Colonel 
Davis was promoted a brigadier-general, and placed in 
command of a brigade, and subsequently a division, 
Adjutant Holstein was appointed by General Davis his 
acting assistant adjutant-general. Here again his con- 
duct was such as to receive the unqualified approval of 
the command. For those who know the high character 
of General Davis, and how exacting he was in all mat- 
ters pertaining to the service, it is sufficient to say that 
this distinguished officer ever spoke in his praise. Ad- 
jutant Holstein participated with General Davis’s divi- 
sion in the battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas. His con- 
duct on this occasion was conspicuous for gallantry, and 
in his official report, General Davis says: ‘‘ The bear- 
ing and efficiency of my staff officers, Lieutenant Hol- 
stein, acting assistant adjutant-general, and Lieutenants 
Pease and Morrison, aides-de-camp, were conspicuous 
everywhere, fearlessly executing every order. Every 
part of the field witnessed their gallantry.” But not 
only his immediate superior officers noted the bravery 
and usefulness of Adjutant Holstein, but Colonel Julius 
White, commanding one of the brigades, in his official 
report says: ‘‘I should do jnjustice if I omitted to 
mention, the very valuable aid received at various times 
from your aides. . . . Also from Adjutant Hol- 
stein.” After the battle of Pea Ridge, the 22d Regi- 
ment Indiana Volunteers recommended him for lieuten- 
ant-colonel of that regiment, that position being vacant 
by the death of Lieutenant-colonel Hendricks, who was 
killed in the conflict. But, owing to his youth 
and other influences which were exerted at home, 
before the recommendations and requests of the 
regiment reached Indianapolis, another officer was ap- 
pointed to that position. Adjutant Holstein continued 
attached to the command of General Davis in the sev- 
eral campaigns in Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. In October, 1862, 
he was tendered the commission of major in the 22d 


Regiment Indiana Volunteers, which he declined. Sub- 
Gaal 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


97 


sequently, in 1862, upon recommendation of General 
Davis, he was by President Lincoln appointed an assist- 
ant adjutant-general, United States Volunteers, with the 
rank of captain, and attached for duty to General Da- 
vis’s division until in 1863, when he was recommended 
by General Davis and other officers for the command 
of a regiment, but Governor Morton declined to accede 
to the request of General Davis on account of the ex- 
treme youth of Captain Holstein. Being without hope 
of further promotion, having served for nearly three 
years since the breaking out of the War of the Rebell- 
ion, he resigned his commission, and left the service. 
On returning home to Madison, he re-entered Hanover 
College, and graduated from that institution in 1865. 
To further complete his education, he entered Harvard 
Law School, where, after the regular course, he gradu- 
ated. Inthe latter part of 1866 he came to the city of 
Indianapolis, and entered the law office of Hendricks, 
Hord & Hendricks, remaining with that well-known 
firm until the fall of 1868, when he formed a partner- 
ship with the Hon. Byron F. Elliott, and engaged in 
the practice of the profession. This arrangement con- 
tinued until the election of Mr. Elliott as Judge of the 
Marion Criminal Circuit Court, when that gentleman 
retired from the firm, and Mr. Holstein continued alone 
with marked success until August, 1871, when he was 
appointed assistant to the United States District Attorney, 
Thomas M. Browne, by the Attorney-general of the 
United States. Mr. Holstein’s time not being fully oc- 
cupied by his official duties, in January, 1874, he entered 
the law firm of Hanna & Knefler, which then became 
known as Hanna, Knefler & Holstein. Mr. Holstein 
continued practice with his associates until he was com- 
pelled, on account of the whisky conspiracy prosecu- 
tions, to dissolve his previous connection, then deeming 
it his duty to devote his entire time and labor to the 
In these prosecutions he took a conspicu- 
ous position. His untiring and persevering efforts con- 
tributed greatly to the successful result, in the conviction 
of all the offenders, and elicited the well-merited com- 
mendation of the Department of Justice. The Attor- 
ney-general of the United States, after the whisky 
conspiracy cases were concluded in Indiana, appointed 
Mr. Holstein as principal counsel to represent the gov- 
ernment in similar prosecutions at New Orleans, but, 
owing to ill-health, contracted by his arduous labors, he 
reluctantly declined this very flattering distinction. As 
assistant attorney, he took a leading part in all the 
criminal business of the United States Courts, and has 
rendered distinguished services in the numerous coun- 
terfeiting, revenue, and national bank cases. His suc- 
cess in the prosecution of violations of the pension laws 
has been exceptional. Upon the death of Colonel Nel- 
son Trussler, District Attorney, on February 12, 1880, 
upon the recommendation of the Department of Justice, 


government. 


98 


and as a recognition of the valuable services rendered 
by him as assistant attorney, President Hayes appointed 
Mr. Holstein United States Attorney for the District of 
Indiana for the full term-of four years. The position 
which he now holds, and is filled by him with distin- 
guished ability, is proof of his professional attainments 
asa lawyer. Mr. Holstein possesses an eminently legal 
mind, and is noted for his erudition and thorough law 
learning, especially for his knowledge of the science of 
civil and criminal pleading and the law of practice. 
As an advocate, the terse and perspicuous style of his 
argument, and the boldness with which he grapples in- 
tricate questions, as well as the purity of his diction, 
are much admired. His frankness and unwearying 
courtesy in his intercourse with his professional brethren 
have made him a universal favorite with them. Mr. 
Holstein is a ripe scholar for one of his years, and a 
close student of ancient and modern literature and 
belles-lettres. He has even, in his leisure moments 
snatched from professional engagements, devoted some 
time to the pursuit of the muses. Some of his poetical 
On December 17, 
1868, Mr. Holstein was married to Miss Maggie Nickum, 
the accomplished daughter of John Nickum, Esq., one 


of the most prosperous business men of Indianapolis. 


effusions have elicited warm praise. 


He resides in Indianapolis, in an elegant home, sur- 
rounded not only with the comforts, but the luxuries, 
of life. It is noted for its refined hospitality, and is a 
favorite resort of many cultured people. 


—<-g006<— 

ag 

}t OUGH, WILLIAM R., lawyer, Greenfield, was 
born at Williamsburg, Wayne County, October 9, 
22 1833. He is the second child and eldest son of 
Cs¢ Alfred and Anna Hough, the former a native of 
Surrey County, North Carolina, and the latter of South 
Carolina. Mr. Hough’s ancestors, both paternal and 
maternal, were prominent members of society, and figured 
extensively in the early history of the country. In the 
year 1683 two brothers, Richard Hough and John 
Hough, arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 
British brig ‘‘ Welcome,” and located in Bucks County, 
in that state. They were Quakers and noted men in the 
Richard was for a number of years a member 
of the General Assembly, and also a member of William 
Penn’s Council. From this gentleman descended the 
subject of this sketch. His father, Alfred Hough, was 
the eldest son of Ira Hough, who was the son of Will- 
iam Hough, who, before the War of the Revolution, 
removed from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, where 
the father and grandfather of William R. Hough were 
born, In 1813, when his father was but three years of 
age, his grandfather removed from North Carolina to 
New Garden, in what is now Wayne County, Indiana. 


colony. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


x 


[7th Dist. 


His grandfather was a prominent member of the society 
of Friends, at New Garden, of which society he was 
clerk for a numberof years. His father grew to man- 
hood in Wayne County, where he was married to Anna 
Marine, daughter of Rev. John Marine, a minister of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. This lady was born 
in Marlboro District, South Carolina, and was related 
on her father’s side to the Adams family of that state, 
being a cousin of Governor Adams, whose mother was 
the only sister of Rev. John Marine. This couple were 
the parents of two sons and two daughters. They 
resided in Williamsburg until the subject of this sketch 
was eight years old, when they removed to Hagerstown, 
in the same county, where they remained about a year. 
In the fall of 1842 they journeyed to what was then 
known as the ‘‘St. Joe Country,” arriving at the village 
of Middlebury, in Elkhart County, Indiana, November 
1 of the same year. In this village Hon, William R. 
Hough grew to manhood, attending the public and 
private schools of that locality, the Middlebury Sem- 
inary, and, finally, the Lagrange Collegiate Institute, 
at Ontario, Lagrange County, Indiana. Alfred Hough 
was a mechanic of great versatility of skill and talent, 
especially in wood-work, but confined himself princi- 
pally to manufacturing cabinet ware. His son inherited 
a good share of this mechanical talent, and, his father 
being in limited circumstances pecuniarily, he aided 
him during school vacations in the cabinet shop at 
times, but never regularly learned the trade. His tastes 
being of a decidedly artistic character, he devoted most 
of his time out of school to the finer and more conge- 
nial work of finishing cabinet ware, and also to house, 
sign, carriage, and wagon painting, in all of which he 
became an expert. During the winters of 1853-4 and 
1855-6 he taught school in Lagrange County, unders 
going the then common experience of “boarding round,” 
a Yankee custom which obtained in the country at that 
time. His experiences both in the school-room and at 
his boarding places during this time have been of great 
value to him in cultivating that keen perception of the 
varying phases of human nature which has characterized 
his later professional career. At one time, when he was 
nearly grown, he, by the advice of his father, came 
near studying the photographic art, but his mother, 
having higher ambition for her sons, strenuously opposed 
the project, and thus by her good sense prevented the 
subject of this sketch from burying that talent which he 
has since developed to his own honor and profit and 
the admiration of his friends. The profession of the 
law was finally selected, by mutual consent, as the field 
of his future labors; and accordingly, with the wages of 
his last school in his pockets, not exceeding seventy-five 
dollars in all, and a decently passable wardrobe in his 
trunk, in the summer of 1856 he started out to try his 
fortune in the world. But he possessed that which was 


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better than gold to pave his way to eminence and suc- 
cess. He had indomitable energy and laudable ambi- 
tion to distinguish himself and achieve a prominent 
position in his profession. How well these have served 
his purpose those who know him can attest. In the 
month of September, 1856, he began the study of law 
in the office of Captain R. A. Riley, in the town of 
Greenfield. As his friends predicted, he made remark- 
able progress in his studies, and was admitted in due 
time to the bar of the Hancock Circuit Court, and 
began the practice as a partner of Captain Riley. Prior 
to 1860 he was twice in succession appointed by the 
commissioners of Hancock County to the office of school 
examiner, and served acceptably in that position for two 
years. In 1860 he was, without solicitation on his part, 
nominated by the Republican party for the office of 
district attorney for the district composed of the coun- 
ties of Hancock, Madison, Henry, Rush, and Decatur. 
He was elected by a large majority of the votes cast in 
that district, and discharged the duties for the term of 
two years, to the entire satisfaction of all good citizens. 
At the expiration of his term of office as district attor- 
ney, having married in the mean time, he declined a sec- 
ond nomination, and settled down to the earnest pursuit 
of his duties as an attorney, and for the next ten or 
eleven years, from 1861 to the fall of 1872, did an im- 
mense amount of professional labor, both in his office 
and at the bar, where he was eminently successful, hav- 
ing the reputation of making some of the ablest argu- 
ments in important cases, both criminal and civil, that 
have ever been made in the county. In the year 1872 
he was the nominee of the Republican party for state 
Senator, in the district composed of Hancock and Henry 
Counties, and was elected by a large majority, running 
much above his ticket. He served four years as Sen- 
ator, there being two regular and two special sessions 
of the Legislature during his term of office. As a leg- 
islator, Mr. Hough was recognized, not only as an able 
debater but as a man of marked executive ability, as is 
evidenced by the fact that he was placed upon several 
of the most important committees, where his action was 
characterized by skill and faithfulness to the trust of his 
positions. Mr. Hough has never been a candidate for 
other offices than those to which he was elected as 
stated. He has been an earnest and enthusiastic Re- 
publican since the organization of that party, and cast 
his first vote for President for John C. Fremont. He 
is an honored member of the Independent Order of 
Odd-fellows, joining that order in 1860. In religion 
he is liberal. His views perhaps more nearly accord 
with the Unitarian faith than any other. He has, how- 
ever, been a liberal supporter, financially, of the vari- 
ous religious denominations of his home, contributing 
generously toward the erection of their churches. He 
was married, on the 26th of March, 1862, to Miss Tillie 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


oo 


C. McDoweil, who was born near Edinburgh, Scotland. 
Mrs. Hough is a lady of refined tastes and accomplish- 
ments, and is in every way fitted to preside over her 
elegant and hospitable home. They have an interesting 
family of three children, two sons—William A., aged 
fifteen; Clarence A., aged thirteen—and a daughter, 
Mabel, aged six years. As before intimated, Mr. 
Hough is an eloquent speaker and logical reasoner, has 
marked literary and forensic ability, and is eminently 
successful alike at the bar and upon the lecture plat- 
form. He is public-spirited and benevolent, contrib- 
uting to the success of all worthy enterprises, and is one 
of the most earnest and eloquent friends of the public 
schools of the county and state, which interests he’ has 
ably advocated and defended as a legislator, a lec- 
turer, and in his capacity of private citizen. He has 
been remarkably successful, not only in his professional 
and public career, but also financially—having by his 
own exertions, and with strict probity, achieved a hand- 
some competence—and is one of the largest tax-payers in 
the county. Socially, he is genial and pleasant, always 
gentlemanly in his manner, and has the happy faculty, 
not only of making friends, but of binding them to him 
by his good qualities of head and heart. 


—~-3¢te->—_ 


OWARD, NOBLE P., physician and surgeon, 

Ht Greenfield, was born in Warren County, Ohio, 
€ 5 September 11, 1822. His parents were George 
sg W. and Susannah Howard. His father was one 
of the first settlers of Cincinnati, removing to that place 
from Baltimore, Maryland. During the War of 1812 
he was a.soldier in the American army, and died 
while the subject of this sketch was still very young. 
Noble P. Howard came to Indiana with his mother in 
1836, and was educated at Brookville, Franklin County, 
where he received a good English education. In 
1840 he began the study of medicine with the eminent 
and well-known Doctor H. G. Sexton, of Rushville, In- 
diana, where he read for three years. From his earliest 
youth he had a great inclination toward a professional 
life, and under the skillful training of his able preceptor 
he made rapid advancement in his studies. In 1843 he 
removed to Greenfield, Hancock County, his ‘present 
home, and began the practice of medicine and surgery. 
Notwithstanding the disadvantages of limited circum- 
stances, by his energy and strict attention to his pro- 
fessional duties he soon won for himself a prominent 
position in the medical practice of the county, and has 
been eminently successful, both in his profession and in 
business matters generally. That he has earned the 
confidence of his medical contemporaries is evidenced 
by the fact that he has from time to time been placed in 
prominent and responsible positions by them. In 1877 


100 


he was vice-president of the Indiana State Medical Soci- 
ety; has served as president of the Union Medical Soci- 
ety of Hancock and Henry Counties, and also as pres- 
ident of the Hancock Medical Society. He also holds 
a diploma from the college of Physicians and Surgeons 
and the Indiana Medical College, both of Indianap- 
He is also a member of the American Medical 
He has also held several official posi- 
tions in other départments of life. In October, 1862, he 
was commissioned as assistant surgeon in the 12th Reg- 
iment Indiana Volunteers, and served during its term 


olis. 
Association. 


of enlistment, doing eminent service in his profession 
during the campaign through Maryland and Virginia. 
On the reorganization of the regiment he was recom- 
missioned, but, his home duties demanding his attention, 
he declined to accept the offer. He was deputy collec- 
tor of internal revenue, serving under collectors The- 
odore P. Haughey, J. J. Wright, Austin H. Brown, and 
Charles F. Hogate, the whole time covering a period 
of about eight years. Doctor Howard has manifested 
great interest in all that tended toward the advance- 
ment of the public interest, having taken stock in nearly 
all the gravel roads centering at Greenfield, and con- 
tributed largely toward the building of churches and 
other public edifices, and assisted materially in the de- 
velopment of the town and county. He is an honored 
member of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, join- 
ing that order in 1856, since which time he has filled 
all the offices in the subordinate lodge and encampment. 


In 1861 he was elected Most Worthy Grand Patriarch 


of the Grand Encampment of the state of Indiana, in. 


which position he served with honor to himself and 
profit to the fraternity. He is a prominent member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and does much for its 
interests. He was a Whig in the days of that party, 
and an earnest Union man during the Civil War. In 
1856 he was a candidate on the Republican ticket for 
Representative, but, the county being Democratic, he 
was defeated by the Hon. Thomas D. Walpole. As a 
test of his personal popularity, it may be said that he 
received one hundred and forty-four more votes than 
were cast in his county for ex-Governor O. P. Morton, 
then a candidate for the first time for Governor of In- 
diana. He was a Republican until the nomination of 
Horace Greeley for the presidency, when his esteem for 
that great man induced him to support him, and he has 
since voted and acted with the Democratic party. He 
was married, April 23, 1844, to Miss Cinderella J. Good- 
ing, daughter of Asa and Matilda Gooding, and a sister 
of Judge D. S. Gooding, General O. P. Gooding, and 
Hon. H. CG. Gooding. Doctor Howard is now senior 
member of the medical firm of Howard, Martin & How- 
ard. He is a gentleman of firm convictions and un- 
compromising integrity, and stands high, both in his 
profession and as a man, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Det. 


OLMES, WILLIAM CANADA, third son of a 
| family of twelve children of William and Eliza- 
p\ beth (Lyons) Holmes, was born at his father’s old 
e) homestead on the national road, near Indianapo- 
lis, May 23, 1826. His father was a native of West- 
moreland County, Pennsylvania, but removed at an 
early age to Ohio, and in 1821 settled in what was then 
known as the New Purchase, now Marion County, 
about three miles west of Indianapolis, on Big Eagle 
Creek, where he resided until his death, in 1858. Mr. 
Holmes was among the first to volunteer his services in 
the famous Black Hawk War of 1831. No pioneer of 
the New Purchase lived more respected or died more 
regretted by his numerous friends than ‘ Billy Holmes,” 
as he was familiarly called. William Canada, when 
only seventeen years old, contracted with his father for 
the management of his saw-mill, and continued to run 
it until he was twenty years of age; in the mean time, 
when the mill was idle, going to school, he received a 
fair English education. When the time had expired for 
which he took the mill he had laid by a nice capital, 
besides extricating his father from financial embarrass- 
ment consequent upon the building of the mill; he 
then continued sixteen years longer in the lumber and 
milling business. In 1857 he purchased the old Isaac 
Pugh farm, and on it built one of the finest residences 
in Marion County. In 1865 Mr. Holmes purchased the 
interest of T. R. Fletcher in the Fourth National Bank 
of Indianapolis, and acted as president. Six months later 
this bank was consolidated with the Citizens’ National 
Bank. One year after the consolidation he was elected 
president, which position he resigned two years later, in 
consequence of failing health, but is yet a direc- 
tor in the same institution, He then formed a part- 
nership with Messrs. Coffin & Landers, for the 
purpose of purchasing and packing pork, the firm 
name being Coffin, Holmes & Landers. In this firm 
he He then formed another 
partnership, the name of the firm being Holmes, 
Pettit & Bradshaw. This house had a capacity for 
slaughtering, packing, and keeping through the sum- 
mer, fifty thousand hogs, the building and ground 
costing over one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Holmes 
has added much to the material growth of Indianapolis 
by the erection of several fine private houses, and a do- 
nation of twenty acres of land, with about forty thou- 
sand dollars, to aid in the erection of manufacturing es- 
tablishments—seven acres to the Novelty Iron Works, and 
thirteen acres to the Haugh Iron Railing Manufactory. 
Mr. Holmes was ever a man of acknowledged industry, 


remained ome year. 


strict integrity, and fine business capacity; but the 
shrewdest calculations have been disappointed, and the 
most glowing prospects blighted in seasons of financial 
depression, and Mr. Holmes, like thousands of others 
of equal ability and prudence, was unable to stem.the 


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torrent of business disaster which recently paralyzed the 
industry of the country. As water finds its level, how- 
ever, Mr. Holmes is steadily, slowly, but surely recov- 
ering from the disasters which overtook him, and bids 
fair, if life and health are spared, again to take his 
place in the busy marts of trade among the solid busi- 
ness men of Indianapolis. Mr. Holmes was married, on 
December 15, 1849, to Catharine, second daughter of 
the venerable James Johnson. This union has been 
blessed with several children, six daughters and two 


sons, of whom five daughters and one son survive. | 


Mr. Holmes is quite tall, but of slender build, florid 
complexion; prepossessing in manner, frank and candid 
in his expressions, yet courteous to all; in social life 
hospitable and generous, and in his family the center 
of affection. 
—>-3906~<—_ 

nA 

((-)LAIR, ALONZO, deceased, late of Shelbyville, 
): was born March 27, 1832, in Jackson County, 
Indiana. His parents were in poor circumstances, 
and he was deprived by his father’s death of the aid 
which might reasonably have been expected. As soon as 
he was able he engaged in farm labor, working assidu- 
ously in the summer and attending school in the winter— 
something which nearly every man of importance in the 
Before he had attained his majority he 


state has done. 
was qualified to begin as a teacher, and that avocation 
he followed for a number of years. He taught in many 
of the townships of Shelby County, performing his du- 
ties thoroughly and well. In this occupation he gained 
many acquaintances; and those who knew him most 
intimately were not surprised when he obtained the 
nomination for clerk of the Circuit Court. Four years 
after he was re-elected, holding the office from 1859 to 
1867. Upon retiring, he removed to Indianapolis, where 
he became the proprietor of a well-known hotel, the 
Palmer House. After a short time, becoming dissatis- 
fied with this business, he returned to Shelbyville, and 
entered upon the practice of law, soon reaching a high 
standing. He had also grown prominent in politics. 
He was a good reasoner, and had thought much and 
well upon the principles on which enactments should be 
founded. 
dent that his party, the Democratic, was right, and sure 
that its candidates were about to be elected. For this 
end he worked prodigiously. The views of all men of 
prominence in his organization were known to him; he 
counseled with them in the beginning of a struggle, 
and he fought with them when the field was at last 
taken. He was a most intense partisan, and was not 
ashamed of it. He was chairman of the Democratic 
central committee of Shelby County in 1876 and 1878; 
and during the Greeley campaign of the former year he 
was one of the ablest and hardest-worked members of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


Mr. Blair was a man of positive will, confi- 


IOL 
the general committee of the state. As a lawyer, he 
He threw his whole soul into a case; 
he adopted no half-way measures. His knowledge of 
the law was great; he was an industrious reader; and 
his memory retained many cases in which he had heard 
the pleadings. He had an eacellent law library ; and 
no good book of that kind was issued that he did not 
order for his own use. Robert Clarke & Co., the larg- 
est booksellers in Cincinnati, say that he purchased more 


won distinction. 


works on law than any other attorney in Indiana. 
Mr. Blair was a man of highly affectionate disposition ; 
he loved his family, and he liked children, a strong 
mark of a true man. 
power of remembering names and faces, and was known 
to very many in the vicinity, to some of them most grate- 
fully. For years his carriage was to be seen at the 
funeral of every poor man, white or black, and he often 
granted aid to men not so successful as himself. A 
charitable society in New York sent out on one occasion 
a car-load of poor children, waifs of the streets. They 
were taken by the kindly disposed and provided with 
homes, all except one, a thin, dark-haired, and dark- 
eyed boy. Dinner-time came; the room where they 
were was almost deserted. The other children had 
found homes, but there was none for this little one. 
He began to cry, and Mr. Blair, touched with compas- 
sion, took him to his house. He clothed him and fed 
him; he sént him to school, and from there to college. 
Afterwards the boy was reclaimed by his own relatives, 
a wealthy and distinguished family of the East, but the 
parting was bitter to one who had been like a father to 
him. He never could speak of the separation except 
with tears. Through his whole life he felt a warm in- 
terest in education. It had been his intention to at- 
tempt the foundation of a college in Shelbyville; but 
during the late financial crisis nothing could be done, 
and the project was of necessity deferred. His death 
occurred on the roth of July, 1879. He left a wife and 
four children. 


He possessed an uncommon 


—-§9C@+— 


)AKER, CONRAD, ex-Governor of Indiana, is a 
*\ native of the Keystone State. He was born in 
Franklin County, Pennsylvania, February 12, 


the late Thaddeus Stevens and Judge Daniel M. Smyser. 
He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1839 at 
Gettysburg, and practiced at that place for two years. 
He emigrated West, and settled at Evansville in 1841, 
and resided there until the office of Governor devolved 
upon him by the election of Governor Morton to the 
United States Senate, in January, 1867, since which 


time he has resided at Indianapolis. In 1845 he was 


102 


elected to represent Vanderburg County in the General 
Assembly, and served one term. In 1852 he was elected 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the district 
comprising the counties of Warwick and Vanderburg, 
and served about eighteen months, when he resigned. 
In 1856 he was nominated for Lieutenant-governor by 
the Republican party, without his knowledge and with- 
out having sought the nomination, on the ticket which 
was headed by Oliver P. Morton as candidate for Gov- 
ernor. They were defeated, and Willard and Ham- 
mond were elected. In 1861 Mr. Baker was commis- 
sioned colonel of the Ist Cavalry, 28th Regiment of 
Indiana Volunteers, and served as such for over three 
years. From August, 1861, to April, 1863, he com- 
manded either his own regiment or a brigade in the 
field in Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi. In April, 
1863, an order from the Secretary of War reached him 
by telegraph at Helena, Arkansas, requiring him to 
proceed forthwith to Indianapolis, Indiana, and report 
to the provost-marshal general. He obeyed the in- 
structions, and on his arrival at Indianapolis he re- 
ceived an order detailing him to act as assistant provost- 
marshal general for the state of Indiana, and as such 
to organize the provost-marshal general’s bureau in this 
He performed the duties of provost-marshal 
general, superintendent of volunteer recruiting, and 
chief mustering officer, until August, 1864, when, his 
term of military service having expired, he was relieved at 
his own request, and a few weeks afterwards he, together 
with his regiment, was mustered out of service. The 
Republican convention, which met in 1864, nominated 
Governor Morton for re-election, and presented General 
Nathan Kimball, who was in the field, for the office of 
Lieutenant-governor. General Kimball declined the 
nomination, and thereupon the Republican state central 
committee, without his being a candidate or applicant 
for the position, unanimously tendered Mr. Baker the 
nomination for Lieutenant-governor. In 1865 Governor 
Morton convened the General Assembly in special ses- 
sion, and, immediately after the delivery of his message, 
started for Europe in quest of health, leaving him Lieu- 
tenant-governor in charge of the administration of the 
executive department of the state government. Goy- 
ernor Morton was absent for five months, during which 
time the duties of the executive office were performed 
by Lieutenant-governor Baker. In February, 1867, 
Governor Morton was elected to the Senate of the 
United States, and the duties of Governor devolved 
upon Governor Baker. He was unanimously renomi- 
nated by the Republican convention of 1868 for Gov- 
ernor, and was elected over the Hon. Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks, one of the most popular men of the state, by 
the small majority of 961 votes. The canvass was con- 
ducted by these two gentlemen with the best of feeling 
personally towards each other, nothing having occurred 


state. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7 Dist. 


to mar the good feeling or the social relations existing 
between them. It is seldom that a public man reaches 
the highest position in the gift of the people of his 
state without defamation or vituperation being hurled 
at him by his political opponents, especially when the 
passions and prejudices of the people are excited to the 
utmost tension, as was the case during the gubernatorial 
canvass of 1868, which was but a month previous to 
that of the presidential, when both political parties 
were straining every nerve, but such was the fact, that 
not the slightest charge of public or private misconduct 
was ever laid at the door of Governor Baker, although 
he had been the acting chief executive of the state for 
some time. His administration had been characterized 
as an upright, honest, and conscientious one, so much 
so that his opponent found nothing to attack but the 
measures of the party of which Governor Baker was the 
chosen representative. Since he retired from the execu- 
tive chair, he has been engaged in the practice of law 
with O. B. Hord, A. W. Hendricks, and ex-Governor 
Thomas A. Hendricks, the firm being Baker, Hord & 
Hendricks. 
—_+>-300@-—— 


LAKE, JAMES, one of the oldest, most promi- 
|;) nent, and useful citizens of Indianapolis, was born 
C7 in York (now Adams) County, Pennsylvania, March 
Ct 3, 1791, and died at his residence in Indianapolis 
November 26, 1870. His father came from Ireland in 
1774, and lived to the age of ninety-nine years, being 
among the earlier settlers of York County, Pennsylva- 
nia. While still a young man, James enlisted as a vol- 
unteer in the War of 1812, and marched to Baltimore 
when that city was threatened by the British forces, 
serving in the army until the declaration of peace, in 
1815. Before entering the army he had worked as a 
wagoner, and at the close of the war resumed his old 
occupation on the Alleghanies, and for five years drove 
a six-horse team between the cities of Philadelphia and 
Pittsburgh. In November, 1818 he set out on a horse- 
back tour to the far West, going as far as St. Louis, and 
returning to Pennsylvania in the following April, when he 
made arrangements for a permanent removal to the West. 
On the 25th of July, 1821, he settled at Indianapolis, 
where he resided until the day of his death. His his- 
tory for fifty years was the history of Indianapolis, and 
no citizen has ever been more closely identified with the 
rise and progress of the city and its philanthropic and 
benevolent institutions than he was. Mr. Blake be- 
longed to a class of men who are fast passing away, 
and upon whose like we shall never Jook again. The 
conditions out of which this sturdy race of pioneers 
grew have ceased to exist, the struggles of pioneer life 
are a thing of the past, and the frontiersmen of the West 
are now distanced in their progress across the continent 


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by the locomotives which traverse our broad domain. He 
lived to see the scattered hamlet of log-cabins replaced 
by a thriving and prosperous city, and his hand was ever 
foremost in every enterprise for the good of his city and 
state. He, with James M. Ray and Nicholas McCarty, 
nearly fifty years ago, built the first steam mill in Indi- 
anapolis, and thus was the pioneer in the manufactur- 
ing which is now so vital an element in the city’s pros- 
perity. As a surveyor, he assisted in laying out and 
platting the city. He was selected as commissioner to 
receive plans and proposals for the old state-house. 
He was the first to urge upon the state Legislature the 
importance of establishing a hospital for the insane, and 
opened a correspondence with the Eastern States on the 
subject, and to him was afterwards intrusted the duty 
of selecting a location for that institution. He was an 
early friend, and was a member of the first board of 
directors, of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, 
and was also director of the Lafayette and Indianapolis 
Railroad. He was a trustee of Hanover College, of 
Indiana, and of the Miami University, of Oxford, Ohio, 
and at his death was the Indiana commissioner for the 
building of the Gettysburg monument. For thirty-five 
years he was the president of the Indianapolis Benevo- 
lent Society, and was present during this time at every 
anniversary but two. In 1847 he was the most liberal 
contributor to the relief of starving Ireland. He wasa 
prime mover in the organization of the Indiana branch 
of the American Colonization Society; was the first cap- 
tain of the first militia company organized in Indianap- 
olis, and held the same place in the first fire company. 
He was the founder of the Indianapolis Rolling Mill, and 
embarked a large part of his fortune in that undertak- 
ing. He also started the first wholesale dry-goods house 
in Indianapolis, which was also not a financial success. 
On all public occasions Mr. Blake was looked to as the 
leader and manager of affairs. When the people of In- 
diana assembled to pay a tribute of respect to a de- 
ceased President or Governor, or other great man, Mr. 
Blake was selected to conduct the order of affairs. 
When Kossuth visited Indiana, when the soldiers re- 
turned from the Mexican War, when the farmers came 
in with a procession of wagons filled with food and 
supplies for soldiers’ families, when the Indiana soldiers 
came home from the South, Mr. Blake was always the 
marshal of the day, and no public procession seemed 
complete in Indianapolis unless it was headed by him. 
His whole life was crowned with useful labors. There 
was, in fact, hardly any public enterprise or movement 
appealing to public spirit in which Mr. Blake was not 
conspicuous, constant, and efficient. He was one of 
those who organized the first Sunday-school there—the 
Union—and he was ever the foremost man in the cause. 
For thirty years his majestic form headed the long and 
beautiful array of Sunday-school children on their 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


103 


Fourth of July celebrations. From the organization of 
the Benevolent Society, in 1835, until his death he was 
its president, and the institution was his especial pride 
and enjoyment. In the temperance movement he was 
a leader, as in every thing else, and his adhesion to the 
Democracy was first broken by its conflict with his 
firmer adhesion to the cause of temperance. He was 
the patriarch of his Church, admired and revered by all. 
In every relation of his life, as head of a family, 
leader of society, chief of his Church, manager of busi- 
ness enterprises, he was always foremost, always hon- 
ored, equally for his power and his disinterestedness. 
For fifty years his life was devoted to the good of In- 
dianapolis and its citizens, and we have been able to 
give but a meager outline of the many fields of useful- 
ness in which he figured. His amiable wife, ée Miss 
Eliza Sproule, of Baltimore, to whom he was married 
in March, 1831, still survives, in full possession of her 
health and faculties. She shared with her husband the 
esteem and respect of the community, and was his lov- 
ing coadjutor in every thing in which her womanly heart 
and brain could be of service. If Mr. Blake had 
pursued his own advantage with half the zeal that he 
devoted to the service of others and the good of the 
city, he might have died counting his wealth by mill- 
But his enterprises really prevented him from 
becoming rich, and at one time, after the failure of the 
rolling mill, he was seriously threatened with bank- 
ruptcy. His ambition all ran to the good of others. 
It never took a political direction. 


ions. 


He never held any 
popular office except that of county commissioner, or at 
least he never desired or attained any political promi- 
nence, when, with his personal popularity and influ- 
ence, he might have stood among the highest had he 
so chosen. His desire for power never seemed to ex- 
tend beyond the command of a Sunday-school proces- 
In him 
Indianapolis lost a truly good man, a useful citizen, and 
the community a kind neighbor, a sympathizing friend. 
Besides Mrs. Blake, four children all 
settled and prospering in the city of Indianapolis. Mr. 
Blake’s indifference to the customary objects of ambi- 
tion, his constant services in all kindly offices and la- 
bors, his benevolent face, his venerable appearance, all 
combined to make him for a whole generation the most 
conspicuous and revered of the citizens of Indianapolis. 


sion or the presidency of a charitable meeting. 


survive him, 


—>-900@-o— 


ARLETON, WELLINGTON J., principal of the 
German-English School, Indianapolis, was born at 
Belleville, Ontario, Canada, February 18, 1846. He 
<)> is the son of William and Maria (Sweep) Carleton. 

His father, who was of Irish birth, has been a teacher in, 

the Canadian public schools for some forty years, and is 


104 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


widely known in educational service throughout Canada. 
He is the author of several Canadian educational works. 
Many members of the family have been the writers of 
works widely known. His mother’s mother, of Prus- 
sian birth, is now one hundred and nine years old. 
Mr. Carleton, after receiving a common school educa- 
tion, entered the Belleville Canadian Institute, gradu- 
ating with full honors in 1862. He immediately began 
as teacher in the Belleville public schools, but after- 
wards removed to Toronto, passing his examination be- 
fore the Toronto educational board of examiners, and 
receiving his permanent certificate. He then attended 
lectures at the normal school and Toronto University. 
He was principal of two schools in succession ‘in On- 
tario, continuing thus for four years, when he removed 
to Quebec, where he occupied a similar position for 
two years, including the principalship of the French 
and English model school at Chelsea. He then taught 
for three years at Sault Ste. Marie, in the district of 
Algoma, after which he spent two years as member of 
a surveying party north of Lake Superior, and then 
removed to Au Sable, Michigan, where he taught school 
for one term. Since then he has been engaged in the 
public schools in Indiana. In 1875 he entered the 
German-English school of Indianapolis, of which he is 
now principal; it employs seven teachers, instruction 
being one-half in German and one-half in English. The 
pupils of this school generally take the highest prizes 
in examination in competition with the public schools. 
They have also in connection a kindergarten. In 1879 
he was principal of the Marion County Normal Insti- 
tute. He is the author of Carleton’s Language Series, 
a work that has been adopted by the public schools, 
and is meeting with much favor. ‘Mr. Carleton has 
been a contributor to some of the leading journals, his 
articles treating of both education and politics. He has 
also been principal in the public night schools of Indian- 
apolis for the past five years, a work productive of 
much good, in which he has been very successful. Mr. 
Carleton is a man who has devoted his life to the study 
of education and school systems, in which he has been 
eminently successful, and upon them is considered an 
authority. He has been a member of the Masonic Or- 
der for two years, and has taken three degrees. He has 
been an Odd-fellow for five years, and has taken five de- 
grees; a member of the Order of Knights of Pythias for 
five years, and of the Knights of Honor for four years. 
He was the organizer of Marion Lodge, No. 601, of 
Indianapolis. He is a member of the Order of Knights 
and Ladies of Honor. In religion he is liberal, and in 
politics independent. He married, at Port Dover, On- 
tario, October 12, 1869, Isabella Tibbetts, daughter of 
Doctor Tibbetts, a minister of the Episcopal Church in 
Canada. They have four children, two boys and two 
girls. Mr. Carleton is a man of fine personal appear- 


[7th Dist. 


ance, pleasant and genial in manner, a ready speaker, a 
fine scholar, and an educated gentleman. He is a man 
of honor, integrity, and uprightness, respected by all, 
and beloved by his family. Such is the brief record of 
one of Indiana’s representative educational men, one of 
those men who haverisen by their own industry and per- 
severance. He is a thorough linguist and mathemati- 
cian, acquisitions gained by hard study. 


—>-909O— 


AMESON, PATRICK HENRY, M. D., Indianap- 
olis, was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, April 
GT 18, 1824. He is the son of Thomas and Sarah 
9) (Humphreys) Jameson. His father owned and 
cultivated a farm in Jefferson County; and here his 
early days were spent, alternating work on the farm 
with attendance at the common schools of the county, 
in which he received his primary education. But his 
naturally studious disposition was not content with the 
limited knowledge attainable at school, and every spare 
moment of his time at home was utilized in the study 
of books, which he devoured with avidity. In this way, 
without any aid from teachers, he studied algebra, ge- 


ometry, and the rudiments of Greek and Latin, and’ 


made considerable headway in physics, natural philoso- 
phy, and general literature. It is said of him that he 
solved every problem in Colburn’s Algebra without the 
slightest assistance, the fact being that at that time 
there was not a man in the township who was able to 
render him any aid in that direction. His father died 
when he was nineteen years old, and he soon afterwards 
came to Indianapolis and engaged in teaching school, 
first as assistant, and afterwards as principal of a private 
school, which he conducted for three years and a half. 
During part of this time he also acted as county libra- 
rian, and commenced the study of medicine. At his first 
coming to Indianapolis, he was particularly fortunate in 
making the acquaintance of several gentlemen of promi- 
nence and culture, with whom his associations were of the 
pleasantest character. Among them were J. C. Fletcher, 
the talented author and lecturer, B. R. Sulgrove, Au- 
gustus Coburn, General John Coburn, Napoleon B. 
Taylor, William Wallace, Esq., of Indianapolis, and 
his brother, General Lew. Wallace, Hon. John Caven, 
present mayor of Indianapolis, and others equally prom- 
inent, who were members of a society known as the 
‘‘Union Literary.” From such associations the young 
aspirant imbibed much of his tastes and habits, and 
derived much encouragement and incentive to effort. 
He attended his first course of medical lectures in the 
University of Louisville in 1847-48, and his second 
course at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 
1848-49, graduating in March of the latter year. Pre- 
vious to his receiving his diploma he had read medicine 


ag 


7th Dist.| 


with Doctor John H. Sanders, and was immediately 
after offered a partnership by his old preceptor, which 
he accepted, entering at once into active practice. His 
partner dying a year later, he took charge of the entire 
business, and has been continuously engaged in the du- 
ties of his profession since, and for a good many years 
enjoyed the largest and most lucrative practice in the 
city. Doctor Jameson makes no specialty in his pro- 
fession, but his experience in acute diseases has been 
very large and quite successful. He is one of the orig- 
inal members of the Indiana State Medical Society, 
formed in 1849; and a member of the Indianapolis 
Academy of Medicine, of which he was president in 
1875 and 1876. He has been an occasional contributer 
to the medical literature of the day. Among his: pub- 
lished writings may be mentioned the ‘* Commissioners’ 
Annual Report for Indiana Hospital for the Insane,” 
1861 to 1867, inclusive; ‘‘ Reports for the Indiana In- 
stitution for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind,” published 
by the state; report to Indiana State Medical Society, 
on ‘‘ Veratrum Viride in Typhoid and Puerperal Fevers,”’ 
published in the Proceedings for 1857, and republished 
by the American Journal of Medical Sciences; address on 
‘¢Scientific Medicine in its Relations with Quackery,” 
published in the Indiana Medzcal Journal, 1871. From 
1861 to 1869 Doctor Jameson was commissioner for the 
Indiana Hospital for the Insane. From 1861 to 1866 
he was state surgeon in charge of the state and United 
States troops in quarters at several camps, and in the 
hospital at the soldiers’ home at Indianapolis. From 
January, 1863, to March, 1866, he was acting assistant 
surgeon of the United States army in the same service. 
During nearly five years of military service, during which 
he had charge of a large amount of government prop- 
erty, no complaint of any kind was ever preferred against 
Doctor Jameson, and in less than a week from his retire- 
ment from duty he received a certificate of non-indebt- 
edness to the government. In 1869 he was elected pres- 
ident of the boards of the several benevolent institutions 
of the state, a position of honor and great responsibility 
he held for two consecutive terms of four years. He was 
re-elected by the Legislature for a third term, but, owing 
to a change in the politics of the state, under an act 
of-ithe Legislature a new board was appointed by the 
Governor in 1879. He was a member of the provisional 
board for the erection of a new insane asylum for women 
(in connection with the Governor of Indiana and certain 
other state officers), the building being formally thrown 
open in 1879. During Doctor Jameson’s term as com- 
missioner for the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, and 
subsequently as president of the boards, he persistently 
urged, through his annual reports and by personal so- 
licitation, the need for more extensive accommodations 
for the patients of the asylum, and it is safe to say that 
it was largely due to his influence and to his persistent 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


‘per cent of taxables. 


105 


advocacy that the Legislature made from time to time 
appropriations for the extensive and valuable additions 
to the institution, which place it in the front rank 
of establishments of its class in the VUnited States. 
A perusal of the annual reports of this institu- 
tion, of which no less than eighteen were written 
by Doctor Jameson during his connection with it, 
will show how earnestly and untiringly he insisted 
on the proper provision being made for the growing 
needs of the insane; and how well he succeeded can be 
seen from the fact that when he became officially con- 
nected with the asylum there were accommodations for 
less than three hundred patients, and on his retire- 
ment arrangements were made, and the buildings 
nearly completed, for the accommodation of one thou- 
and and four hundred patients. From 1865 to 1869 he 
was a member of the city council of Indianapolis. 
Large indebtedness had been incurred on account of 
the draft, together with some other expenses. Recog- 
nizing the abilities of Doctor Jameson, his associates 
made him chairman of the finance committee, and 
he bent his energies to secure the payment of the 
indebtedness. Before his retirement, on the Ist of 
May, 1869, the entire amount was liquidated, and there 
was a balance of two hundred thousand dollars to the 
credit of the city. While he was in the council he was 
also chairman of the police board, committee on public 
printing, and on revision of ordinances. In this latter 
capacity he made a complete revision of the local laws, 
which was printed in 1865. Since this time he has 
taken a lively interest in matters of public taxation and 
expenditures, the finances, etc., and he has been a fre- 
quent contributor on these topics to the public press. 
In 1876, the expenditures and taxation of the city being 
very high, he wrote a series of articles under his signa- 
ture, in the Indianapolis evening Mews, which attracted 
wide-spread att@ntion, advocating reductions in the fire 
department, police, and in the consumption of gas, 
demonstrating clearly how the expense could be reduced 
one-half. These communications had, undoubtedly, 
much influence in shaping the levy of that year, and 
the course of the common council in taxation and ex- 
penditure, Indianapolis now ranking among the most 
economically administered cities on the continent. The 
succeeding winter, when the Legislature convened, he 
was made the chairman of a committee of citizens who 
procured the passage of a very stringent act, limiting 
the powers of city councils in the levying of taxes to 
nine-tenths of one per cent, and of school boards to one- 
fifth of one per cent, and restricting indebtedness to two 
This bill was actively opposed by 
a majority of the school board, and by the chairman of 
the finance committee of the common council of the city 
of Indianapolis. Notwithstanding this, the committee 
secured the passage of the law, and the result has 


106 


demonstrated its wisdom. Opponents tried to show that 
the schools could not thus be carried on, but facts indi- 
cate that the schools and city government have never 
been in such a good condition. In this Doctor Jameson 
was prime mover, but was ably assisted by W. I]. En- 
glish, Albert G. Porter, and others of the committee. 
June 20, 1850, Doctor Jameson married Miss Maria But- 
ler, daughter of a prominent lawyer, the founder of But- 
ler University. He has a family of four children, Two 
daughters are married, a son is now a law student at 
Indianapolis, and one daughter is unmarried. He is a 
man of sound constitution and vigorous intellect. He is 
as hale as most men of thirty, unobtrusive in manners, 
courteous in his bearing toall. His character and stand- 
ing as a physician are very high, and he is regarded as 
an exemplary husband and father and a good citizen. 
He is a Republican, and from 1856 to 1860 was chairman 
of the Republican county committee. 
of the Masons. His name is familiar to all classes of 
citizens, and he is deservedly popular in his profession 


He is a member 


and outside of it. For fourteen years past Doctor Jame- 
son has been a director of Butler University, and as pres- 
ident of its board disposed of a large amount of real 
estate belonging to it, and superintended the erection of 


its buildings at Irvington, near Indianapolis. 
—>+ FOO — 


G ‘(OHNSON, THOMAS E., attorney-at-law, Indian- 
e| apolis. The life record of the subject of this 
on sketch illustrates in a forcible manner how per- 
3) sistent energy, untiring application, and ‘‘clear 
grit,” will overcome the obstacles which early poverty 
and limited opportunities place in the path to success. 
A perusal] of this brief sketch will show at once that 
the biographer needs no excuse for giving the subject a 
prominent place among the ‘‘self-ma®@e men of In- 
diana.” He was born near Monrovia, Morgan County, 
Indiana, April 2, 1837. He is the youngest of a fam- 
ily of three sons and one daughter of Hezekiah and 
Elizabeth Ann Johnson (now Mull). His parents were 
both born and raised near Goldsboro, North Carolina, 
where his maternal grandfather, Archibald Bowman (a 
native of New Jersey), died in 1857, at the advanced 
age of seventy-eight. His paternal grandfather, Elijah 
Johnson, emigrated from North Carolina to Morgan 
County, Indiana, with his family, and died in that 
county at about the same time and age as the former, 
being followed to the grave by his devoted wife ‘within 
a short time after. The parents of Thomas E. were 
married in North Carolina, his mother being then 
eighteen, and the father twenty-five years of age. Im- 
mediately after their marriage, placing their few house- 
hold effects in a one-horse wagon, and with only a few 
dollars in the treasury, they started for Indiana, both of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


them making the greater part of the journey on foot. 
They settled on a tract of land in Morgan County, 
erected their humble cabin, in which the subject of this 
sketch was born, and commenced to clear the land, 
which could scarcely be called a farm at the time of the 
father’s death, in 1838, when Thomas E. was a little 
over a year old. Left thus without a father before he 
realized the meaning of the word, it can readily be 
seem that the molding of his character depended al- 
most entirely upon the widowed mother, whose moral 
influence was ever the evening star which guided his 
footsteps through the darkness that at times well-nigh 
overshadowed his youthful pathway. She was a noble 
type of the early pioneer mother, whose education was 
not obtained in halls of learning, but amid the gran- 
deur of the primeval forest. After his father’s death 
she managed the little ‘‘clearing,’? sowing wheat and 
planting corn with her own hands, as well as doing 
other work incidental to primitive farm life. She still 


‘lives, in her sixty-ninth year, white-headed and hon- 


ored, revered and respected ; and, although the necessity 
for so toiling has long since passed away, she has ever 
been foremost in every moral, religious, and charitable 
enterprise that came within her sphere. The school 
opportunities of Mr. Johnson’s early days were of a 
very limited character. To use his own expression, 
‘‘the abundance of poverty of which he was _ pos- 
sessed” in childhood necessitated toiling on the farm 
during the summer months, and it was only in winter 
that he was enabled to attend school. He stills recalls 
the feeling of mortification with which he resumed his 
attendance at school in winter on finding that the more 
favored children had been able to outstrip him in ac- 
quiring knowledge, and, being naturally ambitious, his 
young heart was fired with the determination to ‘‘catch 
up,” which he invariably succeeded in doing. He was 
blessed with a retentive memory, and by this means 
was able to second his application in a manner highly 
effective. This qualification has followed him through- 
out his career, and has often proved of great advantage 
in his profession, as he still readily commits to memory, 
and retains what he has read, when necessity arises for 
such mental exercise. While still a mere youth he took 
a keen delight in committing to memory all the leading 
speeches of Patrick Henry, the Adamses, Webster, 
Henry Clay, etc., and declaiming them at school exhi- 
bitions. The old Roman orators also came in for a 
share of his attention, and his record in elocution stood 
very high. Unlike so many who will read this sketch, 
there was little in the childhood days of Mr. Johnson 
which he can now look back to with longing for their 
It could not be said of him that ‘‘his lines 
Poverty, grinding to a 


return. 
were cast in pleasant places.” 
youthful and ambitious mind, was a heavy clog in his 


wheel of progress. He had to earn his own living by 


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working at odd times away from home, from the time 
he was old enough to drop and hoe corn, purchasing 
his own scanty clothing, the luxury of a vest being un- 
known to him until he was thirteen years old. More 
than once in his early youth he had to wade barefooted 
through snow, gathering corn and feeding hogs, and 
wounded and bleeding feet were no unusual experience, 
from traveling over the rough, frozen ground. This is 
a fair sample of the hardships incidental to his early 
life. At the'age of fourteen he commenced the world 
for himself, and, having early become familiar with the 
use of tools, started in to learn the carpenter’s trade. 
At sixteen years of age he began to work regularly at 
this avocation in the country, and the next year (1854) 
he received journeyman’s wages in the city of Indian- 
apolis. From this time he commanded fair compen- 
sation, and was enabled to purchase the necessaries 
of life, and pay his way through the winter schools. 
But, whether working at the bench or on the house- 
top, there existed in the breast of the young man 
an unquenchable desire for a higher education than 
he had yet attained, and this longing increased until 
it became absolutely uncontrollable. The lack of means 
to assuage this thirst for a deeper draught at the 
spring of knowledge was an almost unsurmountable 
obstacle, but he ever kept the goal of his hopes in 
view. He also early developed a natural taste for the 
fine arts, which, through lack of time and opportuni- 
ties, he has thus far cultivated to a limited extent only. 
From 1855 to 1857 he worked at his trade at Oskaloosa, 
Iowa, during the summer and fall months, returning 
home to attend his old school-house in the winter. In 
the fall of 1858, after another trip West, he returned 
home, determined to accomplish the one cherished ob- 
ject of his desires—an education. Borrowing some 
money from an old Quaker friend, he entered the Indi- 
ana Asbury University, at Greencastle, and, after pur- 
chasing some books and paying a few weeks’ board in 
advance, he used the rest of his borrowed funds to re- 
lieve a brother’s embarrassment in the West, and was 
left to his own resources to pay his way through col- 
lege, which he did. After considerable persuasion on 
his part, he was allowed by the faculty to pursue an 
irregular course, selecting for himself studies from each 
year’s schedule, from preparatory up to senior. In this 
way he was associated more or less the first year with 
classes of all grades, and by the closest application suc- 
ceeded in keeping up with them all, only falling below 
one hundred in one study, that of Latin, in which his 
average was eighty-eight. While pursuing this ram- 
bling literary course he also prosecuted the curriculum 
prescribed fof the law department of the university, 
then under the professorship of the Hon. John A. Mat- 
son. The labor necessary to accomplish this task would 
deter any one whose determination was not fixed to do 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


107 


or die, and was simply prodigious. Scarcely any por- 
tion of the day hours was left open for study, as they 
were taken up with classes in one or the other depart- 
ments. From one hundred to two hundred pages of 
law had to be recited each school day, in addition to 
the exhaustive labor required for the literary depart- 
ment. But no time was wasted by the young student, 
who even trespassed on the domain of sleep to compass 
his desired end, in a way that sounds almost like a 
stretch of the imagination. Having no time for review 
he made one reading answer the purpose, to which he 
devoted the hours from 6 P. M. to 4 A.M. In his sleep, 


' which he snatched at intervals of study, he was in the 


habit of involuntarily repeating the whole number of 
pages of law which he had previously read, and could 
afterwards arise and go to his class with his lessons im- 
printed on his mind as firmly as the events of a dream 
from which one suddenly awakens. This extraordinary 
faculty has been retained up to the present time, and 
has often proved of incalculable benefit to Mr. Johnson, 
and has more than once extricated him from a dilemma. 
In addition to those labors came his duties to the col- 
lege societies and moot-court, familiar to all college 
students. At last the ambition of his heart was par- 
tially gratified, and he graduated in the law department 
March 27, 1860, and the same year went West ‘‘to grow 
up with the country.” But, in order to vote for Presi- 
dent of the United States, he returned to Indiana in the 
fall of the same year, expecting to move to his chosen 
location the ensuing spring, but with that season came 
the war, and for a time blasted all his hopes. On 
March 28, 1864, concluding that the capital city was a 
good location for business, he moved to Indianapolis, 
and on his arrival in that city found himself in posses- 
sion of a few household goods and sixty-five dollars in 
money. With thissum he commenced the erection of 
a five-room cottage, a home being the first object of 
his desires. The city lot was wholly unpaid for. He 
performed the entire manual labor himself, except plas- 
tering, and, being too poor to engage in the practice of 
law—besides there was but little litigation at that time— 
he was employed that year at his trade, working on his 
home at odd times and at night, and at the end of six 
weeks moved into his house unplastered, in which con- 
dition it remained until fall. His work at his trade 
proved remunerative, and the spring of 1865 found him 
with eleven hundred dollars cash, after the payment of 
what he owed. With this reserve he built a larger 
house, again performing the work with his own hands, 
and procuring his building material mostly from the 
woods. This house when completed was worth over 
three thousand dollars, and now Mr. Johnson found 
himself for the first time in a position in the city to 
embark in his chosen profession. In October, 1866, he 
commenced the practice of law in Indianapolis, and has 


108 


continued in it ever since, having built up a large and 
lucrative business, which is constantly increasing. 
While he has not yet reached the point at which men 
begin to be called wealthy, his circumstances are such 
that he can look back with a feeling of relief on the 
privations he has endured, while his progress onward 
and upward in his profession is as steady as the sun in 
its course. The same painstaking industry which char- 
acterized his school and college days is apparent 
in the lawyer, and he is known at the Indianap- 
olis bar as a man of tireless energy and unwaver- 
fidelity. His briefs show signs of the most 


ing 


careful preparation, and stand the test of judicial inquiry” 


almost invariably. He is a man who makes no pretense 
to superiority, thoroughly democratic in his simplicity 
of manner, but tenacious of his convictions when once 
formed. He is an advocate of compromise in prefer- 
ence to litigation; but when compromise fails is always 
This trait of character he 
He has 
no desire for military glory, and unless in case of for- 
eign encroachment is essentially a man of peace. He 
believes that Americans, in the settlement of all dis- 
putes between themselves, should appeal to the ballot 
and the courts, ‘‘the former the greatest right given to 
He is a member of no 


prepared for the legal strife. 
carries into his position on questions of war. 


man, and the most abused.” 
secret society, and has never aspired to any political 
With Henry Clay, he thinks that ‘the 
most exalted office is but a prison, in which the incar- 
cerated incumbent daily receives his cold, heartless 
visitants, marks his weary hours, and is cut off from 


distinction. 


the practical enjoyments of all the blessings of genuine 
freedom.” Mr. Johnson’s religious ideas are rather on 
the independent order. His father was a Quaker and 
his mother a Methodist, and his views are somewhat 
tinged with the tenets of both those sects. His ideas 
on the subject of the Lord’s-supper and baptism are 
rather novel, but he does not obtrude his belief, pre- 
ferring that all should enjoy perfect liberty of con- 
‘‘Be charitable to all and believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” sums up his 
His political opinions are well defined. He 
entered the ranks of voters when the Republican party 


science. 
religion. 


first came into power, and in its early record he still 
feels no small degree of personal pride, as with it “his 
first votes were cast. He left the party when Sumner, 
Greeley, Julian, and others did, and attended the Cin- 
cinnati Convention with the Indiana delegation in 1872. 
Since then he has in the main adhered to the policy 
then adopted by the Liberal Republicans, and, as that 
policy and platform were subsequently ratified by the 
Baltimore Convention, he has acted with the Democratic 
party. From his youth up he had always taken a great 
interest in national politics, and he is probably as well 
informed on the lives and characters of the leading 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


public men of the day as many who have been, and 
are, high in the councils of the nation. He still takes 
an absorbing interest in national questions, and is out- 
spoken in his denunciation of what he calls “¢ National 
Banditti Politicians.”” On the 4th of April, 1861, Mr. 
Johnson married Miss Rachel R. Marker, a native of 
Hendricks County, Indiana. She is nine months her 
husband’s junior. Her parents were from the state of 
Delaware, immigrating to Indiana soon after their mar- 
riage. Her father, Curtis Marker, died in October, 
1879, having attained the ripe old age of seventy-five. 
Her mother died suddenly in 1860. Mrs. Johnson lost 
in the service of the United States one brother at Spring- 
field, Missouri, and another of tender years, who fell 
early in the morning of victory, pierced through the 
forehead by a musket-ball, at Fort Donelson. Mr. and 
Mrs. Johnson’s family consists of one son, Harrie, and 
two daughters, Rose and Bessie. The wife and mother 
has proved in every sense of the word a fitting partner 
to her husband, sharing his trials and helping him to 
face them, until now, in the sunshine of a happy home, 
they enjoy the gladness which results from difficulties 
conquered and obstacles removed. Mr. Johnson has 
done some good service on the stump in the campaigns 
of 1872 and 1876, and is regarded as a forcible and 
effective speaker. He is tall and commanding in appear- 
ance, being over six feet in height, has keen gray eyes 
and expressive countenance. If history repeats itself, 
there is little doubt that Mr. Johnson is destined to 
come before the public more prominently before many 
years. 
—~-3¢0b~<-— 


(ONES, AQUILA, of Indianapolis, was born in 
Aj) Stokes County, North Carolina, July 8, 1811. His 
( father was a farmer, of limited circumstances, 
ee) which denied him more than very meager oppor- 
tunities for information or the acquisition of an educa- 
tion. 
until 1831, when his parents started westward, settling 
in Columbus, Bartholomew County, Indiana, where a 
son, Elisha P. Jones, had preceded them six years, and 
who, at the time of their arrival there, was engaged in 
mercantile business, and held the office of postmaster. 
Young Aquila Jones at once entered his brother’s store 
as clerk, which position he filled creditably until he 
left his employment in 1836. At this period he mar- 
ried Miss Sarah Ann Arnold, and moved to Missouri, 
but after the lapse of one year he returned to Colum- 
bus, and purchased a hotel; conducted its business for 
about eight months, when his wife died. Soon after 
this sad event he disposed of the hotel and forever bade 
adieu to that uncongenial line of business—one that was 
too narrow and circumscribed to suit his tastes or the 
inclinations of his active and vigorous intellect. He 


He remained at home, working upon the farm, 


7th Dist. 


had scarcely wound up his hotel business when his 
brother, Elisha P., died. He at once engaged to take 
the stock of goods, and he immediately succeeded his 
brother as postmaster, and conducted the business of a 
‘*country merchant’ for many years successfully, first 
in conjunction with his brother, Charles Jones, and 
subsequently with B. F. Jones, another brother, until 
the year 1856; from 1838 to 1854 he was most of the 
time postmaster at Columbus, but during the latter 
year he resigned the office. In March, 1840, he was 
again married, to Miss Harriet Cox, whose father was 
the Hon. John W. Cox, of Morgan County, Indiana. 
He was appointed by President Van Buren to take the 
census of Bartholomew County, in 1840, and, at the 
expiration of the succeeding decade he was assigned to 
the same duty by President Fillmore. He was tendered 
the office of clerk of Bartholomew County, the accept- 
ance of which he declined. In 1842 he was elected by 
a complimentary majority to a seat in the Indiana state 
Legislature, where he served during the session of 
1842-43. In 1854 President Pierce appointed him In- 
dian agent for Washington Territory, but he rejected 
the appointment. He was then urged to accept a like 
agency in New Mexico, but he again declined. In 
1856 he was elected Treasurer of the state of Indiana. 
In 1858 he was renominated by acclamation for the 
same position, but this time he would not consent to 
remain on the ticket (Democratic), for reasons personal 
to himself. The Indianapolis Rolling Mill Company 
selected him for its treasurer in 1861, in which capacity 
he served until 1873, when he became president, in 
place of John M. Lord, resigned. In the same year, 
he was elected to the presidency of the Indianapolis 
Water Works Company, but he resigned in four months, 
the rolling mill requiring all his attention. Mr. Jones 
has had twelve children, only three of whom are dead. 
His eight sons are well settled in business in this city 
and county, and are prosperous and highly respected by 
all who know them. His daughter is the wife of 
deputy postmaster Holloway. He is a member of the 
Episcopal Church. Mr. Jones’s political sentiments are 
Democratic, and always have been. Mr. Jones first 
established a reputation for industry, honesty, 
tegrity, prudence, and a _ temperate evenness of 
habit. He always possessed energy, resolution, de- 
termination, and adopted early in his life for his 
motto, ‘*I will find a way, or make one.” He 
possesses sound native sense, cautious judgment, keen 
foresight, and accurate powers of observation. With 
these endowments, he was prepared for the training 
processes of life; and it is safe to infer that he was 
an apt pupil, as unquestionably he was an attentive 
one. That his career has been a highly successful one, 
is generally known. He has accumulated wealth simply 
as a result of the growth and exercise of these qualities. 


In- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


109 


There are no cascades, whirling eddies, or shallows on 
Mr. Jones’s life-stream; it has always had an even, 
deep, and steady flow. He moves steadily on, observ- 
ing the maxim of Amos Lawrence, ‘‘Do what you do 
thoroughly, and be faithful in all accepted trusts,” and 
forever keeping the current of his endeavor in continual 
motion, his various faculties employed. 


a fixed end and aim in view. 


He always has 
Weathercock men are 
There is nothing vacillating about 
him; and when he acts he does so quietly, but with 
decision. He wills strongly and positively. There is 


nature’s failures. 


no ostentation or show about him. He is neither rash 
nor excitable, and in all his enterprises he ‘hastens 
slowly.” Mr. Jones’s private character is without a 
stain, and his name carries no blemish. Ordinarily, he 
is reticent, preferring silence, and allowing others to 
step to the front. When he does speak, he has pre- 
meditated his words, and talks to the point. He goes 
about his work noiselessly, and if he performs a charity 
it is not blazoned on the corners, or announced through 
the papers, that every lip may gather it and run. When 
Aquila Jones—whose life we have hastily and imper- 
fectly sketched—shall have closed his useful and active 


career, long, long after he shall have passed 
“To that bourne from whence no traveler returns,” ~ 


he will be kindly, affectionately remembered by his 
kindred, friends, and acquaintances, as a man of gen- 
erous, noble impulses; for his sterling qualities of head 
and heart; for his many acts of kindness and benefi- 
cence; remembered as one who loved his home, his 
kindred, his friends, the good that was in the world; 
as one whose heart was attuned to the music of friend- 
ship, as the stars are to the melodies of heaven; as one 
who had the Christian’s love for his fellow-man, and if 
at times its disc was clouded by a resentment or a doubt 
they soon vanished in the warm sunshine of his nature, 
as the ice-jewels of an autumn morning disappear before 
the radianse of the sun; remembered as one who be- 
lieved in and acted upon the grand sentiment embraced 
in Polonius’s advice to his son Laertes, in the play of 
«‘ Hamlet :” 


“To thine own self be true; 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” 


— Fate 


ULIAN, JACOB B., was born January 6, 1815, in 
Wayne County, on a farm lying just south-west of 
His parents 
were Isaac and Rebecca (Hoover) Julian. He is, 
on the part of his mother, of German descent. From 
his father he receives a blending of French and Scotch 
Mr. Julian, who was one of the pioneers of 


lineage. 


1m fe) 


Indiana Territory, came from North Carolina in the 
year 1808, and settled in what is now known as Wayne 
County. He there married, in 1810, Rebecca, a daugh- 
ter of Andrew Hoover, whose family had arrived from 
North Carolina in 1806, but were originally from Han- 
over, Germany. 
settlement of the county, and was a Justice of the Peace 
at a time when that was a very important office. He 
was also a member of the board of commissioners, and 
in after years a representative in the Legislature. In 
the year 1823, with the intention of making the Wabash 
Valley his home, he journeyed through the almost path- 
less forests with his young wife and family, consisting 
besides Jacob (then eight years old) of his sisters Sallie 
and Elizabeth, and his brothers, George W., Isaac H., 
and John M. They had just reached their destination 
when he was taken ill, died, and was buried on the plains 
of the Wea. His young and heart-broken widow per- 
formed the terrible task of returning to her old home 
with her fatherless children. She survived her husband 
forty-five years, dying in 1868 at the home of her daugh- 
ter in Iowa, having reared her children, seen them all 
married, and lived to see her grandchildren arrive at 
John, the eldest brother of Jacob B. 
Julian, died in 1834, greatly lamented; his sister Sallie 
married Jesse Holman; still lives as his widow, in Mt. 
Elizabeth was united to Allison Willits, 
who died some years since; she afterward married Mr. 
Isaac H. is edit- 
George W., 
who was for twelve years a member of Congress, and is 
well known in the political arena, still lives at Irving- 
Jacob, the subject of 
this sketch, although he was reared on a farm and 


He was a prominent man in the early 


manhood’s estate. 


Vernon, Iowa. 


Beatty, and is now residing in Iowa. 
ing a newspaper in San Marcos, Texas. 


ton, a suburb of Indianapolis. 


taught to work by his good and intelligent parents, 
who were ambitious to have their children worthy and 
useful citizens, received a fair common school educa- 
tion, to which he afterward added a knowledge of 
Latin and the higher English branches. He thus, as 
did his brothers and sisters, acquired a taste for books 
and an appetite for learning, which he has never lost. 
To the careful guidance of his parents, and especially 
to that of his mother, he attributes every success that 
has crowned his path through life. Like many others 
of the preceding generation, his hours for study were 
few and far between, most of his time being spent in 
learning his trade and working at the blacksmith’s 
forge. His thirst for knowledge was so great, however, 
that he determined upon the adoption of law as a pro- 
fession; and, obtaining employment in the office of the 
county clerk he in leisure hours prosecuted his studies 
in that direction, afterward completing the course in 
the law office of Judge John S. Newman. In 1839, 
after a pretty thorough examination, he was admitted to 
practice, being then twenty-four years of age. On 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


Christmas eve of the same year, he was married to 
Martha Bryan, an intelligent and lovable lady, the 
daughter of Henry Bryan, who resided near Centerville, 
and was a government surveyor and leading citizen of 
Eastern Indiana. Mr. Julian has now been in the prac- 
tice of law or on the bench for a period of forty years, 
and expects to ‘‘die in the harness,” working to the 
last. Until his twenty-fourth year, Jacob B. Julian 
resided nearly all the time in Centerville and vicinity, 
thence removing in 1839 to Muncietown for the purpose 
of practicing his profession. Remaining, however, only 
eight months, he returned to Centerville, where he con- 
tinued to reside, being identified with the interests of 
that section for more than thirty years thereafter, or 
until October 28, 1872, when he removed to Incian- 
apolis. In the year 1844 Mr. Julian ‘was elected prose- 
cuting attorney of the Wayne Circuit, then composed 
of the counties of Wayne, Fayette, Union, Rush, and 
Decatur, riding on horseback, as was the primitive cus- 
In this capacity he served two 
years, with such entire satisfaction to the community 
that at the expiration of his term, in 1846, he was 
elected to the state Legislature, and was re-elected in 
1848 to the same position. Mr. Julian was largely 
identified with the best interests of Wayne County, the 
building of turnpikes and the construction of public 
He also took stock in the Indiana Cen- 
From the time of its organization, in 


tom, around the circuit. 


improvements. 
tral Railway. 
1863, he was for ten years, or until his removal to In- 
dianapolis, president of the First National Bank of 
Centerville. In 1873 Mr. Julian removed to Irvington, 
a suburb of Indianapolis, of which he was one of the 
original proprietors and founders. It is the seat of the 
North-western Christian University. Mr. Julian con- 
tributed liberally and used every effort to effect its re- 
moval from its former location to this charming and 
picturesque vicinity. In the year 1876 Mr. Julian was 
made Judge of the Marion Circuit Court, which posi- 
tion he held two years, and in which he added to his 
reputation as an able lawyer that of an upright judge. 
In politics Judge Julian was an old-line Whig, and cast 
his first vote for General William Henry Harrison, in 
the year 1836, and was identified with the Republican 
party from its first inception. He represented that 
party as a delegate to the National Convention held at 
Philadelphia in 1856, which nominated J. C. Fremont. 
In 1872 he joined the liberal Republican movement and 
voted for Horace Greeley. His last vote was cast for 
our own popular statesman, T. A. Hendricks, whom he 
would like to see again nominated and elected. Judge 
Julian has one son, John F., now in his fortieth year, 
who is distinguished for his scholarly attainments and 
his devotion to business as his father’s law partner. 
Personally, Jacob B. Julian is of the pleasantest, genial 
type of gentleman, who has an encouraging word and 


7th Dist.| 
kindly thought for all who need them. He is now ac- 
tively engaged in the practice of his profession in the 
various courts of the state of Indiana. 


40th — 


ULIAN, GEORGE W., was born on May 5, 1817, 
about one mile south-west of Centerville, then the 
shire townof Wayne County, Indiana. His father, 
a) Isaac Julian, was a native of North Carolina, and 
removed to Indiana Territory in the year 1808. The 
family is of French extraction, the first of the name in 
America having settled on the eastern shore of Mary- 
land in the latter part of the seventeenth century. A 
son of his, as appears from Irving’s ‘‘ Life of Washing- 
ton,” was residing in Winchester, Virginia, in 1775, 
from which place he removed to Randolph County, 
North Carolina, shortly after Braddock’s defeat. Mr. 
Julian’s father, a lineal descendant of his, was promi- 
nent among the pioneer settlers of Eastern Indiana. 
He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and, after filling 
different county offices, was chosen a member of the 
state Legislature in 1822. He died the year following, 
when George was six years of age, one of six young 
children left to the care of a faithful mother, but to an 
inheritance of poverty and hardship. The history of 
their early life, if written, were but another chapter 


from 
“The short and simple annals of the poor,” 

Suffice it to say that, under these adverse influences, 

George early developed his principal later characteris- 

tics. He was diffident to the last degree, but was pos- 

sessed of a strong will. 


guished for diligence and unconquerable perseverance 


He was particularly distin- 


in the path of mental improvement, or in whatever else 
he undertook to accomplish. After his day’s labor in 
the field, he pored over his tasks till a late hour of the 
night by the light of a fire kept up by ‘‘kindlings,” 
which he regularly prepared as a substitute for the 
candles which could not be afforded. His only educa- 
tional privileges were those of the common country 
schools of the period, and a few good books occasionally 
borrowed from his neighbors. 
therefore was self-schooling—ever the grand basis upon 
which the successful student, whether at home, at 
school, or at college, must build. From such a prep- 
aration his next step was teaching, which he followed 
with credit about three years. It was during his first 
school that he signalized himself by successfully resist- 
ing a very formidable effort of the ‘‘big boys,” 
forced by some of the hands then at work on the Cum- 
berland or National Road, to compel him to ‘ treat” on 
Christmas-day, according to a custom then long prevalent 
in the West. At the close of this school he engaged 
himself as ‘¢rodman” on the Whitewater Valley Canal, 


His principal dependence 


rein- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


in gat 


intending to become a civil engineer, but he only re- 
mained in the service about two months; and the sub- 
sequent collapse of our grand system of internal im- 
provements proved a sufficient reason for abandoning 
this enterprise. It was in the spring of 1839, while 
teaching in Western Illinois, that Mr. Julian began the 
study of the law, which he prosecuted chiefly without 
the aid of a preceptor. He was admitted to practice in 
the fall of 1840, and followed his profession, save the 
interruptions of politics, until the year 1860. Through 
the influence of early associations, he began his political 
life as a Whig, and gave his first vote for President to 
General Harrison. He was completely carried away by 
the political whirlwind of 1840, but he frankly confesses 
that the sum of his political knowledge at that time 
was very small, and that the ‘‘hard cider campaign” 
was not so much a battle for political reform as a grand 
national frolic. So far as ideas were involved in his 
support of General Harrison, he simply thought him a 
poor man, who lived in a log-cabin, and would sympa- 
thize with the large class to which he belonged; while, 
on the other hand, he regarded Van Buren as an aristo- 
crat and a dandy. In the year 1844 he engaged for the 
first time in active politics. He canvassed his county 
pretty thoroughly for Clay and Frelinghuysen, and was 
quite successful on the stump. His reading and reflec- 
tion since the canvass of 1840 had seriously shaken his 
faith in the Whig dogmas respecting the tariff, a national 
bank, and the policy of distributing the proceeds of the 
public lands among the states; but he entered the can- 
vass of 1844 very zealously, because he believed the 
triumph of the Democracy would involve the extension 
In 
spirit and in substance his arguments were identical 
with those which he urged so vehemently four years 


of slavery and the danger of a war with Mexico. 


later. His opposition to slavery had its genesis in his 
Quaker training, and the anti-slavery newspapers which 
fell in his way; and it now became more than ever 
pronounced through the influence of the writings of 
Doctor Channing, and the speeches of Adams and Gid- 
dings. He made up his mind that he would never 
vote for another slave-holder for President, and his anti- 
slavery zeal waxed stronger and stronger, while his 
faith in the soundness of his early Whig teaching con- 
stantly declined. He, however, remained in his party, 
and in 1845 was chosen as a member of the Legislature 
from Wayne County, in which he distinguished himself 
by his advocacy of the abolition of capital punishment, 
and his support of what was known as the ‘Butler 
Bill,” by the passage of which one-half the state debt 
was canceled, and the state thereby saved from the 
fearful peril of repudiation. In this instance he did not 
hesitate to act independently of his party and in oppo- 
sition to its leaders, many of whom opposed this im- 
portant and laudable measure. In the spring of this 


I12 


year he was married to Miss Anna E. Finch, of Center- 
ville, and resumed his professional duties; but it was 
not easy for him to escape the contagion of politics. 
The old party issues were fading out of sight. ‘*Cheap 
postage for the people” was taking its rank as a new 
and important question. The land policy of the Whigs, 
which looked to the sale of the public domain as a 
source of revenue, was fatally threatened by the new 
issue of land reform, which proposed to set apart the 
public lands for free homes for the poor, and to de- 
rive a revenue from their productive wealth. The 
prohibition of slavery in the national territories was 
rapidly becoming an overshadowing issue. In the 
mean time, as the national canvass of 1848 approached, 
the nomination of General Taylor for the presidency by 
the Whigs was seriously threatened. When it became 
inevitable, Mr. Julian was placed in a very serious 
dilemma. It brought on a direct conflict between duty 
and advantage, between conscience and policy, which it 
was impossible to escape. His resolve previously made, 
to abjure politics altogether, and that he would never 
vote for another slave-holder for President, had to be 
tested. Wayne County was overwhelmingly Whig, and 
he was exceedingly reluctant to break with his old 
friends. But they were extremely intolerant. They 
could not appreciate his scruples about voting for the 
owner of two hundred slaves, and in the name of their 
party they demanded his co-operation in the imperative 
He finally defied them, and declared his inde- 
pendence. He was chosen a delegate to the famous 
Buffalo convention of 1848, and was afterwards ap- 
pointed an elector for the Fourth Congressional Dis- 
trict of Indiana. One of his old anti-slavery friends 
furnished him a horse for the canvass, and he at once 
took the stump, and for about two months made the 
country vocal with his Free-soil speeches. He traveled 
on horseback, generally speaking two or three times 
each day, and from two to three hours at each meeting. 
He spoke at cross-roads, in barns, in saw-mills, in pork- 
houses, in carpenter’s shops, in any place in which a 
few or many people would hear him. He was perfectly 
psychologized by the anti-slavery spirit, and friends and 
foes were alike astonished at the rapidly unfolding 
powers of a soul thoroughly awakened by the truth, 
while the latter were not a little chagrined to find that 
they had roused a lion when they thought to crush a 
worm. The result of this canvass was that, as early as the 
close of the year 1848, Mr. Julian’s Free-soil friends nomi- 
nated him for Congress. Of course no one then dreamed 
of his election, but in the following spring the Demo- 
crats, smarting under their defeat on the issue of the 
Nicholson letter, and politically powerless in the dis- 
trict, were quite ready to join the Free-soilers in the 
congressional canvass. Samuel W. Parker, a prominent 
Whig politician, and regarded by his friends as one of 


mood. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


the best speakers of the West, was the Whig candidate. 
The canvass was intensely bitter and rancorous. The 
friends of a life-time, who had become Mr. Julian’s 
enemies the year before, were remorseless in their hos- 
tility. The charge of ‘‘ Abolitionism” was flung at him 
wherever he went, and it is now impossible to realize 
the odium then attached to that term in the general 
opinion. The epithets heaped upon him by the Whig 
press and politicians of the district were so full of polit- 
ical malice and personal foulness that the fish market 
would have been ashamed of them. Mr. Julian, how- 
ever, greatly to the surprise and mortification of his 
enemies, was elected to the Thirty-first Congress; and 
no man, of any party, ever charged him with unfaith- 
fulness in that Congress to the principles he had pro- 
claimed at home. Braving all threats and intimidation, 
he stood shoulder to shoulder with his Free-soil asso- 
ciates in opposing the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, 
the Texas Boundary Bill, the abandonment of the 
Wilmot Proviso, and the organization of the House in 
the interest of slavery. His speeches on the slavery 
question were able and thorough, and the tone of un-, 
calculating radicalism which pervaded them did much 
to exile him from public life during the ten following- 
years. His speech on the public lands embodies the 
leading features of the policy on that subject which has 
since received the indorsement of all parties, and was 
declared by some of the leading newspapers of the 
country to be the most thorough speech ever made on 
the subject. In the spring of 1851, in compliance with 
the unanimous wishes of his friends, Mr. Julian became 
a candidate for re-election. The serious reaction which 
followed the passage of the compromise measures of the 
year before had greatly changed the situation; but the 
Democracy of the district had indorsed his action in 
Congress, and were ready to stand by him in another 
race. Mr. Parker was again his competitor, and the 
contest exceeded the former one in bitterness; but the 
result would have been more decidedly favorable to Mr. 
Julian than before but for a faction of intensely pro- 
slavery Democrats, headed by Oliver P. Morton, after- 
wards a Senator of the United States, who could not 
endure the thought of any further alliance with ‘‘ Aboli- 
tionism.” Through the influence of this faction, Demo- 
cratic votes enough were withheld from Mr. Julian to 
defeat his election. Mr. Julian now resumed his pro- 
fessional labors, and again resolved to have nothing 
more to do with politics, but, very greatly to his sur- 
prise, he was nominated the following year for Vice- 
president of the United States by the Free-soil National 
Convention, which met at Pittsburgh on the eighth day 
of August. He accepted the nomination, and made a 
vigorous canvass on the stump, extending his labors 
into Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It 
was during this campaign that Mr. Julian delivered an 


7th Dist.) 


address at Madison, in this state, upon the political 
issues of that day, and, in the language of one who 
heard it, ‘‘his logic was as severe and clean cut as 
blocks of granite ready for the builder’s use, and his 
invective and sarcasm as keen as a Damascus blade.” 
In 1853 Mr. Julian canvassed his congressional district 
for the purpose of more fully indoctrinating the minds 
of the people with his own views, and in 1854, when the 
dogma of ‘‘ Popular Sovereignty’? in the territories 
sprouted out of the grave of the Wilmot Proviso, and 
Know-Nothingism made its appearance in our politics, 
he found it impossible to remain in quiet. The re- 
peal of the Missouri restrictions gave a new impulse to 
the anti-slavery movement, and if he had so far played 
the politician as to join the lodges of the new secret or- 
der he could easily have been returned to Congress. 
But he resolved to be true to his convictions of duty, at 
whatever cost to himself. Nearly all his old anti-slavery 
friends joined the order, and turned upon him an 
averted face. The old Whigs were in it almost to a 
man, as were a very large proportion of the Democrats, 
but he fought it with all his powers of argument and 
invective from the very beginning to the end of its life. 
As a Western politician, outside of the Democratic 
party, he stood single-handed and alone, and in his 
worst estate, according to his own story, he had not to 
exceed a dozen political friends left in the state. But 
he kept up the fight without flinching, and was as proud 
of his final vindication as his political enemies were 
mortified chagrined. His _ anti-Know-Nothing 
speech delivered at Indianapolis on the 29th of June, 
1855, and published at the time in the Wat/onal Era and 
facts for the People, was considered by many the ablest 


and 


argument extant against that organization, which, for a 
time, so remarkably took possession of the public mind. 
It also had its value as a just and stinging rebuke of 
his anti-slavery friends for their temporizing policy. 
In the canvass of 1854 they were generally willing to 
accept a position of subordination, and even of silence, 
under the new captains who commanded them, lest the 
pro-slavery prejudices of the people should be roused 
and their anti-slavery progress hindered. In many lo- 
calities they allowed themselves to be so complicated 
with county offices and peculiar local arrangements that 
it was not thought wise for an anti-slavery man to offici- 
ate as a leader. All this was graphically set forth in 
the speech referred to, while it gave mortal offense to 
the political trimmers and demagogues who succeeded 
in making the repeal of the Missouri Compromise the 
sole issue with slavery, instead of dealing with it as 
a single link in a great chain of measures aiming at 
the absolute supremacy of the slave power, and thus in- 
viting a resistance commensurate with that policy. In 
1856 Mr. Julian found it quite as difficult to stand aloof 
from politics as he had in the two preceding years. 
e—8 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


The | 


113 


strange dispensation ushered in by the disruption of the 
Whig party and the Know-Nothing movement was pass- 
ing away, but its shadow remained. His uncompromis- 
ing course in the past, and the signs of his growing 
popularity through the general acceptance of his views, 
made his active participation in politics exceedingly of- 
fensive to the political managers of what was called the 
**anti-Nebraska”’ or Fusion movements of the state, 
but the managers were obliged to accept the inevitable. 
He attended the first National Republican Convention, 
at Pittsburgh, on the 22d of February, and was one of 
its vice-presidents. He was made chairman of the com- 
mittee on organization, through whose plan of action 
the party took life and form, and afterward fully justi- 
fied the ideas he had espoused so zealously, by the plat- 
form adopted at Philadelphia, in the convention which 
nominated Fremont and Dayton. But the breach be- 
tween him and the Indiana leaders remained open. The 
hand of Know-Nothingism was still seen in their moye- 
ments. In the spring of this year they called a con- 
vention at Indianapolis, which dodged all the slavery 
issues except the single one of ‘‘ Free Kansas.” It ex- 
pressly voted down a proposition to accept even the 
name Republican, while the Silver-grey Whigs and Fill- 
more Know-Nothings of the state were recognized as 
brethren in full communion. At least one man nomi- 
nated on the state ticket was an avowed Fillmore 


whilst Fillmore 


man, both and anti-Fillmore men 
were chosen as delegates to Philadelphia and for 
electors for the state. The strongest pro-slavery 


portions of the state were abandoned in the can- 
because of their strength. Southern Indiana 
the tender mercies of 


vass 
was mainly given over to 
Fillmore Know-Nothingism and Buchanan Democracy. 
The country south of the national road was forbidden 
ground to anti-slavery speakers, lest success should be 
imperiled by proclaiming the truth. Neither the eco- 
nomical nor the moral bearings of the slavery question 
were much discussed, whilst the real issues tendered in 
national platform were rarely stated from the stump. 
Elaborate disclaimers of ‘* Abolitionism ”’ were the or- 
der of the day, while the people were told that the Re- 
publican party only opposed the further extension of 
slavery, which the old Whig and Democratic parties 
had done years before, and that it was decidedly op- 
posed to amalgamation, or setting the negroes free. In- 
deed, so cowardly were the Republican leaders that 
they systematically own electoral 
ticket during the canvass, until the October election 
put an end to all hope of a union with the Fillmore 
party. Such was Indiana Republicanism in 1856, with 
Oliver P. Morton at its head, and in full sympathy with 
its spirit and policy. Of course, Mr. Julian could have 
no sympathy whatever with such tactics. He labored, 
however, for the success of the ticket, and did his ut- 


suppressed their 


114 


most to counteract a policy which he believed at once 
so false and so fatal, but it was in vain. The ticket 
was overwhelmingly defeated; and while it was after- 
wards confessed by intelligent and fair-minded Repub. 
licans that the campaign had been a mistake, and that 
the state could have been carried by a bolder fight, the 
political managers were not in the least conciliated by 
their humiliating failure, but were even more hostile 
than ever to Mr. Julian and the principles for which he 
had contended. During the following year he made a 
number of speeches in his congressional district, includ- 
ing a very carefully considered one delivered in Henry 
County on the 4th of July. It was a pretty thorough 
analysis and review of Indiana politics during the three 
previous years, and an attempt to point out the lesson 
to be gathered by the mistakes and blunders of the 
political leaders. He attended the Republican state 
convention at Indianapolis on the 4th of March, 1858, 
which was called by the same class of politicians who 
had ruled the party since 1854. The Know Nothing 
heresy was now out of the way, but they still wished to 


rid themselves of the anti-slavery principles so broadly | 


laid down in the Republican national platform, and 
substitute the issue of popular sovereignty in the terri- 
tories. They not only succeeded in this, but made the 
non-admission of Kansas with the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion the sole issue of the canvass The ticket nomi- 
nated was a Douglas ticket, although every man on it 


was an old Whig, and the campaign opened under the 


shadow of the defeat which followed this effort to | 


achieve a victory by running away from the principles 
of Republicanism, and forming a new party on a plat- 
form fashioned out of tariff Whiggery and Douglas 
Democracy. Mr. Julian now had little hope of seeing 
the Republicans of Indiana take their stand along with 
those of other Northern States through any efforts he 
could make; but his own congressional district was 
fully with him in principle and policy. At the earnest 
and united solicitation of his friends, he consented to 
become a candidate for Congress, and made a more vig- 
orous and thorough canvass of his district prior to the 
nominating convention than he had ever done before. 
His competitors were Kilgore, Grose, and Holloway, 
with Morton as a possible reserve; and the popular tide 
set so strongly in his favor that he was only defeated 
by a perfect concentration of the strength of all his 
competitors. During this and the following year he did 
his utmost, by public speeches and articles for the press, 
to prevent the Republicans of Indiana from beating a 
still further retreat from their principles, but his labors 
were not very successful. The Legislature of Indiana, 
in February of that year, indorsed the principles of 
««Squatter Sovereignty” by an overwhelming majority, 
and even the better class of Republican papers urged 
the abandonment of congressional prohibition of slavery 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


in the territories. Mr. Julian’s own congressional dis- 
trict, however, still remained steadfast, and in the spring 
of 1860 he was nominated for Congress by a very large 
majority. He was triumphantly elected in the fall, but 
his vote fell a little below that cast for the general 
ticket, owing to the concentrated opposition of old fossil 
Whiggery and Know-Nothingism as they tumbled into 
the ditch together. On reaching Washington in the 
spring of 1861, Mr. Julian was greatly surprised and 
disappointed by the systematic efforts of the politicians 
he had vanquished at home to control the civil and 
military patronage of his district. He had hoped for 
an end to the old strife, and that he would be accorded 
the right which the usages of politics gave to members 
of Congress in such matters. This did not suit the 
purposes of his foes, and it unavoidably led to still 
fiercer conflicts between him and them. He accepted 
their gage of battle, and for many years following, as 
will be seen, was obliged to cncounter their most des- 
perate and unrelenting efforts to crush him. As a 
member of the Thirty-seventh Congress, Mr. Julian 
ranked among the foremost as an able and uncompro- 
mising Republican. He decidedly condemned Mr. Lin- 
coln’s ‘‘Border State’ policy, and all temporizing 
measures. He sought an early occasion to expose the 
hypocrisy of Secretary Cameron, in pretending to favor 
an anti-slavery war policy. On the 20th of September 
he offered a resolution, which was adopted, instructing 
the Judiciary Committee to report a bill so amending 
the Fugitive Slave act of 1850 as to forbid the return 
of fugitives without proof first being made by the 
claimant of his loyalty to the government. 
ber of the Committee on Public Lands, he assisted in 
maturing the Homestead Bill, which afterwards became 
a law. He was chosen by the speaker a member of the 
Joint Select Committee on the Conduct of the War, 
which gratified him much, as it gave him a place be- 
hind the scenes, where he could know something of 
the movements of our armies and the secrets of our 


As a mem- 


policy; and the revelations which were made to that 
committee fully confirmed him in his suspicions as 


ito the lack of capacity or want of earnestness on 


the part of General McClellan. On the 14th of Jan-- 
uary, 1862, he delivered his speech ‘On the Cause and 
Cure of our National Troubles,” in which he insisted 
upon the radical policy, that was finally adopted, of 
striking at slavery as the cause of the war, the arming 
of the negroes as soldiers, and the confiscation of prop- 
erty owned by men who had taken up arms against the 
government. Tike his other speeches during the strug- 
gle, it breathed the spirit of liberty, and had the merit 
of careful thought, methodical arrangement, and a re- 
markably clear and forcible diction. Large editions of 
it were circulated, and it doubtless played its part in 
creating the public opinion which finally found expres- 


th Dist.] 


sion in the action of Congress in inaugurating a more 
vigorous policy. On the 23d of May following, he 
again addressed the House, and in a tone of still more 
intense earnestness. In referring to the language then 
so current about the sacredness of the Constitution, he 
said: ‘It will not be forgotten that the red-handed 
murderers and thieves who set the Rebellion on foot 
went out of the Union yelping for the Constitution, 
which they had conspired to overthrow by the blackest 
perjury and treason that ever confronted the Almighty.” 
This speech was the key-note of his approaching con- 
gressional canvass, in which the opposition to him was 
The hostility of the 
Democrats was a gentle zephyr in comparison with the 
blazing wrath of the Republican leaders, who were 
now determined, at all hazards, to compass his over- 
But he dealt with them unsparingly on the 


more rancorous than ever before. 


throw. 
stump, avowing the broadest 1adicalism, denouncing 
General McClellan as a military fraud, and demanding 
the employment of all the resources of the nation in 
crushing the Rebellion. His majority was only one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty, and nothing saved 
him from defeat but perfect courage and absolute de- 
fiance of his enemies. He had against him the general 
drift of events in this dark year for the Republican 
cause, the commissioner of patents and his followers, 
Governor Morton and his instrumentalities, the Indiana 
Central Railway, which he had offended by defeating 
its wishes in the matter of route agencies, nine of the 
twelve Republican papers in the district, and nearly all 
of its politicians, including the trained leaders whose 
desperate energy and cunning had pursued him for a 
dozen years or more. His triumph in this contest had 
no taint of compromise in it, and he considered it the 
most honorable event in his career. During the Thirty- 
eighth Congress much of Mr. Julian’s time was em- 
ployed in the investigations of the Committee on the 
Conduct of the War, of which he was again appointed 
a member by the speaker of the House on its organiza- 
tion. On the 18th of January, 1863, he delivered a 
speech on ‘The Rebellion—the Mistakes of the Past 
and the Duty of the Present,” being a review of the 
political and military situation, and an 
arraignment of Democratic policy and Republican con- 
servatism, based upon knowledge supplied by the in- 
vestigations of that committee. In the summer of that 
year, when John Morgan and his men entered Indiana, he 
enlisted with other volunteers at the call of the Governor, 
and remained in the service eight days. On the 14th of 
December following, he reported a bill in Congress for 
the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, and endeavored 


unsparing 


to secure its passage, but failed. As chairman of the 
Committee on Public Lands, to which position he had 
been appointed by Speaker Colfax, he reported a bill in 
January, 1864, to extend the Homestead Law of 1862 to 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


115 


the forfeited and confiscated lands of those engaged in 
the Rebellion. It was a very radical and sweeping 
proposition, which he had considered with great care, 
and he discussed it pretty thoroughly in a speech de- 
livered on the 18th of March. The bill passed the 
House on the 12th of May, Mr. Julian making the 
closing speech, in which he was frequently interrupted 
by Wood, of New York, and Mallory, of Kentucky, 
but he fully sustained himself in the debate. On the 
19th of May, Mr. Mallory renewed the controversy, 
charging Mr. Julian with falsehood and forgery, in put- 
ting into the report of the previous debate language 
personally offensive to him, which had not been uttered 
on the floor. After he had freely indulged his bad 
temper, and proved the truth of his charges, as he 
seemed to think, by caliing his party associates as wit- 
nesses, Mr, Julian disproved them by counter testimony, 
and, finally, by producing the Globe report, which fully 
sustained his declarations, and overwhelmed his Ken- 
tucky antagonist with humiliation and shame. In the 
mean time, another congressional canvass was pending. 
In this contest Colonel Solomon Meredith, who had 
been made a brigadier-general through the influence 
of Governor Morton and other friends, was Mr. Julian’s 
competitor. 
furious than ever. 


The opposition to him was now more 
The selection of Colonel Meredith 
as Mr. Julian’s competitor showed the utter desperation 
of the political managers, whose hostility had become a 
consuming passion; but they were again disappointed. 
Mr. Julian was renominated by a majority of more than 
fifteen hundred votes, and re-elected in the fall by more 
than seven thousand. During the closing months of the 
Thirty-eighth and the first session of the Thirty-ninth 
Congress, Mr. Julian gave his particular attention to 
the subject of our mineral lands. The question was, 
whether the fee of these lands should be vested in the 
miners, as in the case of agricultural lands and those 
containing iron, copper, and lead, or be retained in the 
government, leaving the miners a mere right of posses- 
sion, under regulations to be prescribed by themselves. 
It was a new question and a very important one, upon 
which opinions were much divided; but Mr. Julian es- 
spoused the policy of sale, as the only one which would 
promote security of titles, permanent settlements, and 
thorough development. He argued the question very 
fully and forcibly in a speech delivered in the House 
on the 9th of February, 1865, and in a report from his 
committee incorporating the bill submitted by him on 
the subject. Through the hostile tactics of the dele- 
gates from California and Nevada his bill was defeated, 
after an angry debate, in which he paid his respects to 
those who actively opposed it; but he had the satisfac- 
tion of seeing the triumph of the principle of ownership 
in fee, which he had been the first to espouse, while the 
cumbersome and complicated machinery of the measure 
= 


116 


which became a law was afterwards confessed. in re- 
peated efforts to amend it, so as to satisfy the miners 
On the 17th 
of February, Mr. Julian addressed the House on ‘ Rad- 
icalism and Conservatism—the Truth of History Vindi- 


and increase the product of the mines. 


cated,” in which he,exercised his customary freedom 
of speech. While his words met a cordial response 
from the people, they were very offensive to the con- 
servative leaders at home, whose hostility was thus still 
further aggravated. During the spring of the year Mr. 
Julian remained in Washington in attendance upon the 
sessions of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, 
and was there at the assassination of President Lincoln. 
During the afternoon of the next day he attended a 
caucus of radical Republicans, which met for the pur- 
pose of considering the necessity for a new Cabinet; and 
the Committee on the Conduct of the War, of which 
the new President had been a member, twice met him 
in special consultation about the situation, and listened 
believingly to his talk about making ‘‘treason odious.” 
He was very cordial to the committee, and seemed to 
be intensely in earnest; but, a few days afterwards, on 
the occasion of his meeting the Indiana delegation, he 
In the month of May 
the Committee on the Conduct of the War completed 
its final report, which was published in eight volumes, 
embodying valuable materials for any trustworthy his- 
tory of the war. On his return home in July, Mr. Ju- 
lian opened his campaign in favor of negro suffrage. 
The public mind was by no means prepared for so rad- 
ical a policy, even in his own congressional district. 
Many of the most decided anti-slavery men thought it 


had radically changed his base. 


premature, while the Republican politicians were very 
hostile to it; but for more than three months he faced 
the question in all its aspects on the stump, and dealt 
with it without favor or fear. The people were ready 
to listen to his arguments, and the tide was at last so 
evidently turning in his favor that, on the 28th of Sep- 
tember, Governor Morton made an elaborate speech at 
Richmond, in which he condemned the whole theory of 
Republican reconstruction, as subsequently carried out, 
and opposed the policy of negro suffrage by arguments 
which seemed to be regarded as overwhelming. Mr. Ju- 
lian replied to him sharply in two leading newspaper ar- 
ticles, while he made the Richmond spe€ch a text for a 
still more thorough discussion of the issue on the stump; 
and at the close of his canvass the Republicans of his 
district were as nearly a unit in his favor as a party can 
be made respecting a controverted doctrine. On the 
17th of November, by special invitation from the citi- 
zens of Indianapolis, and members of the Legislature 
then in session, Mr. Julian spoke at length in that city 
on the subject of ‘‘ Reconstruction and Suffrage.” Strong 
efforts were made by the Johnsonized Republicans to pre- 
vent pial ops being heard, but his audience was a fine 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


| 


[7th Dist 


one, and he was listened to for two hours, and enthusias- 
tically applauded. Without indulging in any personali- 
ties, he analyzed unsparingly the doctrines of Governor 
Morton’s Richmond speech, and thus still further offended 
that gentleman and his particular friends. The Indianap- 
olis Journal went into spasms of wrath, and declared that 
he had ‘‘the temper of a hedgehog, the adhesiveness of 
a bramble, the vanity of a peacock, the vindictiveness of 
a corsair, the hypocrisy of Aminadab Sleek, and the 
duplicity of the devil.” The Journal's writhings showed 
that Mr. Julian’s speech hurt its mentor, and those who 
The facts in detail which make 
up the history of these remarkable strifes between Mr. 


followed his teachings. 


Julian and prominent members of the Republican party 
can not here be given, but they are in his possession, 
and will bear witness that his great offense was his 
unflinching devotion to what he believed to be the truth, 
and his refusal, under all circumstances, to become the 
tool of men whom he regarded as mercenary and unprin- 
cipled. On the 16th of January, 1866, Mr, Julian made 
a very thorough speech on ‘‘ Suffrage in the District of 
On the 
29th of the same month he spoke on the joint resolu- 
tion reported by the Committee on Reconstruction for 
an amendment to the Constitution; and although the 
views he expressed did not then prevail, they were 
afterwards fully vindicated by the adoption of the four- 


Columbia,” which was extensively circulated. 


teenth amendment to the Constitution, and are now 
unquestioned. In March following, at the request of 
intelligent working-men in the employment of the gov- 
ernment, he introduced a bill making eight hours a 
day’s work in the navy-yards of the United States. He 
had not given much thought to the necessity for such 
legislation in this country, but the eight-hour movement 
seemed to him an augury of good to the working classes, 
as the ten-hour movement had proved itself to be 
twenty odd years before; and he was quite willing to 
embody the question in a legislative proposition, and thus 
invite its discussion and the settlement of it upon its 
merits. Early in the Thirty-ninth Congress he reported 
a bill dedicating to homestead settlement all the unsold 
public lands in the states of Alabama, Mississipp1, 
Arkansas, and Florida, aggregating about forty-seven 
million acres. These lands were liable to purchase in 
large tracts by speculators whenever the machinery of 
the land department should be restored to these states: 
and it was to avert this great mischief, and secure these 
lands as homesteads for the poor of the South, black 
and white, that this measure was proposed. It passed 
the House by a large majority on the 7th of February, 
and the Senate subsequently, and became a law. On 
the 16th of March he made an important report, as 
chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, on the 
subject of land bounties for soldiers. Petitions were 
then pouring into both Houses of Congress praying an 


ath Dist. | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


by 


equalization of bounties among soldiers of the late war, | nacity that the House finally voted against the asserted 


and that this might be done in grants of land, in con- 
formity to the policy of the government in dealing 
with the soldiers of previous wars. His report showed 
by conclusive facts and figures that the attempt to carry 
out this policy would prove cruel mockery of the sol- 
dier, while it would completely overthrow the policy 
of our homestead, and pre-emption laws; but it recog- 
nized the justice of equalization, and recommended that 
this should be done in money. The effect of this report 
was remarkable. The soldiers throughout the country 
were the first to accept its conclusions, while the mem- 
bers of both Houses of Congress promptly followed 
them in their entire change of base. This was exceed- 
ingly gratifying to him, for he saw that he had com- 
pletely thwarted a movement which threatened the 
complete spoliation of the public domain. In response 
to the wishes of the soldiers, he introduced a bill for 
the equalization of their bounties in money, at the rate 
of eight and one-third dollars per month for the service 
rendered. This bill, which was referred to the Military 
Committee of the House, was reported favorably with 
some amendments, and subsequently passed that body 
as General Schenck’s bill. During the latter part of 
April, Mr. Julian delivered a speech on the ‘ Punish- 
ment of the Rebel Leaders,” in which he demanded 
“the ordinary administration of justice against the most 
extraordinary national criminals,” and declared that 
‘the treason spun from their brains, and deliberately 
fashioned into the bloody warp and woof of a four 
years’ war, and the winding-sheet of a half a million 
of men, ought to be branded by the nation a crime.” 
To many this speech will now seem savage, if not 
blood-thirsty, but the state of the country and the tem- 
per of the times must be considered when forming an 
opinion of it; and the further fact must be considered, 
that Mr. Julian never minces matters, but speaks his 
sentiments in the strongest language he can employ. 
In June he addressed the House on the question of ne- 
gro suffrage in the lately revolted states. The course 
of events at this time had forced this question upon the 
serious consideration of Congress. It did not seem pos- 
sible much longer to evade it; and yet many Republi- 
cans were halting between two opinions. Mr. Julian 
believed the great danger of the hour was timidity, 
and his argument was a very vigorous and telling plea 
for political courage in applying the principles of de- 
mocracy to the work of governing the states lately in re- 
bellion, During the latter part of July, Mr. Julian was 
involved in a debate with the California delegation, which 
consumed the morning hour of three successive days. It 
grew out of a bill to quiet land titles in that state, and 
related to the right of pre-emtion on the Suscal Ranche, 
which he argued at length, but the delegates from Cal- 
ifornia solicited members with such industry and perti- 


This was the en- 
tering wedge to other wrongs upon the rights of settlers 
which the-country has since witnessed; but Mr. Julian’s 
action was approved by the people of California, while 
the delegates who fought him so desperately were retired 
to private life. In the election of this year, Mr. Julian 
was chosen by over six thousand majority. On his 
return to Washington in December, he was gratified at 
the change of feeling among members respecting the 
fourteenth constitutional amendment, while the policy 
of treating the lately rebellious states as territories was 
rapidly gaining ground. LEarly in the session he reported 
a carefully considered bill embodying this policy, which 


right, by a majority of three to one. 


was quite favorably received by the press, and on the 
28th of January, 1867, he addressed the House in sup- 
port of it, and in opposition to the measures of Stevens 
and Ashley. Such, however, was the chaos of opinion 
on the question of reconstruction, that all these bills 
were finally superseded by the passage of the military 
bill. He considered this bill utterly indefensible on 
principle, that it was completely at war with the genius 
and spirit of our institutions; but after every other had 
failed, and the amendment of Mr. Shellabarger securing 
the ballot to the negro had been adopted, he gave it 
his support. It was during this winter that his old 
political enemies at home made a new and very for- 
midable political demonstration against him. Their tac- 
tics thus far, including the resort to the bludgeon, had 
failed. It was evident that he was completely master 
of the situation in his district, but, if the Legislature 
could be prevailed upon so to redistrict the state as to 
deprive him of his strength, their purpose might still 
In this enterprise they succeeded. 
a majority 
while four 


be accomplished. 
Three counties of his district that gave him 
of nearly five thousand were taken from him, 
others where added in which he was personally unac- 
quainted, and which gave an aggregate Democratic ma- 
jority of about fifteen hundred votes. During the latter 
part of this session of Congress, Mr. Julian reported a 
bill, which passed, amending the Southern Homestead 
Law so as to require an oath of loyalty by the party 
applying for its benefit. In the brief session of the 
Fortieth Congress, which immediately followed the ad- 
journment of the Thirty-ninth, he reported a bill on 
the subject of agricultural college scrip, which became 
a law, and thus prevented the wholesale issue of such 
scrip by the President to the states lately in rebellion. 
In the organization of the House in December he was 
again placed at the head of the Committee on Public 
Lands, and was also made a member of the Committee 
on Education and Labor. On the 11th of the month 
he obtained the floor for the purpose of noticing a fling 
in the New York 77zbune at the Indiana delegation for 
their vote, just given, in favor of impeaching the Pres- 


118 


ident. He made a condensed summary of the reasons 
which prompted that vote, and paid his respects to the 
President in a way decidedly pleasing to the Republican 
side of the House. On the 20th of December the House 
Committee on Public Lands authorized him to report 
his bill, previously introduced, forbidding the further 
sale of our public lands, except as provided for in our 
pre-emption and homestead laws. This was really a 
great and far-reaching measure, proposing to make the 
Homestead Law what it shou!d have been in the begin- 
ning. Near the close of the previous Congress he had 
reported a bill declaring forfeited to the United States 
about five million acres of land granted by Congress in 
1856 to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, 
to aid them in building certain railroads, and which 
grants had lapsed by failure to comply with their con- 
ditions. On reaching the measure in its order, he de- 
bated the question at length, and was bitterly opposed 
by Washburn, Bingham, and Blaine, but his bill passed 
the House. In the latter part of February, Mr. Julian 
was selected by the speaker as a member of the Com- 
mittee of Seven to prepare articles impeaching Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States. On the 6th 
of March he addressed the House at length on his bill 
dedicating the public lands to actual settlement, and 
the speech was made a Republican campaign document 
for the presidential canvass of this year, and was widely 
circulated. In order to guard against the passage of 
another land bounty bill, which the House Committee 
on Military Affairs reported, he prepared another report 
on the subject, more fully demonstrating the mischief 
of such a policy than he did in his report two years be- 
fore. Early in June he gave particular attention to our 
Indian treaty policy, already referred to, and, after a 
sharp and telling debate in the House, he succeeded in 
carrying a joint resolution which led the way to the 
final abandonment of that policy. He also reported a 
bill, which passed, honorably discharged 
soldiers of the late war from the payment of the fees 
required of other parties under the Homestead Law. In 
the spring of this year he was overwhelmingly renomi- 
nated for Congress, notwithstanding the effort to defeat 


relieving 


him by the project of reconstructing his district, and on 
his return home he opened the canvass by a very vigor- 
ous speech at Shelbyville, in which he dealt severely 
with the record of the Democratic party on the subject 
of the public lands. He was elected by a small ma- 
jority, notwithstanding the district had been formed 
expressly to defeat him. The bitterness of this canvass 
was so unmeasured that on the 25th of October he de- 
livered a speech at Dublin briefly reviewing his con- 
gressional career, and showing how, in each successive 
contest, the warfare against him had increased in bitter- 
ness as it declined in power, while he vigorously de- 
fended himself against the false charges of his enemies, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


and vindicated his conduct and his motives. On the 
8th of December following he proposed the fifteenth 
amendment to the Constitution, giving the right of suf- 
frage to all citizens of the United States, without any 
distinction or discrimination whatever founded on race, 
color, or sex. This was the first distinct proposition 
ever made for the enfranchisement of women. After 
the subsequent ratification of the fifteenth amendment, 
securing the right of suffrage to the negro, he proposed 
a sixteenth amendment, in the exact form of the fifteenth, 
granting the right of suffrage to women. On the 5th 
of February he delivered his speech entitled “ How to 
Resume Specie Payments.” In the Fortieth Congress he 
was again made chairman of the Land Committee, and 
further honored by a place on the Committee on Recon- 
struction, On the 22d of March he introduced a bill 
striking the word “white” from our naturalization 
laws, and forbidding any distinction or discrimination 
founded on color or races in their administration. 
During this short session he was also able to save some 
millions of acres of the public domain from the clutches 
of monopolists, by securing the adoption of a proviso 
to several large grants, requiring the sales to be made to 
actual settlers only, in quantities not greater than a 
quarter section, and for a price not exceeding two dol- 
lars and fifty cents per acre. On his return home Mr. 
Julian found himself so prostrated by overwork, and so 
constantly harassed by place hunters, that he resolved 
upon a journey to the Pacific coast as a means of recre- 
ation and rest. He started on the roth of June and 
was absent nearly three months, spending most of his 
time in California, but visiting Oregon and Washington 
Territory. He failed in his purpose, and on his return 
was unable to bestow his customary attention upon his 
constituents. On reaching Washington in December, 
he found himself unfit for business, and he spent the 
greater part of the winter of 1869-70 in New York in 
quest of medical aid. While in the city the question 
of his renomination had to be considered, and after 
much hesitation he finally announced himself as a can- 
didate. He was anxious to complete some important 
measures of reform in our land policy, and he greatly 
desired to rebuke the course his enemies had pursued in 
the previous canvass. But his health was so utterly 
broken down that he could neither manage the canvass 
nor acquit himself with any credit if again elected; and 
he saw, too late, the great mistake he had made in not 
promptly declining the race. Through some unseen influ- 
ence nearly all the Republican papers in the district 
suddenly wheeled into line against him, and the Cin- ~ 
cinnati Gazeéte, always hitherto friendly, now opened its 
batteries against him. The tactics of his enemies at 
home were unscrupulous to the last degree, and while 
he was scarcely able to be out of bed, and his services 
were constantly demanded in the Land Committee and 


wth Dist. | 


that on reconstruction, he was obliged to keep up a 
constant correspondence with his friends at home, and 
supervise the canvass so far as it was possible. Hav- 
ing entered into this fight, he was intensely anxious to 
win, and it seemed to him impossible to abandon the 
unfinished legislative projects upon which his heart 
was set; but when the news came announcing his de- 
feat he accepted it as a blessed deliverance. It seemed 
‘to him and his friends that his life had been saved by 
‘the event. He could not help feeling the great injus- 
tice done him after so many years of hard and faithful 
service, and at the moment of his perfect vindication 
by the ratification of the fifteenth amendment, when it 
seemed to him his triumph should have been signal. 
But he was perfectly reconciled to the idea of retirement 
and rest. The district convention indorsed his course in 
Congress, and his letter to the convention, cordially ac- 
quiescing in the result, left him still the favorite of his 
During the session of the Forty-first Con- 
gress his bill forbidding the sale of public lands, save 
to actual settlers, passed the House, though in a modi- 
fied form. Another important measure previously 
introduced by him also passed, declaring that a settle- 
ment under the pre-emption law shall be deemed a con- 
tract between the settler and the government, and shall 


constituents. 


create a vested right of property which can only be 
diverted by his failure to comply with the conditions of 
the law. He also reported from his committee a very 
important bill defining swamp and overflowed lands. 
During the following session he found it necessary to 
prepare another report against land bounties to soldiers ; 
and, in order to pacify the advocates of such bounties, 
he introduced a bill amending the Homestead Law by 
deducting their term of service from the time of settle- 
ment required. On the 21st of January he delivered 
another speech on the land question in which he dealt 
with the whole subject more thoroughly than ever be- 
fore. Large editions of it were circulated in English 
and German. On the 2oth he moved to strike the 
word ‘‘male”? from the suffrage clause of the bill for 
the government of the District of Columbia, on which 
the yeas were fifty-five. On the last night of the session 
his bill defining swamp and overflowed lands was 
reached, and, on a motion to suspend the rules and pass 
it, the yeas were ninety-seven and the nays sixty. On 
a similar motion as to his bill to prevent the sale of 
public lands, except to actual settlers, the vote stood 
one hundred and nine yeas to sixty-nine nays. These 
were very gratifying votes to him, as they clearly indi- 
cated the early triumph of these important measures. 
It was during this session that General Grant and Bab- 
cock inaugurated the San Domingo project, and that 
Sumner was degraded from the chairmanship of his 
committee; and Mr. Julian retired to private life just 


as the ‘irrepressible conflict” began to develop itself | 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


19 fe) 


between the element of reform in the Republican party 
and the leadership that sought to hide its sins under 
the mantle of its past achievements. Mr. Julian’s con- 
gressional career was now closed. In the beginning 
public opinion was overwhelmingly and fiercely against 
him, but he resolved, at whatever cost, to revolutionize 
that opinion, and reconstruct it in conformity with his 
own earnest convictions, and he wore himself out in the 
complete abandon of himself to the task. From the 
beginning to the end of the struggle, the politicians of 
the district where against him, and they were numerous 
and formidable, while he was obliged to stand single- 
handed and alone as the champion of his cause in de- 
bate. Probably no congressional ‘district in the Union 
was ever the theater of so much hard toil bya single 
man; but he succeeded in his undertaking. Step by 
step he saw his constituents march up to his position, 
and the old ‘burnt district’? at last completely disen- 
thralled and transfigured by the faithful and ceaseless 
administration of anti-slavery truth. He saw slavery 
itself perish, but he never fought it as the champion 
of ‘*one idea” He regarded the abolition of the 
chattel slavery of the Southern negro as simply the in- 
troduction and prelude to a far grander movement, 
looking to the emancipation of all races from all forms 
of slavery; and when he went out of Congress he could 
point with satisfaction and pride to the record he had 
made in the practical illustration of this truth. He be- 
lieved in the ‘rights of men,” whether trampled down 
by Southern slave-holders, the monopolists of our public 
domain, the remorseless power of corporate wealth, the 
legalized robbery of a protective tariff, or the power of 
concentrated capital in alliance with labor-saving ma- 
chinery. During the summer of 1871, Mr. Julian 
supervised the publication of a volume of his principal 
speeches. In the fall he prepared an article for the 
press, which attracted a good deal of attention, entitled, 
«Wanted! Another New Dispensation.” In 
ticle he foreshadowed his future course by pointing out 
the reforms which the Republican party should espouse 
as the condition of its continuance in power. He in- 
sisted that the party needed a ‘¢ new dispensation” in the 
direction of tariff reform, in its land policy, in the re- 
form of our civil service, and respecting the labor ques- 
tion. These points were set forth in detail and with 
emphasis. He did not propose the disruption of the 
Republican party, and did not desire it; but he insisted 
that it could only continue to govern the country on 
ideas 


this -ar- 


the condition 
and policy in conformity with the views he expressed. 
Early in the year 1872 Mr. Julian visited Wash- 
ington, and conferred with Trumbull, Schurz, and 
Sumner about the political condition, While there 
he was urged by leading Republicans from different 


of radically reconstructing its 


parts of Indiana to become a candidate for Congress- 


120 


man at large under the new apportionment, and after) 


much hesitation He gave his consent; but on further 
reflection he finally sent a telegram to Mr. W. P. Fish- 
back, of the Indianapolis /Jowrnal, the day before the 
State Convention met, positively forbidding the use of 
his name. He wanted the compliment, but could not 
consistently accept it, as he had fully made up his 
mind that he would not support General Grant for the 
presidency, if nominated, as it was now certain he 
would be. His conduct towards Sumner, and his alli- 
ance with the ‘‘Senatorial Group,” had rendered this 
morally impossible. In the latter part of March he 
fully committed himself to the Liberal Republican 
movement in a published letter, defining his position, 
and giving his reasons in very strong and earnest words. 
He separated himself from the old party with the sin- 
cerest regret. His revolt against its discipline painfully 
reminded him of his experience in 1848, and he had 
never dreamed of being again called to a fierce conflict 
with old and dear friends. No public man in the party 
in the state had a better record, or had won a fairer 
The party was in the pride of its 
power, deeds behind it, accustomed to 
have its own way, and as able as it was willing to 
crush all dissent its ranks. He had been with 
it and of it in all its achievements, and could not 
fail to see that in facing the wrath and scorn of 


national reputation. 
with great 


in 


such an organization, and joining hands with its foes, 
he would be obliged to taste political death. He 
could not fail to see that his Republican friends 
every-where would become his unrelenting foes; but 
he saw no honorable way of escape, and with an un- 


flinching purpose he resolved to face all the conse- | 


quences of his decision. In this loyalty to his convic- 
tions, and disloyalty to his party, it was enough for him 
to know that he performed the bravest and most praise- 
He attended the Cincinnati 
Convention of the Ist of May, in which he worked hard 
for the Notwithstanding his 
failing health, he opened the canvass in July in a speech 


at Indianapolis, which was published in the Liberal 


worthy act of his life. 


nomination of Adams. 


newspapers, and widely circulated as a campaign docu- 
ment. He continued on the stump till the close of the 
canvass, constantly encountering torrents of abuse and 
defamation. The venom of his old Republican friends 
even surpassed that which confronted the Abolitionists 
in their early experience. The leaders of Grantism set 
all the canons of decency at defiance in their efforts to 
blacken his character. The Republican editors and 
orators of the state branded him as a ‘‘renegade,” an 
apostate,” and a “rebel.”” They said he had left the 
party because he failed to get the nomination for Con- 
gressman at large, and repeated and reiterated the 
statement throughout the entire campaign; and yet 
they well knew this statement to be false, and that he 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


had peremptorily declined to be a candidate. But he 
fully availed himself of the right of self-defense on the 
stump, meeting his assailants with the effective weapons 
of argument, invective, and ridicule, while their pro- 
longed howl bore witness to the completeness of his 
During the following winter Mr. Julian prepared 
a thorough article, which appeared in the New York 
Tribune, in opposition to a land bounty bill which had 
passed the House, and was then pending in the Senate. 
The article was printed as a tract by the New York 
Land Reform Association, and incorporated by the 
Senate Committee on Public Lands into its adverse re- 
port on the House Bill, which was thus finally defeated. 
In September, 1873, he delivered a very carefully con- 
sidered and elaborate speech on current political topics, 
at Rockville, Indiana. 


work. 


During this and the three or 
four following years he devoted much of his time toa 
course of general reading, which his long political life 
had hitherto made impossible. In June, 1874, he at- 
tended a general anti-slavery reunion at Chicago, in 
which he spoke on ‘*‘The Lessons of the Anti-slavery 
Conflict.” During the month of August he made a 
series of speeches in behalf of women suffrage, in Mich- 
igan, the question having become a practical one in 
that state by a proposed Constitutional amendment. In 
the fall of this year he discussed the same question in a 
series of speeches in Iowa. In October, 1875, he deliv- 
ered an address, which he had prepared with much 
thought and care, before the anti-slavery reunion in 
Greensboro, and in February, 1876, he delivered the same 
at Spiceland, and before the literary societies of the North- 
western Christian University. In April he visited New 
York and Washington, and conferred with prominent 
Liberals as to the political outlook. He looked forward 
with hope to the New York conference of Liberals, 
which was to meet in May, but was completely in the 
fog as to the course which coming developments might 
make it his duty to pursue. He was willing to support 
Adams or Bristow, but fully determined not to support 
any man whose election would prolong the rule of 
Grantism. The nomination of Hayes and Tilden added 
new complications, and divided and embarrassed inde- 
pendent voters in reaching their final conclusions; but, 
having faith in Governor Tilden as the champion of po- 
litical reform, and believing that Hayes would prove the 
instrument of the political leaders who had finally ac- 
cepted him as their candidate, Mr. Julian determined 
to support the former. Soon after this decision he be- 
gan the preparation of a strong political speech, which 
he delivered in the Opera-house in Indianapolis on the 
26th of August, to a magnificent audience. He thor- 
oughly argued the pending political issues from his 
independent stand-point, and while vividly portraying 
the profligacy of Grantism during the previous eight 
years, and clearly presenting his reasons for support- 


7th Dist.] 


ing Governor Tilden, he condemned the machinery 
of both the old political parties, and expressly reserved 
his entire political independence. In style, method of 
discussion, the skillful marshaling of facts, force of ar- 
gument, and effectiveness of appeal, it decidedly com- 
mended itself to the people. In speaking of it, the 
Indianapolis Sevteel declared that in ‘elegance of 
diction it excels any address made in the present cam- 
paign, and is worthy of the pen of Addison or Steele. 
In incisive arguments and trenchant sarcasm it is equal 
to the best efforts of Burke or Grattan; and its inex- 
orable logic reminds one of Webster and Calhoun.” 
Through the agency of the Associated Press it appeared 
in the leading newspapers of the country, and was 
largely circulated as a campaign document in the state; 
while the National Democratic Committee afterwards 
printed and circulated in pamphlet the enormous num- 
ber of two million copies during the campaign. No 
speech ever delivered in this country had a greater cir- 
culation, unless, possibly, it be that of Sumner on the 
<‘Barbarism of Slavery.” He continued on the stump 
till the close of the canvass, and was universally ac- 
corded the credit of very effective service. After the 
election, when the result became doubtful, he visited 
New Orleans, at the request of Mr. Hewitt, for the pur- 
pose of watching the proceedings of the Louisiana Re- 
turning Board, and securing, if possible, a fair count of 
the vote. He remained there nearly a month, and on 
his return, at the request of the Indiana Democratic 
state central committee, prepared an elaborate speech, 
in which he overhauled the action of Mr. Sherman and 
his associates, in pettifogging their cause and evading 
an honest search after the truth; exposed the knavery 
of the Returning Board in its organization, and in hiding 
its performances under the mantle of darkness; pointed 
out the autocratic power of the state Republican officials, 
and painted the rule of lawlessness and crime which 
had afflicted the people for years; and triumphantly 
met the charge of Democratic intimidation by fact, ar- 
gument, and ridicule. He closed this remarkable speech 
by quoting and adopting these words from another: 
<¢ Whosoever hath the gift of tongue, let him use it; 
whosoever can wield the pen of the ready writer, let 
him dip it in the ink-horn; whosoever hath a sword, 
let him gird it on, for the crisis demands our highest 
exertions, physical and moral.” The address was deliv- 
ered at Indianapolis on the eighth day of January, 1877, 
before off@bof the largest gatherings ever held in the 
state. During the year 1877 Mr. Julian remained at 
home and gave his entire attention to private affairs. 
Since that time he has written a number of leading 
articles for our principal periodicals, chiefly on political 
and reformatory topics, which have attracted a good 
deal of attention, and considerably added to his reputa- 
tion as a thinker and writer. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


His mind is as vigorous | since been a great buyer and devourer of books. 


I21I 


as ever, and gives promise of his continued activity and 
usefulness. His private life has always been above re- 
proach. While he is no trimmer, but one of the most 
positive of men, he possesses a kind heart, strong social 
qualities, and a faculty of attaching himself to good 
men of all creeds and opinions. He has great tenacity 
of purpose; has strong convictions, and a disposition to 
battle for them to the end. He possesses strong domes- 
tic traits, and no home is happier than his. His first 
wife died in 1860, and three years later he was married 
to his present wife, a daughter of the Hon. Joshua R. 
Giddings, of Ohio, and a woman of rare qualities of 
mind and heart. In the fall of 1873, Mr. Julian re- 
moved from his old home, in Wayne County, to Irving- 
ton, a suburb of Indianapolis, where he now spends 
most of his time, in the companionship of his family 
and his books. 
Ste 


y (ULIAN, JOHN FINLEY, lawyer, of Indianapolis, 
4) was born at Centreville, Wayne County, Indiana. 
«© He is a son of Judge Jacob Burnet Julian and 
2) Martha (Bryan) Julian, both natives of the same 
county, and identified, as were their parents, who set- 
tled there in 1806, with the interests of Eastern Indi- 
ana. The Julians are descendants of a French Hu- 
guenot family. The earliest one of whom any trace 
has been preserved is Pierre St. Julien, who was en- 
gaged in the struggle between James and King Will- 
iam, and who fought under the latter at the battle of 
the Boyne. Even after the ascendancy of the latter 
life was not pleasant for Protestants in Ireland, and 
some of the family removed to the Carolinas in the 
early part of the last century; and when the West be- 
came open to settlement, they went thither. His pa- 
ternal grandmother was descended from the Hoovers 
On his 
mother’s side he is of Scotch-Irish descent. His grand- 
father, Henry Bryan, an accomplished gentleman and 
scholar, was a government surveyor, being of the Bry- 
ans of Belfast, Ireland; and the father of his grand- 
mother, William Crawford, was from the same place. 
Mr. Crawford was a soldier in our Revolutionary War, 
and was wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill. He 
was one of the first settlers of the Indiana Territory. 
John Finley Julian was educated at the Town Academy, 
afterwards the Whitewater College, in Centreville, un- 
der the immediate care of Miss Mary Thorpe and Doc- 
tor Cyrus Nutt, both of whom have passed away, but 
have left a fragrant name behind them. At a later 
period he attended Antioch College, Yellow Springs, 
Ohio, during the presidency of the celebrated Horace 
Mann. Here he took a classical course. He had by 
this time imbibed a strong love of reading, and has 
He 


and Waymiers, both of German ancestry. 


122 


is also fond of newspapers, and was at one time.a corre- 
spondent and newspaper reporter of the press. On leav- 
ing school, his first step was to enter his father’s law 
office, where he applied himself assiduously to learn, 
not only the reasons and the precedents in jurispru- 
dence, but the practice of the courts. For the latter 
purpose his father’s place offered excellent advantages, 
as he had at the time a large and varied business. 
Mr. Julian was admitted to the bar in 1862, and, with 
the exception of a couple of years during the war, 
when he was in the military service for a brief pe- 
riod, and also in the office of the quartermaster-gen- 
eral, and in the General Land Office, Washington, he 
has been constantly in practice ever since. He re- 
mained in Centreville until January, 1873, when he re- 
moved to Irvington, a suburb of Indianapolis, then 
just established, where he dwelt until 1879, then go- 
ing to Indianapolis, where he now resides, carrying 
on the practice of law with Judge Jacob B. Julian. He 
was closely identified with the progress of improvements 
at Irvington, and was one of the proprietors of Spring 
Garden, a beautiful suburban addition to the city of In- 
dianapolis. He has been a member of the Masonic 
Fraternity since August, 1867. He is not a member 
of any Church, but attends services at various places. 
Until seventeen years of age he went to the Methodist 
Church and Sunday-school. He voted at the last elec- 
tion for Tilden and Hendricks, whom he regards as the 
de jure President and Vice-president of the United 
States. He was married, October 31, 1878, to Mary 
Ingels, a lady every way worthy of his choice, the 
daughter of the late Colonel Joseph Ingels, the well- 
known inventor and manufacturer of agricultural imple- 
ments, whose ‘Hoosier grain drill” is to be seen all 
over the country. She is a graduate of the North-west- 
ern Christian University, of the class of 1876. Mr. Ju- 
lian is of fine appearance and majestic bearing, being 
fully six feet in height, and weighing one hundred and 
eighty pounds. He has rather a military carriage, and 
stands very erect. He is of fair complexion, with light 
His studious habits and care- 
ful business traits will undoubtedly pave the way for 
future distinction. : 


hair and clear blue eyes. 


—>-S¢06<—_ 


Cf 
€(7 NEFLER, GENERAL FRED., of Indianapolis, 
‘\\ is a native of the kingdom of Hungary, where 
Gi} he was born April 12, 1834. His parents were 
GS Nathan and Helen Knefler. He received an 
ordinary education in his native land, and in 1850 
emigrated to the United States, and settled in Indian- 
apolis. His first employment in Indianapolis was as 
an apprentice to the carpenter’s trade, after which he 
was employed as deputy by W. B. Beach, clerk of the 
Supreme Court. In this office he began the study of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


. three children. 


[7h Dist. 


law, and afterwards in the office of the late Hugh 
O’Neal, and in 1856 was admitted to the bar. He was 
for several years a clerk in the office of John C. New, 
then clerk of Marion County. In April, 1861, he en- 
listed in the army, and was elected to a lieutenancy in 
the 11th Indiana Regiment, and subsequently promoted 
to captain. In 1862 he was appointed colonel of the 
79th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, and was after- 
wards promoted, for meritorious service, to brigadier- 
general by brevet, continuing in the service until after 
the close of the war, and was mustered out of the 
1865. After the Rebellion ended, 
General Knefler formed a partnership in the practice of 
law with Hon. John Hanna, under the firm name of 
Hanna & Knefler, which continues up to the present 
time. The firm of Hanna & Knefler are widely known, 
and do a very extensive business in their profession. 
In 1877 General Knefler was appointed United States 
pension agent at Indianapolis, and still fills that posi- 
tion, with the highest satisfaction to all who do business 
with the office. He is an active member of the Repub- 
lican party, and, while not a candidate for official posi- 
tion himself, has a lively interest in the intricate details 
of local, state, and national politics. He is popular 
with all During the railroad 
troubles of 1877 General Knefler took a very prominent 
part in assisting to adjust the difficulty, and his counsel 
did much towards preventing bloodshed, as he enjoyed 
the confidence both of the workmen and of the business 
community. In 1859 General Knefler married Miss 
Zerelda Collings, a native of Kentucky. They have 


service in July, 


classes of citizens. 


Few men in Indianapolis are better 
known than General Knefler, and none are more highly 
esteemed. His characteristic reticence prevents a more 
extensive sketch. 


34 
Ey OERNER, CHARLES C., of Indianapolis, was 
born in Waynesville, Ohio, August 10, 1848. He 
is of German lineage, his father having been born 
we at Nuremberg, Bavaria, in 1819, coming to 
America with his parents at an early age, that he might 
escape the rigors of the service in the national army. 
His mother, Anna, came from Munich. Her father 
served under Napoleon; in his long and disastrous Rus- 
sian campaign, the sad story of which the inscriptions 
of Coblentz speak, many a brave soldier died. In the 
fierce siege of Moscow, and in many anotier battle, 


none stood more firmly than he; and by his posterity 
and kindred of distant date will his fidelity and man- 
hood be ever held in grateful remembrance. For his 
efficient services he was awarded the iron cross, a badge 
of honor most difficult of attainment. He was one of 
Cincinnati’s pioneers. Many years ago he went there, 


and, with assistance, started the Moerlein Brewery; he 


7th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
it was, also, who first planted those splendid vineyards 
around Cincinnati—a friend and co-worker of Nicholas 
Longworth. Charles Koerner’s father’s father was the 
contractor who laid out the streets of North Cincinnati. 
From Waynesville, Ohio, the family removed to Leb- 
anon, Ohio; to Newtown, Ohio; Cincinnati, and thence 
to Harveysburg, Ohio, where his father yet lives, upon 
a hard-earned competency, in quiet retirement. While 
in Cincinnati he had been a merchant, but, in accord- 
ance with the mutable character of things, had failed, 
whereby Charles had been thrown upon his own re- 
sources for education and support while scarcely beyond 
his merest boyhood. His education was commenced at 
Newtown, Ohio, where he attended the common 
schools, and at Harveysburg, where he studied at an 
academy. Subsequently, he graduated at the Hughes 
High School, Cincinnati, where he demonstrated his 
ability by completing a course of five years in three. 
He at once entered the Bryant & Stratton Business Col- 
lege of that city, where he attained a degree of pro- 
ficiency far above the ordinary. It was his father’s 
design that he should study medicine, and he was to 
attend lectures at Ann Arbor, Michigan, but, having 
taken a preliminary course of six months, he abandoned 
the project. His own inclinations always were toward 
mercantile pursuits, hence, when his business education 
had been completed, he engaged himself to various estab- 
lishments as accountant. Having thus spent a season in 
his native state, he came to Indianapolis. He had given 
‘evidence of no little tact and executive ability, and 
in his coming he had it in mind to establish a busi- 
ness college equal to the best of that kind in the country. 
When he arrived here he found two institutions already 
in existence, similar to the one he was intending to 
establish. But, by dint of hard work and close appli- 
cation, the new college was begun in 1868. Of the 
others, one was soon forced to discontinue, while in 
1872 the other and Mr. Koerner’s school were consoli- 
dated, under the name of Southard & Koerner, now 
being known as the Indianapolis Bryant & Stratton 
Business College. In 1876 Mr. Southard disposed of 
his interest to his partner, who now became sole pro- 
prietor of the new school, and who afterward associated 
with him Mr. Goodier, 2 member of the firm at 
present. Mr. Koerner is considered a skillful account- 
ant, and to him are brought many exceptionally difficult 
cases. He is a member of the Koerner Lodge, Knights 
of Pythias, of which latter organization he became a 
member in 1871. He has had all the advantages to be 
derived from extensive travel, as he is in the habit of 
combining business with pleasure in visiting, during six 
or eight weeks of each year, the various points of in- 
terest in the United States, thus adding to his fund of 
knowledge and enlarging his scope of observation. He 
is a man of slight build, dark complexion, pleasing ex- 


MEN OF INDIANA. 123 
pression, and rapid in speech and motion. He is a 
very agreeable companion and a thorough gentleman. 
Of his institution we give the following testimonial, 
sign.l by every member of the Indiana Senate and 
House of Representatives: 


‘¢ We have examined the course of study, as used by 
the Indianapolis Bryant & Stratton Business College. 
We can recommend the college as an institution where 
young men can be thoroughly prepared for ‘mercantile 
life.’ 

‘“‘We would further recommend young men to at- 
tend the Indianapolis Business College, a home insti- 
tution, the only reliable business college in the state of 
Indiana, and having no superior, in our opinion, in the 


West.” 


He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
as were his parents. In his political views he is very 
liberal. In February, 1872, he was married to Miss 
Antonia Lietz, whose father, a resident of Indianapolis, 

To Mr. and Mrs. Koerner have 
Some idea of the influence ex- 


was a portrait painter. 
been born two sons. 
erted by an institution such as that represented by Mr. 
Koerner may be obtained from a knowledge of the fact 
that not less than thirteen thousand young men have 
gone forth from under his instruction to take their 
places in the business world. The lives of such men as 
are the proprietors of this flourishing institution of com- 
mercial learning—men who are almost entirely self- 
taught and possessing untiring energy and will-power— 
wield a large influence in molding the character of 
our most successful business men, and are always emi- 
nently worthy of emulation. 


—*- $60e 


’° AMME, EDWIN HALE, attorney-at-law, Indian- 
° apolis, was born in Clarke County, Ohio, March 
26, 1845. Both his parents, William A. and Anne 
E. Lamme, were natives of the same county. His 
father was a farmer, and the subject of this sketch had 


in his early days the usual experience of farmers’ sons, 
assisting in the work on the farm in the summer months 
and attending the common schools the rest of the year. 
His early education was supplemented by a course of 
study at the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, 
Ohio. He commenced the reading of law at Spring- 
field; Ohio, in the office of Hon. T. J. Pringle, a dis- 
tinguished lawyer of that state, and now a member 
of the Ohio Senate. He afterward entered the Law 
School of the Michigan University, at Ann Arbor, where 
| he completed his legal course. In 1870 he came to In- 
dianapolis, and was admitted to the Indiana bar June 
25th of that year. When the War of the Rebellion 
broke out, Mr. Lamme enlisted in the 110th Ohio Vol- 
unteers in the spring of 1862, and with his regiment 


| was attached to the Army of the Potomac, participating 


124 REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


in all its campaigns until Lee’s surrender at Appomattox 
Court House, in 1865. After his admission to the bar 


he immediately began the practice of his profession at | 


Indianapolis, where he has since continued to reside and 
do business. On the 1oth of May, 1876, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Emma A., daughter of Judge Addison L. 
Roache, of Indianapolis. In January, 1877, he formed 
a law partnership with Judge Roache, under the firm 
name of Roache & Lamme, and this connection still 
continues. The firm is one of the best known in the 
state of Indiana and commands an extensive practice. A 
sketch of Judge Roache’s career will be found in this 
work. Personally, Mr. Lamme is known as a pains- 
taking, industrious, and able lawyer, whose energy and 
activity ably second the riper experience of the senior 
member of the firm. Always a Republican in politics, 
and never seeking office for himself, he carries into the 
councils of his party the weight of a well balanced 
judgment and a keen insight into the political status. 
Possessed of robust health and an active temperament, 
popular among his fellow members of the bar and in 
society, happy in his domestic relations, a bright and 
honorable future, commensurate with his past record, is 
in store for him, 
$00 — 


the most notable of the self-made men of Indiana. 
G® He is a native of the state, having been born in 
Oe Morgan County, March 22, 1825. His father, the 
late William Landers, was one of the pioneers of Cen- 
tral Indiana, having located in Morgan County, some 
The subject 
of this sketch grew to manhood on his father’s farm. 


C(T ANDERS, FRANKLIN, of Indianapolis, is among 
lh 
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wcr 
SS) 


twelve miles from Indianapolis, in 1820. 


He followed the plow in the spring and summer, as- 
sisted in gathering the crops in the autumn, and in the 
When he reached 


During the winter 


winter attended the country school. 
his majority he became a teacher. 
months he imparted to the youths of his neighborhood 
something of the knowledge he had gained himself, and 
the remainder of the year he worked as a farm hand for 
hire. In this manner he accumulated a few hundred 
dollars, which he invested in merchandise, and, in con- 
nection with his brother Washington, opened a country 
store at Waverly, a town situated near where he was 
born. For four years the Landers Brothers sold goods 
to their neighbors. At the end of this time Washing- 
ton retired from the firm. The remaining partner con- 
tinued the business for a while, and then bought a sec- 
tion of land and laid out the town of Brooklyn. He 
removed his stock from Waverly to Brooklyn, and for 
several years conducted a profitable business there. But 
selling goods was not his only employment, for he was 
largely engaged in farming and stock-raising. His 
store made him money, his farm added to his estate, 


[7h Dist. 


and his stock dealings were profitable, and before he 
reached middle life he was one of the wealthiest men 
in his county. He did not hug his money to his breast 
like a miser, nor use it solely for the gratification of his 
tastes and desires, but he employed it in paying labor- 
ers for their work, in building school-houses and 
churches, like a philanthropist and a Christian. He 
established no less than five Churches of different de- 
nominations upon his lands, and then contributed 
largely to their support. During the late war he was 
noted for his benevolence to soldiers and their fam- 
ilies. He was active in procuring substitutes for such 
of his neighbors as were drafted and were unable to 
leave their homes, and he gave liberally of his means 
to render comfortable the wives and children of those 
who shouldered the musket and marched to the tented 
field. In 1860 Mr. Landers was nominated by the 
Democracy of his district for the state Senate. His 
competitor was Hon. Samuel P.. Oyler, of Johnson 
County, whom he defeated by a majority of three hun- 
dred and seventy-four votes. In the Senate he occupied 
a leading position, and this will be considered no mean 
compliment when it is remembered that among his asso- 
ciates were Martin M. Ray and John R. Cravens, men 
well known in the political history of Indiana. It was 
while he was in the Senate that the country was con- 
vulsed by the great Civil War. He favored all legiti- 
mate measures that were introduced to uphold the 
authority of the Federal government and suppress the 
Rebellion, but he opposed all propositions to override 
the civil law and render insecure the liberty of the citi- 
zen. He believed military law proper and right in dis- 
tricts and states where the civil law was, overthrown; 
but he opposed its establishment in Indiana, where the 
courts were open for redress of grievances, and where 
no rebellion against the authority of the Federal govern- 
ment existed. In 1864 Mr. Landers removed to In- 
dianapolis, and in connection with several other gentle- 
men established a wholesale dry-goods house. He has 
continued in the dry-goods business to the present time, 
being now a member of the well-known firm of Hib- 
ben, Pattison & Co. 
the killing and packing of hogs, and he is at this 
time the head of the pork and commission house 
of Landers & Co. With the care of these great estab- 
lishments on his hands, he still finds time to manage 
and conduct his farms. From these he annually sends 
to market hundreds of mules, hundreds of cattle, and 
thousands of hogs. Thus, with his dry-goods house, his 
pork-house, and his farms, it would seem that he has 
enough to do, but these large interests do not employ 
all his time. A portion of it is devoted to the study 
of finance and political economy, and it is questionable 
if there is in Indiana a man so well versed in these ab- 
In 1864 Mr. Landers was on 


Several years ago he commenced 


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ange Giada) ae 


7th Dist.\ 


the Democratic electoral ticket, and canvassed his dis- 
trict for McClellan. In 1874 he was the Democratic 
candidate for Congress in the capital district, and, 
although his party was in a minority of over two thou- 
sand, he was elected. His opponent was General John 
Coburn, a man of much popularity and large experience 
in public affairs, but Mr. Landers, after making a thor- 
ough canvass, defeated him by a large majority. In 
Congress Mr. Landers took high rank. There never 
has been a man in Congress from Indiana, with proba- 
bly the exception of the late Judge Hughes, who be- 
came so prominent in so short a time. He was noted 
for the persistency with which he advocated the making 
of the greenback a full legal tender for all public dues, 
and for the remonetization of silver. He has given the 
money question much thought, and his speeches, both 
in Congress and upon the hustings, are among the ablest 
disquisitions upon the financial problem ever made in 
this country. His course in Congress was such as to 
draw to his support the National or Greenback party, 
and when that organization was in state convention, in 
the winter of 1875-76, it nominated him for Governor. 
Soon after this the Democratic State Convention met, 
and the name of Mr. Landers was submitted to it for 
the gubernatorial nomination. His friends and those 
of Mr. Holman, who was also a candidate, became so 
warmly enlisted for their respective favorites that it was 
feared the party could not harmonize on either of them, 
so they were both withdrawn, and Mr. Williams nomi- 
nated without opposition. Mr. Landers did not desire 
a re-election to Congress in 1876. His private interests 
had suffered by his absence from home, and he made 
up his mind to accept no public office that would take 
him from them. But his political friends demanded 
that he again make the race. They met in convention 
at Greencastle, and unanimously nominated him. He 
could not withstand the pressure thus brought to bear, 
so he accepted the honor and made the race. Although 
he was defeated, he ran over eight hundred votes ahead 
of his party’s ticket. It was conceded at the time that 
Mr. Landers’s candidacy for Congress in 1876 added one 
thousand votes to the Democratic state ticket, thus aid- 
ing materially the election of Governor Williams and 
the carrying of Indiana for Tilden and Hendricks. And 
here it may be proper to say that Mr. Landers never 
made a race for office without exceeding his party’s 
strength. No better evidence than this can be offered 
of his popularity as a man and his ability as a can- 
vasser. Mr. Landers has been twice married. His first 
wife’s maiden name was Mary Shuffleberger. She died 
in 1864, and in 1865 he married Mrs. Martha Conduitt, 
who is now living. He has two children living by his 
first wife, and four by his present one. Mr. Landers is 
six feet one inch high, and weighs about two hundred 


pounds. His face is smoothly shaven, and his complex- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


ers 
ion is florid. He has dark auburn hair and hazel eyes. 
He is in robust health, and is both physically and men- 
tally a strong man. His past success in life gives as- 
surance of something yet to come; and, if ‘‘coming 
events cast their shadows before,”’ he is destined at an 
early day to occupy a more elevated position than any 
he has yet attained. On the ninth day of June, 188o, 
he was nominated by the Democratic State Convention 
as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Indiana, 
and since that time has been actively engaged in the 
work. He is making a very efficient canvass, with the 
best of prospects for success. 


C(GOCKRIDGE, JOHN EWING, A. M., M. D., of 
9° Indianapolis, a distinguished scholar and physi- 
G cian, was born near Staunton, Augusta County, 
QO Virginia, on the 24th of May, 1830. He is of 
Scotch-Irish descent, and the character of that race is 
still plainly shown in him. The life of a physician and 
scholar, although filled with sacrifices and drudgeries, 
furnishes no startling incidents for the pen of a biog- 
rapher. The lives of Sir William Hunter and Sir Astley 
Cooper, the most noted surgeons that Great Britain has 
yet produced, and those of other illustrious men of letters 
and science, show the correctness of this hypothesis. 
Doctor Lockridge received a thorough English, classical, 
and mathematical education in the ‘‘Old Dominion,” 
Virginia, and was noted for his close and persevering 
application, as well as for his faculty of clearly retaining 
what he had learned. After completing his course as a 
pupil, he was for two years a professor of ancient and 
modern literature and mathematics; and at the same 
time ‘* burned the midnight oil” in acquiring a knowl- 
edge of medicine, for which he possessed a strong pre- 
dilection. His study of it and its collateral sciences 
was pursued under the tutorage of the late Doctor 
William R. Blair, one of the most cultured and noted 
of Virginia’s eminent physicians. He attended his first 
lectures at the Medical College of Virginia, at Rich- 
mond, during the session of 1856-7, after which he im- 
mediately entered upon practice with his distinguished 
preceptor. The latter soon afterwards suddenly died, 
leaving an extensive and remunerative business in the 
hands of the young A®sculapian, in addition to his own 
patients; hence, Doctor Lockridge was unable to at- 
tend, at this period, another course of medical lectures, 
but he continued his studies and scientific investigations 
with a zeal and thoroughness that far overbalanced the 
loss, while at the same time he was acquiring a ripe 
and invaluable practical experience. He determined, 
however, after some six or seven years, to attend the 
medical lectures of 1862 and 1863 within the walls of 
his cherished Alma Mater, and arranged for the required 


126 


period of absence. In the month of March, 1863, he 
graduated from this institution—the Virginia Medical 
College—with honors, and the coveted prize of fifty 
dollars, which had been offered for ‘the best thesis on 
diphtheria,” though it was contested for by an unusually 
large number of students, many of whom were subse- 
quently distinguished in the profession. Such were the 
literary excellence and medical soundness of the Doctor’s 
essay, that not only the faculty, but even the disap- 
pointed students, eulogized the performance and con- 
gratulated its author. This essay placed Doctor Lock- 
ridge at once in the foremost ranks of the most 
profound thinkers and scholarly writers in the med- 
ical profession in America, and professorships in several 
of our medical colleges having a national and European 
reputation were tendered him, all of which, however, 
he declined, so imbued was he with a love for practice. 
Doctor Lockridge is a brilliant and profound writer on 
medical subjects, and at times finds occasion to wield a 
sharp, pungent, and piquant pen in other departments 
of literature, always adding embellishment to whatever 
he touches. For several years he was associate editor 
of the Georgia Aledical Companion and Southern Medical 
Record, published at Atlanta. He was, whilst in Vir- 
ginia, a member of the Augusta County Academy of 
Medicine and of the Virginia Medical Society, and was 
appointed by the latter as delegate to the American 
Medical Society, which met at Detroit, Michigan, in 
1874. For a decade or more he has contributed to 
several Western and Southern medical journals. These 
articles have covered a wide range of subjects, though 
surgery and obstetrics have received the larger share of 
attention. He is numbered among the most valued 
contributors to the American Practitioner, of Indian- 
apolis, considered the ablest medical journal in the 
West. Doctor Lockridge is a man of calm courage, 
and always handles the surgeon’s knife with a steady 
nerve and an intrepid coolness that enables him to go 
through the most difficult operations without discom- 
posure and with delicate accuracy—a matter of no little 
consequence to the patient. In addition to an exten- 
sive practice in Indianapolis, in which city he has re- 
sided since 1876, his first and only change of residence, 
his duties comprise those of physician of the Deaf and 
Dumb Asylum of Indiana, an institution containing 
more than four hundred inmates, who, not being able 
to express themselves with the certainty of people not 
deprived of their vocal organs, require the closest atten- 
tion in sickness, with most unerring accuracy of diagno- 
sis. Doctor Lockridge was married, the 19th of Au- 
gust, 1854, to Miss Lydia Margarita Coyner, a beautiful 
and accomplished daughter of Captain Addison Hyde 
Coyner, of Augusta County, Virginia. In his early 
manhood Mr, Coyner was a merchant, but after becom- 
ing the possessor of the old homestead, by inheritance, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


[7th Dist. 


he closed his mercantile career and became a planter, 
continuing as such on the same place until 1856, when 
he moved to Illinois, where he died the same year. In 
Mrs. Lockridge, as well as in her husband, we see illus- 
trated the inheritance and transmission, through differ- 
ent generations, of some one trait or prominent pecul- 
iarity. Her maternal grandfather, Rey. John Brown, 
D. D., was a man of fine literary attainments, a distin- 
guished author in the German language, and known far 
and wide for his deep piety and great moral worth, 
His literary mantle has fallen gracefully upon Doctor 
Lockridge’s estimable wife. Her writings are favorably 
known to the many readers of the periodicals to which 
she has contributed, and, before this sketch is read, it 
is the writer’s prediction that she will be still more 
widely known, as one who ‘‘ writes whereof she knows, 
and testifies to what she has seen,” in the South during 
the bloody conflict between the states. Her paternal 
grandfather was of German descent, and was one of the 
earliest settlers of the Shenandoah Valley, Her grand- 
mother on the same side was of Scotch-Irish descent, 
was a Rhea, and a near relative of Governor Rhea, of 
North Carolina. With the blood of such an ancestry 
coursing through her veins, with her rare literary ac- 
complishments, her name will yet be enrolled, if she 
lives, among those who constitute the galaxy of brill- 
iant American female authors. She was educated by 
an accomplished and cultured French governess. The 
Doctor is « modest and unassuming Virginia gentleman, 
with easy deportment and quiet demeanor. He is not 
given to argument, yet when stirred up into action is a 
ready and formidable antagonist with either tongue or 
pen, though preferring the latter weapon. We predict 
for him a brilliant career in his new Western home as 
a scholar, a writer, a physician and surgeon, and a use- 
ful and influential citizen, of whom the people of his 
adopted city and state will be proud. Like his an- 
cestors, he is a strict though liberal Presbyterian. 


—>-3006-o-— 


POFTIN, SAMPLE, M. D., treasurer of Marion 
* County, Indiana, was born in Davidson County, 

North Carolina, June 19, 1823. His parents, 
? Joseph and Mary (West) Loftin, moved to Indiana 
in 1827, and settled in Marion County, about nine miles 
north of Indianapolis, near Augusta, in Pike Township. 
Here, in the unbroken wilderness, his father entered 
eighty acres of land, and built a log-cabin to shelter his 
little family, and here he toiled to bring the soil to a state 
of productiveness. He lived to see large additions made 
to his original entry, the log-cabin replaced by a com- 
fortable homestead, and waving corn-fields and green 
pastures taking the place of the primeval forest, where, 
with the faithful partner of his early privations, he 


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LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF IEINOIS 


7th List.) 


spent his last days on earth, surrounded by a loving 
family. When Joseph Loftin felled the first tree on 
the farm which is still held by his children, the city of 
Indianapolis boasted of but one brick dwelling, and 
railroads were still in the future in Indiana. It was 
amid such surroundings that the early hfe of Doctor 
Loftin was passed. He was the oldest of a family of 
four sons and three daughters, and upon him, after the 
father, naturally devolved much of the responsibility 
of bearing a hand for the support of the family. His 
early education was obtained in the old-fashioned log- 
cabin school-house, with its rough benches and prim- 
itive surroundings, and this was supplemented by study 
at home, after the day’s labor was ended. At the age 
of twenty-two he commenced the study of medicine 
with Doctors Sanders and Parry, of Indianapolis, after- 
wards attended two full courses of lectures at Rush 
Medical College, Chicago, and graduated thence in the 
spring of 1849. Major Jonathan W. Gordon was a 
member of the same graduating class, as was also a 
brother of the famous freethinker, Robert G. Ingersoll. 
He immediately began practice in Augusta, Marion 
County, and continued in the profession for twenty-one 
years. His career was crowned with success, his busi- 
ness extending over a large extent of country. In ad- 
dition to the practice of medicine, Doctor Loftin was 
also extensively engaged in farming operations. He 
bought one thousand acres of land in Hamilton County, 
and for several years operated it as a grain and stock 
farm, with much success. He also operated a large 
farm of six hundred acres in Illinois, and was for a part 
of the time engaged in pork-packing, and the general 
stock trade. The financial crisis came on, and Doctor 
Loftin, with many others, was compelled to suffer, and 
had to seriously restrict his operations; but, while suf- 
fering financial loss himself, in no instance during his 
whole career was any one called upon to suffer loss 
through him. Doctor Loftin was literally born a Dem- 
ocrat, and has remained true to his convictions during 
his whole life-time. He has never been a bitter parti- 
san, and, although always active in the councils of his 
party, had never sought office for himself. In speaking 
of his political principles, he says that he believes that 
no party is perfect, but that the Democratic is the very 
best he knows of, and more in the true interests of the 
country than any other; and as long as its position on 
the great questions before the country remains the same, 
so long it shall have his voice and vote. A combina- 
tion of circumstances compelled Doctor Loftin to change 
his determination never to seek the suffrages of his 
party for official position, and in 1878 he was elected 
county treasurer of Marion by the party with which he 
had worked and voted so long. He took his seat as 
treasurer September 4, 1879. About two months after 
his inauguration nearly a thousand dollars in cash were 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


127 


purloined from the treasurer’s office by a sneak-thief, 
which was promptly refunded to the treasury by Doctor 
Loftin. For a time there were sanguine expectations 
of the detection of the culprit, but subsequently all 
trace was lost, and the treasurer, faithful to his trust, 
remains the only loser. Although but a short time in 
office, Doctor Loftin has already proved himself a zeal- 
ous custodian of the funds committed to his care, which 
aggregate immense sums in the course of a year. Doc- 
tor Loftin was married in 1848 to Miss Margaret Jane 
Pattison, a native of Rush County. Mrs. Loftin is still 
living. They have had a family of nine children, of 
whom six survive. There is only one son, who is now 
in the treasurer’s office, with his father. Doctor Loftin 
is a fine type of the rugged, unassuming, thoroughly 
conscientious business and professional man to be found 
only in the West. Honesty is his creed, to do right 
his religion, and he has made an unblemished record 
for unswerving integrity of character and purpose. 
While it is impossible for a man in his position to 
please every body, his official conduct has been emi- 
nently satisfactory to people of all shades of political 
opinion. He has enlarged his already wide circle of 
friends, and has made no enemies. 


—-806-—-— 

Ee 

(OVE, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, a prominent law- 
Ae yer of Shelbyville, was born in Shelby County, 
oh Indiana, March 31, 1831. His parents, Samuel 
O# and Lucy (Chisler) Love, were among the pioneers 
of this state, having removed from Kentucky at an early 
day and settled in Shelby County, where his father died 
in 1843. Mr. Love’s early days were spent, as was 
usual with the children of the first settlers, in attend- 
ing the district schools during the winter months and 
working on his father’s farm during the summer. When 
nearly grown he spent a short time at the Shelbyville 
Seminary, where he made the study of geometry and 
algebra a specialty, as a preparation for surveying and 
civil engineering. He has always taken a deep inter- 
est in subjects of a scientific nature, particularly those 
which involve the principles of mathematics. It may 
be well to mention here the fact that the Love family 
are all ardent mathematicians, and especially his brother 
F. M. Love, who is one of the best in that part of 
the country, a knowledge principally self-acquired. In 
his youth Mr. Love was remarkably fond of reading, 
and eagerly perused every thing of a useful nature 
which he could procure. In this way he spent nearly 
all of his leisure time, rarely indulging in the common 
amusements or in the enjoyments of society. From his 
eighteenth to his twenty-third year he taught school 
about half the time. In the spring of 1854 he started 
on horseback from Indianapolis to the state of Lllinois, 


128 


purchasing Blackstone’s and Kent’s Commentaries be- 
fore he began his journey. With these text-books in 
one end of the saddle-bags and a surveyor’s compass 
and chain in the other, he improved every moment of 
leisure on his way. He spent the remainder of that 
year and the following (1855) in surveying those parts 
of the state which were then in the early stages of 
settlement. When quite young Mr. Love had deter- 
mined to become a lawyer, and, during all these years, 
he engaged in teaching and surveying only as a means 
of support while preparing for the profession of his 
choice. In the latter part of 1857 he removed to the 
state of Missouri, and, in the spring of 1858 began the 
study of law as his sole occupation, in Perryville. He 
was admitted to the bar in April, 1859, under license 
issued by Judge John H. Stone. In 1859 and 1860 he 
attended Cumberland Law University, Tennessee, where 
he received the degree of B. L. After leaving this 
institution he began practice in Cape Girardeau, Mis- 
souri, but remained there only two months. He then 
removed to Murphysborough, Illinois, where he opened 
an office and practiced until the spring of 1861. The 
breaking out of the late Rebellion having somewhat 
affected the prospects for business in the line of his pro- 
fession at that point, Mr. Love removed to Shelbyville, 
the county seat of his native county, where he has since 
continued in active practice. He is not a member of 
any Church, but is a regular attendant upon religious 
services, and is an active member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Sunday-school. He was married, in Boone 
County, Kentucky, November 8, 1856, to Miss Elizabeth 
Johnson, who died July 14 of the following year. He 
married his present wife, Martha J., daughter of Ander- 
son Winterwood, July 3, 1865. He has no children. 
All local enterprises have found in Mr. Love a liberal 
supporter, as do also all charitable and benevolent 
Being kind, affable, and genial, he has gath- 
ered about him many warm friends, who look upon him 
as a leading spirit. As a lawyer, he ranks among the 
foremost at the Shelby County bar, and has few supe- 
His 
whole time is given to his profession, and he is an inde- 
fatigable student and worker. He is never daunted by 
danger or difficulty, and is always ready to lighten the 
gloomiest experience by a sally of wit or a pleasant 
remark. 


works. 


riors in Eastern Indiana as a counselor or advocate. 


—~>-FOte<-—$§$ 


? OVE, GENERAL JOHN, Indianapolis, was born 
January 9, 1820, in Culpepper County, Virginia, 
Gh and is of distinguished parentage. A noble an- 
&) cestry is not always a patent of merit; but when, 
as in this case, a man proves himself worthy of his 
lineage, it may justly be reckoned to his credit. The 
father of General Love, Richard H. Love, was of Welsh 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


descent, and belonged to a family of influence and note 
in Fairfax County, Virginia. His brother was a resi- 
dent of Tennessee, of like social and state prominence, 
and was honored with the confidence and esteem of 
General Jackson. On his mother’s side of the house, 
General Love is doubly descended from the illustrious 
family of Lee, his maternal great-grandsires having 
been Philip Ludwell Lee, of Stratford, England, and 
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia. The latter was a de- 
voted patriot of the Revolution, and enjoyed the dis- 
tinction of having moved the Declaration of Independ- 
ence in Congress. His name and that of his brother, 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, are affixed to that immortal doc- 
ument. Their portraits are conspicuous for manliness 
and intellectual vigor in the noble array of patriots 
which adorns the rotunda of the National Capitol. 
The name of Richard Henry Lee illuminates every 
page of Revolutionary history. For a number of years 
before the war, he served as Representative of West- 
moreland County in the Virginia Legislature. He was 
a delegate to the First Colonial Congress. In that 
capacity he was chairman of the three different com- 
mittees assigned to the important duty of drafting ad- 
dresses to the King, to the people of Great Britain, and 
to the people of the American colonies. During the 
second session of Congress he framed a farewell address 
to the people of Great Britain which elicited praise 
from such able and distinguished men as Chatham and 
Mackintosh. He was elected president of Congress, a 
position during the war equivalent to that of President 
of the United States. After the adoption of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the Virginia Legislature. Subsequently, he was 
obliged to resign a seat in the state Senate on account 
of ill-health, to the expressed regret of his constituents 
and the members of the General Assembly. Nothing 
could be imagined more genial and improving than the 
atmosphere of Richard Henry Lee’s home, where were 
assembled habitually the brightest luminaries of the age, 
Washington, Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson; and the 
sentiments they expressed in regard to national affairs, 
even in their ordinary conversation, made an indelible 
impression upon the mind of at least one favored mem- 
ber of the family. That was the gifted young grand- 
daughter of the host, Eliza Matilda Lee, who became 
the wife of Richard H. Love, and subsequently at 
whose home were entertained President Madison and 
his family, when driven from Washington by the burn- 
ing of the capital, and who was the mother of General 
John Love. In addition to rare home culture, she en- 
joyed the advantages of the most delightful Washing- 
ton society of that date. She was present at the first 
reception given by the President of the United States, 
and was conspicuous for her beauty of person and 


gracious manner. In later years she was noted for her 


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7th Dist.] 


domestic virtues, filling well the part of wife, mother, 
neighbor, and friend. It was given her to live a much 
greater number of days than the allotted threescore 
years and ten; and there came a time, when compara- 
tively free from family care, that her mind was re- 
freshed with memories of her youth. She then em- 
ployed her leisure in writing personal recollections of 
the great men and events of that period. As she was 
endowed by nature with a fine intellect, was proficient 
in many accomplishments of education, and had kept 
up with the progress of the century, her reminiscences, 
if put into book form, would furnish an invaluable ad- 
dition to American literature. Like her father, the dis- 
tinguishing trait of Mrs. Love’s character was patriotism. 
So fixed and zealous was her devotion to the Union, 
founded in great part by her ancestors, that during the 
War of the Rebellion she commanded the respect of the 
Southern people with whom her lot was cast. When 
she heard of the final surrender, she remarked: ‘*I 
rejoice that the cause of my country is triumphant; but 
I am sad to think so much courage was displayed to ac- 
complish that in the failure of which I must rejoice.” 
Mrs. Love may be said to have devoted her sons to the 
service of her country. The two eldest, Ludwell and 
Thomas, died in infancy, but Richard entered the 
United States navy, and rendered uninterrupted service 
until his death, in 1855; and John was educated at 
West Point, and served in the Mexican and late war. 
One of Mrs. Love’s two daughters married Major Lewis 
Armistead, of the United States army, and the other 
to an Episcopal clergyman, the Rev. 
William Johnson, of Lebanon, Missouri. The army 
record of General Love’s military history is as follows: 
He was a cadet from September I, 1837, to July 1, 
1841, then graduating, and being appointed brevet 
second lieutenant of the 1st Dragoons. He served at 
the Cavalry School for Practice at Carlisle, Pennsy]l- 
vania, in 1841-42, and was made second lieutenant 
February 21, 1842. He was assigned to frontier duty 
at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, in 1842; Fort Scott, 
Kansas, in 1842-43; and he took part in the march to 
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1843, and was stationed 
in the Pawnee country in 1844. He was at Fort 
Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1844, and was engaged in the 
expedition to the South Pass, Rocky Mountains, in 
1845. From 1845 to 1847 he was on recruiting service, 
and during the last year was also on frontier duty at 
Fort Leavenworth. He was promoted to be first lieu- 
tenant June 30, 1846. In the war with Mexico he was 
engaged in the assault of Santa Cruz de los Rosales, 
March 16, 1848; and served as quartermaster of the Ist 
Dragoons from March 12, 1849, to December, 1850. 
He was breveted captain March 16, 1848, for gallant 
and meritorious conduct in the battle of Santa Cruz. 
He was stationed on frontier duty at Fort Leavenworth, 


eS) 


was united 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


129 


Kansas, in 1849, and was in garrison at Jefferson Bar- 
racks in 1849-51. He was in the recruiting service in 
1851-52, but resigned February 1, 1853, and came to 
Indianapolis in 1852, where he has resided ever since. 
He also served in the War of the Rebellion, as chief of 
staff to Brigadier-general Morris, commanding in the 
campaign of Western Virginia. He was major staff 
brigadier inspector of Indiana volunteers from April 27 
to July 29, 1861. He was engaged at the rebel evacua- 
tion of Laurel Hill, July 11, 1861, and the combat of 
Carrick’s Ford, July 13, 1861. 
the camp of instruction for Indiana volunteers at In- 
dianapolis, Indiana, from August I to September Io, 
1861, and of a division in defense of Cincinnati in Sep- 
tember, 1862. He resigned January I, 1863, but subse- 
quently commanded a force in pursuit, through Indiana, 
of the John Morgan raiders, repulsing them at Vernon 
July 11, 1863. With such training as General Love re- 
ceived from his parents and relatives little need be said 
of the superior qualities of mind and heart which won 
the respect of his preceptors and the affection of his 
class-mates at West Point. He was, July 1, 1841, four- 
teenth in a class of fifty-two, the largest which had 
ever graduated up to that date. Although eligible to 
an appointment in the Scientific Corps of the army, a 
love of adventure, indomitable courage, and disregard 
for personal comfort, led General Love to select the 
Dragoons. If continuous service in the saddle for 
months at a time, in constant danger of death from 
wild Indians, and subsisting upon buffalo meat on the 
plains, can be counted for aught, his desire was fully 
gratified. In 1843, as lieutenant in Philip St. George 
Cooke’s command, General Love was at the disarming 
of the Texan Rangers under Colonel Snively, who had 
been commissioned by President Houston (then Presi- 
dent of the Republic of Texas) to capture the Mexican 
Santa Fe traders. Cooke was under orders from the 
government to protect the overland traders to New 
Mexico on the valuable track from St. Louis and the 
West, and, coming upon Snively’s forces about four hun- 
dred miles west of the Missouri line, demanded their 
arms, which, after much hesitation, were surrendered. 
In the spring of 1845, General Love was a lieutenant 
under the command of Colonel Kearney, detailed to 
protect overland emigration to Oregon. The emigrants 
escorted to the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, 
he returned to Fort Leavenworth in August of the 
samme year, having marched twenty-five hundred miles 
in ninety-nine days, with cavalry, subsisting wholly 
upon the grass of the prairie and mountains. In 
the year 1846 Lieutenant Love was in Sumner’s com- 
pany, Army of the North-west, which, commanded 
by General S. W. Kearney, captured New Mexico. 
Being ordered to the United States in the autumn, he 
recruited his company, which—under his command, 


He was in command of 


° 


130 


and seventy-five strong—returned to New Mexico in 
the summer of 1847, in charge of a large amount of 
specie for the payment of the army. When four hun- 
dred miles west of Fort Leavenworth, with a number 
of emigrant and provision trains under his protection, 
he was attacked by overwhelming numbers of Indians, 
outlaws, and adventurers, who aimed to secure the 
treasure in charge. Thomas Fitzpatrick, Indian agent 
for the Upper Platte and Arkansas, who had been court- 
eously included in the escort of General Love, gives a 
graphic account of this event. After dwelling upon the 
perils of a road infested by Indians, and subject to the 
still more dangerous attacks of white desperadoes and 
outlaws banded with the Indians, he says that at 
Pawnee Fork -Lieutenant Love’s command, 
panied by the Indian agency, came up with two large 
government trains loaded with commissary stores, to- 
gether with a few traders traveling with them for pro- 
tection. They had been detained at this point by high 
water, and on the other side of the stream was 
encamped an empty return train from Santa Fe, 
bound for Fort Leavenworth. The Indians, failing 


accom- 


to overpower the outward bound train, dashed 
across the stream, and drove off or killed nearly 
all the cattle belonging to the return train. Lieu- 


tenant Love took command of the forces, and, hav- 
ing successfully effected a crossing, encamped for the 
night on the opposite side of the river. One of the 
companies disregarded his instructions to encamp close 
by, under cover of the main camp, much to his un- 
easiness, and his fears were well grounded. If the In- 
dians themselves had chosen the ground they could not 
have made a more favorable selection for a formidable 
attack or defense, and the next morning, as soon as the 
cattle were turned out of the corral to graze, the In- 
dians made a charge, and succeeded in driving them 
off. The further design of the Indians to surprise the 
main camp was prevented by the young lieutenant in 
command, who, as was his custom, was out at break 
of day with a spy-glass in hand, reconnoitering the 
country. He immediately ordered his men to arms, and 
the Indians were repulsed, with the loss principally to 
the insubordinate company before mentioned. The pru- 
dence and intrepidity of Lieutenant Love no doubt 
saved his command, to say nothing of the large amount 
of government stores and treasure. In these days of 
disastrous Indian warfare a profitable lesson could be 
learned from the military records of that date. Tle 
progress of civilization has been so rapid in the last 
few decades that the heroism and military skill which 
paved the way for that civilization are not justly appre- 
ciated. Nor is there, in the absorbing interest attached 
to the Rebellion, enough account taken of the brilliant 
achievements of the Mexican War. General (then Lieu- 
tenant) Love was the hero of a forced march unequaled 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7 Dist. 


in the history of artillery campaigns. Upon the heels 
of that march, without rest, he led an attack at the 
battle of Santa Cruz that commanded the admiration of 
his superior officers, and entitled him to the brevet rank 
of captain for gallant and meritorious conduct. The or- 
der from Major Beall, to push forward with his battery 
to headquarters, met Lieutenant Love on the 12th of 
March, 1848, at the Hot Springs, one hundred and 
fifty miles from Chihuahua.; He immediately left the 
baggage wagons, took two days’ rations, and on the 
morning of the 16th, at five o’clock, arrived before the 
fortified city of Santa Cruz, accomplishing the whole 
distance—two hundred and ten miles—in four nights and 
three days and a half. This through the enemy’s coun- 
try, at the imminent risk of capture or death. At half- 
past nine his battery was in position about five hundred 
yards from the main plaza, and a brisk fire was opened 
on the city. It was warmly returned by the enemy’s 
batteries throwing solid shot, grape, and shell, notwith- 
standing which Lieutenant Love continued firing until - 
he silenced every gun that bore upon him, and cleared 
the house-tops of infantry. At this point of time he 
was ordered to the cemetery, to silence a nine-pounder 
gun placed in an embrasure in one of the principal 
streets leading to the main plaza. Upon the church 
and a large building near by a strong force of infantry 
was stationed. Love’s battery, which consisted of three 
twenty-four-pounder howitzers and three six-pounder 
guns, was exposed to an incessant fire of, canister, grape, 
and round-shot, but it did signal service, clearing the 
church and house-tops of troops, and continuing the at- 
tack until the brave commander was ordered to fall 
back on the camp, which was threatened by nine hun- 
dred lancers. At three o’clock in the afternoon Lieu- 
tenant Love was again ordered to take position at the 
cemetery, with instructions to keep the house-tops clear 
of infantry. He was informed that the city would be 
charged by three different columns, acting as infantry, and 
that his first shot would be the signal of attack. This 
announcement fired his brave heart with an ardor which 
was quickly communicated to his men, and they re- 
sumed their former position without flinching, under 
the sharp fire of three of the enemy’s guns. Upon the | 
firing of the signal shot by Love’s battery, the three 
columns of infantry responded with a shout, and charged | 
at double-quick in grand and beautiful style. The scene 
which followed has not its counterpart in the annals of 
war. The church-top was crowded with the enemy’s 
infantry, as was, also, a two-story house in the direction 
of Colonel Rall’s column, upon which both kept up an 
incessant fire. Three shots from Love’s six-pounder and 
three from his five-pounder cleared the house, but it was 
not until two shells of the twenty-four-pounder howitzer 
burst on the top of the church that it was abandoned. 
On the bursting of the second shell the Mexicans could 


7th Dist.] 


be seen scattering in every direction; some even jumped 
from the top of the church. Two well-directed shots 
from one of the howitzers cleared a house lined with 
infantry inthe direction of Colonel Lane’s column. In 
this way an incessant fire was kept up on every enemy 
that could be seen and every gun that could be reached. 
All the guns were silenced but the nine-pounder, 
which continued to pour forth grape and solid shot. 
By almost a miracle none of Lieutenant Love’s battery 
were killed and only seven were wounded, although the 
grape fell like rain among the men, striking the cannon, 
limbers, and caissons. The firing was continued until 
it was too dark to distinguish the enemy, and then the 
battery was held in position until news came of the 
city’s surrender. General Love’s part in the taking of 
Santa Cruz, or rather the foregoing statement of it, 
would be incomplete without the following testimonial 
of Sterling Price, Brigadier-general United States army, 
commanding : 


«‘The distinguished conduct of Lieutenant Love, in 
the highly efficient manner in which his batteries were 
served, in the rapidity of movement which characterized 
his conduct when ordered to reinforce me—traveling 
night and day, going into battery four hours after his 
arrival—and his unceasing efforts during the entire day 
in working his battery, deserve especial notice, and I 
can not refrain from expressing the strongest recommen- 
dation for that honorable gratitude from his country 
which the brave soldier acquires by his exploits.” 


Lieutenant Love was breveted captain for honorable 
and meritorious services in this battle. It is not strange 
that, after the thrilling scenes and events of the Mexi- 
can War, even frontier service lost its charm to Gen- 
eral Love, and within a few years he resigned. He 
engaged at once in the active enterprise of railroad 
pbuilding, selecting Indianapolis for his home. For this 
business he was well fitted by taste and education, and 
his labors were successful. At the opening of the Re- 
bellion, General Love promptly took the side of the 
government and the section in which his lot was 

‘cast, and rendered efficient the 
paign in Western Virginia as chief of staff under 
General Morris. When that 
was assigned to the important duty of command- 
ing the Indiana Legion. This was being at the 
head, in fact, of a military school, and instructing the 
soldiers who, in protecting the state from border raids, 
no less than in the field of battle, covered the name of 
Indiana with glory. He was commander of a division 
in defense of Cincinnati, and afterwards of a body of 
troops which protected the state against the rebel 
General Morgan. After the war was over General 
Love’s ability and address led to the position of repre- 
sentative abroad of the Gatling Gum Company, of 
which he was a member. To his diplomatic skill is 
the company chiefly indebted for the general introduc- 


service in cam- 


campaign closed he 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


131 


tion of the famous and most efficient engine of modern 
warfare. Subsequently, he disposed of his interest, and 
has since been largely engaged in land claims. The most 
recent recognition of General Love’s high character as 
a man and scholar was in his appointment as state-house 
commissioner, by his excellency Governor Williams. 
He is in every respect admirably well qualified for the 
position. In 1849, on the 10th of October, General 
Love married Miss Mary F., the accomplished daughter 
of the late Hon. Oliver H. Smith, a distinguished and 
honored citizen of Indiana, who died on the 19th of 
March, 1859, in the city of his adoption—Indianapolis. 
He was a member of the United States Senate in 
1840, and in 1858 he wrote and published a highly in- 
teresting and instructive work, entitled, ‘‘ Early Indiana 
Trials and Sketches; or, Reminiscences by Hon. O. H. 
Smith.” No man was more largely identified with the 
early railroad system than Mr. Smith. He built the 
Bellefontaine road almost alone, and was the author and 
originator of the system of union depots. General Love 
is a Mason, and was the first president of the Masonic 
Mutual Benefit Society of Indianapolis; has held most 
of the offices in said society. He is a thirty-second 
degree Mason, and has taken every degree in both 
rites. He is a Democrat, and, with his wife, has been 
an Episcopalian since 1853. He received his literary 
education at Nashville, Tennessee, at Columbia College, 
and was sent by General Jackson to West Point in 1837. 
Previous to his entrance at Columbia College he at- 
tended the public schools at Nashville. 
great friend of, and highly esteemed by, General Jack- 
son. Mrs. Love received her education at Mrs. Ri- 
land’s, an institute at Cincinnati of national reputa 
tion, one of the most rigidly thorough English and 
classical female seminaries the United States at 
that time. In appearance General Love is strikingly 
like his great-grandfather, Richard Henry Lee, as his 
lineaments are portrayed in painting. There is the 
same cast of features, the same massive head, and the 
same expression of decision, intelligence, and benignity 
of character. He who runs may read in each and both 
faces the story of lives well spent and filled with lofty 


He was a 


in 


aims. 
—- Ste 


af 

cj 2OVE, JOHN W., of the Indiana school of art, of 
Als Indianapolis. No one deserves more consideration 
s) from a free and enlightened people than he who 

adds to the value of their intellectual treasures, 
or who enables them to find new beauties and pleas- 
ures in what they already have, nor should any one be 
commended more highly than he who adds a luster to 
our native state by providing the means of a new enjoy- 


ment of a pure and lasting kind. Such a man was John 
W. Love, who was born at Napoleon, Indiana, August 


132 


10, 1850. He was the son of William and Mary Love. 
He first attended the public schools of Indianapolis, 
whither his parents had moved while he was but eight 
years of age, continuing until he was fifteen, when he 
left the high school, and at once, in 1865, entered the 
North-western Christian University, where he took a 
scientific course, graduating at the age of seventeen. 
From his merest boyhood he was a lover of art, and to 
such an extent that he was fully persuaded that there 
he would find his adequate sphere. In 1869, at the age 
of nineteen, he practically commenced his professional 
studies with Henry Mosler, of Cincinnati. After having 
been with him one summer, teacher and pupil together 
went to New York. There he divided his time be- 
tween the studio of Mr. Mosler and the National Acad- 
emy of Design, in which institution he had but shortly 
before obtained a membership. He soon left Mr. Mos- 
ler, and spent a year and a half at the academy, de- 
voting almost the whole of that time to drawing from 
antique models and life. In 1872, June 8, he started 
for Europe, arriving in Paris about the last of June or 
the first of July. He planned entering the government 
school of art in that city, to obtain admission to which 
a student is required to pass a thorough examination in 
all the necessary preliminary branches—in anatomy, 
perspective, antique art history, and is required to 
make a competitive drawing from a life model. On 
account of the rigidness of the rule considerable time is 
ordinarily demanded by this review, but so persistently 
did Mr. Love apply himself that in three days he was 
allowed to enter the school—the Beaux-arts—in the 
atelier of J. L. Gérome. The heads of this institution 
are all men of note and great proficiency in their pro- 
fession. The places offer but meager emolument, yet 
are sought for by the best talent of the country, so high 
is the standard of the academy. They have a faculty 
of three painters, three or four sculptors, and as many 
architects; and each year they send abroad, to Italy, or 
elsewhere, a painter, a sculptor, and an architect, 
from among the native students, the candidates to 
be chosen by comparative excellence in their re- 
spective departments. For four years he studied 
there ten months in the year, spending his short 
summer vacations in the country, two of which 
were occupied in visits to Brittany, Department of 
Finisterre, at Pont-Aven. Here is the residence of 
Robert Wiley, celebrated as an artist from his taking a 
medal in a French salon, and ranking well with the 
French figure painters; in him Mr. Love found a val- 
ued friend. At the time of his visit to France he knew 
but little of the language; and preferring a systematic 
knowledge to the ability to copy, he procured an instruc- 
tor, who lived with him and gave him daily instruction. 
In July of 1876 he turned his face toward his native land, 
sailing from Liverpool, England; on his journey west- 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7h Dist. 


ward he stopped a short time at New York and at Phil- 
adelphia, and, on coming to Indianapolis, opened a 
studio at No. 37 West Washington Street, in Brad- 
shaw’s Block. During the latter part of the one year 
that he was here, he made the acquaintance of Mr. 
James F. Gookins, director of the Academy of Design, 
of Chicago, and with him discussed the feasibility of 
establishing a school of art in Indianapolis, on the plan 
of a stock company; there should be ten thousand dol- 
lars of stock, with fifty-dollar memberships. But the 
people were slow to recognize the advantages of the 
project; and to have carried it out, were it practicable, 
would have required too long a time. However, the 
matter received some encouragement; in their soliciting 
they secured perhaps forty members; but the work went 
on slowly, and they resolved to make the attempt upon 
their own responsibility, which they did. At the open- 
ing there were on display a collection of pictures of the 
best American artists, with many by well-known Euro- 
peans; also a very large collection of bric-a-brac and 
ceramics. It was in every respect a success, and bespoke 
for the undertaking a successful career. 
organized an Art Union, soliciting membership at ten 
dollars each per individual, each certificate entitling 
the holder and his family to free admission to the exhi- 
bitions and the holders to a sketch, by either Mr. Gook-’ 
ins or Mr. Love. This proved successful, over two 
hundred certificates of membership having been sold, 
and while it could not do otherwise than assist in devel- 
oping the esthetic tastes of the people, at the same 
time it was a means whereby periodical exhibitions were 
established by the school, one being given every three 
None of the students now in attendance had 


Then there was 


months. 
ever had any instruction in drawing previous to their 
entrance upon this school, and by many of them aston- 
ishing progress has been made, so that a number partly 
support themselves by portrait painting. Such is, in 
brief, the history of the Indiana School of Art, estab- 
lished in 1877, October 15. The best instructions are 
secured. Mr. Mersman, of Cincinnati, who studied at 
Munich, Bavaria, until lately has taught the art of 
sculpture. One of the students fills the place now. 
Mr. Love’s object was to make this a state institution, 
one recognized and fostered by the Legislature, which 
each year should send to Europe a student to remain 
perhaps five yéars, on the express condition that he 
should return to the state for a specified time. In this 
manner Indiana would become an art center; a gallery 
and library would each offer its advantages, nor would 
it cost above seven thousand dollars per annum. Such 
an institution, devoted to the fostering of art and taste, 
would be highly profitable in a commercial point of 
view as well. It multiplies and improves the indus- 
tries of the land. The founders of the school have 
received no aid from any professional artists in Indian- 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


Western 


} 


ME 


Ge 


\ 


Ms 


wh 


ne 


JOA 


7th Dist.] 


C. Steele. Mr. 
Love did not live to see the success of his enterprise. 
He died June 24, 1880. 


apolis, with the exception of Mr. T 


—>: Fale 


“-ACAULEY, GENERAL DANIEL, of Indian- 
apolis, was born in New York City, September 
8, 1839. He is of Irish parentage, his father, 

B& John Macauley, being a native of Belfast, Ire- 
land. The General is one of a family of four, every 
member of which has been prominently before the pub- 
lic. His older brother, Barney, who was also born in 
New York City, is a prominent member of the theatri- 
cal profession, now starring in the ‘* Messenger from 
Jarvis Section.” An only sister, now Mrs. Charles R. 
Pope (Pope’s Theater, St. Louis), is four years younger, 
and was born in Cincinnati. His younger brother, 
Captain John T. Macauley, born in Newport, Kentucky, 
is now manager of Macauley’s Theater, Louisville, Ken- 
tucky. After the various removals of the family, as 
above indicated, they settled finally in Buffalo, New 
York, when Daniel was about eight years old. Here 
his father died, August 9, 1849, leaving his family un- 
provided for. Daniel and Barney at once left school, 
and went to work to assist their widowed mother in 
the maintenance of the family. Both learned the book- 
binding trade; but, having a decided talent for the 
stage, at the age of seventeen Daniel found himself be- 
fore the footlights, having adopted the profession two 
years after Barney had made his debut. He remained 
on the stage (working at his trade at intervals) until 
1859, when, becoming dissatisfied with theatrical life, 
he came West, with the intention of working at book- 
binding. He reached Indianapolis, and obtained em- 
ployment in the old Sevtinel building, on Washington 
Street, with Bingham & Doughty, and here he remained 
until the firing on Fort Sumter. The foundation of 
Mr. Macauley’s military life had been laid while a boy 
at Buffalo, where he had been a member of Company 
C, 74th New York State Militia, under a splendid 
officer (General W. F. Rogers). His tastes naturally in- 
clined him to a military career, and previous to the 
outbreak of the Rebellion, with a West Point officer, 
Captain Frank A. Shoup (afterwards a very prominent 
rebel officer, and the author of ‘Southern Tactics”), he 
had organized and managed a very fine militia com- 
When 
Sumter was fired on, his anti-slavery enthusiasm was 
aroused, and he laid down his tools and joined a party 
to be sworn into service. He became a member of 
Company E, 11th Indiana Volunteers, and while yet in 
camp was made first sergeant, and then first lieutenant, 


pany, known as the ‘‘Independent Zouaves.” 


then regimental adjutant, in which position he was 
mustered into the United States service with the regi- 


REPRESENTATIVE 


MEN OF INDIANA. 133 


ment. As first lieutenant (Captain Rugg being sick), 
he reported to General Lew. Wallace, adjutant-general 
of the state, and received from his hand the first march- 
ing order written in the state under the three months’ 
call. The document is still in the General’s possession, 
and is highly prized by him. It was written by Clerk 
(afterwards General) Fred. Knefler, at General Wal- 
lace’s dictation, and was signed by the latter as adju- 
tant-general. It directed him to report to Camp Mor- 
ton, where he found three other companies, one of 
which (Gordon’s Artillery Company) disbanded. The 
other two had probably marched out on verbal notice 
or “at will.” His younger brother, John, was then 
living at Buffalo, with his mother and sister, but, at the 
solicitation of the embryo general, they removed to 
Indianapolis; and John, then fifteen years of age, 
donned the uniform of a drummer, and joined his 
brother’s company. They served out their three 
months’ service in West Virginia, seeing some cam- 
paigning, and a little active service. Returning home, 
they at once recruited for the three years’ service, and 
left in September, 1861, for St. Louis; thence the regi- 
ment was ordered to Paducah, Kentucky, under Gen- 
eral Grant. He served through the operations up the 
Tennessee River, at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, 
siege of Corinth, Memphis, Arkansas, Vicksburg (siege 
and fall), Louisiana, and the Teche country, his active 
service culminating in the glorious campaign under 
Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. The three years 
term for which he had originally enlisted expired while 
he was in Louisiana, but with his brother he had re- 
enlisted for three years more. He was promoted to the 
rank of major immediately after the battle of Shiloh, and 
soon afterward was made lieutenant-colonel. He reached 
the colonelcy in March, 1863, and was twice breveted 
brigadier-general ; once in 1864, and again in 1865. He 
was in command of his regiment when major and lieuten- 
ant-colonel, and commanded the brigade while colonel. 
During the Shenandoah Valley campaign he at one pe- 
riod commanded a division (Nineteenth Corps), but was 
the greater part of the time in command of a brigade 
in that historic valley. At Champion Hills, Mississippi, 
during the Vicksburg campaign, General Macauley was 
severely wounded in the left thigh; and at Cedar 
Creek, Virginia, he was dangerously shot by a bullet in 
the right hip, in which the missile still remains. At 
the time of President Lincoln’s assassination General 
Macaulay was in command of the defenses of Balti- 
more, which included Forts McHenry, Marshall, Fed- 
eral Hill, and Carroll. He was also in command of 
the skirmish line, an entire brigade, during the whole 
of the famous night pursuit after the engagement at 
Fisher ‘Hill, Virginia. He takes all a soldier’s pride in 
his gallant regiment, the 11th Indiana, which, to quote 
his own words, ‘“‘was never beaten, either at work, 


134 
play, march, drill, or fight.” After being mustered 
out, at the close of the war, he served a brief time as 
colonel of the 9th Regiment, Hancock’s corps, stationed 
at Indianapolis, and resumed civil life after four years 
and eleven months’ continuous service as a soldier. A 
resumption of his old business of bookbinding, in 
company with John JI. Parsons, resulted disastrously, 
on account of an unforeseen depression in business. In 
April, 1867, General Macauley was elected mayor of 
Indianapolis, when only twenty-six years of age. He 
was re-elected in 1869, and again in 1871. His admin- 
istration of the city government was commended alike 
by citizens of all classes and parties, and he displayed 
in its management executive ability of the highest 
order, while his popularity became almost proverbial. 
At the conclusion of his third term as mayor of the 
city he organized and completed, with James O. Wood- 
ruff, what is known as ‘‘ Woodruff Place,” 

olis; but the impending financial crisis deprived them 
of any fruits of the enterprise, which was intended to 
combine all the beauties of a public park with the ele- 
gant surroundings of a private residence, and even in its 
unfinished condition is one of the brightest ornaments 
of Indianapolis. During the year 1876 Mr. Macauley 
was manager of the Academy of Music, in Indianapolis; 
but the stringency of the times, the building of another 
theater, and the burning down of the Academy, brought 
his managerial enterprise toaclose. During the great rail- 
road strike of 1877 General Macauley was appointed, by 
the Governor and committee of safety, commander of the 
city; and by his moderation and prudence averted much 
trouble, and rendered efficient and timely service to the 
cause of public order. In June, 1878, he was appointed 
to the general management of the Indianapolis Water- 
works Company, in which position he remains to the 
present time, in the full tide of reasonable success. 
March 26, 1863, General Macauley married Mary M. 
Ames, daughter of Rev. A. S. Ames, of Indianapolis. 
They lost one little daughter, eighteen months old, in 
1865. They have surviving one child, a son, born in 
1866, in Soldiers’ Home (in camp), at Indianapolis; a 
fine specimen of American boyhood, bright and schol- 
arly beyond his years. There is not, perhaps, in the 
city of Indianapolis, a man more generally popular than 
General Macauley. He possesses talents of a very pro- 


in Indianap- 


nounced order, is a vocalist, musician, and dramatic 
artist of no mean pretensions, and is of a most social, 
genial, and cheerful disposition, fond of society, and 
entering into every thing with a keen relish for the 
good things of life. He is a member of the Masonic 
bodies, military company, Knights of Pythias, president 
of the “Choral Union” and of the ‘¢ Haydn” musical 
societies. 
dred and eighty-three pounds; and if buoyancy of spirits 
and cheerfulness of disposition, coupled with the best 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA, 


He is nearly six feet high, weighs one hun-+ 


[7th Dist. 


of health and hosts of friends, can secure long life and 
happiness, there is a full measure of both in store for 
‘¢Dan Macauley.” 


—+-g006-o— 


AJOR, ALFRED, attorney-at-law and vice-pres- 
ident of the First National Bank of Shelbyville, 
was born at Quarndon, Derbyshire, England, 
May 8, 1828. America is indebted to the En- 
glish people for her existence, and is still receiving 
benefits from her in the intelligent men and women 
which she contributes to our population. Some of these, 
like the subject of this memoir, learn our history and 
imbibe the spirit of our institutions before coming here, 
and therefore blend at once with our best people, and 
become a healthful element in our national life. His 
parents were Stephen and Harriett (Bigsby) Major, the 
father of Irish and the mother of English nativity. He 
was educated at King William’s College, Isle of Man. 
He began to read law on shipboard, while coming to this 
country, so determined was he to qualify himself for an 
honorable career in that new land to which he was 
going, where talent and a resolute spirit are unfettered. 
In 1846 he settled in Shelbyville, and resumed the 
study of law, under the instruction of Hon. Thomas A. 
Hendricks, a name now known in every household. In 
1851, Mr. Major was admitted to the bar and com- 
menced practice. Superior to many of his associates in 
literary and scientific culture, and well endowed with 
natural gifts, he entered upon his duties under most en- 
couraging auspices. Success, professional and pecun- 
iary, attended him, and at length he engaged in bank- 
ing as one of the firm of Elliott & Major. In 1865 the 
First National Bank of Shelbyville was organized, and 
he became its vice-president. An able attorney in every 
branch of the profession, and an excellent financier and 
a man of integrity, Mr. Major exerts a marked influence 
throughout the county. He is the wealthiest man 
within its borders, and his possessions have been gained 
by his own exertions. The store of knowledge which 
study and experience have furnished him has been in- 
creased by foreign travel. He has crossed the ocean 
from America to Europe four times, visiting the British 
Isles and the Continent. *He has two brothers and two 
sisters in England, and he is the only one of the fam- 
ily in this country. But, despite these ties of kindred, 
and that innate love of one’s native land that nothing 
can eradicate, he is truly an American, and America 
will doubtless remain his home. Mr. Major is a mem- 
ber of the Episcopalian Church. He has been married 
twice. His first wife was Jane Lowry, to whom he was 
wedded, at Rushville, Indiana, in 1851. They had four 
children, now living. November 28, 1878, he married, 
as his second wife, Miss Helen Thompson, a native of 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 


LIBRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINals 


7th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 

ANSON, GENERAL MAHLON D. The life 

and character of General Mahlon D. Manson 
=+\\ may be studied with profit by the young, con- 
ae templated with satisfaction by the patriotic, and 
referred to with pride by his kindred and friends. His 
name is honorably mentioned on many pages of the 
history of his country during the eventful period of the 
War of the Rebellion. In the political affairs of Indi- 
ana he has taken prominent and important parts. In 
private life he has sustained an unsullied reputation, 
and has deservedly received and constantly retained the 
He is de- 
His 
paternal grandfather, David Manson, an immigrant 
from Ireland, served his adopted country as a soldier of 
the American Revolution; and his father, David Man- 
son, born in Little York, Pennsylvania, was a soldier 
of the War of 1812, and was present at the surrender 
of Hull at Detroit. He was a farmer and a surveyor of 
lands. He married Sarah Cornwall, of Rockbridge 
County, Virginia, whose parents were English. Her 
family sympathized with the cause of American inde- | 


confidence and good will of his fellow-men, 
scended from an honorable and patriotic ancestry. 


pendence, and several members of it participated in its 
achievement, as soldiers of Washington’s army. The 
subject of this biography, the issue of this marriage, 
was born on the 20th of February, 1820, near Piqua, 
Miami County, Ohio. His Christian name was given 
him as a mark of regard for Governor Mahlon Dicker- 
son, of New Jersey, Secretary of War under General 
Jackson’s administration. At the age of three years he 
suffered the great misfortune of the loss of his father, 
who died leaving to his widow and infant son the in- 
heritance of an untarnished name, but with inadequate 
means of support. With a sturdy manliness unusual to 
such tender years, the sybject of this sketch began 
while a mere child to assist his mother in the burden 
of their maintenance. To this excellent wife and 
mother may be ascribed the success of his life and its 
great usefulness. 
to see him grow to a noble manhood, and died, full of 
years and honor, in the year 1858, the evening of her 
life being spent in peaceful quietude beneath her son’s 
roof. The education which he had from teachers was 
such as he received in the primitive log school-house, 


She had the happy privilege of living 


with its unglazed windows and rough benches; and 
even of the meager opportunities for the acquisition of 
knowledge thus afforded he was deprived, by the pres- 
sure of poverty, at the early age of eight or nine, when 
he hired himself to a neighboring farmer to do such 
work as so young a lad could perform, his stipulated 
remuneration being seventy-five cents per month. His 
education, however, did not cease, but by his applica- 
tion to study, without the aid of teachers, with such 
books as he.could obtain, he so utilized his intervals 
of freedom from manual labor that upon attaining man- 


MEN OF INDIANA. 135 
hood he had acquired those habits of patient applica- 
tion and prompt and self-reliant action which have dis- 
tinguished him in the many responsible situations of 
his life. Some years of his boyhood having been spent 
in mechanical pursuits, he became a druggist’s clerk, 
and soon afterwards set up for himself in that business. 
In October, 1842, he removed to Indiana, of which 
state he has ever since been a citizen. In the early pe- 
riod of his residence here, he taught school at Craw- 
fordsville, and other places in Montgomery County. 
He now devoted himself to the study of medicine, and 
attended a course of lectures at the Ohio Medical Col- 
lege of Cincinnati, and a partial second course at New 
Orleans, Louisiana. He, however, did not engage ex- 
tensively in the practice of his profession, but continued 
as an apothecary at Crawfordsville. Upon the com- 
mencement of the War with Mexico, the latent military 
spirit of his ancestors asserted itself, and he promptly 
entered the service, as captain of Company I of the 


sth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, with which he 


participated in the campaign of General Scott, and 
marched from Vera Cruz to the capital, where for a 
time he was placed in command of the detached 
guards in the City of Mexico. Upon his return to 
Crawfordsville, at the close of the war, he resumed his 
business of druggist. In 1851 he was elected to repre- 
sent Montgomery County in the General Assembly, 
and served as a member of the House during the 
important session of 1851-52, in which the laws of 
the state were revised, and adapted to the new 
Constitution of 1850. He now became, and still continues 
to be, an influential adviser in the councils of the 
Democratic party. In 1856 he served as a delegate in 
the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati, and 
assisted in the nomination of James Buchanan for 
President and John C. Breckinridge for Vice-president. 
In 1860 he was an ardent supporter of Stephen A. 
Douglas, believing that only his election to the presi- 
dency and the application of his political doctrines 
could avert the threatening storm of civil war. When, 
in April, 1861, that storm broke furiously upon the na- 
tion at Fort Sumter, and he saw the inauguration of 
the insane attempt to destroy the nation for whose in- 
dependent establishment and for whose honor his fore- 
fathers had nobly imperiled their lives and fortunes, his 
patriotic indignation was at once aroused, and, as 
might have been predicted from his antecedents, he 
quickly placed himself in the ranks of the defenders of 
the Union. He was at the time in the East, whither 
he had gone for the purchase of goods. Hastening 
home, he took an active part in sending forward to In- 
dianapolis the first company from Montgomery County, 
under General Lew. Wallace. Two days afterward, at 
the solicitation of some of his old soldiers of the Mexi- 
can War, he raised, in five hours, a company, with 


136 


which he marched to Indianapolis. The first tents de- 
serving’ the name pitched in Camp Morton were 
brought thither by this company, having been hastily 
made on Sunday. Of the men thus brought into camp 
two companies of the loth Indiana Regiment were 
formed. Of one of these, Company G, Mr. Manson 
was made captain, his commission dating from the 17th 
of April, 1861. Upon the organization of the regiment, 
ten days later, he was commissioned major, and on the 
roth of May he was promoted to the colonelcy of the 
regiment, in place of Colonel J. J. Reynolds, commis- 
sioned brigadier-general of volunteers. The interval in 
camp having been industriously occupied in organizing, 
drilling, and equipping, Colonel Manson in June, upon 
the order of General McClellan, proceeded with his 
regiment to Parkersburg, Virginia.. The toth Indiana, 
having been assigned to the brigade of General Rose- 
crans, marched, by the way of Clarksburg and Buck- 
hannon, to the valley of Roaring Creek, at the foot of 
Rich Mountain. Early on the morning: of the 11th of 
July, Colonel Manson, though the junior colonel, was 
placed with his regiment in the:advance, and, with 
General Rosecrans, marched nine miles by a narrow 
bridle-path around the rebel fortifications, striking 
General Pegram’s command in the rear. In the battle 
of Rich Mountain, which followed, the 1oth Indiana 
formed the first line, and led the brigade in the charge 
upon the works of the enemy, which resulted in the 
total rout of the rebels and the capture of two pieces 
of artillery. General Manson still holds the receipt for 
one of the guns thus taken. July 24 they were or- 
dered to return to Indianapolis, their three months’ term 
of enlistment having expired. \ By direction of Governor 
Morton, Colonel Manson, under the same commission, 
proceeded to reorganize the 1oth Indiana for three years 
or during the war.. The rendezvous’ was at Lafayette, 
where in a short time the required number of men were 
enlisted. It was ordered to Kentucky, and left Indian- 
apolis for Louisville September 22, being one of the 
first regiments that crossed the Ohio. Here they were 
assigned to General Anderson’s command, and a few 
days later were ordered to Bardstown, Kentucky, where 
they established the first camp of Union soldiers at that 
place. At this encampment Colonel Manson applied 
himself assiduously for one month to the instruction of 
his men, when they were’ ordered to Lebanon, Ken- 
tucky, where they were assigned to Thomas’s division 
of the Army of the Ohio, with Colonel Manson as 
brigade commander, They remained in the vicinity of 
Lebanon until the 25th of December, when they ad- 
vanced to meet the Confederates under Zollicoffer. On 
the 19th of January, 1862, Colonel Manson and his bri- 
gade participated in the battle of Mill Spring. At 
daylight the Union forces were attacked in their camp. 
Cotonel Manson’s regiment was in the advance, and in 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


this, its first engagement after its reorganization, 
achieved an enviable reputation for gallantry, at one time 
saving the day by its firm resistance to a desperate charge. 
From the battle-field the Union forces returned to Louis- 
ville, where the patriotic ladies of that city presented a 
beautiful flag to the 1oth Indiana,as a mark of their 
high appreciation of the service the regiment had ren- 
dered to Kentucky and the Union, which was received 
by Colonel Manson on behalf of the regiment. From 
Louisville the 10th Indiana marched to the Tennessee 
River, arriving on the battle-field of Shiloh two days 
after the battle. They next participated in the siege 
and investment of Corinth, and the march which fol- 
lowed its evacuation. On the 24th of March, 1862, 
Colonel Manson was appointed brigadier-general of 
United States volunteers by President Lincoln, without 
any solicitation whatever on his part. His appoint- 
ment was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. He 
was assigned to the command of the Second Brigade, 
Fourth Division, of the Army of the Ohio, under Gen- 
eral’ William Nelson. With his brigade and division 
he entered Corinth on the 29th of May, and thence 
marched to Jacinto and Iuka, Mississippi, and Tuscum- 
bia, Alabama, and thence to Murfreesboro, Tennessee— 
a distance of one hundred and five miles—in five days. 
Thence they marched to McMinnville, Cany Fork of 
the Cumberland, Sparta, and back to McMinnville. 
Here, by order of General Buell, General Manson, with 
Generals Nelson, Craft, and Jackson, were detached, 
and proceeded to Kentucky to take charge of the new 
troops then pouring in from Indiana and Ohio. After 
considerable difficulty, and barely escaping capture by 
the enemy’s cavalry, they reached Nashville the next 
morning. Thence, escorted by the 1oth Indiana, they 
proceeded to Franklin, Tennessee, and from there by 
rail to Louisville. By order of General Horatio Wright, 
they proceeded to Lexington, where they arrived August 
24, six days previous to the battle of Richmond, Ken- 
tucky. For the purpose of correcting a false statement 
which appeared in the newspapers of Cincinnati soon 
after that engagement, to the effect that General Manson 
fought that battle contrary to the orders of General 
Nelson, and for the purpose of promoting the truth of 
history, a somewhat detailed statement of the circum- 
stances of the battle, condensed from a published letter 
of General Manson, dated March 28, 1878; and addressed 
to Hon. R. J. White, is here given: On the after- 
noon of the day following their arrival at Lexington, ° 
General Nelson and General Manson left Lexington for 
Richmond, Arriving at Clay’s Ferry, on the Kentucky~ 
River, they overtook General Cassius M. Clay’s brigade, 
and, at the request of Generals Nelson and Clay, General 
Manson took command of this brigade, to enable General 
Clay to go to his home, he not having visited his family’ 


since his recent return from Europe. On the morning of 


ath Dist.| 


the 25th, General Manson moved forward from Clay’s 
Ferry toward Richmond, and, arriving there late in the 
afternoon, reported to General Nelson, who had preceded 
him. General Nelson sent a staff officer with him to 
Colonel Rhodes’s farm, about two miles south of town, 
where there were some troops already encamped. On 
the morning of the 27th, Nelson assigned Manson to 
the command of the First Brigade, consisting of the 
55th, 69th, 71st, and 16th Indiana Regiments, and some 
artillery under Lieutenant Lamphier, of Michigan. 
General Manson proceeded at once to get his men out 
for drill, in which he found them very deficient, they 
being for the most part raw recruits. That afternoon 
he sent to General Nelson a written request for permis- 
sion to seek a new encampment, stating that water was 
scarce where they were, and the men had not had an 
opportunity to wash their clothing since they had left 
Indiana, and that the camp was commanded by the 
hills to the southward. To this General Nelson made 
no answer. About sunrise on the 28th, Nelson’s orderly 
came to Manson with a verbal order for him to report at 
Nelson’s headquarters at Richmond, which he did at 
once. On arriving he was informed that General Nelson, 
in company with Hon. Garrett Davis, had just departed 
for Lexington or Lancaster. He had not informed his 
adjutant to which of these places he was going. Gen- 
eral Manson then inquired of Captain Kendrick, Nel- 
son’s adjutant-general, what orders General Nelson had 
left for him, and was answered that he had left none, 
only that Manson should not leave the position then 
occupied by him until Nelson’s return. 
noon of the 29th, General Manson received a communi- 
cation from Colonel Reuben Munday, and also one from 
Colonel Leonidas Metcalfe, informing him that the en- 
emy had appeared and was then crossing Big Hill in 
considerable force, supposed to be four or five thousand 
strong. He at once sent one copy of these communica- 
tions to Lexington, and another to Lancaster, to General 
Nelson, not knowing at which place he might be found, 
and at the same time directed Colonels Munday and 


Metcalfe to fall back and carefully observe the road, so” 


that the enemy might not flank Richmond on either 
side; and he also sent out Lieutenant-colonel Wolf, of 
the 16th Indiana, with four companies, to strengthen 
the picket already in front. About two o’clock Colonel 
Metcalfe arrived with a portion of his command at Gen- 
eral Manson’s camp, stating that he had been driven 
from eyery position he had occupied, and that the Con- 
federates were advancing in great force. General Man- 
son immediately caused the long-roll to be beaten, 
formed his troops, and with them moved out upon the 
high hills in front of his camp, and formed a line of 
battle near White’s house. The enemy soon appeared 
in considerable force, but after a sharp skirmish retired, 
losing a few prisoners, some horses, and a few pieces of 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


On the fore- 


137 
artillery. While this skirmish was progressing, he sent 
Rev. Mr. McCray, of Bloomington, Indiana, to Lex- 
ington, to give General Nelson, if he should there be 
found, a personal account of what was taking place. 
After the skirmish, General Manson moved his forces 
forward a short distance, to Rogersville, and there biv- 
ouacked. The enemy bivouacked a short distance 
southward in the woods. Soon after sunrise, on-the 
30th, General Manson formed his line of battle in the 
woods, near a small brick church. The+enemy soon 
afterwards advanced upon this line, and was met and 
checked in most gallant style by the brave Indianians, 
who maintained their line unbroken for nearly four 
hours, and until completely flanked on the east. At 
the same time their right gave way in great confusion. 
General Manson rode back a short distance, and, meet- 
ing the 18th Kentucky advancing, deployed them into 
line, and with them checked the advance of the enemy 
for about twenty minutes. 
form a second line on the high ground north of Roger’s 
house; and from that point he moved to the ground he 
had occupied in the skirmish on the evening of the 29th. 
Here he awaited the advance of the enemy. While 
thus waiting a messenger arrived with a written com- 


He was thus enabled to 


munication from General Nelson, dated at Lexington, 
August 30, directing General Manson that, if the enemy 
should appear in force, he should retire by the Lancas- 
ter road. This was delivered to+General Manson in 
the presence of some of his staff and Doctor Irwin, the 
medical director of General Nelson’s staff, since surgeon 
in charge of West Point Academy. It was then 12.30 
P. M., and the Lancaster road had been in possession 
of the enemy for more than five hours. This was the 
only order that General Manson received from General 
Nelson directing him to retire from the position to 
which he had heretofore assigned him. “The following 
is an extract from General Manson’s official report, 
dated at Indianapolis, September 10, 1862, and directed 
and delivered to General Nelson: 

‘«“The enemy now began advancing in great force 
through the open fields, in line of battle, and, while 
they were thus advancing, a courier rode upon the field 
and delivered to me your written order, dated at Lex- 
ington, August 30, directing me to retire by the Lan- 
caster road if the enemy should advance in force. It 
was then 12,30 o’clock P. M., and in less than five min- 
utes from the time I received your order the battle 
raged with great fierceness along the whole line.” 


General Manson held this position for more than an 
hour, when, his right giving way in great confusion, he 
was a second time driven back. _He commenced to 
form his men in the woods, on Rhodes’s farm, for the 
purpose of a general retreat, to recross the Kentucky 
River that night. While he was thus engaged, General 
Nelson rode upon the field and assumed command, and 
by his direction the troops were marched to a place 


138 


near Richmond, and a line of battle was there formed, 
extending through the cemetery. Here they waited 
more than an hour and a half for the enemy. When 
at length the Confederates again appeared, their advance 
could not be checked, because of the demoralized state 
of the twice beaten raw troops opposed to them, who 
now retreated through Richmond in great confusion. 
General Manson organized a rear-guard for the protec- 
tion of the scattered army from the pursuing cavalry. 
By direction of General Nelson he assumed command of 
this rear-guard, and with it covered the retreat till they 
arrived near the toll-gate on the Lexington road, when the 
retreating columns in front halted. After waiting here 
more than an hour, he turned over the command of the 
rear-guard to Major Morrison, of the 66th Indiana, and 
went to the front to ascertain the cause of the halt. 
He there found a small number of the enemy’s cavalry 
formed across the road, checking the retreat; and he 
here for the first time learned that General Nelson had 
left the field. He endeavored to form an advance- 
guard, but did not succeed till the color-sergeant of the 
18th Kentucky, an old man, who had the flag of his 
regiment under his arm, the staff having been shot 
away, gave the flag to him, saying, ‘‘I have fought all 
day with you, and if you will protect the flag of the 
18th I’ll still fight on.” This gallant old soldier gave 
courage and enthusiasm to his comrades, and an advance- 
guard was soon organized, which drove the enemy’s 
cavalry from the line of retreat. 
moved forward, General Manson making a desperate 
effort to cross the Kentucky River with the remainder 
of the command. When they had arrived near to Fox- 
town, they found the enemy in great force, concealed in 
a corn-field, from which they fired upon Manson’s ad- 
vance, killing seventeen and wounding twenty-five. 
Colonel Wolf, of the 16th Indiana, was killed here. 
General Manson ordered the remainder of the advance- 


The column again 


guard to lie down, and make no further resistance. 
Soon afterwards he and his command were made pris- 
Four days later he was paroled by General E. 
Kirby Smith, commander of the enemy’s force, and 
started immediately for Cincinnati. Here he learned 
from Hon. Richard Smith, editor of the Gazette, that 
General Nelson had authorized the publication of the 
statement that the battle of Richmond had been fought 
contrary to his positive orders. At the request of Gen- 
eral Manson, a correction was published in the Gazette, 
Inquirer, and Commercial. General Manson also had 
an interview with General Nelson, who was then in 
Cincinnati, at the request of the latter, who, in expla- 
nation of the published statement, said that he had 
thought that his order, written at Lexington on the 
morning of the day of the battle, had been received by 
General Manson; but on being reminded that Lexing- 
ton is thirty-one miles from the battle-field, and that 


oners. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7% Dist. 


the order was conveyed by a courier on horseback, he 
admitted his mistake in supposing that his order had 
reached General Manson in time to retreat. In addition 
to the efforts made by General Manson, already stated, 
to communicate to General Nelson before the battle the 
facts in regard to the situation, he also, on the day of 
the engagement, sent Colonel Goodloe as a special 
messenger toward Lexington, expecting that he would 
meet General Nelson with reinforcements, and instruct- 
ing him to inform Nelson of the situation, and request 
him to hasten to the field. The greater portion of the 
Union forces in this sanguinary engagement had been 
in service less than two weeks, and had.had very little 
instruction or exercise in drill. The Confederates had 
the advantage of greatly superior numbers; but they 
were met with such valor and received such punishment 
that the hitherto uninterrupted progress of the invasion 
of Kirby Smith received such a check that sufficient 
time was gained to place Cincinnati in a condition 
of defense, and the principal object of Smith’s cam- 
paign was thwarted. General Boyle, writing to Presi- 
dent Lincoln from Louisville, September 1, 1862, said, 
of the Indianians engaged at Richmond, that ‘they 
fought with the courage and gallantry of veterans.” 
The loss in killed and wounded in the Indiana troops 
was nearly one thousand, General Manson being one of 
the wounded. Two thousand officers and men, includ- 
ing General Manson, were captured and paroled. He 
remained on parole but a few weeks, when, having been 
exchanged, he was assigned to the Fourteenth Army 
Corps, and placed in charge of the United States forces 
at Bowling Green and on the Barren and Green Rivers. 
This command he held at the time of the battle of 
Stone River, January 1, 1863. He was relieved by 
Geyeral Jucay, and assigned to the post of Louisville 
for a few weeks, and then to the command of a division 
of the Twenty-third Army Corps, stationed at Lebanon, 
Kentucky, whence they marched to Glasgow, and thence 
to Tompkinsville, where they met a portion of Morgan’s 
forces, between whom and General Manson’s command 
there was a lively skirmish for several days on the 
banks of the Cumberland River. From this place 
they marched through to Mumfordsville, where they 
took railroad transportation to Louisville, Kentucky, 
and New Albany, and Jeffersonville, Indiana. Here he 
was prevented, by the orders of his superior officers, 
from intercepting General John Morgan, on his raid 
through Indiana, at Memphis and Vienna, on the In- 
dianapolis and Jeffersonville Railroad. From Jefferson- 
ville he proceeded with his command, by sixteen steam- 
boats, up the Ohio, to prevent Morgan’s recrossing the 
At Grassy Plats he came up with a body of 
Morgan’s men, of whom he captured a portion, with 
forty-six horses. 
Morgan, to Madison, Vevay, Rising Sun, Lawrence- 


river. 


He moved up the river, parallel with 


7th Dist.) REPRESENTATIVE 
burg, and Cincinnati, and thence to Maysville, Kentucky, 
and Portsmouth, Ohio, where the water was found to be 
too low to proceed further with the steamboats. At 
Portsmouth, with a portion of his men, he went by 
rail about fifty miles into the interior of Ohio, to inter- 
cept Morgan’s forces. He, however, had already 
crossed the railroad at the point at which he hoped to 
intercept them. He now returned to Cincinnati, where 
he remained some days, receiving the prisoners from 
Buffington Island, together with General Morgan. 
While here, by order of General Burnside, he made a 
descriptive list of General John H. Morgan and ninety- 
two of his subordinate officers, all of whom were sent 
to Johnson’s Island, whence, by order of the Secretary 
of War, they were removed to the Ohio State. Peni- 
tentiary, at Columbus. Preparations were now made 
for a campaign in Eastern Tennessee. General Manson, 
with his command, marched from Glasgow, Kentucky, 
by way of Montgomery, to Lee’s Ferry, on Clinch 
River, and thence to London and Knoxville. Here he 
‘was placed in command of the Twenty-third Army 
Corps, with forty thousand men on its rolls, relieving 
General Hartsook, by order of General Burnside. He 
was engaged in most of the skirmishes here, during 
October, 1863, and was in the siege of Knoxville, 
which lasted twenty days; superintended the construc- 
tion of the fortifications on Mayberry and Temperance 
Hills, and built the pontoon bridge across the Holston, 
and all the fortifications on the south side of that river. 
When the siege was terminated, by the advance of Gen- 
eral Sherman’s forces, December 5, 1863, General Man- 
son, with a portion of the Twenty-third Army Corps, 
followed Longstreet to Rutledge, when, the Confeder- 
ates having made a stand, he, by order of his superior 
officers, fell back to Blaine’s Cross Roads, skirmishing 
with the enemy most of the way. Here he was rein- 
- forced by General Gordon Granger, of the Fourth 
Army Corps, General Phil. Sheridan commanding a 
division of that corps, and others. A line of battle 
was formed and maintained several days, but no general 
engagement ensued. On the 25th of December he 
crossed the Holston, and took up a position at Straw- 
berry Plains, near the junction of the French Broad 
and Holston. In January, 1864, his troops were en- 
gaged by the enemy at Mossy Creek and other places in 
that vicinity. In February he was relieved of the com- 
mand of the Twenty-third Army Corps by General 
Jacob D. Cox, who outranked him in the army, and he 
was assigned a division in that corps. With this com- 
mand he marched to Bull Creek Gap, near Blaine’s 
Cross Roads. On the 22d of April, by order of Gen- 
eral Sherman, he proceeded to destroy the bridge over 
the Wataugua River, Virginia, and the railway and 
Lick Creek trestle at Jonesville, whence by rail he 
joined General Sherman’s army, May 1, at Red Clay, 


MEN OF INDIANA. 139 
Thence his command marched to Doctor 
Lee’s house, Varnell’s Station, and Buzzard’s Roost, 
skirmishing every day. They now made a forced 
march, passing through Snake Creek Gap, skirmishing 
with the enemy in Hickory Flats, and on the 14th of 
May, moved toward the Confederate works at Resaca. 
A line of battle was formed, Generals Hascall and 
Juday being on the right, General Riley on the left, in 
the woods, and General Manson in the center, in the 


Georgia. 


open field. The order to charge being given, his com- 
mand moved through the open ground for a mile, ex- 
posed to the enemy’s artillery. The loss was very 
heavy. Generals Manson and Riley carried their por- 
tion of the works, and held them for more than three 
hours against greatly superior numbers. His ammuni- 
tion being almost exhausted, and his men famished for 
want of water, General Hascall, by order of General 
Sherman, moved in his forces to relieve General Man- 
son. To show General Hascall how he might best 
avoid the enemy’s fire, General Manson sprang upon 
the works, when he was struck by a piece of shell upon 
the right shoulder, and his right arm was thereby for- 
ever disabled. He was carried off the field insensible. 
Yet in a few days he resumed command. He was pres- 
ent at the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, but not actively 
engaged. He now found himself so greatly disabled 
by his wound that he was compelled to ask to be re- 
lieved of his command in the advancing army. He 
was assigned to take charge of the post at Knoxville, 
but the inflammation of his wound increased to such an 
extent that he was again forced to relinquish this posi- 
tion. He accompanied General Thomas on his retreat 
through Tennessee, and was in the hospital at Nashville 
at the time of the battle ot Franklin. From this hos- 
pital he was removed to St. Joseph’s Infirmary at Louis- 
ville, where he remained eighty-five days, lying a portion 
of the time at the point of death, suffering great torture 
from his wound. 
upon his shoulder, and becoming satisfied that he would 


Here he had an operation performed 


not again be fit for active duty, and being unwilling to 
stand in the way of the promotion of worthy men in 
the field, he, on the 21st of December, 1864, resigned 
his commission as a brigadier-general of volunteers. 
His resignation was accepted by the President, and with 
it the military career of General Manson ended. Dur- 
ing that career he was never known to complain of any 
position to which he was assigned, but, without any 
consideration of his own convenience or pleasure, and 
without regard to danger, toil, or exposure, executed 
with alacrity and to the satisfaction of his superiors 
every order ever given him. He was distinguished for 
clearness of discrimination, accuracy of judgment, and 
promptness of action. He was never surprised when it 
was his duty to be informed; no emergency found him 
unprepared, and no danger caused him to hesitate. He 


I40 


gained, and always enjoyed in an exceptionally great 
measure, the affection of his subordinates. He was re- 
spected by his equals and superiors and loved by his 
men. He never directly or indirectly asked for any 
promotion. He was elected as captain, major, and col- 
onel by the men, and commissioned upon their recom- 
mendation. He was made a brigadier-general without 
his own seeking by Abraham Lincoln, whose memory 
he greatly reveres, believing him to have been one of the 
purest and best of those who have occupied the office 
of chief magistrate of the nation. General Manson, 
without his knowledge or consent, was nominated by 
the Democratic party of Indiana, in 1864, as a candidate 
for the office of Lieutenant-governor, on the ticket 
headed by Hon. Joseph E. McDonald as the candidate 
for Governor. Although he ran ahead of his ticket, he 
was defeated. In 1866 he was nominated by acclama- 
tion by the Democratic state convention for the office 
of Secretary of State. In 1868 he was nominated again 
by acclamation as the Democratic candidate for Congress 
in the Ninth District of Indiana, his competitor being 
IIon. Godlove S. Orth. His district being strongly Re- 
publican, he was again beaten, though he ran far beyond 
his ticket, and was defeated by only four hundred votes. 
In 1870 he was again the Democratic candidate for 
Congress in the same district, having for his competitor 
General Lew. Wallace. After a very animated joint 
canvass he was elected by a majority of nearly four 
hundred votes, though the Republican state ticket re- 
ceived a large majority in that district. Upon this 
election he served as a member of the Forty-second 
Congress. As a member of the Committee on Invalid 
Pensions he performed a great amount of labor, render- 
ing great service to his disabled comrades by doing per- 
haps more than any other man to secure the increase of 
the pensions for the disabled. In 1872 he supported 
Horace Greeley for the presidency. He was again a 
candidate for Congress that year, and was defeated by 
Judge Cason, by a majority of one hundred and ninety- 
seven votes, though President Grant in that district had 
over two thousand majority. In 1873 he was appointed 
a member of the Democratic state central committee, 
and in 1875 was made chairman, in which capacity he 
served during the great campaign of 1876, having full 
control of the interests of the Democratic party in Indi- 
ana. He did as much or more than any other man to 
secure the triumph which his: party enjoyed in that 
campaign in this state. He represented the state at 
large in the national convention at St. Louis, and 
strongly supported the candidacy of Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks for the nomination for President, having charge 
of his headquarters at St. Louis. Ile was one of the 
number who went to New Orleans after the election to 
represent Mr. Tilden. As chairman of the Democratic 
state central committee, he called the convention of the 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7h Dest. 


8th of January, 1877, to consider the duty of the party 
in the impending political crisis, moderation being rec- 
ommended by the committee. In 1878 he was elected 
upon the Democratic ticket to the office of Auditor of 
State by a majority of over fourteen thousand, and he 
is now performing the duties of that office with great 
ability and to the entire satisfaction of the people of 
the state. General Manson is a member of the Masonic 
Fraternity, having united with Warren Lodge, Piqua, 
Ohio, in 1841. He has taken all the degrees, including 
the Knights Templar and Scottish Rite, to the thirty- 
second. He was master of Montgomery Lodge, Craw- 
fordsville, Indiana, for sixteen years; and all the offices 
in the Grand Lodge of the state have been filled. by 
him, including that of Deputy Grand Master for two 
years; and he would have been elected to the office of 
Grand Master in 1861 if he had not gone into the army. 
He has been a trustee of the city schools of Crawfords- 
ville, holding the office of treasurer of the board. He 
has also been a member of the board of trustees of 
Purdue University, of which body he was for a number 
of years the president, a position he resigned upon his 
entering on the duties of Auditor of State. General 
Manson has traveled extensively, having been in nearly 
all the states of the Union, and also in Mexico and 
Canada. He was reared a Methodist, but now enter- 
tains the faith of the Universalists. He was married, 
on the 26th of May, 1850, to Miss Caroline Mitchell, of 
Crawfordsville. Six children, three boys and three 
girls, have been born to them, the oldest. of whom, a 
daughter, is now dead. Of these children their parents 
have great reason to be proud. Their lives reflect 
much credit upon their father and mother, and indicate 
the excellent example which has ever been presented in 
their happy home. Since the war General Manson has 
spent several years in agricultural pursuits. He has al- 
ways dignified labor by industriously engaging in it 
himself. General Manson is a man of commanding 
presence, tall and of large body, and until disabled by 
his wound he was a man of strong constitution and 
great capacity for endurance. His manner is frank and 
engaging, and he has the invaluable faculty, springing 
from kindness of heart and goodness of motive, of 
making all men, whether high or low, feel at home in 
his presence. Because of these qualities, doubtless, 
added to his untarnished and unimpeachable record, he 
in all his candidacies for office has received many votes 
and much moral support from his political opponents. 
He is not fastidious in small things, but is noted for the 
broadness and liberality of his views upon all subjects. He 
is an eloquent and persuasive orator, commanding the at- 
tention, convincing the reason, arousing the enthusiasm, 
and awakening the zeal of his hearers. A brave and gal- 
lant soldier, a prudent and conscientious statesman, a pub- 
lic-spirited and patriotic citizen, a faithful and self-deny-' 


7th Dist.| 


ing friend, an honest man of business, and a true man in 
all the relations of life, it is not surprising that he holds 
a high place in the esteem and affection of the people 
of his state. He rose from poverty and obscurity to a 
justly deserved eminence, and the bright light which 
beats upon his life discloses no flaw in his character. 
Not by accident or the aid of others, but by honest toil 
and constant perseverance, through the smoke and blood 
of battle, he has attained success in life—military glory, 
political and social popularity, and the love and honor 
of his fellow-men. Such men as he make all their fel- 
low-men their debtors. 


—~-906-<— 


ARMON, DANIEL W., secretary of the Nor- 
dyke & Marmon Company, Indianapolis, was 
born in Logan County, Ohio, October 10, 1844. 
His father, James W. Marmon, was a practicing 
physician in Logan County, where he resided until 
1846, when he moved to Richmond, Indiana, dying 
there of cholera in 1849. His wife, Hannah Moffitt, 
the mother of Daniel W., was the daughter of one of 
the earliest settlers of Wayne County, Indiana; her 
grandfather Cox originally entered much of the land 
where the city of Richmond now stands. She followed 
her husband to the grave about a month after his death, 
leaving Daniel bereft of both parents at the early age 
of five years. The name Marmon is undoubtedly of 
French origin, being a corruption of Marmont; the 
maternal branch of the family was of North Carolina 
extraction, and originally Scotch. Mr. 
brought up by an uncle, and attended the common 
schools until he was seventeen years of age, when he 
entered Earlham College, then under the superintend- 
ency of Walter T. Carpenter, and graduated from that 
institution in 1865. His natural inclinations were for 
mechanics, and he found some opportunity for the cul- 
tivation of his tastes in that direction in the shop of 
the uncle mentioned above, who was proprietor of a 
wood-working establishment, in which young Marmon 
spent much of his time. In February, 1866, but a 
short time after leaving college, at the solicitation of his 
friend, Mr. Nordyke, he bought an interest in the firm 
of E. & A. H. Nordyke, which, in the spring of 1871, 
was incorporated as the Nordyke & Marmon Company. 
Mr. Marmon’s special province became the designing 
and construction of. machinery, in which branch he 
soon became remarkably proficient. This had been 
Mr. Nordyke’s department before Mr. Marmon’s con- 
nection with the company, which now. consists of 
Messrs. Nordyke, Marmon, and Hollowell. The name 
and productions of the company are well and favorably 
known, not only in the United States, but in the old 
world as well, where their mills and mill machinery 


Marmon was 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


14! 


have been extensively introduced. The establishment 
stands in the front rank of the industries not only of 
Indianapolis, but ‘of the state of Indiana, and of the 
whole West. <A brief account of its operation and im- 
portance will be found under sketches of the other 
members of the company. In addition to the many 
and varied appliances for the production of their mill- 
stones and ponderous mill machinery, they have in the 
establishment all the paraphernalia for the editing, pub- 
lishing, and printing of a large sixteen-page paper, 7/e 
Millstone, an illustrated monthly journal, devoted to 
milling and mechanical interests, and having for its 
special object the advancement of practical knowledge 
in these departments. It was among the pioneer news- 
papers of its class, and has an extensive circulation in 
all parts of the American continent. It has been pub- 
lished by the company since November, 1875. A too 
close attention to business impaired Mr. Marmon’s 
health somewhat, and in 1878 he resolved to travel in 
order to recuperate. After a couple of years spent in 
traveling in Alabama, Tennessee, Oregon, and Califor- 
nia, he found his health fully restored, and again set- 
tled down to business in Indianapolis. In August, 
1870, Mr. Marmon married Miss Elizabeth M. Carpen- 
ter, the daughter of his old superintendent at Earlham 
College. They have a family of three children: Walter 
C., aged eight; Howard C., aged four; and Carrie, 
now two years old. Mr. Marmon and family are mem- 
bers of the society of Friends, and politically he is a 
Republican. Few enterprises of such magnitude are 
in the hands of men so young, but what is lacking in 
years is made up in actual business experience, indus- 
try, and strict attention to every detail of the business, 
while the financial credit and reputation of the concern 
is of the highest kind. Personally, Mr. Marmon is a 
most genial and agreeable gentleman, popular with his 
associates and employés. He has a quick, active tem- 
perament, and has the air of a thorough business man, 


—<-006--— 


J ANSUR, ISAIAH, banker and real-estate oper- 
ator, of Indianapolis, was born near the old town 
of Salisbury, Wayne County, Indiana, April 14, 
1824. His father, Jeremy Mansur, was a na- 
tive of New Hampshire, and his mother, Jane (Carr) 
Mansur, was born in Virginia, but both became identi- 
fied with the Hoosier State at a very early day. They 
emigrated to Indiana in 1816 and settled in the county 
of Wayne, where the subject of this sketch was born. 
His father combined the occupation of ax-maker with 
that of farmer, and for years was known through the 
county as a workman of the highest order. When 
Isaiah was a little more than a year old, or in 1825, his 
parents moved from the old settlement in Wayne County 


142 


to Richmond, Indiana. Here his father opened a small 
retail dry-goods and grocery store, and by industry and 
perseverance and geniality of disposition succeeded in 
building up a highly successful trade, gradually ac- 
cumulating a reasonable competency. He continued in 
trade at Richmond until 1847, when he removed to In- 
dianapolis and engaged in pork-packing, continuing in 
that business and also being occupied in farming until his 
death, which occurred in 1874. His wife still lives in 
Indianapolis, at the ripe old age of eighty-six, retaining 
her mental faculties unimpaired. From this brief and 
imperfect outline of his father’s life, some idea can be 
gathered of the surroundings and early training of Mr, 
Mansur. He breathed an atmosphere of industry and 
energy which left an impress upon his character and 
which has remained through his whole life. His early 
education was obtained in the public schools and at the 
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he finished his 
studies in 1845. While pursuing his studies at Oxford 
he was a room-mate and class-mate of the late Senator 
O. P. Morton, and between the two sprang up a friend- 
ship that lasted through the life of Mr. Morton. It 
was largely through Mr. Mansur’s assistance that Mr. 
Morton was enabled to get through college at Oxford, 
as the latter had little means and no wealthy relatives 
to aid him, After leaving Oxford Mr, Mansur engaged 
with his father in the pork-packing business for one 
season, working at day labor for wages; but, concluding 
to make the law his profession, he entered the office of 
Hon. John S. Newman, where he was again associated 
in his studies with the future Senator Morton. He read 
law with Judge Newman for about eighteen months, 
when ‘his father’s failing health compelled his return 
home to take charge of his business, which had now as- 
sumed large proportions. He gave his entire attention 
to his business of pork-packing—then, as now, one of 
the prominent industries of Indianapolis—for nine years, 
until, in 1862, he projected and established the Citizens’ 
National Bank of Indianapolis, of which he was made 
president. He continued in that capacity until 1868, 
when his connection with that bank ceased, and he im- 
mediately afterward opened his present private banking 
house, of which -he is still the sole proprietor and man- 
During the stirring times of the late war Mr. 
Mansur was appointed commissary-general of the state of 
Indiana, by his friend and former companion, Governor 
Morton, and rendered faithful and valuable services to 
the cause of the Union, feeding the soldiers in camp at 
Indianapolis on his own credit when there was not a 
dollar in the state treasury for this purpose. He had 
always been a zealous supporter of Mr. Morton, whom 
he urged ‘to make his first race for Lieutenant-governor, 
and their intimate personal friendship was only closed 
by the Senator’s death. Mr. Mansur has always been a 
consistent member of the Republican party, although he 


ager. 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


can scarcely be included among politicians, as he has 
never been desirous of holding office, giving his entire 
time and attention to the details of his business, which, 
in addition to his bank, includes the management of a 
large amount of real estate, of which he is the owner. 
He is also the proprietor of three valuable farms in the 
neighborhood of Indianapolis. Mr. Mansur was mar- 
ried to his present amiable wife, who was Miss Amelia 
Brown, on June 25th, 1862. Mrs. Mansur is a native 
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They have two chil- 
dren, Joseph and Cella Mansur. Mr. Mansur is a 
gentleman of strict business principles; persistent energy 
and untiring application have been a part of his stock 
in trade that has never depreciated. His industry is 
proverbial, and in all his transactions he is guided by a 
standard which makes his word as good as his bond. 
He is widely known as a shrewd, careful, enterprising, 
and successful man of business. Long after he has 
passed away his name will be remembered as among 
the men whose enterprise has made itself felt in shap- 
ing the business destiny of Indianapolis. Three sisters 
survive: Mary, widow of Doctor Charles Parry, for- 
merly of Philadelphia; Clarissa, wife of James C. Fer- 
guson, of Indianapolis; Sarah J., wife of William S. 
Reid, pork-packer, of Richmond, Indiana; William 
Mansur, capitalist, of Indianapolis; and Franklin, who 
died about 1873. He was also a pork-packer. 


+400 — 


oa 

) ARSH, EPHRAIM, clerk of the Hancock Circuit 

} | Court, was born on a farm in Brown Township, 
Hancock County, June 2, 1845. 

‘ Jonas and Catharine Marsh, honest, reputable 
people, who enjoyed the esteem of a large circle of 
friends. His father is of Quaker origin, and removed 
to Hancock County in December, 1837. By close ap- 
plication to his studies, Ephraim soon acquired a fair 
English education, and at the age of twenty he entered 
Asbury University, at Greencastle, where, in the class 
of 1870, he graduated with high honors. During his 
collegiate course he spent one year at Washington City, 
as clerk in the third auditor’s office of the Treasury De- 
partment, receiving his appointment through the recom- 
mendation of ex-Governor Hendricks and Judge D. S. 
Gooding. After graduating at Asbury, he was ap- 
pointed deputy clerk of the Circuit Court, under Mr. 
H. A. Swope. While serving in this capacity he also 
applied himself assiduously to the study of law. In the 
autumn of 1874 he was elected clerk of the Hancock 
Circuit Court, and re-elected in 1878. Mr. Marsh is a 
member of the following secret orders: Knights of 
Pythias, Free and Accepted Masons, Independent Order 
of Odd-fellows, and Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
joining the same in the following order: February 29, 


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7th Dist.) 


1872, Knights of Pythias; 1873, Free and Accepted 
Masons; 1874, Independent Order of Odd-fellows; 1878, 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
ter for two years in the Free and Accepted Masons, 
and Past Chancellor in the Knights of Pythias. He is 
also a Thirty-second Indiana Consistory S. P. R., and a 
member of Keystone Chapter of the Masons of Indianapo- 
lis, and Raper Commandery. He married, February 9, 
1871, Miss Matilda J. Brewer, daughter of Garrett 
Brewer, of Franklin. Mr. Marsh is a courteous gentle- 
Heisasteadfast Democrat. His hospitable bear- 
ing has made him many warm friends, who speak of him 
in terms of the profoundest respect. As an officer, he 
is efficient and attentive, and has the utmost confidence 
of his constituents. He intends to make the profession 
of law his life calling, and is bending every energy to 
the acquisition of legal knowledge. 


He has been Mas- 


man, 


—>-$206-+— 


iWETCALF, CHARLES N., M. D., was born in 
Herkimer County, New York, April 25, 1846. 
His early life was spent on a farm, where he en- 
Sy gaged in the multifarious duties incident to such 
acareer. He was a lover of hilarity and amusement, and 


joined with great vigor in the gay and athletic sports to 
which his situation gave him access. To this life of 
freedom in the pure air and blessed sunlight the Doc- 
tor is largely indebted for his vigorous physical powers 
as well as strong mental endowments. His education 
in boyhood was furnished by the country schools of his 
locality. However, he made good use of the means at 


hand, and was noted for his success in the acquisition 


of knowledge. By the time he was eleven years old he 
was deprived of parents. Thus early in life he was left 
to his own counsel, and to make his own way in this 
cold world without the kind and sympathetic words of 
a mother or the advice and counsel of a father. But 
he was not discouraged or daunted. He had set his 
mark high, and pushed steadily and persistently on to his 
coveted goal, namely, the study and practice of med- 
icine. He had made up his mind in his boyhood days 
to: practice the healing art as soon as he became a man. 
When of sufficient age he entered Fairfield Academy, 
at Fairfield, New York, and began a literary course of 
study, from which he graduated in due course of time. 
He next turned his attention to the study of the heal- 
ing art, entering the Medical Department of Michigan 
‘University, at Ann Arbor. Here he graduated with 
high honors, and removed directly to Eaton Rapids, in 
the same state, beginning the practice of his profession. 
From the very outset Doctor Metcalf showed himself to 
be peculiarly endowed for his chosen profession, and 
in consequence he attained a success seldom met with in 
young physicians. He remained in this place for three 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


143 


years, when he removed to Indianapolis, his present 
He was married to Miss M. C. Montgomery, of 
Eaton Rapids, in 1877, securing a wife of rare mental 
capacity. Doctor Metcalf’s standing in his profession, 
in that city, is of a high order. He is a member of the 
regular school, and applies himself with marked zeal to 
the utmost detail in his profession. He is an honored 
member of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows and 
Free and Accepted Masons. He was nominated by the 
Democracy of Marion County for coroner in 1878, but, 
the county being largely Republican, he was, of course, 
defeated. His bearing is courteous and affable, and he 
numbers his friends by the score. He is a man of gen-' 
erous impulses and great sympathy for the lowly and 
down-trodden, and therefore takes great pleasure in al- 
leviating pain and distress. This fact alone makes him 
attentive to his patients, and urges him to do all in his 
power in their behalf. He has large perceptive powers, 
and is certainly very proficient in the diagnosis of dis- 
ease, which is so important in the practice of medicine. 
Although a young man, Doctor Metcalf has a large and 
increasing practice, and the present foretells a prosper- 
ous future for him as a professional and business man. 
He deserves success, and will get it, for he has fought 
many a hard battle with adversity, raising himself from 
humble obscurity to a position of prominence. 


home. 


ato 
Pires AUGUSTUS N., reporter of the Supreme 
i Court of Indiana, was born on the twenty-third 
©: AN day of March, 1847, on his father’s farm, near 
VOSY Whitestown, Butler County, Pennsylvania. He 
was the oldest child of John and Eveline W. Martin. 
His parents were born in Butler County, Pennsylvania. 
Robert Martin and his wife, the grand-parents in the 
paternal line, were from the north of Ireland, emigrated 
to the United States in the last decade of the eighteenth 
century, and were the parents of five sons and two 
daughters—John, the father of Augustus N., being 
the fourth child. John Martin married Eveline White, 
whose ancestry, the Whites and Sullivans, were inhab- 
itants of the colonies before the Revolutionary War, 


some of the males serving as soldiers in General Wash- 
ington’s army. John Martin was auditor of his native 
county, it being the only office ever sought for or held 
by him. All of the ancestors above named were Pres- 
byterians in religion. Augustus N. Martin, the subject 
of this sketch, received his education in the common 
schools; in the Witherspoon Institute, an academy of 
learning at Butler, Pennsylvania; and in Eastman’s 
College, at Poughkeepsie, New York. On the third 
day of July, 1863, when but little past sixteen years of 
age, he enlisted in Company I, 58th Regiment Pennsyl- 
vania Militia, serving with them until discharged with 


144 


the regiment, having assisted in capturing General 
John Morgan and his command, near Salineville, Ohio. 
Again, on the twenty-third day of February, 1865, be- 
fore attaining the age of eighteen years, he enlisted in 
Company E, 78th Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Vol- 
unteers, which was then in the command of General 
George H. Thomas, and served until discharged, on 
the thirtieth day of August, 1865, at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee. He taught three terms in the common schools, 
using the proceeds of his labor to continue his edu- 
cation. He left his father’s house, to “paddle his own 
canoe,” on the twenty-third day of March, 1868, being 
the day on which he attained his majority, and work- 
ing on the farm and in a saw-mill and teaching school 
by turns, as he wended his way westward through Ohio, 
he reached Fort Wayne, Indiana, on the eighteenth 
day of June, 1869. Thence he found his way to Ossian, 
Wells County, Indiana, and during that summer and fall 
occupied himself at labor on the farm and railroad until 
the third day of November, 1869, when he commenced 
the study of law with the firm of Messrs. Todd & Shinn, 
in Bluffton, Wells County, Indiana. In 1871 he entered 
on the practice of the profession, in which he continued 
with great success, and without intermission, except 
during the winter of 1874-75, until the twelfth day of 


December, 1876, when he removed to Indianapolis. | 


Mr. Martin was elected a member of the General As- 
sembly in 1874, by the district composed of the counties 
of Adams and Wells, and was one of the most industri- 
ous members of that body, being chairman of the 
House Committee on Corporations, and being second 
on the Committees on the Judiciary and Organization 
of Courts. Hon. David Turpie, speaker of the House, 


REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA. 


[7th Dist. 


recognized in Mr. Martin one of the Most reliable and 
efficient members on the Democratic side of the House. 
On the nineteenth day of April, 1876, Mr. Martin was 
nominated by the Democratic state convention, after a 
sharp contest, for the position of Supreme Court re- 
porter, which he now holds, and, together with the rest 
of the Democratic ticket, headed by Hon. James D. 
Williams, was elected in October, 1876. He ran largely 
ahead of his ticket in his own county of Wells, and 
stood among the foremost on the total vote in the state. 
On the twelfth day of January, 1877, he entered on the 
discharge of the duties, succeeding Colonel James B. 
Black, who had held the office for eight years. This 
office had been filled by such able men as Colonel 
Black, General Benjamin Harrison, Hon. Michael C. 
Kerr, Hon. Albert G. Porter, Major Gordon Tanner, 
and Judge Isaac Blackford. Mr. Martin has so discharged 
his duties as to merit and retain the good will and respect 
of the Supreme Bench, and of the bench and bar gen- 
erally throughout the state. He was renominated by 
acclamation by the Democratic State Convention held at 
Indianapolis, June 9, 1880. He has all his life been, and 
now is, a close student. He was married, on the 18th of 
November, 1872, to Rachel J., youngest daughter of 
Nelson Kellogg, Esq., of Bluffton, Indiana. Homer A. 
Martin, their only child, died at Bluffton on the third 
day of April, 1875. In personal appearance, Mr. Mar- 
tin is prepossessing, dignified, and courteous, over six 
feet in height, of slender build, and has the clear com- 
plexion, gray eyes, and glossy, black, curling hair so 
often seen in those of Scotch-Irish descent. Mr. Martin 
is yet young, and the future undoubtedly has in store 
for him the success due to earnest and honest endeavor. 


END OF FIRST VOLUME. 


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